Give me your tired
Your poor
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe
free…
The Statue of Liberty has been the
most-recognizable symbol of freedom in the world since it was
erected in New York Harbor in 1886. It is unfortunate that many
Americans of the 21st Century take the freedom of
Liberty’s homeland for granted, for some type of physical
bondage has been a way of life for millions—no, likely
billions!—of people throughout the world during most of history.
Such bondage may have been total slavery, in
which the slave had absolutely no control over any aspect of his
life, including family relationships—which could be severed at
the whim of his owner. It may have been conscripted labor, in
which the servant might have his own dwelling and a certain
amount of private freedom when not working—but could be punished
severely for not accomplishing the work demanded. Or it may have
been the kind of limited but still harsh servitude which
characterized the lives of many serfs in medieval times, where
the fruit of their labors could be confiscated at any time by
those above them in the feudal system.
All of these people no doubt yearned to “breathe
free,” to be the masters of their own fate, to have the right to
“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Bible has a lot to say about bondage, and
about freedom. In its pages we learn that true bondage isn’t
just about being told what to do by someone else. And true
freedom isn’t just about living totally without restrictions.
And we also learn that only when we have the
salvation offered through Jesus Christ can we truly be free. For
Jesus is the only one who knows the way—
From Bondage
to Freedom.
In modern times, a person who owes a debt he
cannot pay in cash may find that the business to which he owes
money (his creditor) may get a legal order from a court
allowing them to garnishee his wages. That would mean
that a portion of any money he earned would be withheld from his
pay by his employer and given by his employer directly to the
creditor. If the debtor has no income for an extended period, or
far less than can ever pay off the debt, the creditor may
eventually realize that there is no way to retrieve the money
owed, and will just have to “write off” the debt as part of
their losses.
But in the land of Israel in the times described
in the Old Testament, no such process existed. A person who
found himself seriously in debt without any way to pay back what
he owed often had only one recourse: to “sell himself” to pay
for the debt. The laws given by God to the nation of Israel
included the following detailed instructions for this process:
Leviticus
25:47-49
If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and
one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the
alien living among you or to a member of the alien’s clan, he
retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One
of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or any
blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he
may redeem himself.
He could thus be in “bondage” to his creditor for
many years if no kinsman came forward to redeem him by paying
the price of redemption. This was a physical bondage, in which
he was not free to do as he pleased, but had to answer to a
master. But there is another kind of bondage, another kind of
“slavery,” that we are all subject to. Jesus addressed it in
this passage from the New Testament:
John 8:31-36
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered
him, “We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of
anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied,
“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son
belongs to it forever. So if the Son
sets you free, you will be free indeed.
In other words, our own sins can enslave us to a
lifetime of wrong choices, restricting us from living life to
the full in the blessings of God. And at the same time, those
sins are building up the ultimate “wages” of death. We need
someone to “buy us back” from that bondage, and to wipe clean
that record of deadly wages. We need a kinsman redeemer
to pay our debt and set us free.
The Bible declares that, if you are in God's
family, then Jesus is your elder brother:
Romans 8:28-29
… And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brothers.
And thus Jesus is the one qualified to fulfill
that role of Kinsman Redeemer for us.
Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all
men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly
passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives
in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to
purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do
what is good.
In fact, Jesus is the only one qualified to
fulfill that role ... because He is the only one who has the
“price” to pay to complete the redemption.
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
Blood? An ancient kinsman redeemer would have
redeemed a relative with wealth. What does blood have to do with
the “price of redemption”?
In order to understand that, it is necessary to
clarify another type of Bible analogy related to salvation.
One
Man's Family
The Bible describes a time about four thousand
years ago when almost no one on Earth knew much about God. At
that time, God chose to clearly reveal Himself to a man named
Abraham. Abraham obeyed the guidance of God to leave his home in
the area of what is now Iraq, and travel to the land that is now
known as Israel. God promised Abraham that He would give that
land to Abraham and his descendants, and eventually make of them
a mighty nation that would bring the blessings of the knowledge
of God's will for mankind to the whole world.
