True Freedom is Freedom from Sin

True freedom is being free from sin. How does this happen? It happens when we hear his Word—Christ was born of Mary, suffered, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day.

“Oh,” we might say, “I know that message well. It is a very familiar sermon.” But let’s learn this lesson again from our children, for it tells us how we can be saved and be set free. “Yes,”we might even say, “This teaching is too simple. That’s why it won’t work.” But it’s a virtue that children can pray these words and understand them so easily. We are old fools. The more educated and intelligent we become, the less we know and understand. We must preach this message again and again so that all of us may be satisfied and filled with its teaching. My hunger, however, has not yet been satisfied. This teaching is like bread.

No one ever grows tired of eating bread. We fill ourselves with all kinds of food, but we never have enough bread, unless we are ill and can’t eat. A healthy person will never grow tired of bread. In the same way, Christians will never learn this completely during their lifetimes, whether they are saints or even Mary or John the Baptist. So we must sit with the children by the stove and learn the lesson again.

There are some who say they have already been taught the message and think they know everything about it. But when troubles come, they desperately need someone to recite these words to them again. They end up needing a four-year-old child to show them how to believe.

Luther, Martin; Galvin, James C. (2009-05-26). Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional (p. 214). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.