Freedoms being abused

The movie “Braveheart” ends with William Wallace, a leader in the First War of Scottish Independence (against English rule), portrayed as proclaiming, “Freedom!” while being executed in 1305.

I think his statement carried two messages. One was to the English they really hadn’t conquered the Scots by putting him to death; they merely were giving him his freedom. The second message was to the Scots: If they continued their fight for independence, they’d gain their national freedom by defeating the English or their personal freedom similarly as he was achieving it.

Next Thursday is America’s Independence Day. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue celebrating our independence from tyranny much longer than the Scots have been trying to win theirs (over 700 years now).

This being said, in some cases, I fear we (or some Americans) have allowed our freedom to go to our heads, and we’ve begun abusing those freedoms in the name of freedom. They’ve manipulated the Constitution to make it support personal agendas rather than protecting the greater common good, resulting in an erosion of the freedoms being demanded and putting us in danger of tyranny again.

There is a greater oppression than the tyranny of whoever’s in charge. The guilt of sin is a burden too heavy to bear (Psalm 38:4). Try as we may, on our own, we cannot remove that burden of guilt (Jeremiah 2:22). Our efforts become mere reminders of our sin, much like the Old Testament sacrifices God required for that purpose (Hebrews 10:1-4; we’ll get back to this passage, so bookmark it). Even God is burdened by our sin, so much so he provided the means for forgiveness that brings relief from the guilt (Isaiah 43:23-24; 1 Peter 2:24).

While we must call out to God on his terms for forgiveness, his requirements for that aren’t burdensome because he does all the work (Psalm 51:1-3; Romans 10:13; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21; the Greek word translated “response” or “answer” in some Bible versions literally means “appeal” or “plea”); Colossians 2:9-12; Hebrews 10:19-22, 5-18]. Christians receive continual cleansing, but we still need to confess our sins to God when we realize them, and God still does the work (Psalm 32:1-6; 1 John 1:5-9; Hebrews 10:26-31).

So if we’ve allowed God to wash us inside and out, we’ve been set completely free from the tyranny of sin, but we still have a burden to bear, although it’s very light, and Jesus carries the majority of it (Matthew 11:28-31). Our part is to not let our freedom from sin and its consequences go to our head and allow it to become a cover-up for evil (1 Peter 2:16; Galatians 5:1; John 8:31-36; Romans 6:1-23).

Christians and Americans have great freedoms, but in both cases, we must keep an eye on ourselves (and others, as Americans) to make sure we don’t lose whatever we have, because we’ll be worse off in the end (2 Peter 2:24).

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]