“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 KJV
Americans are preparing to celebrate 250 years of national life, memory, aspiration, contradiction, struggle, promise, and possibility.
I have been thinking about what it means to celebrate when the celebration itself sometimes feels hijacked, polarized, partisanized, and co-opted for someone else’s benefit.
Still, I will celebrate.
I will celebrate because America belongs to all of us.
It belongs to those with whom I agree and those with whom I strongly disagree. It belongs to people of every race, every party, every region, every background, every economic station, and every religious conviction or lack of religious conviction.
It belongs to Christians like me.
It also belongs to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, atheists, agnostics, doubters, seekers, and all who live under the responsibilities and promises of this land.
That is not a compromise of my Christian faith.
It is one of the ways my Christian faith teaches me to think about freedom.
Freedom cannot merely be a word we use when we are defending our own rights. Freedom must be a principle we honor when it protects the person with whom we disagree.
Liberty cannot merely be a flag we wave over our preferences. Liberty must become a discipline of love, service, restraint, humility, and neighborliness.
That is why Galatians speaks so powerfully to this season.
Paul writes:
“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 KJV
And then, just a few verses later, he writes:
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”
— Galatians 5:13 KJV
There is the tension.
We are called to liberty.
But liberty is not indulgence.
We are free in Christ.
But freedom is not selfishness.
We are released from bondage.
But we are not released from love.
Freedom Begins with God
I usually take time around Independence Day to thank God for the freedom of religion guaranteed by our Bill of Rights. I am grateful for the Baptists of Virginia and Connecticut who lobbied for it, and for the statesmen who championed its cause.
But mostly, I am grateful to God for having the idea in the first place.
God created men and women in His own image. That means human beings possess dignity that precedes the state, exceeds the state, and cannot be manufactured by the state.
Government may recognize dignity.
Government may protect dignity.
Government may violate dignity.
But government does not create dignity.
Human dignity comes from God.
And because God created us with personhood, conscience, and moral agency, freedom is woven into the fabric of our humanity. God does not call us into relationship as puppets. He does not seek coerced worship. He does not produce love by force.
Love must be offered.
Faith must be received.
Repentance must be real.
Conversion must be inward.
The Holy Spirit must work in the human heart, and the human heart must respond.
Jesus said:
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
— John 3:8 KJV
The new birth is not managed by government.
The movement of the Spirit is not supervised by the state.
The conscience cannot be regenerated by law.
Coercive conversions are no conversions at all.
State-sponsored religion creates an unregenerate church membership.
That is why religious liberty matters. It is not merely an American preference. It grows from a biblical understanding of the soul, the Spirit, conscience, and true faith.
Soul Freedom
The language I inherited as a Baptist is the language of soul freedom.
Soul freedom does not mean that every idea is equally true.
It does not mean that conviction does not matter.
It does not mean that we abandon the gospel.
It means that every person stands before God with a conscience that cannot be outsourced to the state, the crowd, the party, the preacher, the tribe, or the mob.
No one can believe for you.
No one can repent for you.
No one can trust Christ for you.
No one can worship in your place.
No one can be born again on your behalf.
That is why the gospel must be proclaimed freely, received freely, and lived freely.
If we truly believe that salvation is the work of God in the human heart, then we must resist every temptation to manipulate, coerce, or weaponize faith.
The gospel does not need Caesar’s sword.
The Spirit does not need political supervision.
Christ does not need the machinery of the state to rule His church.
Freedom for the Other Person
Here is where freedom becomes difficult.
Most people believe in freedom for themselves.
The test is whether we believe in freedom for the other person.
Do I believe in freedom for the person whose vote troubles me?
Do I believe in freedom for the person whose religion I reject?
Do I believe in freedom for the person whose life experience differs radically from mine?
Do I believe in freedom for the person who criticizes my cherished institutions?
Do I believe in freedom for the person who makes me uncomfortable?
Do I believe in freedom for the neighbor I would not have chosen?
Christian liberty calls me beyond self-protection. It calls me into love.
Paul says:
“Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”
— Galatians 5:13 KJV
That means freedom must be governed by love.
Not controlled by the state.
Not manipulated by the party.
Not reduced to personal appetite.
Governed by love.
Freedom without love becomes indulgence.
Freedom without truth becomes confusion.
Freedom without responsibility becomes chaos.
Freedom without humility becomes domination.
Freedom without service becomes selfishness.
But freedom in Christ becomes a platform for love.
Patriotism and Truth
I will celebrate Independence Day. I will post. I will pray. I will listen to songs that move me about America. I will reaffirm my responsibilities as a citizen.
I will be a patriot.
But patriotism, for me, cannot mean pretending everything has always been right.
Love of country is not a starry-eyed illusion of perfection.
A person can love family and still tell the truth about family.
A person can love church and still call the church to repentance.
A person can love country and still name injustice, hypocrisy, cruelty, exclusion, and sin.
Truthful patriotism can give thanks and grieve at the same time.
It can honor sacrifice and confess failure.
It can celebrate ideals and admit that those ideals have not always been applied equally.
It can sing, “America, America, God shed His grace on thee,” and still understand that grace is needed because we are not yet what we ought to be.
Patriotism does not require denial.
Faith does not require fear.
Freedom does not require exclusion.
Love does not require silence.
Called to Liberty
So, as we approach Independence Day, I return to Paul’s words:
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty…”
— Galatians 5:13 KJV
Called.
Liberty is not merely possessed.
It is a calling.
It is not merely celebrated.
It is practiced.
It is not merely defended.
It is stewarded.
We have been called to liberty, but not liberty as an occasion for the flesh.
We have been called to liberty so that, by love, we may serve one another.
That may be the most Christian thing we can do with freedom.
Use it to love.
Use it to serve.
Use it to protect the conscience of another.
Use it to make room for the neighbor.
Use it to tell the truth.
Use it to repent.
Use it to build.
Use it to bless.
Use it to proclaim the gospel freely, without coercion, manipulation, or fear.
Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
And then, in love, serve one another.
