Independence Day
Its funny how terms are used differently – and taken for granted as well. What is simply called "the Fourth of July" in America is known as "Independence Day" in the UK. It actually makes much more sense to call it that because it describes the reason for the holiday. It is the day Americans celebrate their freedom from being a colony of England to becoming an independent country. As you might imagine, we wondered how it is viewed by citizens of this province of the United Kingdom, but it is mostly accepted as a historical fact simply with curiosity as to how it is celebrated.
As Christians, we can recognize our own personal "independence day." Mine is on November the 8th. That is the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior and was forgiven by God of my sin. It was the day I was set free. It is a glorious freedom – freedom from the stain of sin, freedom from working to try to be "good enough" to make it to heaven, freedom to love. But the Apostle Paul makes an enigmatic statement about freedom in the first verse of Galatians chapter five: "[It is] for freedom that Christ has set us free." I get the "Christ has set us free" bit – he has set us free from the burdens and cravings of sin - but it is 'for freedom' to or for what? The context of the verse, however, is about salvation by grace through faith.
Paul continues on in the verse to say "stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Oh, I see, we can be-come entangled in the urges of the sinful nature and fall into bondage, imprisoned by evil lusts. That must be why he says later to "walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh" (5:16) and also "having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). So, it is for freedom from guilt; for freedom from striving; for freedom from fear; for freedom from doubt and so on. This is a pretty good deal. So one more question remains: do you have your own independence day?
