Freedom in America

Tomorrow is a big day. We’ll be celebrating America’s 250th birthday. 250 years of freedom from tyranny and from rule by another country. 250 years of freedom. Period.

We will be celebrating the fact that, as Americans, we are free to do almost anything we want to do, be anything we want to be, and go anywhere we want to go. “It is altogether fitting and proper we should do this.”¹

Politically I’m a libertarian. I believe the government should have very limited say in what a person can and can’t do. As long as a person doesn’t hurt, or negatively impact another person with their actions, the government doesn’t need to be involved.

However, I’m speaking strictly about the government. This doesn’t mean that anything goes, or that there is no right or wrong. While the government should have little say in our lives, the same is not true of God.

There are objective moral laws from God which should be followed.

What a person should or shouldn’t do, period, is another thing altogether. As Paul said, “I have the right to do anything, you say–but not everything is constructive” (1 Corinthians 10:23).

Just because we are free to do something, doesn’t mean we should do it.

Freedom to Sin

The freedom our founders secured for us also gives us the freedom to make choices. This means we can choose to do what is right or choose to sin. Jesus made it clear that he who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34). In essence, the freedom we gain from one type of tyranny gives us more opportunities to choose to sin. When sin takes hold of our lives, we have succumbed to another tyranny.

Tyranny sounds like a harsh word to many people when speaking about sin, especially in a world that has rejected the idea. But when our desires move from being part of who we are and become something that drives and motivates us, then we have become enslaved to that desire. It doesn’t matter what we call it, the end result is the same; we are in the clutches of that which we desire.

Kenneth Boa, in his book entitled, Conformed to His Image, calls this the tyranny of tangible goods, and he writes about how we need to loosen our grips on our possessions before they possess us.

But it goes beyond possessions.

It includes, but is not limited to: Lust for power, excessive drinking, drug use, promiscuous sex, and pornography. These things can enslave you when your desire for them takes control of your heart and rules your head. When this happens, you’ve used your freedom from tyranny to voluntarily hand it over to another form of tyranny.

But we can become free from the chains of sin and death.

How Do We Become Free From Sin?

One of the first major battles in the Revolutionary War was fought on a small hill in Boston called Breed’s Hill. Against all odds, a small group of revolutionaries fought the greatest army in the world. Although the battle was a loss, it was a costly one for the British, and it left them knowing we were serious in the fight for national freedom. Soon America would be free from British rule.

Several decades later a war was being waged to free several nations from the chains of fascism. On a remote island in the South Pacific that practically nobody had heard of, US marines climbed Mt. Suribachi and planted the symbol of freedom on Iwo Jima–the American flag. Soon the world would be free from the terror of fascism.

Much like these battles paved the way for freedom, there was another battle fought in a land far away for another type of freedom. About 2,000 years before these battles, one lone man climbed another small hill, named Golgotha, in the war over sin. He climbed it alone, with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Freedom in Christ

Jesus was lifted up on another symbol of freedom–the cross. When Jesus died on that cross He was victorious over both sin and death, and in this victory He set our souls free. We no longer owe a debt to God for our sins, we are free from the debt because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Just like in the battles of Breed’s Hill and Iwo Jima, there was still fighting to be done before victory was secured. Jesus won the war over sin, but we all still fight the battles daily. We have to wrap ourselves in the freedom Jesus offers us. When Jesus becomes the center of our lives, our driving force instead of sin, we break the chains of spiritual slavery and declare our freedom in Christ.

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1. Abraham Lincoln–Gettysburg Address ↩︎