Every year on April 18th Zimbabwe commemorates its freedom from British rule.
But as citizens of heaven who are only incidentally Zimbabwean citizens, we daily have a more significant liberty to celebrate.
What freedom do citizens of Heaven have to celebrate?
Freedom from Bondage
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
Freed by Christ
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 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?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Freedom is Universally desired
Heb 2:15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
2 Pet 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity–for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
Freed from the law of Sin and death
Rom 8:2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Freed from the bondage of satisfying God’s law
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 1 Cor 9:21
This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. Gal 2:4
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in an ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. Gal 4:22 -23
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1
Freed from the sins committed under the first Covenant
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. Heb 9:15
Freed from our sins by His blood
and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, Rev 1:5
Freed from accusation
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation- Col 1:22
Freed from the Power of Sin
because anyone who has died has been freed from sin …You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness …When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness … But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Rom 6:7, 18,20,22
Free to approach God with confidence
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.Eph 3:12
Freed from spiritual blindness
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.2 Cor 3:16
Freed from the curse of a decaying body
that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Rom 8:21
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
Free to be a slave to others
Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 1 Cor 9:19
the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? 1 Cor 10:29
Freed by the law of love
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. James 2:12
