Liberty 7.16.2026

    Virtually every human person has their own definition of liberty. In each individual’s mind he or she is at the very center of everything. The most popular definition of liberty would go something like this. “I can think, say, and do anything I wish at any time, with absolutely no external restraint.” For most civilized people this doesn’t sound like liberty—it sounds like license. Yet for much of human history these two seeming opposites were more closely related than what we moderns would find comfortable. 

    Last week’s look at life was comparatively easy! Everyone who has life wishes to keep it and maximize it. Yet, even in the third decade of the 21st century the masses of people throughout history who lived without any conception of liberty still dwarfs those who have had liberty. For the human community, defining and delimiting itself, liberty may be the canary in the coal mine that not only didn’t die—it hardly ever lived! 

    Which is why a discussion of liberty that does not begin with and then focus on our universal captivity to sin is liable to miss the point. Consider what Jesus says in John 8.32 

“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:32 ESV)

 He certainly knew that those words resonated differently in the various segments of His audience. Some would have thought themselves already free in mind and conscious, even if they were actual members of the servile class. (Slaves) Others would have been offended. Against well understood “objective history” those contending with Jesus replied to what Jesus said with

“They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”” (John 8:33 ESV)

    Which is just silly—they knew better! Half of the Hebrew Bible is about getting into, though, or out of slavery, exile, or vassalage. It’s not just that it wasn’t true, the boast was hollow and self-serving. They were in an argument, and they were reaching for whatever stick was at hand to win the argument regardless of its truthfulness.  Listening Roman soldiers or Herod’s henchmen overhearing this claim probably chuckled. This doesn’t even consider other listeners who may have had extended family members living in Persia, who had stayed put after the exile ended. 

    You will notice that I am substituting freedom for “liberty” in this discussion. The use of the word “liberty” in the NT is a bit problematic. It is, at least in my favored version, rarely used  and translates several terms from different semantic domains. And when people speak candidly what they really want and they truly mean when they use terms like liberty, is freedom. 

    Even then, too many people do not understand that the real freedom Jesus discusses, the freedom—liberty if you will—that we really need has nothing to do with politics. The real freedom we need, now and always, is freedom from sin. And this salvation that Jesus offers, the salvation grounded in His own person and work is not restricted by nation, state, race, or background. The audience for His gospel expresses this universal need. 

    Jesus’ servant Paul was obviously not present when Jesus spoke the words recorded in John 8.  At that point in his life, however, he surely agreed with the sentiment expressed by those arguing with Jesus. Paul was proud of his racial/religious heritage and considered himself no man’s slave. He was filled with pride and loathing for those far less pure than he. I’m sure that the Saul we first meet—breathing fire and fury against the Church would have agreed against all evidence that he and his people had never been enslaved to anyone. It is interesting that he seizes on this imagery to describe the outcome of this freedom we gain through Jesus…

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 ESV) 

    

Clearly, this was not the thrust of the founders. This is not what the meant by liberty. Their goal was founding a republic. Their purpose in declaring their “liberty” was freedom from external rule by what had become a foreign power. That freedom, wonderful as it is, is far different in kind and separate in function from the freedom we have in Christ. 

    All residents of this nation are covered by the freedoms guaranteed in our founding documents. Social and political liberty have a limited and parochial reach. Outside of the USA the Constitution may be an admirable statement but it is not foundational. 

     Many of those politically liberated people, free to “live their best life”, are still slaves to sin. The liberty they enjoy may lead to a richer life, but when that life ends the real problem remains. On the other hand, the goal of the Church is to proclaim the liberating gospel of Jesus wherever we may find ourselves, to whoever will listen, accept His offer of freedom, and be transformed. We proclaim that liberty whether here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, or elsewhere in the land of the oppressed political slave. Our goal, our ministry, our purpose, our mandate—our mission. Proclaim the true liberty only available in Jesus. 

Life 7.9.2026

The opening section of the Declaration of Independence famously states…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

    Regardless of debates about how self-evidential these truths are, or what exactly the founders meant by equality, or how far they intended to extend these “unalienable” rights, there is a discussion to be held regarding their theological propriety since they also drug “Their Creator” into the discussion. 

    I think it proper during this anniversary month to consider how life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should be rightly considered from the perspective of Scripture. A central part of this discussion needs to wrestle with the fact that words—all words, at all times--need to be considered in their proper literary, social, cultural, psychological, and (if possible) spiritual context(s).  As much as we would like to just say “word x means y”, this gets us nowhere until we fully consider the context in which x is uttered. Hermeneutics is more than lexicography. Hermeneutics requires us to survey the intellectual geography surrounding a term to determine why an author (or authors) chose to use a term in a specific way. All authors are creatures of this “geographical” intellectual environment that typifies their time and place, and it is virtually impossible to replicate that intellectual landscape. This is why we must be particularly careful in interpreting any text whether a purely political (and dare we say propagandistic) document like the Declaration of Independence or more critically, our approach to Scripture. 

    Obviously, the founders recognized that a political entity—Colony, State, or Nation needed to provide some modicum of stability so that people could simply live. People needed to farm, work, raise their families, establish communities, educate young people, and worship. Clearly, the founders had concluded that the King and his government no longer could be trusted to guarantee the freedom to live and function. They saw life, within this context. So, they worked to provide a justification for a new political alignment in which the governed would assume the liability for their own lives. What seems to be common sense to us, was, to put it mildly, revolutionary in their century. Not just in the 13 colonies but in the rest of the world. 

