Completely Free
Completely Free
The story has been told that Abraham Lincoln once went to a slave auction and was appalled to see the buying and selling of human beings. According to the story:
His heart was especially drawn to a young woman on the block whose story seemed to be told in her eyes. She looked with hatred and contempt on everyone around her. She had been used and abused all her life, and this time was but one more cruel humiliation. The bidding began, and Lincoln offered a bid. As other amounts were bid, he counter-bid with larger amounts until he won. When he paid the auctioneer the money and took title to the young woman, she stared at him with vicious contempt. She asked him what he was going to do next with her, and he said, “I’m going to set you free.”
“Free?” she asked. “Free for what?”
“Just free,” Lincoln answered. “Completely free.”
“Free to do whatever I want to do?”
“Yes,” he said. “Free to do whatever you want to do.”
“Free to say whatever I want to say?”
“Yes, free to say whatever you want to say.”
“Free to go wherever I want to go?” she added with skepticism.
Lincoln answered, “You are free to go anywhere you want to go.”
“Then I’m going with you!” she said with a smile.[1]
Whether or not this story is true, it conveys the truth of how every believer in Christ feels about him. He has set us free from sin and death, and because he has, we want to go with him wherever he goes.
[1] Philip Ryken shares this story in Preaching the Word, Exodus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 707. He found it in Leith Anderson, A Church for the 21st Century (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1992), 216.