Sunday, July 04, 2010

The Price of Freedom

While I know that there are days set aside to remember our veterans, and to remember those who have died for us, the July Fourth holiday is more typically used as a day to celebrate our independence. Independence comes at a price, and because that price was paid by others for me, the holiday seems bittersweet to me. We have been gifted freedom from the tyranny of foreign king, freedom of self determination, freedom to elect our own scoundrels, and freedom to blog. Of all these things, the freedom to practice religion must be considered the greatest freedom. Our religious freedom comes at a price as well. The past couple of week's journey through Romans (in the daily lectionary) tells us as much with words and ideas that a modern blogger could never come close to expressing.

Romans 8:12-17 (King James Version)

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Freed from bondage, we should not fear anything earthly, even if it means that there is a chance that we might have to pay the price too.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:54 AM

    Very true, indeed.

    I'm reminded that, no matter whether our founders were "Christian," the basis for this country rests upon Judeo-Christian ethics. It continually amazes me that people refuse to acknowledge that concepts like dignity of individuals, personal autonomy, etc. are found in the Bible first, and incorporated later into the philosophies of the 17th and 18th Centuries which formed the rationale for our leaving Great Britain.

    Cheers.

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  2. Undergroundpewster12:17 PM

    In the Declaration of Independence itself, our founding fathers included their dependence on God in the first few lines of the document. The Government does not endow us with those unalienable rights, God does.

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