“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
As America celebrates Independence Day let’s quickly take a look at what freedom is – and is not.
In this passage from John’s gospel, Jesus is in a debate with the Pharisees, a common sparring partner. They were, much like Americans today, quite ardent in their belief that what Jesus was saying about them was untrue. He had said that “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth…and the truth will set you free.” This was, like so much of what our Lord said, a loaded statement. He was saying that if we “abide” in His word, which is to say continually obey them and base our lives upon them, then we would know the truth and be free.
What is this freedom? It’s the freedom from the penalty, power and presence of sin. But they shot back defiantly, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be set free?’”
This is a curious statement given that right then Jerusalem was under Roman occupation. But, anyway, even this is missing the point. Jesus goes on to explain that anyone who practices sin habitually is a slave to sin. This is what He meant when He said that if He sets you free then you’re free indeed. More still, there’s a direct connection between knowing the truth and knowing about sin. To deny mankind’s slavery to sin is to deny the truth. The work of Christ is deliverance from sin, so the choice is always before us: slavery/bondage to sin or faith in Christ.
The Pharisees didn’t like that message. We don’t like it today either.
The thing is, since this is God’s world, His creation, we don’t get to set the rules of reality. Like the Pharisees, we insist, in our pride and obstinance, on looking at the world upon our own terms, not God’s. This is why the gospel goes right over our heads; we’re thinking in a worldview that’s a lie – we don’t want to admit our bondage to sin.
Today’s fireworks will celebrate an Independence we hardly understand. The founding generation was informed by the Christian worldview, indeed, and knew that because of man’s sinful condition, only Christ could ultimately set us free. John Adams, for one, feared the lawlessness that threatened to break out during the Revolution.
Contrary to historians who have an arbitrary bias against Christianity, John Locke and Thomas Paine were not the intellectual fathers of the Revolution. That was, in fact, Jesus Christ. For example, a 1579 work called Vindiciae Contra Tryannos was a primary influence. The literal meaning is “Defenses of liberty against tyrants.” It was a Huguenot tract and the author is uncertain. Nevertheless, it taught that any ruler, the king included, who commanded anything contrary to the law of the Lord actually forfeited their power. Why? Because all authority ultimately resided in the Lord. There was no moral power outside of Scripture. Also, to rebel against authority, so long as it was in accord with the principles of Scripture, was to rebel against God. Put this together and you see how the founders’ saw obedience to a tyrannical ruler as disobedience to God since that ruler had usurped God’s authority.
Tyranny is ruling outside the law of the Lord.
Furthermore, the founders’ generation were all reared upon the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Confession clearly put forth the parameters of obeying the civil magistrate in the context of God’s law/word. All of this meant that Adams, Madison, etc., understood that since God’s law is the foundation and source of all morality and law, no king, ruler, parliament or subject is exempt from it. Remember, they all knew Jesus’ proclamation that we were free only insofar as we abided in His word. These facts literally necessitated the doctrine of lesser magistrates, which is to say that no ruler had absolute power except God. The reality of sin makes necessary divided political powers because sin is a usurper.
America today sees the federal government as the final law. It sees God’s law as subordinate to the federal government. It sees the federal government “grant” religious freedom rather than recognizing it as a fact, thereby making itself lord over Christ’s church. Just as bad, America sees sin as liberty. It celebrates sexual sin and demands that the Lord’s church celebrate with it. All of these things are predictable consequences of the rejection of the Lord.
Man, being created by God and for worship of Him, is hopelessly religious. In his rebellion, he creates false religions rather than turn to Christ for forgiveness. This makes sense of our insatiable desire to turn politics into religion. R.J. Rushdoony said, “Man seeks the perfect social order, but his search has a double halter on it. First, man the sinner wants a just world and perfect righteousness without the necessity of repentance and regeneration on his part. Every man wants a perfect and completely faithful wife, but not every man is ready to be a godly and faithful husband. The expectation of justice and perfection is imposed upon the social order: it is not required of one’s self.”
John Adams was concerned that one former client of his, a horse-jockey, encouraged revolution because it caused legal confusion. Men like the horse-jockey wanted anarchy so they would be “free” from law but Adams knew that anarchy was a worse slavery than tyranny. He said, “If the power of the country should get into such hands, and there is a great danger that it will, to what purpose have we sacrificed our time, health, and everything else? Surely we must guard against this spirit and these principles, or we shall repent of all our conduct.” Adams knew, you see, that both obedience and disobedience had to be grounded in God’s law for only it could bring real freedom.
Outside of God’s law we have only the twin terrors of tyranny and anarchy waiting. America today, as it celebrates the blessings passed down to us by wise, though imperfect, men, must reclaim the truth that we are slaves to sin. This slavery, unless we repent, will destroy us. But if we turn to Christ in faith, casting ourselves humbly before Him, He will forgive us, restore us, and wash us clean.
Then we will be free. Only then. And then, in Christ, our salvation is our July 4th!
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