We Americans have, for over two hundred years, celebrated our liberty as an independent nation on the Fourth of July.

It does not follow from this however, that all Americans are now free. Far from it! Think of the millions of alcoholics and drug addicts, bound with chains they only wish they could break. Think of the slaves to immoral passions, to violent tempers, to malicious backbiting, not to mention smoking and other habits they cannot control. No, the vast majority of Americans are slaves to–well, sum it all up in one word: sin.

If God is a righteous Judge — and He is — He must of course, punish sin. Romans 6:23 says: “the wages of sin is death”, but on the other hand, thank God, I Corinthians 15:3 says: “Christ died for our sins”.

The Lord Jesus Christ was no sinner; He had committed no crimes; there was no wrong He had to pay for; He had no death to die. It was our death He died at Calvary, and we are saved from the penalty as we look at Calvary and say: “This is not His death He is dying; it is mine. He is paying for my sin. I will accept this gift of God and trust Him as my Saviour”.

This is a wonderful truth: Death, the penalty of the Law, was inflicted on us — in Christ. Therefore the Law (i.e., the Ten Commandments) has no further claim on us. If it did, we would be condemned all over again. This is why Paul says in Galatians 2:19: “I through the Law am dead to the Law”. The Law may put a man to death, but after that what can it do? Nothing. The Law has put him to death (in Christ) and set him free from its own dominion.

Unsaved friend, God wants you to be free, really free. He Himself, paid sin’s penalty for you and wants you to rejoice in what Paul calls, “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21), freedom from the condemnation of the Law!

Place your trust in the Christ who died your death and you will find how gloriously true it is that “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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