Break Every Chain

“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

    and he saved them from their distress.

He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,

    and broke away their chains.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love

    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,

for he breaks down gates of bronze

    and cuts through bars of iron” (Ps. 107:13-16)

“Through Him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses” (Acts 13:19). 

“So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). 

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:1-10).

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Whether someone believes in God or not, if they are honest, they will admit that things aren’t all they could or should be. There is something in us as people that can look around at the pain, the sorrow, the strife, the injustice and say “It’s not supposed to be like this!” And all of us, whether we believe in God or not, spend a lot of time trying to do something about all of the “not-rightness” that we see around us. We want freedom from the pain of life, and we will use all of our energy and ingenuity to get it. Social reform, willpower, making more money, being thinner, more self-discipline, setting all the right relational boundaries, religious behavior, having more followers, getting our spouse or our children to do exactly what we want them to. 

We think the problem is out there, and in one sense that is absolutely true. There is a lot out there that is wrong. But that is not the only sense or even the most fundamental sense. There is also something deeply wrong in each of us. Something at our core sullies and spoils all of the efforts and attempts that we have made to better ourselves and our world. Our best attempts never quite seem to solve the puzzle and heal the brokenness around us. Something in us perpetuates and sometimes even causes what we wish was different.

The Scriptures call this sin, not just in action but in condition.

And we can’t free ourselves from this sin. This is what Ephesians 2, Romans 6, Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 11, and many other places in Holy Scripture speak to. We are slaves to the condition of sin and it bears fruit in our lives as sinful choices.

The verses we read previously tell us how to be free. Cry to the LORD in our trouble. Let Him be the one to deliver us instead of trying to solve the world’s and our problems our own way. Rather than leaning on our own understanding, we trust in the Lord. We believe in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world for our justification instead of trying to do all the right things on our own. 

God the Father, through the ministry of His Holy Spirit,  applies the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ the Son to our lives. Indeed, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. It is not the advice of a particular teacher, or therapist, or influencer, or leader. Certainly, it is true that God has highly exalted Jesus Christ because of His perfect life and atoning death, and has given Him the name that is above every name. Yes, He has overcome the world. So we can take heart. 

We have been set free from our sin by Jesus. This is the reason why He was even given His name. Before He was even born an angel came to His father and said “You will call His name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

His is a powerful name. And it is worth singing about over and over and over again.

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