Are You “Yearning to Breathe Free”?

Feelings of “suffocation” can come from many things. There is certainly the reality of physical slavery of varying kinds that still exist around the world today. There are oppressive governments and failing economies that make it impossible for people to get ahead. Many people around the world still long for the “unalienable rights” that Americans have consistently fought for since the nation’s earliest days.

But maybe you also simply feel wearied by the daily grind and you’re struggling to find a greater purpose. Maybe your heart is hurting due to a strained relationship and you’re longing for reconciliation. Maybe you’ve suffered loss, and the pain and heartache are more than you can bear. Maybe your disappointments, fears, and frustrations have reached a boiling point, and the heavy weight and stifling darkness is growing greater by the day.

You just want to breathe. You want to be free. You want to get off the proverbial merry-go-round. You want to find rest.

When Jesus Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago, He announced that He was the One who had been prophesied about centuries earlier. He was the One who would be sent with a special mission and had the power to bring lasting, miraculous freedom to those yearning to breathe free:

“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21).

Why did He make that claim? Because He was the Son of God, God in flesh. He took on human form. He came to earth to meet us where we are, enslaved to sin and death and unable to make ourselves free. Sin had separated humans from God since the beginning of human history, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and thought they could be their own gods. Sin has taken over our nature and has taken us away from God’s holy presence, and out from under His protective covering; we remain in a wilderness where we wander, vulnerable to the rule of evil, given over to sinful actions, and under that unholy law we are objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The end result is the eternal death of our soul and eternal separation from Him.

But Jesus, being fully God, was sinless in His humanity. He was not subject to sin. But He did willingly offer Himself as the payment for sin. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). These wages are eternal, because once sin entered the world, it corrupted everyone and everything. Though God established a temporary covering of sin through the Old Testament sacrificial law, it was not a permanent solution. Sin had to be dealt with, once and for all. And it could only be defeated by the One who stood outside of it in His perfection. The One who in His compassion would take the punishment and become the eternal payment of sin for all who would trust in Him.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…” (1 Peter 3:18).

Three days after He was put to death, Jesus rose from the grave. He had paid for sin and had overcome its power by overcoming death. He now lives eternally as the way through whom we can be forgiven of sin, set free from its power, and receive eternal life.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Jesus Christ won the battle for our spiritual freedom. We need only to believe in Him and the work He completed – to put our full faith and trust in His sacrifice on our behalf. In return, we receive true freedom and blessings in this life and for eternity!

This is the testimony you can have: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).