So much of the time, we don’t feel free. We feel enslaved to our schedules, our fears, our addictions, our sin. Yet, scripture says that ‘Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ (2 Corinthians 3:17). Isn’t He everywhere? Doesn’t His spirit cover the earth? Then why do we still feel enslaved?
Historically, before Jesus came, we were held under the law of Moses with all its rules and regulations. This law was represented by a veil between us and God. We were being crushed under the weight of this law, knowing that no one, no matter how good, could ever attain it. Jesus came to fulfill the law and to bring freedom. What? That seems like a paradox! Galatians 3:19, teaches that the purpose of the law was to show us that we could never reach it and to make our sins very obvious to us, exposing our desperate need for a Savior.
When Jesus came, the veil in the temple was completely ripped in half, so that we could run to God the Father hand in hand with Jesus. Yet, life on earth still feels like we’re trapped inside a sterile waiting room, waiting to feel free and waiting for the complete unveiling of Jesus.
In my life right now, I am engaged to my wonderful fiancé. Even though we have so much fun together and I absolutely adore him, I feel a great tension between the already and not yet. He asked me to marry him, I said yes, we will be married, but we aren’t yet. My walk with Jesus feels strangely similar sometimes. Jesus came, I said yes to Him, I will be with Him in heaven one day, but I’m not yet.
The bridge to this song comes from an old Gospel spiritual that sings ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I am free at last”. In my mind, I always imagine myself singing this when I first enter into heaven with Jesus and with all the saints. On earth now, there are glimpses of feeling and being truly set free but the tension has me constantly aware of my need for Him. 2 Corinthians 3:16 says, “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
The reality is that Jesus ripped the veil in half. But the reality is also that I am a human and prone to wander. My prayer is that as we live on earth in this tension between the truth and our brokenness, we keep turning to the Lord, so that when we finally see Him face to face, we will be completely unveiled, and completely free.
-Franni of We The Kingdom
