Healing Rays of Righteousness

The history of our country records thousands of stories of people who left everything they owned and came to America with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  They risked their lives and their future for what they valued more highly than everything they had left behind.

What was this thing they valued so highly?  It was freedom – freedom to live, work, and worship as they desired without suffering ridicule, persecution, imprisonment, or death.  The strong desire for freedom prompted them to resist the governing authority of England and establish a new nation were these freedoms could be enjoyed.

The Statue of Liberty that stands at the entrance to the harbor of New York is a striking, welcoming symbol of our nation’s commitment to freedom of life, work, and worship for all who become citizens of the United States of America.

Freedom was at the core in the formation of our nation’s government.  The Declaration of Independence says that freedom is from God and endows everyone with certain inalienable rights; and the right to live and worship in freedom is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Likewise, freedom is at the core of our biblical Christian faith.  Its welcoming symbol of freedom is the Cross of Christ on Golgotha’s hill.  Just as the statue in New York harbor lifts her lamp, welcoming and lighting the way to freedom, so also the cross on Golgotha’s hill invites and lights the way to freedom and eternal life for whoever will believe in Jesus.

The Jesus who hung from that cross said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  …Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  …So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  (John 8:12, 32, 36).

The New Testament begins with God’s announcement to Joseph that his “soon to be wife” Mary, would give birth to a son.  God told Joseph that he was to name the baby, Jesus, “because he will save (free) his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21).

At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus announced freedom to be the purpose of his life and message – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18).

And, in his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul declared freedom to be God’s gracious gift to us through Jesus’ suffering and death – “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1).

By accepting Christ’s gift of salvation, which he purchased for us with his own death on the cross, God sets us free from the guilt of sin.  By overcoming death through Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb, God sets us free from the fear of death.  By bringing Jesus’ love and power to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God sets us free from self-contempt, insecurity, hopelessness, purposeless living, addictions, racism, and all selfish and unloving attitudes and actions toward others.

The freedom that Christ offers to all who will believe in him is ultimate and complete freedom.  We who enjoy this freedom should celebrate this freedom with grateful worship every day of our lives.

So we see that both the foundational core element of our Christian faith and the predominant core purpose of the American politic are similar – that is to provide and protect freedom for all people.

And I think the relationship between these two differing freedoms – spiritual and political – should be evident to all of us.  It is SIN, living apart from God, that prevents a person from experiencing spiritual freedom, and it is SIN that deprives a nation of people from experiencing political, cultural, and religious freedoms.

The freedom Jesus offers is not a license to keep on sinning.  To receive God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation (deliverance, set free) is to begin a process of working out our freedom from self-contempt, insecurity, hopelessness, purposeless living, addictions, racism, and all selfish and unloving attitudes and actions toward others.

And since these things are the things that threaten our political freedoms, we can rightly conclude that a people’s spiritual freedom has very much to do with the preservation of their nation’s political freedoms.

So let freedom ring and let freedom reign, in both the lives of people everywhere and in our nation always.  “You …were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge in sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13).