“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
True stories have a way of being embellished over time, and eventually, it is difficult to discern fact from fiction. However, the following story demonstrates a glorious truth of the liberating gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a young congressman, Abraham Lincoln heard about a slave auction being held near where he lived, and so he went. As he stood at the edge of the slave auction, he observed as black Americans were led onto the block and auctioned off. Finally a young slave woman was led up to the block, and they started the bidding on her, and Lincoln bid. Somebody outbid him, and then he bid higher. Somebody outbid him, and he bid higher still. After a few moments they said, “Sold.” They took her off the auction block and brought her to Lincoln, and he had the slave master let her out of her chains. Then Lincoln looked at her and said, “Now you are free.”
She looked up at him with a curious look and said, “Free? What does it mean to be free?” Lincoln said, “You can go anywhere you want.” As that glorious truth sunk in, tears streamed from her eyes down her cheeks. She looked at him and said, “Then I will go with you.”
Paul reminds the Galatian believers that seeking to obey the law of Moses in order to be saved is like submitting to a yoke of slavery. And following the pleasures of sin will also bring nothing but bondage. Freedom is found only in Jesus Christ! He has purchased us by His blood on the death of the cross, in order to set us free. And a proper understanding of His marvelous grace, and of the tremendous price paid for our redemption, will prompt the same response in us, as it did in that young slave girl. As we increasingly come to understand the reality of what we have been set free from, and what we have been set free for, then tears of worship, and tears of thanksgiving, and tears of love will stream down our faces, and we will say to our Saviour, “Then I will go with you!” May God help us to walk with Him in obedience and love!