Set Free

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.

Isaiah 61:1 (NLT)

These are the words I plan to share Sunday with the women at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California about the freedom that has been purchased for us by Christ. 

What I want you to realize today is that you have been completely set free.  Freedom is costly.  Jesus gave his own life to purchase your freedom. 

Jesus has taken all your sins away.  You are no longer a slave but a free person. Your physical body may be incarcerated here, but your soul and spirit have been set free.  Now begin to walk in the liberty that God has given you.  He has provided his spirit for you.  As you yield to this spirit, the freedom he has purchased for you becomes more evident in your life.  You no longer have to be a slave to habits, compulsions, addictions and greed that kept your life in slavery.  You can walk in freedom. 

You are his child, deeply loved.  He calls you righteous, pure and holy.  You are not scum or worthless.  How he loves you.  Trust in him.  You may fail daily but, he never fails.  He will continue the work he has begun in you until it is completed and you are walking in freedom and joy.

Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.

  He has done this through Christ Jesus, 

who has freed us by taking away our sins.

Romans 3:24 (NLT)