Communion With the Christ:: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

On January -1-1863- Americas’ greatest President issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared that all persons held as slavers were to be now “forever free”

When the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect; it promised freedom to slaves in those territories which were then in rebellion against the Government of the United States of America. The proclamation, however, at its time of issuances really did not initially set any persons free just by issuing it. This required the more statutory solution of war.

The American Civil War was very complex, filled with layers of meanings and issues. In one way the Civil War was not really about slavery, yet on the other hand, it was all about slavery. It was about economics and States rights verses the rights of the Federal Government and about the changing conscience of a nation.

The War was violent and driven by firm passions and beliefs held by people who had a great common heritage, yet for a segment of this people, this heritage produced a way of life which gave rise to the maintenance of slavery.

The War was over the conciseness of the American nation, destructive and costly in lives and in treasure. President Lincoln came to believe that the War was a result of God’s divine judgement due to the great national sin of slavery.

This conviction, that God was displeased with America, led Lincoln to draft and then issue the Emancipation Proclamation. When the Proclamation was declared it, in realty, did not bring freedom to any slaves, but what it did do was to elevate the War on behalf of the Federal Armies and in hearts of the people. The Armies of the United States were now no longer just fighting to ensure the life of a political system, but they had become armed liberators of people who were held in the grip of slavery, as one Federal officer stated regarding the Proclamation that it “ennobled the War”, that there was now, introduced a spiritual element so that the Federal Armies could see themselves as doing the work of God in a great crusade to bring freedom to the captive held in bounds.

This new spirit did add a spiritual dimension to the War. Federal armies now could and identify themselves as armed liberators in spiritual conflict in a great work of redemption, freeing millions.

Seeing the Glory

The Federal armies would march across the land singing: “mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the LORD”.

Those people who were held in bondage could identify their freedom in the wake of advancing armies, with the Jubilee year, the acceptable year of the LORD and came to see the hand of God in their liberation.

For four years the War raged and at the cost of 625000 lives, it took to restore the American union, and the setting free of four million slaves from the bounds of slavery, all this to give our country a “new birth of freedom”.

Proclaim Liberty

But long before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln and long before the clash of armies, the Great God, the Creator of all things, sent a message of true freedom to and for all peoples of all nations.

Through Jesus Christ the eternal son of God, the Emancipation Proclamation of The Gospel was issued to all. Our Lord after returning from the Wilderness Temptation where Jesus demonstrated that he and he alone is the Messiah, came to Nazareth and went to the Synagogue and read from the Prophetic word of Isaiah about himself before the assembled congregation and the liberating work of the Messiah.

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”Lk: 4:14-21

Gospel of Freedom

Jesus’ Proclamation of the Gospel sets any and all who will receive it free, and gives us true freedom. When we hear the message about Jesus Christ and we come to see that he is the Messiah sent from the heavens above and the truth of his life death and resurrection.

This glorious proclamation gives us freedom which goes beyond and above any and all circumstances, setting us free from, fear, death and sin. This true freedom brings a glorious freedom to us even when we find ourselves in the incarnations of situations and conditions of this life, bring us hope for eternal life beyond the confines of this world in eternality to come.

Jesus speaking to a group of Jewish opponents two thousand years ago, and to believers throughout the ages, about this true freedom.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. ”Jhn: 8:31-32

When we or any one hears the Gospel about Jesus and the Kingdom of God and receives it they are then free. We then can experience the blessing of being a member of the household of God which Jesus has secured for us.

Answering again the Jews who looked to the Patriarch Abraham and the heritage which they held in him in high value.

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (33-36)

The Blood of One

In the case of the United States and freeing of the slaves it took the blood of over 625000 of our countrymen to free the slaves and to restore and preserve the American Union.

We each and all, like those persons who were held in slavery, had no means of self-emancipation. It was seldom that a slave could “work” their way out of bondage, and the very few who did such a thing only did so by the leave of their masters. Those who stole their way to freedom by escaping, lived in fear of being apprehended and would have been returned to a worsening state of bondage.

We could not, by any effort of our own or even through moral highness and piety gain freedom which only ours through Jesus.

God has set us free and restored humanities union with himself, through the Blood of only one man his Holy Son Jesus Christ.

St. Paul wrote to the Roman Christian and to believers throughout the ages regarding the accomplishment of Jesus for each and all of us. The accomplishment of humanities emancipation manifested at the Calvary upon the cross of our Lord and his glorious resurrection.

St. Paul writes:

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Rom: 5:6-7

We now, all through Jesus, have had the “atonement” and reconciliation and a restored union with our God through Jesus.

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (9-11)

The Cross and blood of Jesus proclaims that he has accomplished all this for us so that we might have to give humanity “a new birth of freedom”, born again from above. Through his death we have freedom from sin.

We now are united with Jesus and through Jesus with the Great God, the Holy Trinity. We are united with Christ in a restored union as it always was meant to be we are set free; no longer do we need to be slaves of sin.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” Rom:6:5-7

We don’t have to live in bondage any longer we can walk in freedom liberated from sinful life styles from Jesus has Christ overcome sin

We have the new birth of freedom, emancipated from sin and even from the captivity to death by Jesus.

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (21-23)

Freedom from sin and death and reconciliation is the message which is message sent by God through his Son to any who will receive it through grace alone. And have that new birth of freedom.

The Gospel is the great Emancipation Proclamation that all Christians are given to proclaim to the world around us. This is the message Christ has given His church to proclaim to a world in rebellion against the Constituted Government of God.

The is the great holy endeavor each of us is called to do, setting freeing the slaves to sin and death and fear and restoring the Union between God and humanity.

Let us each and all proclaim the Gospel as liberators in the great march of freedom so all humanity will be able to sing, just as we are able, “mine eyes have seen the glory”!

Benediction: May we each and all ever proclaim the Gospel, through our words and actions so that others might hear that great emancipation proclamation through Jesus and be forever free, and declare the glory of God, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.