This last July 4th was a special one- our blessed country turned 250 years old. On July 4th 1776, the 13 colonies broke away from British rule as the Philadelphia Continental Congress announced a new nation made up of united states and the Declaration of Independence was written. All the peace and freedoms we now enjoy were hard won and with God’s hand of providential blessing, our country was born. We owe it to those who fought for these freedoms to be passed down to us to live a just life as best we can and use this freedom for righteousness’ sake, serving God. In fact, this type of freedom is something that God designs not only in our nation but in each one of our lives personally. Jesus fought for our freedom too! At the cross, He secured our freedom in His Holy Spirit. Let’s look at how He worked this tremendous grace out for us and what He calls us to do with our freedom.
In the beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord’s command in the Garden to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they submitted to Satan’s voice and not God. They gave Satan the dominion of the earth that God had entrusted to them. From that point, our world and humanity fell from grace and evil entered God’s creation. We live and suffer in a fallen world now. We all face death as the penalty for our sins. Not only do we die, but we also are bound by the grip of sin on our flesh, guiding our hearts and our minds to defy God’s will and commands.
While God gives us a conscience, we all may still struggle to obey it. Life is full of circumstances and temptation that we may not be strong enough to overcome on our own. We are bound in the bondage of sin. We are weak to our own ignorance of truth and our limited humanity. We want to choose well but still fail and often make mistakes. God realizes we are only human. While He does desire that we strive to honor Him, He also has compassion on our failures. Psalm 103:13-14 states, “As a father has compassion on His children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.”
So, we see that God realizes we are only human and looks on us not with blind judgment, but recognizes our needs for His help to do right. From the start, from the curse that was placed on Adam and Eve, God did not abandon us to their consequences. He had a plan and made a way for redemption from the devil and death. To show us the gravity of disobedience and sin, He killed the first animal to cloth and cover Adam and Eve. This practice of sacrifice continued throughout all the history of the Jewish people.
When the Jews were delivered from slavery under the Egyptians, God took them through the wilderness and gave them His Law. He showed them how to build a tabernacle for His presence to abide with them. He showed them how to make sacrifices for their sins and to worship Him. For many centuries until Jesus came, the Jewish Levitical priest had to sacrifice a spotless lamb to atone for the sins of the people. God taught us in this way that His justice requires blood to cover sins. He was teaching us about His own sacrifice on our behalf one day in the cross of Jesus Christ. In God’s perfect timing, He sent His only Son to become our atonement once for all. We are all welcome to enter into this gracious and generous Pardon for our sins by humbling ourselves to place our faith in Him as Lord and God, to repent of our sin and show our need for His Spirit to guide and cleanse us of sin, to trust Him to perform His promises in our lives and save us.
By shedding His blood in our place, Jesus won Freedom for us too—a deeper freedom than even our own nation’s Independence Day. The Freedom God won for us is a enduring and eternal freedom from the bondage of sin, from the suffering of its consequences, from His Just Judgment against us. He frees us from the curse of death and grants in its place the amazing gift of eternal life. He gives us His Spirit to protect us and strengthen us from the attacks of the devil and the weakness of our flesh. He gives us the freedom to stand tall and strong and forgiven in a fallen world and shine His light to others around us that need that same freedom we enjoy, freedom He bought with His own blood.
Just like our ancestors fought and shed their blood for our nation’s freedom so that we could enjoy political freedom and a peaceful way of life that is a reflection of God’s kingdom on earth, so too Jesus fought on our behalf to free our souls so that we can enjoy God’s kingdom, even here on this fallen earth until we make it home to heaven. In our salvation, we are called to die to our old man—the man that wasn’t right with God by faith in His Son, the man that did not have God’s Spirit, the man that belonged once to Satan and not God.
God takes our old man and adopts us as His child. He cleanses us with His Spirit and creates in us an entirely New Man, a New Creation—prepared to reflect His image and glory to the world, to testify to His Truth and saving grace. 2 Cor 5:17-19 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself through Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
So we see the freedom that God bought for us comes with a purpose—just as we have been reconciled to God, we are to call those around us to be reconciled to Him too. We are to share the grace we have received with this fallen world. We are to honor His blood-bought freedom by living for Him, obeying His words and commands, loving Him in our ways and in the love we show others, reflecting His character so that an unbelieving world can experience who He is and know He is real and He is Good. We testify to this world and honor the freedom He bought, even as we cherish all our freedoms as citizens of this beautiful and righteous Nation, our beloved United States of America, and as citizens of Heaven, where we one day will be reunited with our King. Thank You Lord for Your sacrifice for our freedom both in this country and in Your kingdom. May we serve you justly and reflect Your love and truth to the world around us. Amen.