“Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Ro 8:21 AV)
Amen and amen! What a wonderful reminder that we will not remain who and what we are for all of eternity. There is coming a glorious liberty from the corruption to which we are subjected! This corruption could be any and all imperfections. This would include our mortal bodies. Sickness and death will have no more part in our existence. The corruption can be the world in which we live. Corrupted from man’s sin, God’s creation is a minor example of what could be if sin had not entered. If we were to stick to the context, Paul is speaking of the corruption of sin. More specifically, the sin that reigns in our mortal bodies. Paul very perfectly described the struggle to which we are all subjected. Chapter seven is a great exegesis of the old man and new man going at it over the law of God. This is what spoke to my heart! There is a promise of liberty from this battle! Liberty that will come in eternity when the old man is completely destroyed and our glorification is realized!
Everyone should experience what it is like to wear a cast! At first, it is a mere inconvenience. You get used to it. You learn to use your other arm. You keep it in a sling to protect it from further harm. However, after a few weeks, the cast becomes a mid-evil torture device. Your skin cells begin to die off and your skin itches like crazy. There is nothing more sinister than wearing a cast for six to eight weeks. Sure, it is way cool when your friends sign the cast. It is outstanding to carry around with you their well-wishes. But when week three or four hit, and you are shoving anything and everything down that cast to scratch an itch that will not go away, you are three steps to an insane asylum. That was the way it was with me. Rulers, pens, pencils, anything! Anything I could shove down there to itch my arm was fair game. I didn’t even care how safe it was. The itch had to go away. When that cast finally came off, the feeling was one of pure joy. I was disgusted at the color of my skin, but after a shower, all the dead cells fell off. No more itch! No more torture. Glorious liberty!
Sin is more than an inconvenience. It is pure torture! The new man is tortured by the old man. The new man wants to do right before God. He has a new heart that desires to please God. He knows the joy of faith and obedience. He desires what God has deemed best. But there sits the old man. He is ready to chase after every temptation that comes his way. The flesh, like that cast, holds strongly to our form. Our spirit and soul are itching for liberty. While constrained by the earthly tabernacle, they are anxious to be free of it. That is why the verse above is so special to me. The verse above is a promise I hold to. It is the promise that one day, very soon, I will be set at liberty from the old me one and for all. A new me, fashioned after the perfection of Jesus Christ, will shed the itchy and dead skin of my earthly tabernacle and be just like Jesus! No more desire for sin. No more will that can go contrary to God’s perfect will. No more self-determination. No more pride. No more fleshly pleasure. And I will be in good company! This liberty belongs to all the children of God. Every one of us. We will enjoy sinless perfection together. What a day that will be!
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