Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
‘My country ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim’s pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
The year is nearly half over and Independence Day will be celebrated next week. Because it falls on Tuesday this year, many might take Monday off to make it a four-day celebration, although, I wonder how many will actually meditate on our nation’s history and the freedoms we enjoy. They might just view it as another opportunity to free themselves of the daily grind of work.
America is/was called the “sweet land of liberty” because of the freedoms we’ve enjoyed; however, the song quoted above was written before slavery was abolished and the passing of most of the “equal rights” amendments. We’ve abolished publicly endorsed slavery, and civil and human rights violations continue to be addressed, but human trafficking (a nice word for slavery) still exists for many individuals. That bondage continues often because people have sold themselves as slaves to sin through drug, alcohol and sex abuse.
Bondage to sin in every form transcends nationality, race, gender, economic status and any other categorization we can think of because, while we’re not born with sin, we are born with a sinful nature that expresses itself as soon as we learn about rules (Romans 7:7-8; 3:23). Sin puts us into bondage to death in addition to the daily grind of guilt, shame and fear (Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-19; Romans 6:23; 5:12-13).
While we live in the greatest country on earth enjoying more freedoms than citizens of most other countries, the greatest freedom – freedom from sin – doesn’t come through our Earthly nationality. It comes to those who have citizenship in heaven, and nothing can interfere with that but us (Philippians 3:20-21).
Jesus came to release us from bondage in sin’s prison (Luke 4:14-21). He brought grace and truth by which we can be forgiven and gain freedom from that bondage (John 1:1, 14, 17; 3:16-17; 8:31-36; 14:6; Revelation 1:4-6). Jesus paid the debt God required to bring about our forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22; 10:1-4; 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:21-26). He personally told us through his inspired writers how to gain freedom through forgiveness (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-39; 2 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Peter 1:1-21).
Through baptism in obedience to the faith, we put off our sinful nature and unite ourselves with Jesus by participating in his death, burial and resurrection (Acts 6:7; Romans 6:3-18). This is the perfect law of liberty, and it’s not a burdensome command to obey nor does it set aside God’s grace in salvation (James 1:22-25; 1 John 5:1-3; Galatians 2:20-21; 5:24).
Our American freedoms carry the responsibilities of good citizenship and our freedom from sin and citizenship in heaven also carry responsibilities, not the least of which is attempted avoidance of future sin, as well as being good citizens of our Earthly country (Galatians 5:1, 13; 1 John 1:5-9; 1 Peter 2:13-17).
Are you enjoying all the freedom that’s available to you?
Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan. Contact him at [email protected]