This promise was repeated to Abraham’s son Isaac,
and to Isaac’s son Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed by God to
“Israel,” and from that time on the descendants of Abraham
through Jacob were referred to as Israelites.
The Israelite family grew, but a few generations
later, the whole clan found itself in Egypt, in bondage to the
rulers of Egypt. They were forced to serve as part of the labor
force to build the great temples and pyramids of their masters.
After 400 years in that condition, God stepped into history and
prepared to fulfill His promise to Abraham.
If you've ever watched the movie The Ten
Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, you know
what happened next. Moses was one of Abraham’s descendants. God
called him to lead his family ... a family grown to over a
million people by that point ... out of bondage and back to the
land of Palestine, to become the nation God promised. In order
to force the Egyptians to release the Israelites, God performed
a number of miracles that brought misery to the whole Egyptian
nation, including plagues of flies, frogs, hail, darkness, and
more.
When none of the first nine plagues brought upon
Egypt convinced the Pharaoh of Egypt to allow the Israelites to
leave, God brought one more plague.
To prepare for this event, God gave Moses
instructions on how the Israelites would be protected from the
effects of this last plague:
Exodus 12:1-8,
11-13
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be
for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the
whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month
each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each
household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they
must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into
account the number of people there are. You are to determine the
amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will
eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without
defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take
care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the
people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at
twilight.”
“Then they are
to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops ofthe doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same
night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with
bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ...This is how you
are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your
sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in
haste; it is the LORD's Passover. “
… "On that same
night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every
firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all
the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for
you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I
will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I
strike Egypt.
And the events transpired just as God had said.
The firstborn of the Israelites were all spared, many Egyptians
died, and the Pharaoh was thus pressured into letting the
Israelites go.
Although Pharaoh later changed his mind, and
pursued the fleeing Israelites with chariots and soldiers, he
couldn't bring them back. The Ten Commandments movie
vividly brought to life the method God used to save those who
were fleeing—He parted the waters of the Red Sea, letting the
Israelites pass through with the Egyptians in hot pursuit. Then,
once the Israelites had made it to dry ground, He closed the
waters, trapping and drowning the Egyptian army.
The people of Israel encountered many
difficulties on their way to the Promised Land, and it took over
forty years to get there, but they eventually did take over that
land and settle in and built a kingdom there.
Well over 1,000 years later, at the same time of
year as that ancient Exodus, Jesus was crucified. And the Bible
makes it clear that the ancient custom of killing a lamb and
applying its blood around the doors of homes was actually a
shadow pointing to the purpose of Jesus’ death.
I Pet 1:17-21
Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work
impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as
silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life
handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was
chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in
these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God,
who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your
faith and hope are in God.
In fact, the rules that God gave to the ancient
Israelites regarding how each man was to deal with sin in his
life repeated this symbol of the blood of lambs and other
animals “without blemish” over and over in a sacrificial system.
In the time of Christ, such animals were brought by a variety of
Israelites daily to the Temple in Jerusalem, to be sacrificed by
a special group of priests, headed by a “High Priest.”
If a man had a flock of animals, any of them
“without blemish” would be especially difficult to part with.
They would be, in essence, the “prime breeding stock” that he
owned. Thus God created a situation in which the seriousness of
sin would be emphasized over and over. Some times it is
difficult to see the results of our sins, to see how
harmful they are to ourselves, to others, and to our
relationship with God. So under the Old Testament sacrificial
system, men could see very vividly a representation of the
results of their sins—the suffering of the loss of something
valuable. The blood of the animal provided an atonement
for the sin of the owner.
Atonement
isn't a common word in modern English. But what it represents is
just as common in the 21st century as it was in the
first century. If you have done something harmful that caused a
broken relationship with someone, you need an atonement:
something to bring you back into harmony—to make you “at one”
again—with the other party. You need to be reconciled
through the removal of the burden of your guilt and the
separation it has caused. In human relationships, this can be
done in many ways. Sometimes, you can express your sense of
shame and regret to the injured party, and they may choose to
just forgive you out of the goodness of their heart. Sometimes
you have to somehow “make amends” for what you've done, perhaps
by paying back a debt you owe.
