Christ Jesus, who became to us… redemption.
1 corinthians 1:30
Notice the centrality of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is at the heart of everything that is truly Christian. The way in which you become free is not through a technique but through a person. Christ is our redemption. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Paul gives us a marvelous description of the man in the cage in Romans 7. He describes the experience of a man who is overwhelmed by the compulsive power of sinful habits.
The man says that he is a prisoner of the law of sin. He is unable to do the good that he wants to do, and he keeps repeating the same evil that he intended to avoid.
Finally, he says: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Notice the question. It is not “What will deliver me?” It is “Who will deliver me?”
Many people who struggle with compulsive behaviours are asking the wrong question. If you ask, “What will deliver me?”, there are all kinds of answers on offer: spiritual disciplines, accountability, counselling, getting involved in a ministry, and making Christian friends.
All of these may be helpful, but none of them will get you out of the cage. You can pray in the cage, set up accountability in the cage, get involved in ministry in the cage—and all of these can be very helpful in changing your behaviour, but at the end of the day, you are still in the cage. The biblical question is never “What will deliver me?” It is “Who will deliver me.”
And the answer is, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25). Christ has become our redemption. The Lord sets prisoners free!
In your own life, have you been focusing on “What will deliver me?” or “Who will deliver me?”
