You can be what you want to be
Saturday 12th July
Long before Abraham Lincoln became president, he had great compassion for the plight of the slaves. On one occasion, he was passing the slave market just in time to see a young black girl being auctioned off. He noticed a man he knew, who was noted for his cruelty, bidding on this particular girl and Mr. Lincoln was constrained to stop and enter the bidding himself. He won the bid and walked away with his ”property.” There was a sullen, angry expression on the black girl’s face because she knew in her heart that here was another white man who had bought her and would abuse her.
As they walked away from the slave block, however, Mr. Lincoln turned to the young girl and said, ”You are free.” ”What does that mean?” she demanded. ”It means, you are free,” Mr. Lincoln replied. ”Does it mean that I can be what I want to be?” she asked. ”Yes,” Mr. Lincoln said, ”you can be what you want to be.” ”Does it mean,” she went on, ”that I can go where I want to go?” ”Yes, you can go where you want to go,” Mr. Lincoln reassured her. ”Then,” her lips turning into a smile for the first time, ”Then, I’ll go with you!” she said happily.
Being purchased, she chose to follow. Peter tells us, ”Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ.”
We, too, were born into slavery. We were born into sin. ”Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death... or of obedience unto righteousness?
We had no power to redeem ourselves; we were in a hopeless condition without Christ. Mr. Lincoln purchased the girl with silver and gold but the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us with his precious blood. The young girl, being free, chose to follow the one who had purchased her freedom. Do we willingly, gladly, and thankfully follow the Lord Jesus who has redeemed us?
Without Jesus, all we could look forward to was abuse as a result of sin. As Paul put it, sin was reigning in our mortal body and we obeyed it in the lusts thereof. All we had in our future was sin and death. Not a pretty picture, but a true one. Then Jesus redeemed us – for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Do we respond to the love of Christ by following him the way we should as a result of his giving his life that through him we might have life and have it without end?
Do we thank God, that we were ”servants of sin, but we have now obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto us that being now made free from sin we have become the servants of righteousness?”
”Now that we have been made free from sin, and become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”