Free Indeed
April 16, 2001 • By Ed Wrather
04.16.01
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. - John 8:36.
Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson have been set free. They were wrongly incarcerated for more than a decade for a murder they did not commit. Fritz says, "You just can’t imagine how it feels to be confined in a place like that to the point that you literally have given up on ever being a fee man again.” DNA evidence finally resulted in their being set free on April 15, 1999. Williamson talking about that day said, "Words can’t describe that day. It was surreal. It was strange. It was wonderful. Whatever word you pick, it would probably fit because there were so many emotions flowing through me.” At one point during his imprisonment Williamson came within five days of execution.
There are many that are spiritually incarcerated, and they have no hope or desire of being free. They walk in darkness having their eyes blinded by the god of this world. The Bible describes their condition "Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us; we look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places (Isaiah 59:9-10).”
Oh, but to be set free by the Son from the darkness. What joy! To be free from the eternal death sentence and instead to have eternal life. What amazing grace! As the apostle Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).”
Have you been set free? If not, what better day than today to be released from the darkness and to walk in new life? Turn from the darkness and receive Christ Jesus as your Savior. "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).”