Life and Liberty

Philippians 3:9          ‘and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.’

 

Over the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of talk about things like the placing of the Ten Commandments in public spaces, the saying of ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the use of prayer in schools. It’s a debate that never seems to end and, on both sides of the dispute, people are looking to our courts to make all the decisions on whether or not these things are legal and constitutional. It’s almost as if we are all waiting for the Supreme Court to make a Supreme decision on whether or not a Supreme Being exists.

 

Paul reminds us that, as Christians, our righteousness does not come from the law, but through our faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t have to wait for the courts to tell us how to practice our faith. We can freely put signs up about the Ten Commandments in our yards and churches; we can continue to say “under God” if we choose to, and we can certainly pray in schools (most of us do that anyway, especially during final exams).

 

The point is this: if we let our faith be shaped and molded by what’s constitutional, we no longer have freedom of religion. What we are left with is a government sponsored faith, which certainly is unconstitutional and is more like the arrangement that Communist China has with various religious groups in that nation.

 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating religious anarchy or another Presbyterian rebellion, I’m just saying that to be Christians we don’t depend upon the government to tell us what we can or cannot believe. Our faith was shaped by our Savior and it’s through Him that we are Christians.

 

Perhaps we should all remember something that one of our Founding Fathers wrote in 1774, “The God Who gave us Life, also gave us Liberty.” It was written by Thomas Jefferson and I have a T-shirt that I designed with those words, along with an American flag. I am going to proudly wear it this coming 4^th of July, as an expression of both my faith in God and my ardent love for this nation.*

 

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, our rights to have faith and to practice our religion do not come from our government or our courts. You are the One who gave us that freedom. You are the One who grants us liberty from fear, sin, and death, by providing us with faith, hope and love. In Your Holy Name, we thankfully and freely pray. Amen.

 

• If you want to look at this T-shirt and a few other similar items, visit the following website: http://www.cafepress.com/stushie