“[H]e might…free those who were held in slavery…”

It’s here.  It’s all around us.  We actually live in it, and yet many people, especially those in Western and developing countries, hardly recognize it, even though much of our collective existence is geared to counter its impact and influence.  What is it, you ask.  In a word, slavery.  Slavery?  Yes, absolutely.  How is it that we live in slavery?  Great question!  Let’s look at it.

Our text from Hebrews comes early in the book.  After describing Jesus in chapter one in terms that overwhelm the mind — “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being”, for starters (1:3) — the writer then compares him to angels.  Any guesses as to who comes up lower?

Then beginning in verse five the author compares Jesus to “his brothers” (v. 17).  In this section we find our text.  The gist of it says that because Jesus “shared in their humanity” his physical death destroyed “him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (v. 14-15).  There it is in black and white: slavery.  “All their lives [they] were held in slavery”.  How so?  How are people held in slavery all their lives?  In at least three ways, and we’ll tackle them from our historical perspective.

First, the whole universe suffers in material slavery or bondage.  Romans 8 is one of those breath-of-fresh-air chapters in Scripture talking about assurance, God’s power and the future, our future.  Anticipating the created order’s future, Paul wrote, “…the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”.  Notice the coming freedom from its slavery “to decay”.  Physically, this is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, described many times in Scripture (Psalm 102:25-27; Isaiah 34:4, 51:6; Hebrews 1:11-12, 8:13).  It says that everything is in a constant and perpetual state of decay and deterioration, or increasing entropy, the trend of all matter and energy toward inert uniformity.  We see it in material and living things.  Metal rusts, wood rots, plastic, glass and many other materials break.  Plants, animals and humans all die.  And how much time and money do we spend on things fighting the process?  Everything from paint to make-up, fertilizers to vitamin supplements, oil changes in our cars to exercising our bodies.  Fighting the effects of decay and attempts to preserve and extend life drive much of commerce.  And it’s always been that way.  The point is well taken.

Second is spiritual bondage.  Paul spoke quite a bit about slavery in Galatians.  In 4:3 he says, “we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world”.  Later in verse nine he asks, “But now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”  Clearly these “weak and miserable principles of the world” are man-made, works-based religions that exalt man’s effort, degrade God’s character and miss his plan.  Only in Christianity do we find a personal God.  Only in Christianity do we find a source and a basis for love, grace, judgment, forgiveness, mercy, ethics, peace and compassion.  What religion of impersonal gods can compete or equate?  Who in their right mind wants to return to that?

Lastly, we discover another bondage.  Again, Paul in Galatians 4:24 writes that the law given at “Mount Sinai…gives birth to bondage…” (NKJV).  This is legal slavery.  Even when God showed up to Israel in the desert, it was a covenant no mere human could keep.  Yet the Jews of Moses’ time happily accepted the terms, only to prove God’s point that even the revelation of God’s character, as summed up in the law, was a bondage to fallen, sinful people.  That is why Paul added later, “do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).  The grace of God in Christ is infinitely much better.

So bondage and slavery are all around us — physical, spiritual, legal.  And we haven’t even begun to mention political slavery, which all too many of our planetary compatriots have experienced.  The reason for detailing this is because I frequently wonder why Christians aren’t excited about their salvation and passionate about sharing Christ with others.  Look at the bondage he’s saved us from!  Look at the ultimate freedom we’re headed for!  Has it truly dawned on you how free from slavery the deliverer has made you?