It began in the Garden of Eden. For a period of time harmony, fellowship and communion with God was Adam and Eve’s daily experience. But one day that communal relationship and experience was broken. Serpent or not, forbidden fruit or not – whenever that decision was made to disobey the word of God, to reject the will of God, and to substitute the way of God for oneself, one’s separation from the presence and relationship with God is consequential! That consequence encompasses all of the aspects of sin! Whenever a person chooses his/her will over the will of God, then their bondage to sin results.
Call it satanic influence or selfishness, both are expressions of the rejection of God’s will for mankind. Both result in bondage to a way of life that defeats the soul and prevents that soul from achieving its divine purpose and potential. That soul becomes enslaved! And that slavery is no respecter of person, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, nor period of time. Man is also a spiritual being. He is bound to experience the ungodly consequences of spiritual bondage. To reject God is to choose Satan as the "lord" of one’s life! And that choice has, not only temporal, moral, spiritual, social, emotional, and psychological consequences, but also eternal consequences.
Yet God has included and provided for that "fallen" soul the opportunity to be "emancipated" from its sinful nature and condition. Emancipation is "the act of freeing a person from the ownership of another person, group, or system of behavior." God provided a substitute to suffer the consequences of sin for the repentant soul in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God sent him to be mankind’s spiritual emancipator!
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln, the objective was to declare and affirm that the enslavement of one man or group by another man or group was immediately ended! That law, that principle of human behavior in the United States, superseded any and all interhuman practices within this nation. That proclamation assured the end of slavery and human bondage within this United States – even if some didn’t get the word until later. That proclamation still stands, even when ignored and abused!
On the cross of Calvary, almighty God signed another Emancipation Proclamation – not in ink, but with the shed blood of Jesus! That proclamation assured forgiveness of one’s sins, restoration of one’s relationship to God, and assurance of one’s eternal future with God!
Over the years, we have watched, seen, and even experienced the rejection and ignoring of Lincoln’s proclamation. Yet its validity and credibility stills stands! The practice of slavery of all human beings by other human beings is forbidden in this nation!
But God’s Emancipation Proclamation transcends human enslavement! It also transcends temporal and eternal enslavement – by human and satanic means! That’s why Jesus declared from the cross, "It is finished!"
But proclamations are only as valid as long as those who believe in and stand for them uphold them! Paul appealed to the believers in the Lord Jesus in Galatians 5:1 that the freedom that they had forfeited and the liberty that they had lost has been restored to them by Jesus Christ! When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary the bondage of sin was broken! Every soul in Christ Jesus is now free from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin! There is no need for any believer in Christ Jesus to yield to the haunting and taunting of sinful desires. There is a power in freedom that can overcome any and every temptation that sin may cast upon you! That’s right! When Jesus saved us from our sins, he gave us power over sin! You don’t have to sin! You don’t have to yield to sin! You have power over sin! You have been liberated! You have been freed from the penalty and power of sin!
What a great challenge to every believer in Christ Jesus – to every citizen of these United States "under God!" We can affect great changes in our nation. We are able to move beyond seasonal celebrations and political affirmations and actualize the divine principles and obligations in our Constitution that:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness …"
Let us unite those convictions with these words from Galatians 5:1:
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled with the yoke of bondage."
Convicted that your freedoms and mine are intertwined with those of every citizen of this nation, and standing on the promises of divine freedom, we will be able to join together and declare and actualize the spiritual human rights declaration:
"Freedom at last! Bondage has past!
Thank God almighty, we are emancipated - to last!"
The Rev. Samuel W. Hale, Jr. is the retired pastor of Zion Missionary Baptist Church.