Faith in the News Christian News
Here are five verses about freedom found in the Bible for the 4th of July, or Independence Day.
First Peter 2:16 “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
The United States has had such great freedom, for well over 200 years, yet this freedom has become a license to sin. We use our freedom as a freedom to sin, and we don’t even cover it up anymore. We don’t blush at things that a hundred years ago would have been inconceivable to be seen in public. What used to be done in the dark is now done in broad daylight. I thank God for the freedom that we have, but it seems we’ve abused our freedom and are not “living as servants of God” anymore in this nation.
Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
This nation began for the purpose of freedom of religion, and those who have repented and believe in Jesus (Mark 1:15) have been set free from the slavery of sin. That doesn’t mean that we are free of sin or free to sin, but the bondage that long held us captive has been destroyed by Christ at the cross of Calvary, and we are admonished to “not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Second Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
As I wrote earlier, we have been freed from the slavery of sin and set free by God’s Spirit, and this “Spirit” is the Lord God, as the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit. It takes the very power of God to unfetter the chains of the slavery to sin.
Philippians 3:20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
Those who live in America are American citizens by birth, but by our new birth (John 3:3, 7), we’ve become citizens of heaven. Even though we’ve not crossed over into that kingdom yet, we await it with the coming King of that kingdom, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. At His arrival, our lowly bodies of this earthly kingdom will be made like “his glorious body” for the eternal kingdom by the real power of God, Who Himself now reigns supreme over all things.
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus said that when we know the truth, it will set us free, but the Jews claimed they had never been slaves to anyone (John 8:33), which is not true. The nation of ancient Israel had been in captivity almost as long as the nation had existed–to the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and other nations–and the religious leaders were still enslaved to sin. Jesus wasn’t talking about a nationalistic freedom but being set free from a slavery to sin, as He made it clear, saying that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
Conclusion
We celebrate our freedom on the 4th of July, or Independence Day, but our real freedom came at the expense of God’s own Son. It was a freedom from the bondage of sin because of Jesus, Who died for all who would believe in Him, and, truly, we were free at last.
May God richly bless you,
Pastor Jack Wellman
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