John 8:31-42

Hearing about the dear price, the steep cost paid in pain and loss and blood for our freedoms, paid by others we don’t know, how should we respond as citizens of these United States to these sacrifices?

Certainly sheer thankfulness is one true response! Another would be action. To respond to our freedom in such a way as to honor and propagate the principles sacrificed for so that freedom continues in spirit and in fact. That is, to live a life that is true and free and is not itself enslaved to wrong and evil, but rather partnered with righteousness. And to lead others in that same light and freedom by example.

As we consider the words of our Savior, the Lord Jesus this morning in the gospel of John, I pray too that we as believers can have the same kind of heartfelt response to the ultimate freedom purchased for us in the gospel, by the sacrifice for our freedom paid in blood for us by Jesus. Here our Lord teaches us of two great freedoms he bought for us: First, freedom from the domination of Sin as our Master. And second, freedom from the horrid grasp of physical death. Let us love our freedoms and especially, the God who gave them to us in a precious deposit, a trust, for which we are stewards.

Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light, that God can set forth the precious gift of our 4th of July Independence day to point us to the ultimate, everlasting and perfect freedom?