The Architect’s Plan
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." (Gen. 2:16-17)
July is a month in which we Americans turn our attention to liberty. As we do, it is important for us to understand what liberty is and the responsibilities it brings to bear on our lives. Perhaps you are surprised to find the first definition of liberty in the Bible in the Garden of Eden. Have you ever thought about these verses in that way?
God defines the freedom of Adam and Eve in terms of what they may and may not do. That seems rather elementary but it is an essential element of liberty that we refrain from doing that which God, for our own good, forbids us to do. No individual or society can remain free if this basic principle is ignored. Our individual lives are proof enough. Think about a time when you did something you should not have done. How did that action take liberty from you?
An immediate result is the loss of a clear conscience and the peace it affords. That leaves one in the bondage of fear of being found out or suffering whatever consequences may result from the action, including incarceration. Being thrown in jail is nothing compared to the spiritual, mental and emotional bondage that one suffers by turning liberty into license. That is the warning that God gave to Adam and it is a warning that is most relevant in our culture.
As children, we all remember being confronted with the challenge to think of something that God can’t do. I remember someone coming up with the ridiculous suggestion of having God hit something as hard as He could and then hit it harder. Such absurdities hardly merit mention, but they unmask the puny minds of men.
It surprises some that the answer to the question can be found in the Bible. One place is Hebrews 6:18 which tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. Think about that for a moment. What implications would arise if God took the liberty of lying?
Let’s not follow that rabbit trail, but I hope you can quickly see that everything in this creation depends upon His absolute faithfulness to His word and His nature. Even in His sovereignty, God cannot lie. For Him to take the liberty of lying would be to deny His deity and cede the liberty that His holiness empowers.
If God has limited Himself, should we be so bold as to believe and act as if we have unlimited freedom?
Liberty and law are inseparable. By law we mean the eternal principles which God has ordained and not the fabrications of men which may or may not conform to those principles. To the extent man’s laws conform to what God has ordained, the people enjoy the blessings of liberty.
To the extent that God’s order is ignored, the people live in bondage. That is pretty basic and the founders of our federal union understood it. Today, "we the people" have largely forgotten or abandoned this reality.
Liberty without limits is not liberty! It has never been God’s desire that men should become a law unto themselves and yet we are repeating that mistake like we cannot read history.
We are writing history every day and those who read it will do so with astonishment! Never in the history of the world have a people had such access to information and knowledge. Yet we prove daily that access is no assurance that the people will avail themselves of it.
We’ve been warned that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it and yet we ignore it defiantly confident that we can avoid the certain outcome. We will not.
"America the Beautiful" almost became the national anthem. I wish it had. It embodies so much of this teaching that it should be repeated more often in public. Hear again the words of the second stanza and grasp the truth contained there.
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress
a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness.
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.
The law of God stands for all time. It is unshakeable and immovable. Those who defy it are crushed by its weight. As the redeemed, we have died to the law of ordinances written on stone and by grace live according to a higher law: the royal law of love.
The scripture tells us that God is love. That is His nature. That is His law. This is not the mushy, gushy, sentimental sense of feel good theology that is popular today. It is a law that both reaches out in compassion and, because it is compassionate, it demands justice.
God does not wink at lawlessness. Because He is loving and compassionate, He is just and His wrath is not withheld for some final accounting. Those who abuse their liberty pay a heavy price.
This is one of the opening themes of the book of James. Those who keep the law of love live under the law of liberty. Real freedom only comes to those who love as God loves. To do less is bondage.
Our society has ceased to be just. It demands that lawbreakers be coddled (sometimes idolized) and it visits its harshest judgment on the innocent (the unborn). God doesn’t wink at injustice. If we would be free again, we must labor for justice as love demands.
The mandate of the redeemed is clear. As partakers of the Tree of Life we are compelled to love. That love will move us to do our part in ordering a just society.
The Carpenter’s Corner
"So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)
The story of scripture from beginning to end deals with freedom. We don’t often view it from that perspective, but it is appropriate to do so.
God created Adam and Eve as free individuals with the ability to choose. Unfortunately, they came to see their liberty as confining and in the most tragic of ironies abandoned it for bondage. That is the story of humankind ever since.
The pursuit of every human heart is, at its core, the pursuit of liberty. The problem is that many seek it in the wrong place. The Jews believed themselves to be free because they were descendants of Isaac, the son of the free woman.
They were so confident of their freedom that they boasted of never being enslaved. Had they forgotten about Egypt and Babylon?! Their statement was an arrogant denial of reality and we find it almost amusing if it were not so tragic.
