PANIC PODCAST

Series – Freedom 250

Forms of Freedom

FREEDOM 250

 Forms of Freedom

Scripture Reading:  Galatians 5:1 – 15.

Introduction.  In just a few weeks, our nation will mark the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Across the country, parades will march, fireworks will burst, and citizens will celebrates the freedoms we enjoy – freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and self-government.  As Christians, we give thanks to God for these blessings.  Yet, the Bible calls us to look deeper.  What kind of freedom are we celebrating?  Is it just the absence of a king’s soldiers in our streets, or is there a greater freedom that undergirds and outlasts every political liberty?

The apostle Paul gives us the answer in Galatians 5.  Writing to churches tempted to trade the Gospel for religious rules, he boldly declares –

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1 | TNIV)

Then he adds the practical command:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  (Galatians 5:13 | TNIV)

Paul is showing us three forms of freedom that people pursue.  But only one of them is true and lasting.

Some seek freedom by force.

Throughout history, many have tried to seize freedom through raw power.  The man who wants freedom only for himself believes he must take it by force – conquest, revolution, or domination. His guiding philosophy is as old as Cain and as modern as every dictator:  “might makes right.”  He imagines that if he can overpower his enemies, he will finally be free.

Scripture exposes the futility of this path.  When Peter drew his sword in Gethsemane to defend Jesus by force, remember what the Lord said?

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”  (Matthew 26:52 | TNIV)

Jesus’ kingdom does not advance by violence.  Every empire built on force – Babylon, Rome, the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, the gulags of the 20^th century – eventually devoured its own children.  Force just can’t produce freedom.  In fact, it only changes who’s holding the chains.

Yet the exercise of raw force does accomplish one thing:  It awakens in its victims a deep yearning for real freedom.  Oppressed people don’t quietly accept tyranny forever.  The American colonists experienced this.  When King George III and his parliament imposed taxes, quartering of troops, and the denial of trial by jury, the colonists didn’t at first reach for the sword.  They petitioned, they, boycotted, they appealed to their rights as Englishmen and, more fundamentally, to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  Only when every peaceful avenue was closeD did they take up arms in self-defense.  The American Revolution was therefore nor a war of conquest but a war of resistance against tyranny – a resistance that, by God’s providence, produced a constitutional republic rather than another dictatorship.

We thank God that our nation’s birth was not the triumph of raw force but the defense of principles higher than force.  Still, the lesson stands:  Freedom won only by the sword is freedom that must forever be defended by the sword.  It can’t satisfy the human heart created for something greater.

Most seek freedom through the law.

The simple fact is this:  A civilized society cannot survive if, as the Book of Judges teaches us, “everyone does what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  The Book of Judges ends in chaos precisely because there was no king – no settled law, no common standard, no restraint on human sin.  Anarchy is not freedom; it’s the war of all against all.

The quest for ordered liberty reached one of its clearest expressions in the Declaration of Independence.  That amazing document is history’s more famous statement that freedom requires law – law that is rooted not in the will of a monarch or a majority, but in the Creator who endows every human being with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The Founders understood that government exists to secure these rights, not to grant them.  They created a Constitution with separated powers, checks and balances, and a Bill of Rights precisely because they knew that fallen human beings cannot be trusted with unchecked authority.

Law at best provided real but limited freedom.  It restrains the violent, protects the innocent, and allows families, churches, and businesses to flourish without fear.  The rule of law is one of America’s greatest virtues and one of the chief reasons millions have come to these shores.  We celebrate the Constitution’s endurance – the longest-lasting written national constitution is history – and the culture of ordered liberty it has nurtured.

Yet, law has its limits.  It can’t change the human heart.  It may be successful in forbidding murder, but it can’t remove hatred.  It can punish theft but cannot create generosity.  And laws can be twisted into instruments of oppression.  History is full of examples:  Slaves codes, Jim Crow statutes, and in our own times, regulations that punish dissent or burden conscience.  Even well-intentioned laws, when expanded beyond their proper sphere, can erode the very liberties they were meant to protect.  Paul knew this danger well.  The Galatians were being told that faith in Christ just wasn’t enough; they must add circumcision and law-keeping.  That message sounded pious, but it was really slavery in disguise.

