Monday, December 27, 2021

A liberating Savior

The next night the Lord appeared to Paul and said : Take heart, Paul ; Just as you bore witness concerning me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome. Acts 23:11

Paul went up to Jerusalem ; yet he has been warned several times not to go. But he has such a love for the gospel and for his people that he ignored the warnings.

Now he is in prison. His opponents want him dead. In court, Paul is creating discord among their ranks, and he must be removed from among the Jews by the Roman troops so as not to be killed.

In prison, Paul could ask himself many questions : "Am I right in going up to Jerusalem ?" Have I done well to submit to Jewish rites, I who preaches salvation by faith, by grace ? Did I do well to say that I am a Roman to avoid suffering the ordeal ? Did I do well to throw the argument in the midst of my accusers ?" And maybe other similar questions. We ask ourselves a lot of questions when the going is against us.

The Lord does not want his servant to be crushed or made to feel guilty by such thoughts. On the contrary, he frees him from all fear by telling him that he appreciated his testimony, given in Jerusalem. He also encourages him and tells him that he will fulfill his wish to bear witness in Rome as well. Yes, he will go to Rome, the capital of the Empire, to be an ambassador, bound in chains, but free to present Jesus to everyone.

What a paradox ! A man bound in chains proclaims that Jesus brings freedom to all, to a slave like Onesimus, to an emperor like Nero !

Indeed, Jesus Christ brings freedom to those who are enslaved to sin, to those who are chained by their guilt towards God or to themselves, to those who are prisoners of their passions or their idols, to those who are slaves to human commandments.

It was imprisoned in Caesarea, then in Rome, that Paul proclaimed, verbally and also by his letters, that Jesus Christ offered freedom to all who put their trust in him.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)