Why I Am a Christian by John R. W. Stott

Author:John R. W. Stott [Stott, John R. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality, Non-Fiction, Religion, Christian
ISBN: 9780830866359
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2003-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

Chapter 5

THE KEY TO FREEDOM

The fifth reason why I am a Christian is that I have found Jesus Christ to be the key to freedom.

Many people are preoccupied with a quest for freedom. For some it is national freedom, emancipation from a colonial or neo-colonial yoke. For others it is civil freedom, civil rights and civil liberties. For others it is economic freedom, freedom from poverty, hunger and unemployment. But for all of us it is personal freedom. Even those who campaign most vigorously for those other freedoms often know that they are not free themselves. They feel frustrated, unfulfilled and unfree. John Fowles, the celebrated British novelist, was once asked if there was any special theme in his books. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Freedom. How you achieve freedom. That obsesses me. All my books are about that.’1

And freedom is a great Christian word. Jesus Christ is portrayed in the New Testament as the world’s supreme liberator. He had come, he said, ‘to proclaim freedom for the prisoners’ (Luke 4:18), and added later that ‘if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’ (John 8:36). Similarly, the apostle Paul wrote, ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’ (Galatians 5:1).

Now freedom is a good modern word for ‘salvation’. To be saved by Jesus Christ is to be set free. Drop the word ‘salvation’ into a conversation, however, and it gives off very different vibrations. Some react with embarrassment and change the subject as quickly as possible. Others react with boredom. They yawn rather than blush, for to them the terms ‘sin’ and ‘salvation’ belong to a traditional religious vocabulary that is now obsolete and meaningless. A third group are covered with confusion, because they have no idea how ‘salvation’ should be defined. Talk about ‘freedom’, however, and people’s interest is immediately aroused.

A delightful story, which illustrates this confusion, has long been told of B. F. Westcott, a New Testament scholar of great distinction, who was for some years Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, and became in 1890 Bishop of Durham. It is said that, while travelling somewhere by bus, he was accosted by a Salvation Army lassie. Undeterred by his lordship’s gaiters (bishops wore them in those days!), she asked him if he was saved. With a twinkle in his eye the bishop replied: ‘Well, my dear, it depends what you mean. Do you mean sōzomenos or sesōsmenos or sōthēsomenos?’ – using the present, past and future tenses of the Greek verb sōzō, ‘to save’.

My hope in this chapter is that I will not embarrass, bore or confuse you, but rather that we may reclaim and reinstate this great and glorious word ‘salvation’; for it is a biblical word (it cannot simply be jettisoned) and a big word (it includes the whole purpose of God). Then we should be able to echo what Paul wrote: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.