By His Authority, You Are Free

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch woman sent to the German concentration camp of Ravensbruck because her family harbored Jews in a secret room of their home which they called The Hiding Place. There, in that concentration camp where more than ninety-six thousand women lost their lives, Corrie lived for more than a year, suffering unspeakable abuse at the hands of her oppressors.  Her greatest pain, the death of beloved sister, Betsie. One morning, soon after Betsie’s death, Corrie stood outside in the freezing cold for yet another roll call. Her Nazi captors were very careful to make sure that no one had escaped that place of death during the night.  As she stood in the ranks of the condemned, a voice rang out over the loudspeaker, Ten Boom, Cornelia!  She had been known as a number for so long that she almost didn’t recognize her name. After a moment of shock, she stepped forward.  The guard ordered her to follow. As she walked behind the guard, she wondered why she was being singled out. She wondered if someone had reported the Bible she had smuggled into the camp. When she arrived in the administration barracks, she lined up behind several other women in front of an officer behind a large desk.  As she waited, she saw the officer stamp a piece of paper and hand it to the prisoner saying, Entlassen!  Released.  Corrie could hardly believe her ears. But when her time came to stand before the officer, he again filled out papers, stamped it with the seal of his authority and said, Entlassen!  You are released. 

Release was not easy.  Corrie had to spend several days in the camp infirmary to heal wounds she had received.  Outside the camp food was scarce and transportation was difficult.  But, in the end, clinging to that paper sealed by the authority of the one who could release her from her prison, she made it home--alive and free. 

Why was Corrie ten Boom released?  She later learned that a clerical error put her on the list of those to be set free, only a week before every woman her age at Ravensbruck was put to death.  But in another sense, she was set free because she heard someone call her name, she stepped out and followed, and believed the authority of the one who declared her Entlassen, released.  

Today, you may find yourself in the death camp of sin and separation from God.  You may be imprisoned by the lie that your sins are too terrible for God to forgive, chained to a life sentence of paying off your guilt, or haunted by the question of whether God really loves you. 

Listen. 

Someone is calling your name. 

He wants you to step out of the ranks of the dying, the condemned, and follow Him. 

He wants you to follow in faith to the foot of a cross where He, by the authority God has given Him, wants to make a mark upon your life, to place His seal upon your heart, to declare---It is finished. 

Release, though real, will not be easy.  Some wounds must heal.   Some days you will hunger.  Sometimes you will not know how you will go a step further.  But the promise of Jesus Christ, the One who died that you might live, is this: in the end, clinging to the seal of His saving love upon your life, you will make it home--forever alive, forever free.