True Freedom

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 
Romans 8.2

As we celebrate our independence as a nation, it is important to remember that God has set us free in a way no human nor nation has been able to secure. By his Spirit, God has set us free from the law of sin and death. God has done this by the law of the Spirit. 

What does this mean? In essence, this means that because Jesus lived for us, and died for us, and rose again for us, God is pleased to give us his Spirit. His Spirit comes upon us and enlivens us at conversion. We are born again by God's Spirit. When we come under the law or the rule of God's Spirit at conversion, we are set free from the law of sin and death.

To be set free from the law of sin and death means that one day we will be raised from the dead by the same Spirit (God's Spirit), that raised Jesus from the dead. 

We no longer belong to death. We belong to the Spirit who gives life. Because we belong to the Spirit who gives life, we no longer belong to sin the way we used to. Though we will still sin in this life, we are given the power to stop sinning. The Spirit gives us the power to begin obeying God from the heart. This is true freedom! This is true independence!

God's independence campaign doesn't free us to do whatever we want to do. God's freedom campaign gives us the power to obey him and say no to sin.

As we pause to remember our liberty and the cost for that liberty as a nation, may we pause and remember Jesus' cost to bring us liberty from sin, and may we give ourselves fully to the Spirit of God to live under his power to make us holy.