Today is America’s celebration of our independence from Great Britain.  It’s designed to be celebrated with merriment and joy.  With the idea of it being a happy occasion.  That’s all well and good, but I sometimes wonder if our “pursuit of happiness” takes precedence over remembering the cost of that independence.  We’re going to talk for a few moments today about “remembering” and the cost of “freedom.”

Just as “freedom” from worldly oppression wasn’t “free,” neither is “freedom” from sin.  Perhaps I should say from “slavery to sin.”  No, the price paid for that “freedom” was the death of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.  Another way to look at it is in parable form.

All of us are familiar with paying for something and sometimes the cost is dear for that “something.”  We don’t like to pay out our money and then not use the item we bought, do we?  Basically, that’s just a waste of the product that was so dearly paid for.

Yet, isn’t that exactly what we’re doing when we ignore the price God paid for man to have salvation?  To have “freedom” from sin?  In Luke 4:18 we read the  opening statement of Jesus’ ministry.  In it He tells us His purpose for coming to earth as a man. “He (God) hath anointed (given me my mission) to preach the gospel…..to preach deliverance to the captives (slaves to sin)…..to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

The Greek word for “bruised” means to be “broken down” or “oppressed.”  In Gal. 5:1 we find Paul describing it as the “yoke of bondage.”  And we understand that the term “yoke” always portrays the picture of being “captive” or of being indentured to something.  But especially, it gives us a picture of not being free.

America’s and the Christian’s “freedom” from oppression can also be seen parabolically, however, the main difference between America’s and our “freedom” from “oppression” is simply this.  America fought a war for our “freedom,” our “independence” and here is why I mention that and it takes us to this point of the lesson that I wish all to remember.

Israel’s “freedom” from slavery in Egypt is often used as a “type” for visualizing our “freedom” from sin.  And that’s okay to use that analogy, but when doing so, remember this: Israel did not gain their “freedom” because of anything they did.  They received their “freedom” because of what God did.  Our “freedom from sin” is just the same.  It’s not something we did to earn it, we only have it because of what God did.

Well, let’s start wrapping this lesson up with the rest of my thoughts today.  Let’s return to Christ’s opening statement that we read in Luke 4:18.  Recall, He said that He came “to preach the gospel.”   That this “gospel” would “deliver the captives” and “set at liberty” the oppressed (“bruised”).

Now, open your Bibles to the 6th chapter of Romans and we’ll see there this equation.  In verse 3 we read where “those who are baptized into Jesus, were baptized into His death.”  Then we go on down to verse 7 and there we read that if we’re “baptized” (dead in Christ) we are “freed from sin.”

But that’s not the end of the equation.  Just like we shouldn’t celebrate our country’s independence one day out of the year and then forget the cost that was paid for that “freedom,” parabolically speaking, we can spiritually do the same thing.

We can’t just be “baptized” and say “that’s it” can we?  Let’s go back to Gal. 5:1 and look at the entirety of that verse.  Paul tells us there to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

The celebration of our “freedom from sin” is not memorable just one day a year as is America’s remembrance of its liberty.  No, Christians have a day of “remembrance” set aside every first day of the week.  (Acts 20:7).  And a reading of 1 Cor. 11:23-29 gives us the details of this ceremony, this celebration.

That we “do this in remembrance of me.”  And that we always “stand fast” and never forget the sacrifice made for our “eternal freedom.

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey