Daily Radio Bible - February 18th, 22

Free, From the Inside Out

Numbers 5 -6,  Psalm 22, and  Acts 26

It seems crazy to everyone but Paul is speaking the sober truth. To most people the idea of a dead man being raised to life seems crazy.  But Paul says:

Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead? (Acts 26:8 NLT)

To Paul, this is the sober truth.  There is nothing crazy about it.  And when we believe in this sober truth and trust the risen Christ, he sets us free from the inside out.

So Paul, the prisoner, stands before this crowd and says,

I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains. (Acts 26:29 NLT)

He has chains but he is the freest man there. The irony is that at the end of this speech Agrippa and Festus, and the others, walk away and their final comment is that

He could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar.” (Acts 29:32 NLT)

Unfortunately, they weren’t sober minded and couldn’t see that the freest man among them was Paul.  He had been freed of the guilt of his former life, where he had overseen the death of Christians, and had persecuted Christ himself. He had been freed from the self righteousness that blindley led him to that kind of life.  He may have been in chains but Paul was sober and free. 

Through the resurrection you have been included in the sober, free life of God.  Live a sober and free life.  Don’t let religion come in and entangle. Don’t let your past come in and chain you up anymore.  Like Paul live in the reality of what is. What is true about all that Godh has done in Christ, not only for you but for the whole whorld.  You are sober, you are free.  Live in it!    

You are loved!