She wrote: “On April 14, 1945, on a sunny Saturday morning, a tank rolled up to the gates of our concentration camp in Salzwedel, Germany.

A U.S. soldier jumped off the tank, opened the gates and announced, "You are free." I tried to say "Thank you" in English, German, or even Hungarian, but no sound would pass my lips.

For the past 48 hours, we had heard gunfire. That morning, we could hear the noise of tanks. Then, the roaring of aircraft and all of a sudden, the sky was full of mushrooms floating to earth. The hundreds of white parachutes against the blue sky was a miracle.

When our liberators arrived, the Germans lifted their hands above their heads in capitulation. A few U.S. soldiers rounded them up. One SS officer started to run away and was shot dead.

A doctor came around to each room to examine us. He recommended treatment or said, with a smile, "You will be fine, miss, with good food inside you." The Army organized food for us and told us we would be taken to decent quarters.

About three days later, trucks took us to a German air force training school. The buildings were pleasant and roomy. We were told not to drag anything and should we want to rearrange our rooms, we should ask a U.S. soldier and he would give orders for it to be done. Each of us received a bar of soap, the first in a year. We had hot water for 24 hours a day so we could shower three or four or even more times a day, as if to wash away all our mental hurt. We had proper beds with sheets and received clean towels every day. After our first shower, we were asked not to put on our old rags, as they were full of lice. We were given clean clothes.

On the airfield, we found white parachutes left by the paratroopers and dragged them back to our rooms. We made them into underwear and blouses. After not having had any underwear for a very long time, we now had pure silk.

The U.S. Army had organized a special diet for us as we had to get used to eating again. We had the normal facilities of a dining room and we sat on chairs at tables, like human beings again. There were always several Army people present to make sure that all was well. All this at a time when the United States was still fighting a war.

The most astonishing thing I found, then and today, was how wonderfully kind they were to us. How remarkable it was that under the dirt, disease, rags and lice these soldiers could see human beings, young girls. Their kindness and their thoughtfulness gave us back our belief in the human race.

In the evenings, time and time again, there would be a knock on the door and soldiers would come in and do conjuring tricks or other silly things to get us to laugh or at least smile. It took some time before we learned to smile again.

Today, 52 years after my liberation, I stand in awe and thank you -- not only for liberating me, but for being so humane, efficient and kind. God bless you.”

Liberation ﷓ hope ﷓ a future with great kindness -- these are our reality as well. For we too have been set free. That's what Paul tells us in Colossians 1:12-13.

Read Colossians 1:12-13

Those verses are clearly good news. But before we see where we are in Christ, it’s important to see where we were. Otherwise we will not fully appreciate what God has done for us.

Let's start with the darkness. How did we get there?

Well Colossians 1 doesn’t tell us. But Paul gives us all the information we need in Romans 1. In Romans 1 Paul tells us that the darkness was a result of our choices. It was caused by an act of rebellion -- "For even though people knew God, they did not honor Him as God."

Rebellion against God is the first root of all darkness. Rebellion is the refusal to let God be the God of our lives. It’s the desire to enthrone ourselves in place of the One who created us.

"For even though people knew God, they did not honor Him as God or thank Him -- but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of a corruptible man and of birds and of four﷓footed animals and of reptiles."

Paul says that there are two results of a perverted relationship with God. The first result is the futility of the mind -- the darkening of the heart. Paul tells us that people are not capable of knowing truth through reason alone. The very ability to discern truth has been impaired by sin.

A year ago last Spring when Carol and I were on sabbatical, we rented a Peugeot in Paris to drive to Normandy. We didn’t know the roads so I was delighted to discover that it came with an onboard navigation system. We could simply tell it where we wanted to go and it would tell us what roads to take and where to stop for fuel. The only problem was that it was all in French. We had all this wonderful information available but we were totally in the dark. All the right words were there but we were unable to use them. It’s the same for those who turn their backs on God.

When men and women turn away from God, they do not admit this, of course. Instead, they speak of "bright new ideas", "enlightenment", or "having more light." But, since God is the source of true light, any ideas of enlightenment apart from Him are illusion.

