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Minister’s Minute: Truly Free

In a brilliant sermon titled “ Man’s Sin and God’s Grace ,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Minister's Minute

In a brilliant sermon titled “Man’s Sin and God’s Grace,” Martin Luther King, Jr., the pastor, humanitarian, and civil-rights activist, began with the words, “There is something fundamentally wrong with human nature, something basically and fundamentally wrong.”

That something is our sinful nature, and the more we contemplate it, the nearer we get to the disquieting, inescapable, conclusion that it is not something that we can fix — not through political ideology; not through technology; not through the brilliant conclusions arrived at by the human intellect.

Left to our own devices, we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.But the Bible witnesses that God is free. God is free to save us from even our own iron self-wills, and it is God’s will that all would be free.

The good news is that through the cross of Cavalry and the empty tomb, your sin has been forgiven. Because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has set you free, you have been made truly and ultimately free! But free to be what?

Free to be an imperfect, perfectly loved, child of God. Free to love your neighbor as yourself. Free to follow Jesus and do your best to help make the world a better place for all people and creation. Free to look death in the face, as St. Paul did, and ask mockingly, “where is thy victory, where is thy sting?” How could you be any freer than that?