Any student of history understands that the United States of America was birthed by the idea that governments should promote liberty and justice for all, rather than for the elites only. It bubbled up in the turmoil produced by oppressive taxation and unjust laws coming from a long established and powerful monarchy in Great Britain that was accustomed to forcing its will on its subjects. The idea of having personal liberty to worship according to one’s own conscience, the right to own property, and no taxation without proper representative government, inspired men and women to risk all, even their lives, in the quest to obtain it via a revolution. I have been inspired personally by reading of the heroism, perseverance, and faith of those men and women. One cannot help but conclude that they won only because of divine intervention.
The question before us is this: is personal freedom an idea birthed by the mind of man via the Enlightenment, or did it come from God?
When God created Adam and placed him in the garden, he gave him tremendous freedom. The only restriction put upon Adam and, by extension, Eve was to avoid eating from one tree, the one that would give him the knowledge of good and evil. The reason God prohibited that one is because it would kill him. In other words, God only forbade that which would destroy Adam. He was free to eat and enjoy everything else.
This is an eternal principle: God’s heart is to give us freedom in all things except that which will harm us.
Satan afterward planted the idea in Eve’s mind that God only banned the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to withhold something good from her.
This is a satanic principle: the devil tells us that the thing that will destroy us really is something wonderful that God is keeping from us, sowing in us a desire for it. He also tricks us into believing that God cannot be trusted.
The serpent began his questioning by misrepresenting God altogether.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (NLT)
This deliberate falsification of God’s position was the first recorded instance of the use of misinformation or propaganda to deceive. Jesus called Satan the “father of lies” in whom there is no truth. (John 8:44) Adam and Eve were newly created beings who did not have any inherent bias toward believing lies with which we were born. Nevertheless, the serpent’s lie proved to be irresistible to Eve. Satan also accused God of deliberately withholding something wonderful from Adam and Eve, the ability to be like God by knowing good and evil for themselves.
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. Genesis 3:4-6 (NLT)
Why is being like God so alluring to us?
God created us to be dependent beings who can enjoy God and his creation with unbridled joy as long as we are satisfied with remaining in the condition he made us.
The only thing that could destroy all that was the attempt to be something more, to be like God himself. That is what brought Satan down, and he used the same lie to destroy God’s most wonderful creation called humanity, plunging all of us into slavery to sin, death, disease, demons, and all sorts of destructive behaviors and addictions. Adam and Eve exchanged the life and freedom God graciously gave to them in a foolish pursuit of godhood status.
The lesson we learn from this is that freedom comes from God. Oppression and slavery come from the devil. Anything that promotes true freedom originates in God. Everything that enslaves emanates from the evil one. No matter how falsely it may be represented to us, the fruit will be sorrow, regret, loss, and death.
When Jesus announced his mission at the beginning of his three-year public ministry, he made it clear that his goal was to liberate humanity.
The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, Luke 4:18 (NLT)
Jesus went about setting people free from sin, sickness, demonic oppression, and even death.
And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 (NLT)
The Law, which previously had been put in place by God to reveal our need for a Savior, did its work by making it clear that no one could keep it. Anyone who seriously tries to keep God’s commands eventually concludes that doing so is impossible.
Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Galatians 3:23 (NLT)
Nevertheless, the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day used to Law to bolster their position of power and prestige and keep those under them in bondage. When Jesus arrived on the scene, it became immediately clear that he posed a threat to the power of the Jewish leaders, which incited them to hatred and murder. Little did they know that God was using everything to break the bands of oppression off all those who eventually would put their faith and allegiance in the crucified and risen Lord.
After his ascension into heaven, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon his followers, enabling them to carry out the mission to take the wonderful news of freedom from sin, death, demons, sickness, and bondage to the ends of the earth. Paul understood that the core of the gospel message is that Christ gave his life to bring us back into proper alignment with the Creator, the source of freedom and life.
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NLT)
The gospel truly proclaimed and understood will always produce freedom in its hearers. Those who pervert the gospel always do so to bring us into bondage.
Even that question came up only because of some so-called Christians there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. Galatians 2:4 (NLT)
Therefore, we are to resist any corruption of the gospel that promotes legalism and slavery. Satan has not stopped trying to pervert what is precious to God and us. He has not ceased telling lies. If he can corrupt our understanding of the most freeing message in the universe, he can bring us back into bondage.
Legalism is the attempt to be like God by thinking we are capable of earning our own way into God’s favor and blessing through our own efforts and establishing our own righteousness apart from God’s.
The gospel makes it clear that no one can do that. The way to freedom requires us to admit we are thoroughly dependent upon the graciousness of God, who freely gives us our right standing with him.
The issue at the heart of being free is whether or not we are willing to embrace our status as dependent beings who joyfully serve our Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer God. Freedom immediately collapses when we reject that status and pursue independence from him
The men and women who founded the United States would be astonished that we have allowed the government won through the spilling of their blood to become even more tyrannical than the British monarchy of the 18th century. How did this happen? I believe we got here by an incremental rejection of God’s rule in our individual lives and nationally. Every good thing is eventually corrupted, unless we steadfastly hold on to God and biblical truth. The idea of freedom to live according to God’s precepts was gradually turned into freedom to do whatever we might choose.
The paradox of liberty is that true freedom can only be experienced when we live as dependent beings in the pursuit of God’s glory. Anything else leads to bondage because it elevates self-will to godhood status.
Today our nation’s pledge of allegiance still affirms that we are one nation “under God,” and our money still declares, “In God We Trust;” but our leaders have enacted laws and policies that are thoroughly against God and contrary to his revealed will in the Bible.
The purpose of government, according the Bible, is to ensure justice and to promote the well-being of those who are governed.
For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. Romans 13:3-4 (NLT) Any government which perverts justice and works against the well-being of its citizens has moved outside of its God-given mandate. In a very real sense, it is illegitimate because it falsely represents God.
The laws and policies put into place in response to Covid revealed just how far we have fallen from the constitutional republic bequeathed to us. The government, against all sound reason and true science, mandated that its citizens take an experimental “vaccine,” which harmful side effects are still being discovered. Citizens were denied access to worship, public transportation, medical care, and employment depending on whether or not they would bow the knee to a government mandate. This is the height of tyranny and anti-God. Our soldiers and many in law enforcement and the medical profession were forced to take this experimental jab or be ejected from serving their country. This is oppression pure and simple. The government is never supposed to coerce its citizens to violate their consciences. Such a government has transgressed God’s purpose for it and attempted to “be like God.” It has become “beastly” in its pursuit of the power and the authority that belongs only to God. (Revelation 13:1)
The question then arises: what is our responsibility in the matter? When Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government our founding fathers set up, he famously replied, “a republic, if you can keep it.” History will eventually record if we were successful. If we are to preserve political liberty, we must first do everything to maintain spiritual liberty. Loving God, embracing truth, and serving God with a good conscience are essential. We must also pray. Ultimately, the battle is the Lord’s. He is greater than all human governments, and he promised in the Bible that his glory will fill the earth. (Habakkuk 2:14) If we pray for God’s will to be done and his glory enhanced, we will always be centered in his will.
Next, we must be practical. As good citizens of the United States, we must do everything possible to reform our government and elect representatives who will govern with the fear of the Lord. At the very least, we should stay informed and use the right to vote in the upcoming election. Those who are inspired to become more involved politically need our support.
But none of this will mean very much unless we first become servants of the Lord Jesus.
We cannot do much for freedom until we come into alignment with the source of freedom.
Having done all, we must stand in our confidence that God ultimately is in control.
“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Psalm 46:10 (NLT)
