We were discussing at one point the differences between the laws of North Carolina and the laws of Florida and how different they are. Our friends really could not believe the added regulations and taxes that we have here that they do not have in Florida. When I moved from Kentucky to North Carolina, I was shell shocked when I learned of all the regulations and laws and taxes that you have to go through, just to LIVE here.
I jokingly told my wife that we had moved to the People’s Republic of North Carolina because of the government interference into our lives. Kentucky, as I learned, was a place with far more personal freedom. I missed Kentucky. 
When I began to express my frustration with the natives of NC, they kind of looked at me as if I were insane, and really didn’t understand my frustration. You see, they had lived here all their lives and know nothing else but North Carolina living. The government regulations and taxes that I found to be appalling were just a way of life here, and the norm. The people are less free here and do not even realize it.
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. The unsaved of the world think that they are free. They do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. They are not going to answer to anyone, free to do as the please, when they please. The unsaved are slaves and under bondage and do not even know it. They have lived in sin their entire lives and know nothing else. I once thought that I was free. My life was my own and I could do whatever I wanted and no one was going to tell me what to do. However, I was not free, I was under the bondage of my sinful nature. My depravity had control of me, and my freedom was kind of like the freedom a rock has when dropped from a high cliff. The rock is free to go wherever it wants, but gravity is going to bring it down. I was “free” to do what I wanted, but my sin nature always brought me to the same place, sin, unhappiness and unfulfilled.
Jesus Christ saved me from my sins. He gave me life and with that new birth, opened my eyes. Being brought from the bondage of sin to the peace of Christ in salvation, I see that I wasn’t really free. I really didn’t do whatever I wanted, but was controlled by the flesh, controlled by my depravity and now I am Christ’s freeman. Who Christ sets free is free indeed. So I shouldn’t look down my nose at those who are lost and undone and sin, but should have mercy and compassion on them. Mercy shows them the way of deliverance, the way of salvation; compassion shows them that they are not free, but sinners and sin has consequences in eternal damnation. But there is liberty in Christ, there is freedom, forgiveness from the guilt of the law and life eternal.
Romans 5:8-11 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
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Douglas Newell IV
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