I would suffocate, I thought. The jail cell was covered in plexiglass, not a single air hole in it. While suffocation was the last of my worries (I had betrayed and destroyed my marriage, turned my back on my kids, hurt my employer, and ruined my life), it is the one thing that is vivid in my memory about that day decades ago.
We are talking this week about bondage to sin and freedom from sin through the Holy Spirit on Christian Holiness Daily.
Of course, I did not suffocate. While the cell was stifling, I had an adequate supply of oxygen. I try not to think about such things when I look back on life, and, at the same time, I don’t want to forget them.
That cell, and the year that I spent locked up after that day, represent to me a life in bondage to sin. There was no humanly way to break free from that cell, just like there was no humanly way to break free from the sins that placed me inside it.
Yet, that year, while locked up, I discovered incredible freedom. I surrendered my life to Christ, learned to pray, and determined to pray continuously. I learned to love God so much that temptation withered away, unable to grow in the bright light of the Son.
Only years later, while sick with cancer, I experienced very much the same thing. It is when we are at our weakest that we are strongest because it is then that Christ fills us with the power of His perfect love.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. If we ask Him to fill us with His Spirit, then we will be free from sin. Free indeed.
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Christian Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.