The second inevitable result of a perverted relationship with God is spiritual tension. We leave God, but find that we need something outside ourselves to worship because that’s the way we're made. So we go out and search for an object of worship that meets two conditions ﷓- it is powerful enough to deserve worship but it is manageable enough that we don't really have to give up control of our own lives.

Beginning in Romans 1:24, Paul outlines the typical pattern of a person's descending order of worship as he seeks to find a substitute God. This person starts with the worship of humanity ﷓ our modern day humanism ﷓ but soon finds that people prove incapable of bearing trust as objects of worship. History provides too many arguments against the perfection of humanity.

His next stop is the birds — perhaps used as a symbol of human aspiration. If he cannot worship what people are, he will worship what they want to become.

But finally dreams, too, prove incapable of bearing worship. The next step is the worship of nature. The final stop in the descent is the worship of fear itself as is symbolized by the reptiles. If he cannot find freedom from fear, he will strike a bargain with despair and attempt to control it. This is the root of atheistic existentialism which strives for dignity in the face of what is perceived as ultimate meaninglessness ﷓ a bargain with despair.

People are incurably God﷓conscious. If we will not have God because of our own desire to be in control, we still need to find a way to fill the void left by the absence of God. All of the religious, psychological and cultural fads which ebb and flow through our nation should not surprise anyone who has studied God's word. People think that by running away from God they will be happy, wild, and free. But, it doesn't work that way. Instead of happiness, they find misery. Instead of freedom they find the bondage of sin.

As Paul makes clear, rejecting the God who is the Father of Jesus Christ does not remove us from all lords. All it does is remove us from the benevolent lordship of God and place us under the tyrannical lordship of evil.

As C.S. Lewis writes in the Allegory of Love, "The descent to hell is easy, and those who begin by worshiping power soon worship evil."

So how do we get free. We don’t free ourselves. In Colossians Paul says that we are delivered and we are transferred. We do not deliver or transfer ourselves. We are delivered and transferred by the cross.

According to Luke’s account of Gethsemane, Jesus said to the men who came to arrest Him: "Have you come out with swords and clubs as though you had a bandit to deal with? When I was with you day after day in the Temple, you never laid a finger on me. But this is your hour and the jurisdiction of darkness."

The dark power did have its brief hour of opportunity against Jesus. But it didn’t last long. The hour ended in the utter defeat of the powers of evil. And now, through His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus has the authority to raid the domain of darkness and rescue those who are caught. That is what He has done for us.

Now in Colossae, the manifestations of the domain of darkness were both overt and dramatic. The city was filled with magic, superstition and fear of malignant powers. The Colossians could clearly look around and see how Jesus had set them free.

For us it’s more subtle. But our society’s need for liberation is just as great. It’s not always as “out there” but it’s just as real.

For the inevitable result of serving evil is sin. That’s why Paul concludes Romans 1 with one of his lists of sins.

As I began this sermon I happened to glance at the morning paper. It was just another day in America. Four teenagers in Philadelphia killed a friend in order to rob him of $500 to buy drugs. After they killed him, they shared a group hug. Even more allegations came our against convicted rapist Andrew Luster. Three men in Boston were arrested for beating and stabbing a pizza delivery man because they thought he was a Muslim.

Now obviously none of us made the paper that day for similar things. But we also have to recognize that the people who did these things are not a separate species.

A list like the one in Romans 1:27-31 does not mean that every person is equally guilty of every wrong. But it does mean that these things are just below the surface of respectability. They become apparent when you scratch to deeply. Not everyone who is without Christ will ever do all the things on Paul’s list. We tend to be adept at depravity management in order to function in society. But the tendency is always for deeper and deeper decline.

And God is neither co-dependant nor an enabler. He let’s us hit bottom. Several times in Romans 1, Paul says that God “gives people over” to reap the consequences of their rebellion.

But why does God give society over to this kind of thing? He does it to allow the issues to become clear. God removes the protective restraints of His lordship and allows things to spiral down so that, in their despair, men and women might become aware.

C.S. Lewis called pain "the megaphone of God." For it is pain that gets our attention. It is pain that shows people what is really going on. It’s pain that prepares us to receive God's grace.