The Bible indicates that our sins have cut us off
from a relationship with God. If we are to experience His
blessings in this life and be welcomed into His family for
eternity after our death and resurrection, we need somehow to
have that relationship restored. We need to be reconciled with
God, and thus we need an atonement through the removal of the
burden of guilt we have.
Another major annual sacrifice in ancient Israel,
in addition to the Passover lambs, plays a prominent part in
both the Old and New Testaments in emphasizing just how this
atonement, this reconciling, can come about. In ancient Israel
it went this way:
Leviticus
16:29-30
This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of
the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any
work—whether native-born or an alien living among you—because on
this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then,
before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.
On this day, a very special sacrifice was
offered. For that very special sacrificial ceremony, two goats
without blemish were brought to the Temple, and one of them
chosen by lot to be the sacrifice. After first sacrificing a
bull, the High Priest would turn to that goat.
Leviticus 16:9,
12-19
Aaron shall
bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for
a sin offering. ...
He is to take a
censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD and
two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them
behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before
the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the
atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die. He
is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle
it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle
some of it with his finger seven times before the
atonement cover.
… He shall then
slaughter the goat for the sin offering
for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with
it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the
atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make
atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and
rebellion of the Israelites, whatever
their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of
Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes
in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out,
having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole
community of Israel.
… Then he shall
come out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement
for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the
goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. He shall
sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to
cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the
Israelites.
This
ceremony, to deal with the sins of the whole nation, happened
only once a year. And it was on this occasion, only once a year,
when the High Priest could go into the most holy place in the
nation of Israel, the small room called the "Holy of Holies"
deep inside the Temple. In there was a representation of God's
throne in Heaven. (Of course, at the time of the Exodus, when
the Israelites began traveling in the wilderness on their way to
the Promised Land, there was no Temple. The ceremonies were done
in a large tent called The Tabernacle.)
This
symbol of God’s throne was a gold-covered box called the "Ark of
the Covenant," which originally held the ten commandment stones.
The top of this box was called the "atonement cover." If you saw
the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, you saw
a representation of what some people think this ark may have
looked like.
(In the time of King Solomon of Israel, when the
first Temple was built in Jerusalem, the ark was still in the
Holy of Holies, but it was later removed during a time of war
around 600 BC, and its whereabouts are uncertain to this day.)
The New
Testament writer of the book of Hebrew speaks of this ancient
atonement custom, and adds:
Hebrews 9:22
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed
with blood, and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
And this
writer explains what all of this had to do with Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:6-15, 23-28
When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered
regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But
only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once
a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy
Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place
had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was
still standing. This is an illustration for the present time,
indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not
able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a
matter of food and drink and various ceremonial
washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new
order.
When Christ came
as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went
through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not
man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did
not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but
he entered the Most Holy Place once for
all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled
on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they
are outwardly clean. How much more,
then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from
acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living
God!
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new
covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised
eternal inheritance—now that he has died
as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed
under the first covenant. ...
It was
necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be
purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not
enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one;
he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's
presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and
again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every
year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had
to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he
has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die
once, and after that to face judgment, so
Christ was sacrificed once to take away
the sins of many people; and he will appear a second
time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are
waiting for him.
The Kinsman
Redeemer in ancient times had to be someone who could afford to
pay the price to buy back his family member. The price of our
sinful lives is death. And that death can only be substituted by
a sacrifice of a Lamb without any blemishes at all ... in
the case of the human analogy, that means totally sinless.
The only one who has ever lived a life without sin was Jesus
Christ. As our Elder Brother, He thus qualified to pay that
price to redeem all who would accept Him as Savior and Lord.
And He has
promised to take those who put their trust fully in Him—
From Bondage to Freedom
If you would like to know more about the
redemption and salvation available through Jesus Christ, you are
invited to read the final article in this Steps to Salvation
series:
The
Biggest Step
Use the navigation buttons at the top left of
this page to go to
the other articles in the Steps to Salvation series.
Biblical Quotations:
Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical quotations
in this article are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
All rights reserved.
