Sweet Liberty!

By Jonathan Hill, (San Jose)

As my wife and I were pulling weeds in our garden, I began thinking about this day in American history.  Independence Day is celebrated on July 4th by many Americans as the day marking the birth of our nation – its birthday if you will. The founding fathers and the other patriots that fought for freedom had many common ideals, and some differences of opinion as to the reasons for forming this country, the United States of America that we are blessed to live in.

One of the founding fathers is Thomas Paine, and he is quoted as follows in an article titled Finding the meaning of Independence Day, written by Randolph J. May, and posted by the Washington Times on July 2, 2018 (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/2/finding-the-meaning-of-independence-day/).

According to Paine, the American Revolution, at bottom, was a struggle to affirm certain universal self-evident truths — in the Declaration of Independence’s words, the unalienable right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Not surprisingly, Paine rendered this judgment:

“The Independence of America, considered merely as a separation from England, would have been a matter of but little importance had it not been accompanied by a revolution in the principles and practices of governments. She made a stand not for herself only but for the world, and looked beyond the advantages herself could receive.”

The word “liberty” kept ringing in my head, and the fact that as Christians in the USA, we have such great physical liberty and freedom! Some would say that our freedoms are much eroded from the moorings of the constitution, but nevertheless we are the freest country on earth.  For many decades our church has been able to freely assemble to worship God, teach His ways and spread the gospel of the coming kingdom of God because He, our great God has made it possible!  But that’s not all!

We have been liberated from the chains of sin by our Savior (Luke 4:18)!  We are given liberation from slavery to our carnal nature. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to stand fast in that liberty by which Christ has made us free and avoid becoming entangled in the yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1,13).

Our spiritual “Independence Day” was the day we repented, were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).  We became new creatures in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17).  May we never forget our sweet liberty and the coming kingdom of God, and that every human being will be given their opportunity to be free!