Daniel Larsen

In 1999, Daniel Larsen was convicted of a crime in California and put in
prison. Ten years later, new witnesses came forward, stacking the evidence
in Larsen's favor. As a result, a federal magistrate ruled that Larsen had
been denied rights to a fair trial and ordered his immediate release.
Unfortunately, because of some complicated rules and technical jargon, the
state of California has kept Larsen in prison for the past two years. Even
though Daniel had a shaky past and is to blame for some of his troubles, he
should still be a free man according to the evidence. However, he is
continuing to live his life behind bars.

It would be quite sad to know that we could and should be free, but still
find ourselves imprisoned. Yes, this would be terrible, but this situation
happens much more often then we might think. It even happens to people you
know!

Romans 6 discusses this very point, "What shall we say then? Are we to
continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we
who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life... Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its lusts... For when you were slaves of sin, you were
free in regard to righteousness...But now having been freed from sin and
enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and
the outcome, eternal life" (1-4, 12, 20, 22).

The idea behind Romans 6 is simply that those of us who have been freed from
sin through baptism should not continue to live life imprisoned by sin! The
problem is, spiritually free Christians choose to continue living behind the
prison bars of sin.

It's sad that Daniel Larsen is forced to stay in prison when he should be
free, but it is much more depressing when free people, Christians, choose to
live life enslaved to sin. Have we been freed from sin through baptism
(Romans 6:3-4; Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21)? If so, let's never take our freedom
for granted and continue to live a life free from sin.

Brett Petrillo