All people are under a yoke of bondage, prisoners to the flesh with its lusts and longings for earth’s temporal pleasures. Christ has set the believer free, giving him hope for eternal life in heaven where there is no sorrow, no sickness, and no pain. This hope is realized through faith in the righteousness of Christ, for He alone can justify. Jesus walked this earth, fully man and fully God. As a man, He satisfied the demands of the Law. As God, He offers freedom from the demands of the Law. When one seeks justification by keeping the law—do not touch, do not taste, do not handle—he is concerned with things that will perish according to the commandments of man. Though subjection to such regulations has the appearance of wisdom, it is a self-imposed religion and is of no value against the indulgences of the flesh (Col 2:21-23). Such a mindset estranges one from Christ, forfeiting hope, and rendering the work of Christ ineffectual. This man has fallen from grace. Christ will not be the Savior of any who refuse to rely as their Savior.

There is nothing we can say or do to achieve salvation. When we realize justification comes by faith in the righteousness of Christ, we find grace working in us, leading us to liberty. We know and experience it when a genuine love for God and for others rises within us. Faith works through grace and the Spirit to fulfill the whole law: You shall love your God and love your neighbor (Mk. 12:30-31). The Scriptures exhort us to stand firm, undeniably committed to maintaining the liberty found in Christ alone. Our flesh fights to keep us in bondage with its lusts against the Spirit while the Spirit persists against our flesh. When we resist the lusts of the flesh, we walk in liberty, striving against sin, not against one another.

You have been justified by faith in Jesus. You are no longer entangled with a yoke of bondage. This is a grace that works in you to love God and man. Are you serving God and others through love? Christ has made you free. You have been justified by faith in Jesus. What can you do today to show your love for God? What about your love for those He has placed in your life? Let this be the song of your heart this day: “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free; his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me.”