The Gift of Liberty

2 Cor 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Exodus 23:10,” … and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.”

Liberty is not something we can demand, nor is it something that we earn. Liberty is a gift of the Spirit of the Lord. If an individual doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ within then it is not possible for that person to experience true liberty. It is only in Christ we can truly live in freedom.

Galatians 5:1 says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Liberty in Christ is freedom to lovingly serve someone else. Note Galatians 5:13: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the fl esh, but through love serve one another.” Liberty in Christ is freedom to love.

Liberty in life on earth is also a gift. This gift came to the people of our nation today because others before us were willing to die to secure liberty for those who would live after them. Independence Day (Fourth of July) celebrates a decision by the representatives of the people of the colonies in America to make a new nation, separating from a foreign government that was uninterested in the desires of the people. It was a brave act on the part of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Most either lost their fortunes, their lives, or at least their homes. Yet these men waved the cost aside in view of the spiritual and physical need of the people They gave us freedom by risking it all, and by dying to purchase that freedom.

Today, in the city that is named for the Father of our Country, Washington, D.C., many are trying to remove the liberty our forefathers provided for us. They desire to change the Preamble of our Constitution to read like this: “We the Government of the United States….” That is NOT how our Preamble was written, but instead was written thus: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Additionally, they have wished to change the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to read: “….of the government, by the government , for the government…” But what Lincoln spoke was this: “… that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Liberty is a gift we did not earn. Liberty of soul is a gift that Christ died for; liberty in life is a gift other men and women died for. We should be thankful for, and work to maintain, the Gift of Liberty every day!!