Matins Devotion: February 25, 2025

John 8:21-38

One of the chief reasons Christ’s own people rejected Him was because they were expecting and desiring a political messiah. Their eyes were fixed on the Romans, on being controlled by foreign powers. They wanted someone to reestablish the throne of David in an earthly sense and drive out the outsiders. In other words, they wanted a Messiah who would free them from the slavery of foreign rule. In this sense, if you’d asked them whether they were slaves, they would have told you “yes.” And yet, when Jesus tells them that He has come to set them free with His truth, suddenly their tune changes. “Slaves? Who’s a slave? We’re the children of Abraham. We’re nobody slaves.”

So it is with sinful man. We’re poor, helpless little slaves oppressed by the big bad guys until we need to be rescued by someone we think to be below us. Then we’re not slaves at all. We’re incredibly guilt-ridden sinners who gladly confess how far we are from God and how much we desperately need His salvation until someone has the audacity to suggest that we live according to our confession by practicing humility and true repentance. Then we’re not sinners at all.

In His mercy, may grant us hearts that match our confession. When we declare ourselves to be poor, miserable sinners unworthy of God’s love, may we mean it. And may we mean it so we can understand the greater word God speaks to us, the word of pardon and peace. May we acknowledge the chains of sin weighing us down so we can know what it means that Jesus Christ, with the nails pierced into His hands and feet, has liberated us from condemnation and delivered us back into the arms of His Father. May we confess the truth that we are utterly unworthy of salvation, so that Christ may proclaim the greatest truth, that His crucified and risen truth has set us free.