Many Bondages, One Remedy

This article is adapted from Sinclair B. Ferguson’s book “By Grace Alone.” 

(Reformation Trust Publishing; A division of Ligonier Ministries, Orlando, Florida)

     “Our sinful hearts share a common bondage, although its forms may differ.  Some people have bondages that bring them down to the gutter.  But there are also ‘respectable’ bondages.  The appearances may seem polar opposites.  But in each the heart is equally captive, a prisoner, a slave.

     What is it that you cannot master, but masters you?  What sin has captured your heart and hardened it toward God?  The chains that bind you may seem very different from those that bind your neighbors, your colleagues, or your friends.  But they are just as real.

     God has many different ways to bring us to discover that we are enslaved and spiritually dead sinners.  But He offers us only one remedy for the slavery, only one Savior: the same Jesus who stood before His contemporaries – and now stands before us – to say:  ‘Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.  But the truth will set you free.’    

 Charles Wesley wrote:

                  ‘Long my imprisoned spirit lay. 

                    Fast bound in sin and nature’s night.’

     Is that you?  You may have tried everything to find freedom and satisfaction, but you are still ‘fast bound in sin and nature’s night.’  Perhaps nobody knows it except you.  You need a work of God’s power and grace in your life.

                  ‘Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,

                  I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.

                  My chains fell off, my heart was free

                  I rose, went forth, and followed thee.’

     Discovering the grace of God in Jesus Christ can happen almost before you notice it.  After all, He was seeking you before you ever sought Him or sensed that He was near.  All you knew was that you had a deep sense of need.  He drew you in…”

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” – Jesus (Luke 19:10).