Amazing Grace

I watched the movie tonight and to be honest was moved to tears.

William Wilberforce worked for decades before his calls for the abolition of the slave trade were finally heeded. Those who lived in slavery waited during that time, hoping and praying for deliverance.

Their freedom was finally granted 1807. How did that feel for Wilberforce after many years of pain staking efforts? How did it feel for those enslaved to be finally set free?

Then I thought of this:

"So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." Galatians 5:3-7

I was reminded that as hard as Wilberforce worked for the freedom of the slaves in the plantations, there is One who worked so much harder and paid so much more to free me from my sin.

In the movie Oloudaqh Equiano said that when sold into slavery he was branded by the person who purchased him. This he said was to show that he was now owned by a man and not by God.

But the Bible says:

"because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:4-10

The fact is, our sin condems us. But God in his mercy offers us freedom from sin that was purchased when Jesus died.

I'm that undeserving wretch that was saved by God's amazing grace!