The Fight For Liberty

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The Fight for Liberty

In our country and culture we are in a fight.

We think we are fighting for freedom, but we have it all wrong.

We have been duped into believing that freedom equals rights.

This cultural thought has seeped into our Christian thinking and into every church.

We need to understand that human rights does not equal human freedom!

Let’s look at definitions to help give us a clearer picture.

• freedom- n. the quality or state of being free: INDEPENDENCE
• liberty- n. FREEDOM
• right- n. something that is correct, just, proper, or honorable

First, let’s look at the words from a country’s perspective. Our country fought for freedom. We were fighting for independence from the British government. As a land, we wanted to become our own nation not subject to the British government and laws, thus the Revolutionary War. When we won the war, we became free or independent. We were no longer under the rule and reign of Britain.

Now from a Christian perspective. Our God and Savior fought for freedom. Knowing we could not fight for our own independence from sin and bondage, He fought for us. He did not want us to remain dead in our sins and transgressions and subject to the flesh. Christ won the war and set us free. We are no longer under the rule of sin.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” ~ Galatians 5:1

If we take a step back and gaze into our country’s history and our christian walk, we will see that our real liberty has been traded away like a popular baseball card. We have traded our freedom or liberty for our rights. We have been duped into believing that our rights our synonymous with our freedom or liberty. Just by looking at the definitions above you see that they are very different in meaning. Our “rights” are pulling us away from truth, both in the sense of a countryman and Biblically speaking.

What is liberty?

Do we have the right to do anything?

Are there restraints that come with freedom?

There are two sides to liberty. We have the side in which we are released from something. But, we also have a responsibility to something as well. We cannot have one without the other. We have lost sight of the flip side of liberty and that is the responsibility to something. As a matter of fact, we have lost all sense of responsibility and made it someone elses. But without responsibility we no longer have liberty.

We believe that freedom means I can do whatever I want, whenever I want and we have equated that with “rights”. This has become our demise. We are so consumed with our “rights” both as a citizen of this great country and as a church going christian.

Our country is in a decline because of this shift of our thinking. The only way we can change that is if we start taking responsibility. We can only do that as one person. But in your own personal walk with Jesus, you can change this mindset. We need to get into the word and renew our minds!

What is Christian liberty?

Christian liberty in my mind in an oxymoron. We use this tag on behaviors that appear to be maybe a little in the grey area. The cold hard reality is we use it to justify ungodly behavior.

It goes back to the 2 things. We have been released from something and responsible to something.

1. We are free from sin! Oh, if we could understand the magnitude of this statement it would make the second part that much live-able. There is verse after verse that proclaim our freedom from sin. Romans 6:17 &18, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
2. We are set free to live for Christ! Here is the responsible to someone. Romans 8:21 states, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and Romans 6:18, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” True liberty no longer serves sin but now serves righteousness.

Our freedom from sin enables us to live for God and His righteousness. It does not give us the right to live for ourself or our fleshly desires. 1 Peter 2: 15 & 16 says, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as servants of God.” What our country has done with “rights”, we as the church have done with grace. We used the grace of God as a reason to do whatever we want, whenever we want and the “it’s all about me” syndrome. God’s grace is not poured out for us to do whatever we want for our own selfish desires, but rather to live in godliness, holiness, and in glory to Him!

Our fight should be for liberty, not our rights! Rights do not bring freedom. Justice and righteousness bring freedom.

Let freedom ring!