Our country was born on July 4, 1776 via a document we call “The Declaration of Independence.” Words are important because they express ideals and concepts worth dying for. Those who signed this document were traitors in the eyes of England, the homeland of many who signed. Twenty-five thousand Americans lost their lives from 1775-1783 in the Revolutionary War, many as a consequence of these words. Whenever and wherever freedom is won, the price has always been paid in blood. The US has been involved in many wars in the 241 years since the birth of our country. All have been fought for the same reason: freedom. Sometimes they were fought to bring freedom to our allies and others who sought it and other times they were fought to maintain our freedom or the freedom of our friends. The cost has always been the same: the precious blood of our sons and daughters. Freedom has never come cheaply and it certainly has never been free.
Sadly, we have become enslaved to something much more sinister than the oppression of a physical nation or hostile group. Unfortunately, many of us are not even aware that we have lost our freedom that we cherish so much. The one who has tricked us out of our freedom has done so under the guise that we are doing our own thing or that we are exerting our independence. In truth, spiritually speaking there is no such thing as freedom. Ro 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? The word translated “servant” is from a word meaning slave or bondservant. In reality, we are either serving Satan through sin (which Satan makes us believe is us being free) or serving God in righteousness. John 8: 34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. In our practice of sin, Satan has duped us into believing we are also serving God which is impossible. Mt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon
There is only one that can deliver us from the shackles of sin. Gal. 5: 1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. How does He give us this liberty or freedom from sin? To do this we had to be redeemed or bought back from sin and Satan. I Pe 1: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
As in physical or political freedom, spiritual freedom has a cost. Its cost, too, is in the shedding of precious blood but not just the blood of any man. It took the blood of the Son of man who was also the Son of God, the only sinless one to ever live among us. Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation
Only God’s children are truly free. That freedom has come at supreme cost only after the greatest of all prices was paid. I Co. 6: 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. We owe a debt that we can never repay for a freedom that we do not deserve. The least we can do is to live for Him. Ro 12:1 ¶ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