In fact pain as the megaphone of God is the very thing that made Lewis’ great inspiration G.K. Chesterton come to Christian faith. Optimists had told Chesterton that this is the best of all possible worlds. But he couldn't accept that. If this is as good as it gets, that’s terrible. Christianity began to make sense to Chesterton because Christianity freely declares that this is a stained and marred planet.

Chesterton wrote, "The modern philosophers had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed ﷓ even as I agreed. But from Christianity I now heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy like a bird in spring."

We aren’t surrounded by magic and dark ritual as the Colossians were. But our prisons can be just as strong.

This congregation is made up of many bright, educated, creative people. But even we sometimes feel pretty impotent in technological society. We are caught in the clutches of a mechanical law and scientific determinism. We are told that we have no control ﷓ that everything is determined by heredity, environment, natural powers, economic and social forces. We are encouraged to move along as best we can, propelled by the forces around us, bobbing erratically along the as though we were ping﷓pong balls in a mountain stream. In the words of Paul Simon, “we think were gliding down the highway but in fact we’re slip-slidin away.”

But that’s not the way it has to be. We don’t have to be prisoners of our own age. We don’t have to slip-slide away. God delivers people from the domain if darkness and transfers them to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In Christ we have been delivered into a kingdom of light and freedom. We have a destiny about which we can decide, and we have access to the power of Christ to live against the tide. Paul says we are "saints of the light," and John 1 tells us that the darkness will never prevail against the light.

What is the inheritance of the saints in lights"?

Not fear - courage

Not stress - peace

Not a wall - a door to the future

Not futility - but eternity

All this is through Jesus. As we will see when we look at the next verse in Colossians, it is through Jesus that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

When Jesus came to be baptized by John the Baptist, John didn't want to do it because he knew that Jesus was free from sin. But Jesus insisted. He was there to identify Himself with us in our sin ﷓ just as He was later to take our sin with Him to the cross.

Some years ago, a man named Gordon MacDonald was removed as head of Inter﷓varsity Christian Fellowship because of an adulterous relationship. After a time of restoration, he wrote of what it means to be set free based on the baptism of Jesus:

MacDonald writes: “Suppose we were running John's baptism operation. We understand that big things like this have to be organized. We make a plan. One of us says, "When you decide to come and repent, folks, we want you to register. We'll get your name down on a name tag so the baptizers can be more personal with you. Just step forward and tell us your name and your most awful sin."

Up to the table steps Bob. "Name?"

"Bob."

"What's your most awful sin, Bob?"

"I stole some money from my boss once." The person takes a marker and writes, "Bob: Embezzler."

"Mary?"

"I slandered some people. I said some things that weren't true. I just didn't like them." So the person writes, "Mary: Slanderer."

"Gordon?"

"Adultery." "Gordon: Adulterer."

And the person writing, with some degree of gloating, slaps the name tag on the chest of each person. Then all the of the people with their name tags and their most awful sins, line up by the river, waiting to be baptized in repentance.

Then up to the table comes Jesus. Jesus most awful sin? Well there aren't any. So Jesus starts walking down the line. He steps up to Bob and says, "Bob, give me your name tag." And He puts it on Himself. "Mary, give me your name tag." He puts it on Himself. "George, give me your name tag." It goes on Himself. "Gordon, give me your name tag." Soon the Son of God is covered with name tags and awful sins. Someone comes up and says to Jesus, "If you must do this, couldn't you take off some of the worst ones? If you're going to spawn a messianic movement, you've got to be above reproach. Why don't you take off the tag that says "murderer". Take off "adulterer", too. We're talking about nines and tens here."

Jesus says, "You don't realize that I am the Son of David. David had to wear those name tags, and I will not write Him off, for I have forgiven Him."

MacDonald concludes: "In my vision, I see Jesus going to the water to present Himself to John. The Savior is baptized. At the risk of being trite, the people who had the markers didn't buy indelible ink. When Jesus comes up, all of the ink had been washed away and is going down the river. And I recall the words, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

That’s what Jesus has done. For God has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.