You need to watch this video about the release of Ingrid Betancourt.
Ingrid Betancourt is someone who was held hostage for over three years. Here, she talks about the moment that she discovered that, rather than being transported by her captors to another location, she had actually been picked up by the Columbian army, and was now free.
She describes a feeling of amazing joy upon discovering her freedom - she screams, and celebrates, and is amazed. How much more should we be amazed at the freedom that Christ purchased for us! He saved us from a much greater bondage - a slavery to sin, an inability to free ourselves from the power of sin and death. Only Christ could make the rescue, and it required much more than impersonating our captors, as Betancourt’s rescuers did. No, Christ had to die to free us from the consequences of the sin we love so much. Because unlike Betancourt, we weren’t unhappy in captivity. We loved it, and left to ourselves, wouldn’t have wanted it to end. But God changed our hearts, so that we now DO want him. In fact, Christians now take their joy in God, and no longer love their sin. So we should rejoice, because we have been rescued at a great cost, and God has shown great mercy and kindness to us.
