I Corinthians 6:19, 20
The
above verse is very interesting. It’s
main meaning is that Jesus “purchased” my rescue from sin, meaningless,
rejection, failure etc, etc, etc. and He did by means of his death on the cross
by which he “paid for” my sin and broke the bondage of all things enslaving
me. That’s not just huge,
it’s everything.
Although
it’s a stretch to say this, there’s also a kind of a corollary.
Even though Jesus “bought” my freedom at a high price, I don’t need
to let myself be “owned” by Him. However,
I reject his ownership, I am implicitly giving myself over to the ownership of
something else. It seems
to me that no matter how much lip service each of us gives to being “captains
of our own fate”, it’s all just lip service.
Something or someone owns each of us.
In
our case, Kathy and I don’t own a dog. He
owns us. We are beholden to
his care. If you own a dog you are
not free. I own a house, but
given what it demands of me it’s legitimate to ask whom or what owns whom?
I own a car and a swing set and yard and shrubbery and lawnmower and
washer and dryer and dishwasher and . . . and
. . . and.
And they make demands and I bow to their needs!
I am not a free man. I’m
like the man in the airport who looked so miserable that someone asked him,
“what’s wrong”? “Well”,
he replied, “I had a great weekened with my family planned, but we own a house
in Florida and something in it needs fixed right away.
His vacation home dictated the expenditure of his time, money, energy,
and left his family out of the equation for the weekend.
Why
are so easily sold into slavery? Why
is the price for our souls so low? Why
am I such an easy sell out? Do
the things I “sell out” for deliver on their promises?
From
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory:
“It
would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are
half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when
infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud
pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday
at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
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