“If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:31, 32, 38).
July 4 is commonly considered to be our nation’s birthday. That was the date on which the Declaration of Independence was signed 204 years ago, announcing our freedom from the rule of the King of England. It is significant that this freedom from outside rule should be considered to be the beginning of the country. It has over the years prided itself on being the land of freedom or “liberty.” It has also been so regarded by others. At the moment tens of thousands of Cubans are hazarding their lives in order to reach it in a flight from Communist oppression.
Freedom Is Possible Only Under Law: An Early Lesson
Far too usually overlooked throughout the nation’s history, has been the principle that real freedom is possible only under law. We are apt to forget that the new nation almost fell apart before it was 12 years old because enthusiasts for freedom who had led it failed to provide in their “Articles of Confederation” an adequate structure of laws to bind the squabbling, self-seeking colonies which became its “states” together into one country. Especially C. Gregg Singer in his book, A Theological Interpretation of American History, has called attention to the way the fatal defects of the early government compelled the calling of a constitutional convention, with different leaders, men more appreciative of the indispensability of law and order, to write the Constitution which has fixed the form of our government since 1789. It is said that Alexander Hamilton in writing the Constitution of a stronger, more effective government, had before him the Calvinistic, Presbyterian. order of church government as his pattern.
A Needed Lesson Today
Our nation, like others through the centuries, enjoys a freedom that depends on law and its observance. Where the law is generally broken or ignored, freedom is threatened or destroyed. Ancient Israel had to learn that lesson by bitter experience. The account of that bitter experience forms the history of the Book of Judges. When it turned from God and His laws it was given over to the oppression of neighboring enemies or, having lost its bond of union, fell into self-destructive civil war. Our nation is being rudely awakened to realize that we are threatened by exactly the same kind of judgments. Our disgrace in the deserts of Iran is one of the more recent reminders ,which the Lord has given us that He is “not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
Only Christ Gives Real Freedom
Especially the Lord Jesus pointed out that real freedom has to have a spiritual foundation and that He is the only one who can give that. The story has a contemporary flavor as we read of the resentment of His hearers at what seemed to them to be the arrogance of His claim. “Jesus .. . said to those Jews who had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” It is apparent that His hearers resented this. “They answered . . . , We are Abraham’s seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Everyone that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.” The real problem of these people was that while they were proud of their imagined freedom as privileged people, they were really strangers to and in revolt against God and His laws, and as such were the slaves of sin. They were enslaved to that inspirer of revolt, their spiritual “father, the devil” (vs. 44). As such they did not know what the real freedom of God’s children was. And they had no real hope for the future. Jesus went on to say, “And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; the son abideth for ever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Christ, the Son, came as the great Liberator to save men from the hopeless slavery to sin, Satan, and death, for the “glorious liberty of the children of God.” One can only be free to really live by coming to know and believe in Him through receiving and following His word. This is the lesson of the gospel of Christ. It is addressed to each one of us. Each is called to turn, from his or her own self-willed way of living, to the Lord, in repentance and surrender to Him. The gospel gives personal freedom to be children of God. The new life as children of God also transforms all kinds of social, economic and political relationships, as obedient believers begin to experience the fulfillment of Christ’s promise, “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
