LifeLink Devotional

Friday, February 5, 2021

A Florida man who spent 37 years in prison on a rape and murder charge was released on August 27^th of last year, hours after officials revealed dramatic new DNA evidence that proved his innocence.

Robert DuBoise walked out of the Hardee Correctional Institution in Bowling Green, Florida, shortly after 2 p.m. With him were his mother and sister.

“It’s an overwhelming sense of relief,” Robert DuBoise told reporters outside the prison. “I prayed to God every day and hoped for it.”

DuBoise said he will have to learn many modern things, such as how to use a computer. But he added he bears no ill will toward those involved in his long incarceration.

“If you keep hatred and bitterness in your heart, you don’t have room for anything else,” he said. “I’m just very grateful.”

His mother, Myra DuBoise, said she prayed every day for this outcome.

“It’s a wonderful gift from the lord,” she said.

Harriet DuBoise, his sister, said it’s great to be able to hug her brother again.

“I always had faith. I always saw him getting out,” she said. “I never lost hope. Never.”

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Even though we may not be experiencing the confinement of a prison cell, many of us are still bound up in the guilt and shame of sin. Yet in Christ we can be set free.

In the news story above, it was DNA evidence that proved a man’s innocence. It is the same for you and me. When Jesus Christ by grace through faith saved us from our sin, we by nature became the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) We now are identified by the spiritual DNA of Jesus. God sees only the innocence of Christ in us. When we look backward, prior to meeting Jesus, and define ourselves by sin, we imprison ourselves in guilt and shame. We are bound up in the wrappings of death. We can relate to Lazarus in the tomb.

But Jesus came to set us free. When Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus, He commands that the stone be removed. After praying, Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out.”

Maybe you need to hear Jesus shouting to you today. He is commanding that you come out of your grave of guilt and shame. He is declaring life to you. Jesus is preparing to set you free.

After Lazarus comes forth from the grave – imagine having been there and seeing a dead guy come back to life and walk – Jesus issues one more command. “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Can you hear Jesus saying that to you right now? Why do we still try to walk around in the clothing of death when Jesus has declared us to be alive? Jesus is telling you to remove the wrappings of guilt and shame, and be free. Jesus has called you to life and freedom. You have been declared innocent based on Christ’s DNA. Choose to participate with Him in unwrapping yourself from any connection to sin and death.

Pastor John