Confidence of Victory
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
If you have a middle school student attending the Somerset Middle School, you recently received an email regarding a book they intend to read called: “Between Shades of Gray.” While fictional, this book is inspired by many firsthand accounts of the Lithuanian general population’s plight under Soviet rule in the early 1940’s. To those of us in the west, it relates eerily to similar accounts we’ve read from Holocaust survivors. A powerful government can target your home as well as your neighbors’ homes. They barge in and transport parts of your family off to one work camp, while sending the rest to other work camps. Those who resist are shot on site and those who board trains are possibly never heard from again. For those who arrive at the work camps, the living conditions are horrendous and many of the officers are down-right sadistic. The atrocities go on and on.
While the book tells a lesser-known part of the WWII story, which should be told and retold, the story of some of Lithuania’s neighbors to the south is quite similar. Not only was Lithuania affected, but so was Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus, which were not only being exploited by the Soviet Union but were also being invaded and exploited by Nazi Germany. How would you like to find yourself in that position? First, you come under Soviet occupation. You are told all your assets are now owned by the state, and you are told how you can worship God and conduct your lives. You are forced to give up all the food that your farm produces to the state for the “greater good” while your family teeters on starvation. Then, Nazi Germany comes through burning and pillaging everything in order to make a statement of power to the Soviet Union. Then, a couple of years later, the Soviet Union pushes Nazi Germany all the way back to Berlin, destroying everything in their wake which had not been previously destroyed. Under both occupations you are heavily scrutinized for any potential allegiances to the other side, which is dealt with severely and decisively. Then, to muddy the waters even further, the whole time this is occurring, there are nationalist movements being undertaken to try and overthrow both the Germans and the Soviets. Also, you can be killed for not being properly allied with a particular side. Living in this part of the world offered no sanctuary, and unless you were able to miraculously escape the region, there was a good chance you or someone close to you was not going to survive this ordeal. It was a hopeless situation without a coming liberator--someone whose only aim was rescuing you from a predicament that you are incapable of solving yourself.
I propose that your lifelong battle with sin is no different. Your battle with sin is a multi-front attack from innumerable foes, and each one will exploit you in order to further the efforts of Satan, the enemy. While your physical life may not be in the immediate peril of the story above, the battleground for our hearts and minds has never been fiercer. The Christian today has many fronts on which he must remain on guard; he must be on guard from constantly degrading morals, from propositions from the scientific community, from the trap of contentment, from never opening his Bible again, from neglecting to serve his community, and from petty quarreling and gossiping. In a country of so much financial blessing, he must be on guard that he doesn’t become as the rich young ruler by acquiring things only for himself, but instead also provides for his family, his church and those in need. It is a battle which we are no more equipped to fight than the peasant families of eastern Europe.
Why say all this? Why compare our relatively comfortable modern lives to something so horrible? Because without the historical perspective of this and a thousand other stories like it, we will not appreciate what Christ has done for us. As Watson said, “Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” Too often, our sin is rarely bitter. We rarely put our sin in the proper perspective. Those who are acutely aware of their sin will experience more joy at the news of their Savior.
When our passage for the day says, “For freedom Christ has set us free”, this means we do not need to fear the on-coming massacre if we have humbled ourselves before God by faith and repentance and thus are saved by Jesus Christ. We are protected, we are freed, and we are no longer going to perish in hell for all eternity. Consider the state these people found themselves in, and then realize, as horrible as it was, that it only affected their temporary bodies here on earth. Our eternal battle is of far more significance and has permanent ramifications.
Now, for a moment, imagine a deliverer comes to these eastern European communities. Imagine the United States knew what was happening, and at the time was capable of pushing both Germany and the Soviet Union back into their respective countries so that the Lithuanians and Poles could live in peace. Wouldn’t it be safe to assume you would never have to worry about these people asking the Soviets and Germans to take their countries back after the US left? How crazy would it be that those groups of people would trade their safety and peace for something that will bring destruction? We couldn’t fathom it, and if for some reason they all decided to do so, we’d probably say, “Well, if they’re that stupid, I guess they deserve what they get.”
The same is true of our relationship with sin. That’s why our passage says, “Do not submit again to the yoke of slavery”, because as much as we know that sin will destroy us, we constantly return to it as it says in Proverbs 26:11, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” We need to remember that while we have a Savior from our sin, that does not mean we should then go play with sin. A converted life should not only proceed in the confidence of victory but should also be evidenced in our outward actions.
Prayer
Lord, we thank You for blessing us with the country we have to call home. We acknowledge that the peace for which countless generations have cried out to You has been lavished on us today. Please let the past be a reminder of what we are truly capable of should our society stray too far from Your Word. Help us to be on guard against the cunning attacks of Satan, the enemy, and help us to remain steadfast and not grow comfortable. We owe everything to You. Send your Spirit to remind us of that and allow us to appreciate the peace You’ve brought while challenging us to engage with those around us. - Amen
