I don’t get it.
Freedom is all I’ve ever know; slavery is so foreign. And I don’t think the gentiles in Ephesus to whom Paul was speaking got it either when he said, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
Paul was coming from a place of rigid ritual and law. In Galatians he claimed to be “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” (1:14) He was the Jew of Jews in his day. No one would have understand the limitations of law better than Paul. On the same token, no one would have better understood the liberating freedom of direct access through Christ, in spite of the law.
The end of Exodus 34 recounts Moses’ transformational experience with God and his intermediary role between the people. Moses was detached, unapproachable, and inaccessible. Moses was so lit from his encounter with God that the people literally feared him.
What a striking contrast to the intermediary figure in John 13 who actively draws near to the people. Who lives as one of them. Who washes their feet. A figure who feels all their pain, unjustly takes it upon himself, and dies to free them.
Jesus,
Thanks for what You have accomplished for me,
though I daily take for granted the direct access to You that I have gained.
May I take full advantage of this freedom.
Thank You for seeing me worth purchasing, redeeming, and using.
Holy Spirit, remind me of my value and open my eyes to see ways that I can take hold of my freedom today.
-Christian
Sixty-six books in a year 