America’s Founders, many shaped by Scripture, understood that the best human laws are still human and therefore flawed.  They appealed to a higher law – the Law of God written on the heart revealed in Scripture.  That’s why the Declaration ground rights in the Creator and why the Constitution begins, “We the People…in Order to…secure the Blessings of Liberty.  These are not just political documents; they are, at their best, attempts to translate Biblical truths about human dignity and limited government into civil order.

Anybody can find freedom in grace, available through faith and expressing itself in love.

And here is the freedom that no army can conquer and not legislature can grant or revoke.  Spiritual freedom can exist even when external laws constrict.  The Apostle wrote his letter to the church in Philippi from a Roman prison cell!  He was physically chained to a wall, yet he could declare this:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  (Philippians 4:11 | TNIV)

He was free – free from the fear of man, free from the need for circumstances to his way, free to rejoice in the Lord always.  That’s the freedom Christ gives!

This freedom is always accompanied by love.

When we know we have been accepted by God through faith in Jesus Christ, we are freed from the fear of ultimate judgment.  That freedom from fear liberates us to love others without self-protection or manipulation.

Love, in turn, fulfills what law it its best can only aim at.  Paul explains it best in Romans 13:8 – 10.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. [9] The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [10] Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  (Romans 13:8 – 10 | TNIV)

The law can command “Do not murder” and “Do not steal,” but only love fulfills the positive command to seek the good of the neighbor.  Galatians 5:13 makes the same point in the context of Christian freedom:  We were called to freedom, but not the freedom to indulge in the flesh.  We were called to freedom that expresses itself in serving one another in love.

This is the freedom Jesus promised:

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (John 8:36 | TNIV)

It is the freedom from the guilt and power of sin, freedom from the condemnation of the law, freedom from the fear of death, and freedom to live as God’s beloved children.  It’s freedom that the Roman Empire couldn’t take from Paul, that Communist prisons couldn’t take from countless believers, and that no future government can take from those who are in Christ.

As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, let’s give hearty thanks to God for the political and civil freedoms He has granted this nation.  The Founders’ vision of liberty under law, rights endowed by the Creator, and government by consent of the governed has produced a society of unprecedented opportunity and human flourishing.  These are gifts of common grace, and we should steward them with gratitude and vigilance.

But, let’s also remember that these earthly freedoms are not ultimate.  They are good, but they are limited.  They can be eroded by force from without or by lawlessness and legalism from within.  They only freedom that cannot be lost is the freedom Christ purchased for us with His Blood – the freedom to stand before God justified, the freedom to walk in the Spirit, and the freedom to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Stand firm, therefore in the freedom for which Christ has set you free.  Don’t go back to slavery – whether the slavery of sin, the slavery of religious legalism, or the slavery of political idolatry.  In your homes, in this church, in your workplaces, and in your civic life, let the love of Christ constrain you.

Conclusion.  How should we respond to all this?  First, we need to sincerely thank God for the precious freedoms He has granted this nations across 250 years – freedoms of conscience, speech, worship, and self-government because they have allowed the Church to proclaim the Good News without fear and us to live and work in relative peace.  Second, we need to praise God for the wisdom He gave the Founders in grounding human rights in His authority as Creator and establishing a constitutional order that restrains tyranny and protects liberty under the law.  These are all gifts of God’s common grace, and we need to be grateful for them and stop taking them for granted.

Most of all, we need to all thank the Lord for the perfect and eternal freedom we have received through Jesus Christ.  By His death on the cross and His victorious resurrection, He has broken the power of sin, removed our guilt, cast out fear, and set us free from every yoke of slavery.  And we need to ask Him to continually fill us with His Holy Spirit that we may stand firm in this freedom, refusing to return to bondage and instead using our liberty to serve one another in love – just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

And we need to pray for our nation in these uncertain times.  May the Lord strengthen His churches to be the salt and light they are called to be.  Pray the He will encourage our pastors, families, and who labor for righteousness.

250 years of freedom is not insignificant.  May the Lord use this semiquincentennial not only to honor our heritage but to awaken many to the greater freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.