“There is freedom found when we lay our secrets down at the Cross.”
Romans 6:6
When I was younger, I heard a woman give her testimony and she spoke about secrets. She spoke about them in a way that equated them with darkness. The concept startled yet intrigued me because I had never heard secrets defined that way before. I began to ponder some closely-held secrets that I had been harboring: things that I had kept from my parents, things that I thought I was keeping from God. The reality is that secrets are bondage; they keep us from being free and from being who God called us to be. The devil hangs secrets over our heads and reminds us of our failures every time he can. But when the devil can’t hold the secret against us, he is rendered helpless.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans and in Galatians, he reminds them that their old man was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20). That meant their habits, their sins, and even their secrets died with Him. Because of the liberating power of the Cross, because the veil was torn, because the relationship between God and man was no longer a mystery, we no longer have to hold on to the darkness that covers our mistakes and the things we don’t want anyone else to know. Shame is secret’s henchman; it is a powerful tool and many people know it well. Shame is wielded against us to manipulate, browbeat, and control us. Religion has taught us shame without grace, and that lesson always leads to bondage.
Living underneath secrets is torture; the individual is always afraid that the secret may be exposed and that fear only exacerbates the weight of the secret itself. This is not how God intended for us to live. We know from the Word that He intended us to live in the light and be the light. Being captive to a secret extinguishes that light and also precludes those around us from seeing the light. So in this sense, our freedom is just as important to those around us as it is for us. The kingdom of Heaven depends on us; we are to spread the Gospel and invite others into the kingdom. But if we continue to be captive to the darkness of our secrets, we are hard pressed to flourish in that work.
Earlier, I wrote about the pastor of the church I attended when I was a teenager. Those years were so important because they helped to build a foundation on which I now lean on. I recall him teaching about the truth and the lie and how we were to know that God’s Word was the truth. I will take that a step further and say that in order to be able to distinguish between the truth and the lie, we also have to know which lie is holding us hostage. Think back to the Garden when the serpent told Eve, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4) if she ate the fruit. This was a lie disguised as the truth. God had already told Eve the truth, but she exchanged it for a lie and partook in changing the trajectory of humanity forever.
Being captive to secrets and lies and darkness depletes us of our potential. Exchanging them for the light of Christ through the Cross will cause us to walk in a freedom we never knew existed. Become a victor over the captivity that your secrets have caused you to endure. Tell the devil that he no longer has that control.
Prayer for Release: Father God, there is nothing hidden from You. You know every failure and every secret that I harbor. When the time becomes appropriate, help me to face my secrets head on by living transparently by Your grace and by the power of Your Holy Spirit.