July 2, 2004
“My country, ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims’ pride, From every mountainside Let freedom ring!” So penned Samuel F. Smith in the 19th century as he reflected upon the origins of a nation still young and fresh and still near to its roots in God’s gracious providence.
Let freedom ring! May this anthem swell again in our hearts and be proclaimed upon our lips until the sweet refrain of liberty is achieved for all men and women everywhere! Is this too much to ask for every American? I think not. Is it too much to ask for any man or woman anywhere in the world? I truly hope that we would never sell any human being so short as to think he or she was not entitled to freely be all that God would make him or her, no matter how different from us or far removed from us he or she may live.
Just think! As surely as our nation was once under the power of a truly oppressive government, so were we all once oppressed under the iron fist of sin and death. But the Bible says in Romans 6:19-23, “… Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And so we have given to us through Jesus a great “Declaration of Independence” from sin and self, sealed through the shedding of His blood on the cross. “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – Through Jesus Christ our Lord!... Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you” (Romans 7:24, 8:1-9).
It has been said that it is difficult to define what it means to be American. Yet I believe it is clear that the common thread that binds all Americans everywhere is the liberty we celebrate. While we struggle at times to define even what it means to be free, let us each concur that he who does not know how to spend his freedom nobly is not truly free at all. “What sort of persons ought we to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness?” (from 2 Peter 3:11).
In like manner, let us who call upon the name of Jesus and consider ourselves to be free, follow in every way the leading of the Savior. Jesus said, “…If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:31-32, 34-36).
Perhaps you have spent the two years following 9-11 reflecting deeply on your identity as an American and the entitlement of fellow human beings across the globe to freedom. May you also not neglect the need to consider whether you are still in bondage to sin and death. May you truly be set free into God’s life and peace and become the new creation He has had in mind all along.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio for the last nine years and is pastor of Pathway Community Church. He and his wife are the parents of three children. If you would like to send a comment or question to him, he may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
