FREE INDEED (God’s Emancipation Proclamation)

My favorite and most soul stirring traditional Christmas Hymn is O Holy Night.  In stanza three we sing “Chains shall he (Christ) break, for the slave is our brother; and in His name (Christ’s) all oppression shall cease.”  Originally a French Poem, the English version was written in 1855, six years before the American civil war, and eight years before the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, effectively ending slavery in the United States.  The United States Congress would subsequently pass the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1885, stating that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.  Slavery had already been outlawed in Great Britain and its colonies in 1833, primarily under the untiring influence of British Parliamentarian and Christian, William Wilberforce.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued five days after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War in which 23,000 men perished over this insane war over one’s “right” to own slaves.  Historian John Hope Franklin wrote the following regarding Lincoln’s Proclamation: “…the greatness of the document dawned upon the nation and the world. Gradually, it took its place with the great documents of human freedom.”

However, the greatest proclamation of human freedom did not come from the lips or pen of a human politician or governing official. It did however, like America’s Civil War, require the shedding of blood before it could be enforced, namely the precious blood of the lamb of God, Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:18-20), the One extolled in the above noted hymn, as the King of Kings who lay thus in lowly manger, of whom all the nations will one day praise His holy name, the one whose power and glory we will evermore proclaim.

He is the One who as a man, after living the sinless, holy life that God requires for men and women to live in His glorious presence, free to enjoy the infinite wealth of His blessings (Psalm 24:3-6), is unjustly taken captive by Roman soldiers, beaten as a common slave, and crucified on a Roman cross.  In the midst of His suffering the misery and horror of God’s judgement and wrath for sin (on our behalf), He, with His final breath proclaims, “It is Finished “(John 19:28-30).

This proclamation is not announcing the end of His life as some would foolishly suggest. It is His glorious proclamation of redemption accomplished; that on the basis of His life and death (and subsequent resurrection) He brings men and women who are alienated from God, in bondage to sin and death (Romans 8:2), into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21). He purchases men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Revelation 5:9) out of the slave market of sin (John 8:34-36), freeing us from the lusts (sinful desires) that provoke our sin and control our lives in this world (James 1:14-15).  He frees us from the lies of the devil through which the devil incites those lusts (John 8:44) (John 8:31-32), and from the curse of sin, of our violation of God’s law that has brought sorrow, suffering and misery into God’s good creation (Galatians 3:13).  Most importantly, He frees us from final death (John 11:25-27, and from the fear of death that has held each of us in its terrifying grip throughout our lives (Hebrews 2:14-15), as God grants to us in Jesus, the gift of eternal life, wherein we are now free to serve and enjoy God forever (Romans 6:23).

This proclamation assures that those who acknowledge their sin and its worthy judgement of death and Hell (Psalm 51:3-4), entrusting their lives to Jesus as both Savior and Lord (Romans 10:8-11), will receive forgiveness of their sins (1 John 1:9), reconciliation to God as Father (Galatians 4:4-7), and assurance of a glorious future with Jesus, wherein in the ages to come He will demonstrate the exceeding riches of His loving kindness and amazing grace toward us in ways we cannot even conceive of or imagine while in this present world (Ephesians 2:4-7) (1 Corinthians 2:9).

“Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.”

Grace and Peace × to you and your family throughout the New Year.