By Matt Cobb
When God Speaks
One of my favorite things about following Jesus is that He doesn't limit Himself to speaking only during quiet times or Sunday sermons. Sometimes, He gets my attention while reading Scripture. Sometimes, it's through a conversation with a friend or during our Missional Community discussion.
Lately, though, He's been meeting me from the driver's seat of my truck.
Between work, sports, church, and hauling kids to and from VBS/camps this past summer, I spent a lot of time on the road. When you've got little ears in the back seat, and especially when they’re at their fourth VBS this summer (we’re non-denominational when it comes to free summer childcare), the playlist naturally leans toward worship music. And honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Especially when a song uses the word Calvary, and my son says he didn’t know that Jesus had cows!
Now and then, a lyric catches me. Not because it's new, but because God chooses in that moment to press it a little deeper into my heart. Last week, it was the song Death Was Arrested, specifically the North Point Worship version. One line refused to leave my mind, which is fitting, since it’s the title:
"Death was arrested, and my life began."
As I sang along, another question came to me: If death has been arrested, why do so many of us, me especially, still live like prisoners?
Stuck In Shame
The gospel tells us that Jesus didn't simply make bad people better. He made dead people alive. On the cross, He carried our sin. In the empty tomb, He defeated death. The chains that once held us were broken, and the prison door, like the veil, was thrown wide open.
Yet so often, we continue living as though we're still locked inside. We carry the guilt that Jesus already nailed to the cross. We replay mistakes God has already forgiven. We let fear dictate our decisions instead of faith. We cling to shame even though Christ has called us sons and daughters.
Imagine a man sitting alone in a prison cell. His chains have been removed. The door is standing wide open. His sentence has been pardoned. The warden has been defeated. Everything necessary for his freedom has already been accomplished. Yet every morning he wakes up, eats prison food, sleeps on the prison cot, and never steps outside. Not because he can't, but because he doesn't believe he's actually free.
I wonder how many Christians live exactly like that. I know I do sometimes.
The enemy knows he cannot undo what Christ accomplished on the cross. He cannot snatch God's children from His hand. But if he can convince us to live as though we're still defined by our past, our failures, or our fears, he'll gladly watch us remain in a prison that no longer has a lock.
Jesus didn't die so we could spend our lives staring through the bars of a cell He's already opened.
Whom The Son Sets Free, Is Free Indeed
Paul writes in Galatians 5:1,
"For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery."
Notice that Paul isn't telling believers to earn their freedom. He's telling them to live in the freedom they already possess.
One of my favorite pictures of this freedom comes from the story of Lazarus in John 11. Jesus stands outside Lazarus' tomb and calls him by name. "Lazarus, come out." And he does. A man who had been dead for four days walks out of the grave because the Author of Life spoke.
But John includes a detail that is easy to miss.
Lazarus came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. He was alive, but he was still wearing the garments of death. Jesus then looked at those around Him and said, "Unbind him, and let him go."
I wonder how many of us have experienced the miracle of new life in Christ but still walk around wrapped in the grave clothes of guilt, fear, shame, bitterness, or the lies we've believed for years. Jesus never intended for those grave clothes to become our identity. He called us out of the tomb so we could walk in freedom.
That's a challenge for me. How often do I carry burdens Jesus already carried? How often do I believe the lies in my head instead of the truth in God's Word? How often do I sing about freedom on Sunday while walking back into a prison of my own making on Monday?
The beautiful truth of the gospel is that our freedom isn't based on how strong we are. It's based on what Jesus has already finished. The prison door is open. The chains are gone. Death has been arrested. So, let's stop living like inmates. Let's walk into the freedom Christ purchased with His own blood.
The next time you hear the words, "Death was arrested, and my life began," don't just sing them. Believe them. Then live like they're true.
Because, as it says at the end of the song: “we are free…free…forever amen. Come join the song of all the redeemed.”