June 30, 2003

DECLARE YOUR FREEDOM!

July Fourth is the time Americans celebrate their freedom as an independent Nation. The sense of liberation from imperial England has been paralleled at other special moments in human history: the escape of the Israelites from Egypt in the Exodus over three thousand years ago; the exhilaration of African-Americans in 1863 when they learned of the Emancipation Proclamation; the amazing reversal in our day of South Africa’s apartheid policy which had treated people of color as inferiors.

Fireworks are an attempt to express some of the explosive feelings of joy that come at such moments. Hope is the dominant mood, and opportunities seem unlimited.

The Resurrection of Jesus set off a spiritual fireworks display that has been unmatched in redemptive history. In his conquest over sin and death, Jesus crossed over the Red Sea of human failure and futility. He established a Declaration of Independence for every lost and hopeless human person, and he proclaimed Emancipation for all who had been in the chains of slavery to sin and despair. The fireworks from that event are still being set off, one by one, as individuals turn to Jesus and experience their own personal liberation.

The New Testament author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus died and rose again to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15). The “fear of death” is a brutal slavemaster, robbing us of pleasure and satisfaction in even our happiest moments. When Jesus took away his power, we were able to feel true freedom for the first time. The “fear of death” has been swallowed up by the assurance of Eternal Life.

Sometimes we still submit to that slavemaster, even though he has no power over us. We find our joy tempered by the sense of our mortality. At moments when we have a right to be sending up fireworks of praise and jubilation, we find our matches dampened by worldly fears and insecurities.

Come on, people. Declare your freedom. Light up the skies!

–Pastor George Van Alstine