It becomes even less amusing to realize that in our culture many Christians boast of their freedom, totally oblivious to the bondage to which they have become accustomed. It can happen in an individual life, and it has happened to our country.
To those who question the validity of that statement, I urge you to do a simple exercise. Find a day when you will not be particularly pressed with distractions and place a pad and pencil beside your bed the night before.
When you awake the next morning, pay attention to everything you do and make a list of those things which are not regulated or controlled by civil government in one way or another. It will be an eye opening experience.
From the moment you awake and draw your first regulated breath of air, while still between regulated sheets on your regulated bed in your regulated house with its regulated utilities you will discover very little which you may do free of government regulation.
In fact, I have been unable to discover anything you can do free of government regulation and would invite you to share with me anything you discover. I’ll even mention them in an upcoming newsletter. I’ve issued this challenge a number of times in the past five years and I have yet to receive a single example of something we are free to do without government control.
The passage of so called "hate crimes" legislation has brought us so far as to control what is acceptable to think! The direction this kind of legislation is already taking us is not pleasant to contemplate. It is even less pleasant for Christians.
How did we get in this mess? We no longer know the truth as a people. We have forgotten our heritage of true liberty in law and we have exchanged it for somewhat beneficent bondage. That we have done so reflects poorly on our stewardship as citizens vested with the authority to do otherwise.
Jesus made it clear that freedom comes through continuing in His word. It was true for those first century hearers and it is still true today. Legislation hostile to His word doesn’t change the truth and if we continue to ignore it, we will pay an even heavier price than has already been exacted.
A slave can never give another slave his freedom. Christ can offer freedom because He is free. For a society to accept anything else as a substitute is to embrace a flawed premise that will ultimately rob it of its substance.
It is the mission of the redeemed to proclaim that those whom the Son sets free are free indeed. It is a proclamation that is not to be issued behind closed doors from a pulpit on Sunday morning. It is one to be broadcast from the lips of believers in every arena of life without apology.
Freedom is a choice. If we are "free indeed" we are necessarily involved in the ministry of freeing others. Our faithfulness to that calling will strengthen our society and raise an army of saints who understand true liberty and who work to see it restored for the glory of God.
The Foreman’s Forum
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:13)
Have you ever thought about love as the ultimate expression of freedom? Reduced to its simplest terms, there is absolutely nothing that can keep you from loving. As Christians that is a freedom that can never be lost, only ceded.
Paul’s message is clear, freedom is not blank check to live any way we choose. Freedom comes with responsibility to serve others. Let’s explore that interesting concept.
Many of you receiving this know that I am very active politically. That hasn’t always been the case. In fact, for about 25 years I eschewed things political as worldly and not a proper arena for Christian endeavor. I’ll spare you the details, but God corrected my error in the most convincing of ways.
Now, I regularly deal with friends and acquaintances who believe as I once did. As I try to persuade them that Christian stewardship means we use every blessing of God to His purposes and glory (including our citizenship), I meet with several common objections.
The one relevant to the current discussion is the accusation that we are not to be concerned about our rights. I am even told that as Christians we don’t have any rights. That’s a topic for another day, but I don’t believe that view of scripture is correct.
The real issue (as expressed in Philippians 2:5f) is our attitude toward our rights. Our attitude is to be like that of Christ. I don’t hold my personal rights to be the most important thing in the world. Situations arise frequently where I cede my rights to maintain relationships and demonstrate the love of Christ to others.
At the same time, as a Christian, I have a strong sense of justice and justice demands that the legitimate rights of others be secured and protected. My labors in that arena certainly accrue benefits to me, but my personal benefit is not my motivation. My motivation is to serve others out of a heart of love. That is the meat of what Paul is saying.
We are to be about the business of extending God’s mercy and compassion to a world that is looking for hope. One of the ways we do that is by working for justice and righteousness in civil government. That is not a popular notion among Christians in America today, but I believe it to be biblical.
For Christians to despise their birthright in this country by excusing themselves from diligence in their citizenship is to despise God’s gift. Ceding our authority to the Godless and their agenda is not a proper response to so great a gift. Evil triumphs because most of God’s people do nothing.
In Galatians 5:1, Paul writes, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." It is obvious from the context that Paul is addressing the danger of those first century believers resorting to works of the law as a means of their justification. However, there are principles here that need to be grasped.
It almost sounds redundant to say it but Christ freed us for freedom. He did not free us so that we might again be enslaved by the world. The Jews were slaves to the law. Prior to new life in Christ, we are slaves to unrighteousness. In Christ, we find the liberty to live in His righteousness not the liberty to ignore it. Liberty always comes with responsibility.
