Everyone loves a good holiday. So we are especially glad to have June 3rd as an extra one this year. The freedom to enjoy celebrations over the long weekend will be a really special time with friends and family.
Like so many of our country’s celebrations, Jubilee is a biblical idea. Every 50th year in Israel brought release for debtors and prisoners. Debts were cancelled, slaves were allowed to go. Jubilee was woven into their statute books. The God of the Bible delights in celebration, takes joy in extending favour and provides means by which we might enjoy freedom.

Freedom Lost

Truth be told, we are very easily enslaved. By trivial things like phones and obsessions with celebrity. By more complex things like anxiety, greed and even religion. All of which point to our underlying bondage to sin. We have chosen our own way, and the end of that way is death. It is an awful bondage. God wants to free us to live and serve Him, as we were designed to from the beginning. 

Freedom Offered 

And just how might God go about doing that you wonder? Look no further than the Platinum Jubilee Medal upon which is inscribed, ‘Elizabeth II, By the Grace of God…’ In fact these words are embossed on many of our coins. It is by God’s grace that our Queen enjoys her favoured position. And it is by God’s marvellous grace that you and I can enjoy freedom. Freedom from sin’s judgement and freedom from sin’s consequence - death. 
No one but God can offer this. It came at the cost of His Son, Jesus Christ. He bore the judgement on the cross, fully and finally. He rose again the third day. As a result, God can offer forgiveness of sins to any and all who will turn to Him in faith. You need not earn it - you cannot earn it. God offers it freely, by His Grace.

Freedom Promised 

So our verse reads, ‘If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed.’ Free not just to enjoy an extra days holiday but an eternity in God’s blessed presence - with all those who have come to place faith in His Son’s provision.