    This perspective, largely derived from enlightenment thinking, challenged the status quo of thousands of years of reasoning regarding who was principally responsible for a nation’s life. Virtually everyone agreed that it was the responsibility of the sovereign. Now, for us, because of this Declaration of Independence, the responsibility for guaranteeing life and providing for community integrity comes down to the community; town, state, or nation. The people have become the guarantor of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whilst this may be accurate from the perspective of political and social necessity it is separate from and unrelated to what the Bible asserts about the nature and character of the life we most need. 

    John, Elder, Apostle, and servant of Jesus didn’t know anything about this bootstrapping, new-fangled, citizenry that is defined by the Declaration. He was actually a royalist, albeit of a different kind than addressed by the founders. In the NT literature attributed to Him John uses the word “life” (ζωὴ) 59x. This term whether spoken by Jesus or used in narrative contexts is a central part of John’s presentation of the Gospel. It is a fitting point of contact. Consider some examples.

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4 ESV)

““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24 ESV)

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:63 ESV)

"And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:11-12 ESV)

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”(Revelation 22:17 ESV)

    I realize that I have cited a significant body of Scripture. It is sufficient to establish the point that for John, and this is largely born out in the rest of the New Testament, life is found not in our political, social, racial, or cultural heritage but in Jesus—He who gave His life to redeem us. Our life—our entire being is in the Son. 

    In trying to make unfounded and unbiblical connections between the purely political, earthly, and imperial we lose our focus on the King in whose Kingdom we find not only earthly comfort but eternal redemption. 

    The USA is a wonderful country. There is no doubt that being an American is a tremendous blessing and that we possess enormous advantages that other nations do not. Privilege brings responsibility and enormous opportunity. We must be careful to not squander the latter in avoiding the former. 

    Yet individual humans die. Some nations and cultures have gone into extinction. Many of the places that nourished the Christian faith in its infancy are barren to it, even hostile in intent. Yet in other places it flourishes! Because the life of a nation may be its people, but the life of the Kingdom is the King who gave His own life to redeem us. As the Church changes and flourishes in new places the true life that we have in Jesus triumphs over all substitutes and fashionable facsimiles. As we share a national birthday it is right and good for us to remember that our faith-roots go far deeper than here and now. We share the inheritance of the Saints which transcends geography, nationality, and chronology to melt into the eternal life of God.

In Jesus 7.2.2026

5 They live in their own countries, but as aliens. 4 They share in everything as citizens and endure everything as foreigners. 5 Every foreign country is ⌊their country⌋, 6 and every country is foreign. Epistle to Diognetus, Rick Brannan, trans., The Apostolic Fathers in English (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012)

    Christian people have their identity in Jesus. I think that the epistle to Diognetus captures this complexity perfectly. It is in being able to embrace what it means to be in this world (whether that be our city, county, or nation) but not of it, that helps us to be joyfully present in our world. 

    In a couple of days, we will celebrate Independence Day 250. And while we will always have a special place in our hearts for the land of our native, physical birth, as Christians we should recognize that we should never feel fully at home here. Our new birth defines our nature, destiny, and purpose. 

    I believe we need to recall what it means to live, like our first brethren, in our own country, but as aliens. We need to hold fast to the Biblical testimony regarding our heavenly citizenship and cultivate a historical understanding of how believers have negotiated this often-confounding path. Diognetus is a good place to start. I think these words remind us that to stubbornly hold so tightly to something which is not permanent, risks losing the good offered by that very thing. And Diognetus is expounding a solidly Biblical principle. That’s the job of preacher/pastor/theologians, to take scripture and to interpret it into new contexts, new situations. 

    Here are some scriptures that help maintain a balanced perspective amid our alien existence. I don’t know if these texts were on the mind of the Epistle of Diognetus, but they certainly have resonance.  

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”(Psalm 137:1 ESV)

“the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.” (Ezekiel 1:3 ESV)

“ And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” (Acts 16:13-14 ESV)

Three texts about three exiles, three aliens. Their identity was found neither in their native land nor in the land of their exile. They found their identity in their relationship to God. Lydia soon responded to the Gospel and found a new identity in Jesus. In their exile the knew their true citizenship was in the Kingdom. The same is true for us. Our true place is the Church, the present Kingdom of our Lord.

    We are not the first who have had to deal with this uncomfortable reality of being, in a sense, exiled, or at least separated from our home. We make the best of it. We hear God’s voice. In some circumstances the way will be wet with tears, in others there will be joyful celebration. 

    Peter addresses the whole Church in his epistle, when he assumes that this is our universal status. He describes his audience (as a “catholic” epistle this would be the whole, distributed Church) with these words.

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (1 Peter 1:1 ESV)

Mrs. Beckman and I live next to the mighty Wabash river. It isn’t the Chebar canal, it’s not the Gagnitus river. Just the ol’ Wabash. One of these days we will be at home and sing by another river

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1 ESV)

 Till then, every country is foreign, and every country is home. Till then, we are happy exiles sharing the story of an undiscovered country and a universal kingdom. Till then, we tell the story of Jesus for those who love and live by that story, and for those who loath and laugh at that story. Till Jesus comes, or we conclude our journey we are happy travelers who sleep soundly at night, joyful exiles in the arms of Jesus. 

 

Yes, we’ll gather at the river,

The beautiful, the beautiful river;

Gather with the saints at the river

That flows by the throne of God.