The world does not discriminate between the ability to make a choice and the righteousness of that choice. It sells you slavery wrapped in liberty. Free to smoke but addicted to nicotine. Free to drink but damage to internal organs. Free to commit adultery but the destruction of your marriage. Free to make the choice but enslaved to the consequences of that choice.
But true liberty is found not within the hearts of man but within the mind of Christ. The world sells us on the notion that the human heart is somehow salvageable or even worse, that it is somehow righteous. That as long as your intentions are good, the decision is good. God does not care about what our intentions are only that we obey the perfect law of liberty He has provided for us. And when you think there is something redeemable within the hearts of man:
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17: 9 (NLT)
The other side of the apparent contradiction works as well. In order to enjoy this liberty God so freely offers, we must becomes slaves to righteousness. We must become sold out for the Word of God our compass through this world. Our key verses remind us that we must not only listen to the Word. We must be doers of the Word. We can read that adultery is wrong and understand it but if we refuse to listen to it and follow it then we reap what we sow.
When we look in the mirror and see who we are, we should not forget that image just because we walk away from the mirror. God uses this imagery because the Word of God is like a mirror to our soul. It reflects back to us how we are measuring up to the standards God has set out for us. When we read it we gain insight into what we should look like in Christ. Walking away from the Bible should not result in us forgetting what we are supposed to look like.
True liberty this Independence Day is available for those who have professed Christ as their savior. It is ready for you today beloved. It is probably sitting on your coffee table or on your desk at work. It is waiting for you to pick it up and read it. To look at yourself in the mirror of its pages and discern where you need to line up with God more to enjoy the freedom He offers. Don't buy the false freedom the world sells and the eternal bondage it brings with it. True freedom and liberty is found in doing what we should, as God has outlined for us. Use God's Word today to guide you into all righteousness. As the key verses teach us that is where God's blessings are. Someone who merely hears will forget. But someone who is a doer of the Word will act according to the Word and thus be blessed in what is done. That is the liberty God offers freely to us all.
Reverend Anthony Wade June 28, 2011
