[When available, audio recordings of these devotions are posted at http://www.redeemerclc.info/audio-devotions]
Thursday, July 7, 2016
John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
LIFE, *LIBERTY*, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
In the Declaration of Independence it is stated that God ("the Creator") has given people certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The point is, these are rights of citizens that their government should be protecting, not assaulting.
In the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, the right to liberty is laid out in freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly. The liberty the Founding Fathers envisioned was not the right of citizens to do whatever they pleased whenever they felt like it. It was rather a liberty under law, a liberty that was aware of the rights of others. As Mike told Pat, "Your right to swing your fist wherever you wish ends where my nose begins."
The price of the freedoms cited in the Constitution was high. Historians estimate that about 8,000 Americans died in combat during the Revolutionary War. (About the same number died while POWs in British prisons.) In terms of the current US population an equivalent number of combat deaths would be 3 million.
A far greater liberty is ours as Christ-believers -- and was secured for us at an infinitesimally greater price. Martin Luther states this when, leaning on the Apostle Peter, he confesses that we have been redeemed, not with silver or gold but with the holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and deathof Christ our Lord -- the Son of God born into human flesh. The liberty Jesus purchased and won for us includes freedom from sin's power and condemnation, freedom from the fear of death and from death itself, and freedom from Satan's tyrannical rule.
Truly, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Forever.
No wonder some Christians celebrate Easter with fireworks.
