Rob Witham

We will be celebrating Independence Day this week here in the USA. Each July 4 we observe a national holiday to celebrate the day our nation’s founders formally declared independence from England.

Those early Americans took their new freedom very seriously. Read any early American documents and the pervasive fear of government is unmistakable. There were also many cautions issued to American citizens to be on guard lest their new government attempt to take away freedom and liberty.

Americans have watched many rights, freedoms and liberties be stripped and trampled upon just in recent years. Fear has replaced valor. False security is preferred to freedom. The “war on terrorism” has impacted every citizen of this nation in some manner.

I write these thoughts today because there is an obvious spiritual parallel. Not long after creation the human race found itself in bondage. We were nearly without hope in the world. Nearly, but not completely. Yahweh God promised deliverance when he told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3.15 NRSV).

The battle of the ages unfolded. Jesus came miraculously, lived amazingly and died brutally and, it seemed, senselessly. The serpent struck Jesus’ heel - but Jesus struck the serpent’s head!

Victory. Forgiveness. Grace. Reconciliation. Peace. Freedom.

I love the song Mercy Me recorded recently. The song is the title track from their album “Undone.”

“No apology for who I’m meant to be,
the only thing that matters is I’m free…
To the cross I run, holding high my chains undone,
Now I’m finally free, free to be what I’ve become,
Undone.”

Free to be what I’ve become. Free to be who God made me to be - without all the baggage, free from the bondage of sin.

Now there is a victory worth celebrating, a freedom worth fighting to maintain. Make no mistake, our enemy still prowls around seeking those he may devour. That ancient serpent delights to remind us of our past in an attempt to make us forget we are now free.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, bondage and slavery is old news. It is history.

“Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. ” (John 8.34-35 NRSV)

But thanks be to God it does not stop there:

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8.36 NRSV)

Free indeed. There is a freedom worth celebrating every day of the year.