Slavery is still alive and well today in every country, under every language, tribe, and corner of our globe. This slavery doesn't include any harsh or primitive apparatus such as chains, whips, shackles, or cuffs ... but rather it is an enslavement that needs no physical tools of bondage. This is not the slavery that happens across the world fueled by racism, sex trafficking, and hatred, but is far more subtle and rampant. This slavery touches every human being on the planet.
This enslavement is the enslavement of self. And no matter what degree of social justice, reparation, or equality that we as humans try to engender with one another, we will never be able to free ourselves, from ourselves. This final, and only true freedom, must come from outside ourselves.
When discussing the topic of freedom, Jesus stunned his hearers by speaking of a freedom that dealt with a slavery they were ignorant to. A slavery of the self. A slavery to sin.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." John 8:34
This is the most profound form of slavery, and a slavery that has eternal repercussions. The only way to be free of this self imposed form of slavery (Rom 3:23), is to be set free by the only one who has never been in bondage, the Son of God (Heb 4:15).
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." John 8:35-36
This is the most powerful freedom that any human can ever experience, freedom from the self. For whoever loses his life with gain it (Lk 9:24). As Christians this is the freedom that we have to offer the world, freedom from themselves. But before we can offer that freedom we must in fact be free ourselves.