We definitely want to keep away from Satan’s tyranny. This devotional reading looks at the bondage we experience with Satan and the freedom we experience with Jesus.
Nuggets
- We are kept from the bondage of Satan.
- God’s Word tells us how we can find liberty.
- Jesus gives us total freedom from our sins.
Satan keeps us in tyranny when we do not put our trust in God. We certainly want to be kept form him!
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Habits to Keep Us from Evil study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
We are using Wilcox’s sermon as the foundation for this series.
Resource
From the Tyranny of Satan
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8: 36 ESV)
We are kept from the bondage of Satan.
Satan is a tyrant. He does everything in his power to keep us separated from God.
He does that by enslaving us to sin. Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Glossary
In other words, Satan enslaves us in sin. Slavery – sin – limits our decisions and actions.
The S.S. Times published White’s sermon entitled The English Slave. He wrote, “Slavery requires two parties — the tyrant who domineers, and the slave who submits. The true remedy therefore is to teach men not to submit to unlawful authority; and this is what Christ came to do.”
Resource
Satan may be the prince of this world, but he does not have lawful authority over believers. He has violated God’s law and corrupted us to do the same.
This takes us away from our intended purpose. We were created to worship God. Only God as our Creator has the right to control us.
Unfortunately, mankind abdicated that right to Satan during the original sin.
Finding Jesus’ Freedom
God’s Word tells us how we can find freedom.
Jesus offers us freedom. We can ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
When we ABCD, we accept the freedom Jesus offers. God is adamant that we have to come to salvation His way.
- Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4: 12 NIV).
- “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below” (Ex. 20: 3-4 NIV).
- “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
Jesus paid the ransom for us. He paid the penalty for our sins so that we can break the chains that it has in us and free us from Satan’s tyranny.
I always thought it was interesting that Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus. That was the going rate paid for a slave.
Just as slaves were bought with a price, so are disciples. As we are slaves to sin, the going rate was paid for our substitute.
What Freedom Means
Jesus gives us total freedom from our sins.
Jesus removes the weight of our sin and our fear of punishment. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten. “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43: 25 ESV).
Surgeon reminded us that we are not only free from, but we are also free to. It frees us to be adopted as God’s children.
Resource
Serving God must be the result of our salvation. We must replace our sinful activities with activities that glorify God.
Our salvation restores our moral nature. It starts us on the Sanctification Road, where we grow to have God’s character. We gain all the privileges associated with that familial relationship.
No, that doesn’t give us license to sin. We must truly repent of our sins and turn toward God.
No, that doesn’t mean an outward show of religion. We must truly submit our lives to God.
No, that doesn’t mean we can become self-righteous. We are nothing without God.
True freedom only comes through true submission of Jesus as our Savior and God as Sovereign Lord.
Making the Connections #1
The Jews in Jesus’ day thought this freedom meant freedom from Roman rule. Jesus as the military general isn’t going to happen until Armageddon.
Isn’t it so much like us to relate this to a worldly application instead of a spiritual one?
But think of it. The original sin was a conscious decision to disobey God and His law – don’t bite the fruit of a specific tree. It was where our will rebelled against God’s Will.
Our submission has to be our will submitting to God’s Will – what we created to do.
Making the Connections #2
I think Liddon summed this devotion up nicely. He wrote,
“The liberty to choose between good and evil, with an existing inclination in the direction of evil is one thing; the true moral liberty of man is another. Man’s true liberty may be described as the unimpeded movement of his will towards God; but the only liberty with which many speakers and writers trouble themselves is a liberty to choose between good and evil, as though we could not conceive of a liberty which did not include the choice of evil — as though the power of choosing evil was an integral element of real human liberty.
Resource
- We shouldn’t look as freedom as permission to choose evil. Yes, God allows us to not choose to submit to Him – but then we have to pay the consequences when we do that. The consequences of sin are separation from God and spiritual death.
- We are only free when we are in God’s Will.
- Free will isn’t really about us getting to choose. (No, God isn’t a dictator, so He doesn’t give us only one option. It is still our decision.)
Free will is about us choosing to choose God. That takes the focus off us and puts it on God. In other words, the focus is on the choice, not the chooser.
Making the Connections #3
The emphasis is on the choice, not the chooser, because the choose is Jesus’ blood. It is only through His blood that we can be free from Satan’s tyranny and overcome sin.
This freedom allows us to be who we are supposed to be. Beecher told us who that is. He wrote,
“His freedom in finding out the truth of duty, the obligations of conduct, the conditions of character. It is not enough to reject the authority of the Church; it is not enough to reject the authority of the minister; it is not enough to rail at the past; it is not enough to separate yourself from sects. You are to exercise this prerogative of liberty, not for the sake of forming systematic views, but for the sake of so shaping your life as to prepare yourselves for your eternal destiny.”
Resource
We have to exercise liberty to prepare for eternity. If we don’t, we won’t be prepared for – and won’t get in – Heaven.
This is a duty we gladly accept when we submit to God. (And yes, it is one of the areas Satan will attack the most.)
This is where the enduring comes in. We have to be firmly rooted in the freedom Jesus gives us.
How Do We Apply This?
- Accept God’s grace.
- Repent of our sins and turn from them.
- Ponder on the price Jesus paid for our sins.
- Rejoice in Jesus’ second coming.
Resource
Father God. We admit that mankind was separated from You. We believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. We confess You as our Sovereign Lord. In doing this, keep us from Satan’s tyranny. Amen.
What do you think?
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