Independence Day represents our core identity as American citizens. For those of us who cut our teeth on stories of colonists and pioneers, of Valley Forge and the Boston Tea Party, “freedom” defines us and shapes our expectations. The desire for freedom from domination and from government without representation spurred our forebears to fight against their former loyalties in order to be independent with clear consciences.
Some of us have allowed that drive for a clear conscience to push us into a deeper—a more personal level of freedom: freedom from the domain of darkness. We have allowed Scripture to speak to us with the authority it claims for itself: the word of God. We have allowed the truth of His personal revelation to us to draw back the veil of confusion and to reveal the glory of a completed atonement accomplished in Jesus’ death on a cross. We have held our identities loosely as the Lord Jesus has given us new hearts and new births, sealing us with His Spirit. We have allowed our risen Savior to be our core “value”. We have received eternal life, and we have found that this new freedom is not defined by the use of jewelry or the permission to eat ham sandwiches.
Instead, true freedom means we no longer have to explain away the word of God. We are free to believe the words mean what they say in the context they occur. We are free to believe that God didn’t allow mistakes to creep into His word because the human writers didn’t quite understand the whole message God was trying to convey. We are free to embrace the whole counsel of God knowing that truth is both bigger and simpler than our ability to explain it.
We are free to trust God when life shocks us, and we are finally free to submit our temptations to Him in the very moment we scream to act on them. We are free to ask Him to show us how to love, for Him, those we resent instead of being passive-aggressive. And, when we give in to those temptations and do something we regret, we are free to admit to the Lord Jesus that we were wrong and ask Him to forgive us and to redeem the situation we aggravated.
Being free means we can ask Jesus to be more real to us than our fear, because He broke the power of the one who held us in bondage to the fear of death. We can act with courage when we want to run in terror because the Lord Jesus is always with us, and He fights our battles. We can face the truth about our lives because Jesus is big enough and loving enough to be both in us and with us as we feel the pain of transgressions done to us. We are free to become whole instead of broken, alive instead of numb because the Lord Jesus gives us our emotions and reveals what is real.
We are free to surrender our shame to the One who bore it in His body because He shows us that our pain and brokenness are not our identity. We are free to allow His word to reveal that we are God’s adopted children, loved heirs, redeemed saints hidden with Christ in God and seated in Him at the Father’s right hand.
Being free means we have the mind of Christ instead of the mere wisdom of men. We have eyes to see spiritual truth, and we have His Spirit to give us words to speak in season. Being free means our hearts are captive to the Lord Jesus, and our minds are transformed as we submit to His word.
Freedom is knowing we are eternally alive, transferred out of the domain of darkness by the One who sent His Son to be our resurrection and our life. Because we are free, we have Sabbath rest every moment, embracing the reality that all God’s promises are “Yes” in Jesus. We surrender our right to be anxious because God has already promised us Himself and all we need, even if we face deep loss.
Paul wrote, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
Embrace your Independence Day; trust Jesus. He is worthy to be our Savior and our Lord. He cannot fail.
It is good to be free!
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ColleenTinker08.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Colleen Tinker, the editor of Proclamation! magazine, and her husband Richard left Adventism in 1998 with their two sons, Roy and Nathanael, who were in grades six and ten. They have co-led the Former Adventist Fellowship Bible study at Trinity Church in Redlands, California, since 1999. Colleen, a graduate of Walla Walla University, is a former high school English teacher and also the former managing editor of Adventist Today magazine. She is also a small-group discussion leader for Trinity Women’s ministries. Colleen became the stepmother of Roy and Nathanael in 1989, and in 2008 she adopted them. Romans 8:15-17 has assumed new depth and significance for her and Richard since she and her sons chose to claim each other legally and permanently. She and Richard share their office with Rocky the sheltie, and they love having a new granddaughter.[/author_info] [/author]
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