Release and Replace
July 23, 2021
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32 NLT
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 movie, nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, but it barely exceeded production costs when it first came out. Over several decades, though, it has become one of the most beloved films of all time, with many people confessing to watching it more than a dozen times. The starring performances of Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and their message of hope is deeply moving, especially in a prison-movie genre which mostly shows unrelenting misery. The ending is totally satisfying and always chokes me up.
However, one of the story lines is heartbreaking. Brooks (played powerfully by James Whitmire) is a prisoner who has been institutionalized so long that when he is paroled he can’t adjust to life on the outside. He longs to break parole so he can return to the life with which he had become comfortable. He writes a letter to his friends back at prison and says that he lives in fear, and he is still a prisoner, though free. He never picked up the attitudes and actions of a free man. The next time they hear of him, he has tied a rope around his neck and kicked out the table underneath him, committing suicide. His sad inability to live a life of freedom was because he never released the perspectives and pain of his old life, and then replaced them with the new attitude of a free person.
That’s the story behind the failures of many people for whom Christ died to set free. Paul says what seems to be ridiculous redundancy in Galatians 5:1: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” He has set us free, not to return to an imprisoning way of life but to live as free people. That absolutely requires that we release the perspectives, pain, and behavior of an imprisoned person and replace them with the lifestyle and choices of a forgiven and free person. Paul very practically describes in many places the kinds of “institutional behavior” that must be deliberately released. Bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and all types of evil behavior have to go. But they must be replaced with new choices in order to live free. Paul says that free people will replace those behaviors with the choice to be “kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as through Christ, God has forgiven you.” The new choices keep you from returning to the prison or dying a slow death.
It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. If you are not living like a free person, most likely you have become so accustomed and adapted to the imprisoned life that you aren’t “releasing and replacing.” DO IT. Live free. Jesus paid for it.
- Ask Jesus to help you identify what needs released and what replacements you need in your life. Cooperate with Him.