Freedom Indeed

          As national holidays go, Independence day is probably one of the most observed and thought of.  It has no religious overtones.  It celebrates the dependence from a foreign power and the birth of the nation.  Many great quotes come from the founding fathers of the country.  They all longed to be free from tyranny and to go their own way.  Freedom is something that is important to every individual.  One could say that we all long to be free and sometimes that freedom will be from different things.  When we think of political freedom, we think of one country being free from another and not wanting to have any connection with the old country in any way shape or form.  The Bible also speaks of freedom.  There is that longing to be free from sin and from the power of sin.  John 8:36 says, " If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."  
      We can look at the Declaration of Independence and stand in awe of the people, men and women, boys and girls, who fought to make our country free.  Freedom came with a price and men and women were ready and willing to give their lives for freedom.  There is that sense in which the Bible is our declaration of independence.  The freedom of every believer came with a price.  The price of freedom for the believer was the blood of Christ on the cross at Calvary.  We may try to compare the two freedoms and probably wonder how the sacrifice of One individual could possibly pay the necessary price for that freedom.  It is because of the perfect sacrifice.  The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay the price that God the Father had set for the satisfaction for our sin.  As the apostle John wrote in his first epistle, Christ was the propitiation, or the satisfaction, for the sin debt.  We cannot add one thing to the payment.  There is nothing that will ever act as a supplement to the salvation and the freedom that we now possess as a result of Christ dying on the cross for our sins.  You and I cannot add one iota to the act of Christ dying on the cross.  One songwriter wrote, "Jesus Paid it All."   John wrote that the payment for our sins satisfied the requirement.  You may be thankful for your political freedom, but you should be even more thankful for your freedom as a believer.and to realize the truth of the words in John 8:36 that the Son can make you free indeed.  Praise God today for giving us freedom.