The Gift of Freedom

The Gift of Freedom. By Pastor Brian Stanley

Every 4th of July, we Americans celebrate the gift of freedom with quite a bang! Here in Iowa,
now with the recent legalization of fireworks and the rapid expansion of fireworks tents to every street corner, the celebration this past 4 th rose to an entirely new level. My wife and I
were mesmerized by the never-seen-before 360° fireworks display around our home spanning the entire evening. As the spectacle faded, all that was left was that heavy fireworks haze, the
distinct smell of sulfur, and a keen awareness that something special was well celebrated.

As an engaged, conscientious, and patriotic American, the day and its celebrations left me
contemplating this great gift of ‘practical’ freedom. The great cost of both securing and
maintaining it, how we as a nation have stewarded that freedom, and ultimately how tenuous our appreciation and grasp on it has truly become. Like proverbial ‘frogs in a kettle,’ far too many seem not to notice where ground has been giving way. Wherever excess and entitlement begins, so does the waning away of true freedom.

Fifty trips around the sun now has shown me at least two key issues at play in this: First, people
have pushed the bounds of liberty to the point of breaking by handling freedom so carelessly and irresponsibly that it has diminished the aims and purposes of freedom itself. Freedoms are taken for granted, stretched, abused, and misused for personal gratification at the expense of the greater good. There is a sacred cost to freedom and the irreverence for that sacrifice is revealed in how we presently manage it.

Secondly, our failing to take personal responsibility for guarding and exemplifying freedom has
made room for others (government, factions thereof, social movements, etc.) to incrementally
and improperly presume ownership over ‘we the (free) people’ and this gift of freedom. As a
nation, we have been slowly selling our inheritance for a bowl of stew.

When we abuse our freedoms, fail to self-govern our appetites, and reject responsibility for the
outcomes as well as our future, we engage (albeit blindly) in a form of self-destruction. Meanwhile, other forces step in and attempt to commandeer what we have abandoned. Just as a house left unattended quickly becomes overrun by nature itself. Abraham Lincoln eerily
cautioned, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” I cannot help but to wonder where we will find
ourselves just one more generation down the road, should we continue to forsake the beautiful
house freedom built for us. It should give us all much to ponder.

However, what I have just shared is meant to illustrate the more pressing reality of ‘spiritual’
freedom and how we as Christ followers steward it in our lives. I cannot help but see a
parallelism here; not of Americanism and Christianity (enough of that), but of the nature of
freedom and its care. For in the same way, flippant indulgence of any of our freedoms can also
lead us to the place where we intentionally or unintentionally enslave ourselves once again to
sin; leading to the loss of true freedom. Paul, writing to believers in Galatia, wrote the following
warning and declaration:

1  So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up
again in slavery to the law.
13  For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your
freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in
love.

Galatians 5:1,13 (NLT)

It seems there is a direct correlation between how we see and use our freedom and how long we will then continue to have said freedom. If we use our freedom to simply maximize or satiate our own personal longings and desires, the point of freedom has been lost on us. If we leverage the freedom we have been given to better the lives of others, we will have secured an enduring freedom. If we, having been recipients of an all-forgiving grace come to believe there are no boundaries to freedom for us in Christ, and spin towards entitlement and excess spiritually and morally speaking, we subject Christ to the cross again and again. Just because grace is readily available, does not make it cheap and dispensed as one does PEZ candy. The Apostle Paul confronts this abuse of freedom:

1  Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his
wonderful grace?  2  Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live
in it?
7  For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
15  Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on
sinning? Of course not!  16  Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you
choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to
obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Romans 6:1-2,7,15-16

As I sit pondering these things, what I come to are the simple and easy things I might argue that I am ‘free’ to do but that actually forfeit small pieces of my freedom in Christ. Indulge in these
things long enough, often enough, or deny that still small voice any number of times; and one
can become callous to the attentive nurturing that true freedom requires. Selfish excess and
indulgence rots the foundation of freedom, and failing to refocus the spending of that freedom
will only stamp a shelf-life on this beautiful gift that we have been given.

Brothers and sisters, let us cut off anything in our lives that looks like the misspending of our
freedom in Christ. Knit yourself so deeply into the community of faith and its service that you
will be continually reminded that freedom was not given for simple self-consumption. Quickly
surrender that sin which so easily entangles you (Heb. 12:1) and entices you to abuse and misuse the gift of grace we have been given. Reign in any self-justified exploits on the fringes of sin against which prudence bangs on the doors of your conscience.

Returning to where we started, more than anything - I want my children’s children to know and
live in the land of freedom as I have. However, this desire pales by comparison to our Heavenly
Father’s desire for us to know and walk in His freedom and its intended purpose in our lives.
Whether ‘physical’ or ‘spiritual,’ freedom is guarded and perpetuated in the same manner: by
grateful people who steward their personal freedom for the benefit of others. Freedom
appreciated, respected, protected, and shared, while reverently enjoyed - becomes its own
reward.