Article July 7, 2008 Issue

GLORIOUS LIBERTY FOR ALL

BY BILL MOODY

The pattern of human history has too often been woven with cords of bondage. And so much of humanity in the 21st century still yearns to be free. Of course, it isn't only political oppression that would keep people's lives in captivity. It can also be the bondage that runs through a person's everyday experience. People may feel enslaved by economic lack, sickness and pain, depression, fear, broken relationships and loneliness, and so on. Yet, there is a way to break the vicious cycle of bondage and mental slavery. There is a way to feel truly free. And it's found in discovering more of our genuine relationship to God.

To me, this is one of the central points of Jesus' ministry to the world. He came to show everyone the way to lasting freedom—to recognize that they are all the sons and daughters of God and that they have a divine right to be free. Jesus told the people of his day that if they were steadfast in following his teachings, this would bring them into authentic discipleship, and that, consequently, in Jesus' words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

The spiritual lessons and promise of Jesus' words are just as significant today for men and women who live and work in the cities of Chicago or Singapore or New Delhi—or the many rural communities around the world—as those words would have been to the people in ancient Jerusalem or in the countryside of Judea when the Master preached there 2,000 years ago.

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