One year before ink was scrawled upon that beautiful document known as the Declaration of Independence, a man by the name of Patrick Henry stood in what is now known as St. John’s Church, giving an impassioned speech to rouse his fellow countrymen to take up arms against the impending British army. His final words in that tremendous plea have made it into our history books, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” This was no hollow claim either; many men did pay the ultimate price for freedom from Great Britain. All mankind has an innate longing to be free, hardwired into us by our Masterful Creator. As noble as our desire for freedom is, there is a devastating way this longing plays out in the human soul, for in our desire to be free from all rule, we become enslaved to our own self. No soul is truly free until the bonds of self-rule is broken and that soul is immersed into Christ himself.
From the opening pages of scripture, God warns us of an upside-down ruling principle. Adam and Eve, in their desire to be free from the rule of God, sought freedom in taking the right to rule their lives as they saw fit upon themselves, leading to further confusion in their life. “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Here we see mixed-up ruling in the most intimate of human relationships. God warned Cain that “sin desires to rule over you,” and yet, we find in the next paragraph that Cain slew his brother. Page after page, we find mankind making a mess of trying to rule. Page after page, we find the Lord waiting for us to bend the knee but letting us try and go our own way until we end up in a pit of despair and frustration before turning to the Lord.
I remember the time my wife and I took a trip to visit the nondescript graveyard where the British evangelist Leonard Ravenhill was buried. I couldn’t help but grin when I saw the headstone of the fiery preacher. With one last quip to the world, his famous words were etched forever on his headstone, “Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for?” Even after passing from this earthly realm, Ravenhill still points us towards Christ’s securing work of redemption and chagrining us for our obsession over worldly pursuits.
“Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for?” To answer that question, we must consider what Christ died for. Patrick Henry’s words will live so long as America lives, but Paul’s Spirit-inspired letter to the church in Galatia highlighting a freedom worthy of dying for will never pass away. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” The church in Galatia was quickly returning to where every human heart wants to turn, apart from the Spirit’s work in our lives: bondage. Bondage to the flesh. Bondage to the Law. Bondage to man’s opinion of us. Bondage, bondage, bondage . . . it is all around us and threatens to tighten around our hearts like a chain that squeezes the life of Christ out of us.
Paul told the Galatians, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” Paul does not mean that Jesus saves us so that we may become free-roaming moral agents for good. Earlier in the same letter, Paul describes himself as a “bondservant of Christ.” In a letter to the Corinthians, he says, “though free from all men, I became a servant to all that I may win some to Christ.” What gave Paul, a man free from all men, the power to submit to others for the sake of their souls?
Consider Jesus’s words to a field of farmers who were familiar with plowing fields with a team of oxen. Matthew records the words of Jesus, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Jesus is not promising to just unhitch those who are heavy laden from their yoke that they may run free. He does something far better; he promises to yoke you to himself. Jesus is teaching a beautiful principle here that I call ‘master substitution.’
For as much as we Americans enjoy talking about our freedoms, we are never truly free until we understand Christ sets us free even from ourselves. I need the plow to furrow deep into my soul, breaking the fallow ground of self-sufficiency. The blessed truth we often forget as Christians is that Christ does not set us free to leave us floating around by ourselves. The promise of Jesus is that He will yoke us with His yoke. We will be joined to Christ in a union of souls of which even marriage is but a shadow. It would be cruelty to the highest degree to leave my heart to itself. I know that I am “free from the Law” and the curse thereof, but our Lord does not abandon me and call it ‘freedom.’
Salvation is freedom from the mess of trying to be the ruler of my life. Do you believe that? Do you truly believe that if you called the shots, it would be a disaster of epic proportions? Does your prayer life reflect that you need the guidance of our Good Shepherd? Does your time in the Word reflect that you believe God's commands are life to the soul? Does your time spent in fellowship with other believers whom Christ is leading reflect that you need anyone other than yourself? Come on, Christian, quit playing nice with your heart and deal honestly with yourself. Do you desire to be a good servant of Christ Jesus? Press into that union you have with your good Master.
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” (1 Peter 2:11)
Christians, fight for the faith to believe that true freedom is only found in nearness to our Lord. Be free from all men, free from works-based righteousness, free from the love of the world, and most importantly of all – free from self. Dive into the endless depths of Christ’s love for your soul and find true freedom for your soul.
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