In Colossians 3, Paul addresses the condition of those who are blinded to the truth because of their lack of repentance and then notes, " but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (Colossians 3:17)
Paul goes on to explain how that liberty plays out in his ministry. We each have a ministry. Do we fulfill it as those who are free, or do we allow the threat of bondage to silence us?
Our freedom in Christ is an opportunity to serve others in love. One of the many responsibilities is the political arena. For those who would be good stewards, involvement here is not an option as long as our Constitution remains the supreme law of the land.
Those who enjoy the blessings of liberty and do nothing to secure the same for their children and grandchildren demonstrate their bondage, even as they profess freedom. Today, many refuse to abandon their comfort zone to do what duty demands. That refusal is a failure to love our neighbor.
The Carpenter’s Toolbox
"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king." (1 Peter 2:13-17)This passage and the opening verses of Romans 13 have frequently been used to deter Christians from resisting usurpations of power by government officials. This is particularly troubling in our country. Our system of government is based on the rule of law: specifically, biblical principles of justice.
As citizens, it is our duty to do everything in our power to see to it that the law is obeyed, especially when our elected representatives are the ones who are the lawbreakers. For us to do less is to abet those who are lawless and to become partakers in their deeds. The time for carelessness in regard to our duty before God in this matter has long passed.
Peter affirms Paul’s teaching that governments are instituted of God for the punishment of evil and the praise of those who do what is right.
That civil government which ignores this heavenly mandate cannot be said to be instituted of God and no Christian owes it allegiance. Peter tells us we are to act as the free men we are, and not go along with those who ignore the law. He makes no concession for elected officials who abuse their authority.
Christians are charged with the duty of being God’s representatives for justice, mercy and compassion. When civil government perverts these, we must stand in stark contrast against that evil and "silence the ignorance of foolish men."
Freedom should never be used as an excuse for failing one’s duty. We are not free to hold our nose and vote for evil. Nor will it do any good to simply wash our hands of the matter and say the evil is not our doing. We must not close our eyes to the evil around us; especially while it is in our power to do something about it.
The Greek word for "cloak" or "covering" has the idea of a pretext. Many Christians use their faith as the pretext for not engaging their duty as a member of this self-governing country. Such a message may tickle the ears of the complacent, but it will evaporate under the heat of God’s judgment.
The passage above speaks to us in our time and culture most clearly; we must not use our freedom in Christ to escape our responsibility as citizens. We are citizens of this country by God’s sovereign plan and we should not take that fact lightly..
The Jews had concluded that righteousness in the land didn’t really matter. They refused to deal with evil and protect the innocent and helpless. God will not tolerate those who conduct their civil affairs in such a manner. Their judgment came over 1,900 years ago. Ours is much nearer.
The Apprentice’s Journal
In the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen united States of America, our founders issued not a "Declaration of Independence" but a "Declaration of Dependence." Read again their closing statement:
"We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
They sought independence from England that they might be dependent upon Almighty God. To be sure, they did not do a perfect job of it. They made their mistakes and a few of them were serious. Much of the problem we face today results from those mistakes.
Nevertheless, they were driven by the desire to see their countrymen live in liberty before God. I am awed by what God accomplished through them. At the same time, I am saddened that so few Americans, including Christians, so readily abandon their liberty for expedience or to just get along.
The words above tell us they were not just concerned about their actions but the "rectitude" of them. They agonized over what taking this step would mean. It was not action taken by rebels who despised authority, but rather the action of free men interposing themselves between their families and the tyranny of a ruler who had become a lawbreaker.
The be precise, they did not revolt against the Mother Country and her laws. In liberty, they had the courage to insist that the law be obeyed. When it was not, they took the only course of action available to them in good conscience; they chose to live free of the lawless, even if that freedom cost them everything. They were willing to pay the price to secure the blessings we have enjoyed. Are we willing to do the same for those who follow?
It is easy to let our relative comfort lull us into a false sense of liberty. I spent most of my life in such a state but I’m wide awake now. I pray that you are paying attention.
It’s impossible to keep up with everything happening with our government, but we should not allow that fact to keep us from paying attention. If polls are correct, few Americans have a clue what is going on or even what it was that made this country blessed.
Forgetting the source of blessing, is to lose it and we are losing it faster with each day that passes. We are not to live in fear. We are to live courageously in the confidence that God is able to deliver us even now.
Like Adam and Eve, we are free to choose. Regardless of the choice we make, there is a price to be paid. Choosing obedience almost always appears harder because the fruit of obedience is usually not physical in its appearance.
Christ calls us to follow Him in the realm of the unseen where He and the Father are One. If we spiritually abide in His presence, our duty in our physical existence is clearly defined.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18