What Is Freedom’s Price?

On this weekend as Americans honour those who paid the supreme price for their freedoms, it is appropriate to remember that freedom never comes cheaply. Perhaps we should remember some of the immortal words spoken by patriots on the subject. One said, “Give me liberty, or give me death” Another said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Someone else stated. “It is better to die a free man on your feet, than to live as a slave on your knees.” Mann said, “No man escapes when freedom fails, the best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cried, ‘Appease! Appease!’ are killed by those they tried to please.”

I read a time back that over 200,000 Christian clergymen were killed for their faith in the former Soviet Union between 1917 and 1988. In addition, tens of millions of simple Christians died during this era as well. Let us never forget our forefathers who paid the ultimate price that we might be free of such religious repression and persecution. Let us also remember there is a continuing price to be paid in each generation if these precious freedoms purchased at such a high price are to be maintained and passed on.

But there is another sort of freedom that is even more precious and costly. It is the freedom our Savior spoke of when He said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free - If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.”

The price of this freedom has already been paid. It was purchased by the Father and Son at the most terrible cost. The ultimate sacrifice made by the Father and Son to procure our spiritual freedom is beyond the comprehension of the mortal mind. Yet, this incomprehensible freedom is offered to mankind absolutely free. Paul said:  “For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The spiritual freedom God offers to those who will repent and believe upon His Son is more than momentary and historical. It is eternal. When we are born again of His Spirit and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are justified by faith.

We are saved from:

The penalty of sin

The power of sin

The presence of sin

We are given eternal freedom from sin. We are  immediately saved from the penalty of sin. Daily we are being freed from the power of sin in our lives. When we are ushered into His presence eternally, we will be freed forever from the very presence of sin!

What does such spiritual liberty mean in a practical sense? God enjoined His Old Testament people to, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land.” Paul said to God’s New Testament people, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free...” And, “For brethren, ye have been called to liberty; only use not that liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

The Power Of The Gospel

That the pen is mightier than the sword is an inarguable and historically demonstrable proposition. Unlike military power, the power of the pen relates more to quality than quantity. Powerful ideas placed upon paper in short pithy phrases are the stuff of great historical events. Catchy cliches' contained in incisive insights, are the crucial instruments of information used by visionaries in the crucible of crisis to achieve historical, earth-shattering, revolutionary and radical changes.

It was not the ninety-five theses nailed to the Wittenburg Castle gate, but Luther's short and simple quotation from the Word or God, "The just shall live by faith," that gave the necessary slogan and impetus for the Reformation. It was not a lengthy philosophical dissertation of Paine nor the founding fathers of the American Republic that made the real difference. But a simple cry, "Give me liberty or give me death," by a man of the earth. The speech of this man, Patrick Henry, uttered in the Virginia House of Burgesses, became the spark lighting the fire of the American Revolution. These simple words were the battle cry that fanned its all-consuming flames until victory was won and independence was achieved.

The lengthy and laborious phrases of the main speaker at the dedication of the battlefield of Gettysburg, have been long forgotten. But the sincere, simple sayings of an Illinois back-woodsman, scribbled on the back of an envelope in a train carriage, galvanized a people. His short and moving speech lives on as one of the classics of literary history.

The most significant and revolutionary words of all are the simple words of the simple gospel of Christ. The real power of these words has its source in the powerful God of this universe. In contrast with many words that have changed people and the course of history, these simple words are powerful because they contain and capture ultimate Truth.

The power entailed in these few simple words is an ultimate mystery to historian and philosopher alike. They are foolish to the pseudo-intellectual. They are illogical to the studied logician. They are unreasonable to the worldly prudent and wise. They are weak to the mighty and self-sufficient. After all, who were those simple folk who with a few simple words turned the Roman world upside down? How could a simple Galilean speak words that would change the calendars, coins and conditions of civilisations?

But much more than this, how could such life-changing simple words, also change the eternal souls and destiny of men? But to the foolish these simple words are words of wisdom. To the dying, they are words of life. To the weak and insecure, they are words of safety and security. To the lost, they are the power of God unto salvation!

The Mystery Of Immortality

In Paul’s resurrection chapter he brings us face to face with the shocking common denominator of all men, death. He speaks to those who have seen all earthly hope collapse and lie in shattered fragments at their feet. He encourages those who in one moment of time have had their world turned upside down to come crashing down around them.

He speaks to those who have realised that eyes that once smiled have closed, lips that once spoke have fallen into cold silence and the warm loving grasp of a vibrant hand has forever relaxed. He addresses all men who, no matter how lightly they may treat the matter or how desperately they may try to circumvent or delay the issue, must someday stand on common ground as their hearts ponder the same age-old question of the mystery of immortality.

The stark reality of man’s mortality is made evident in the life of even the most sceptical. He cannot avert his eyes from the spectre of death that overshadows his every step. He cannot silence the voice that shatters his self-imposed naivete.

The timeless question of Job of old breaks loudly into the false sanctity of his consciousness with all the force of a wailing siren:

"If a man dies,

shall he live again?"

Job 14:14

Paul and Job urge man to break out of the shell of self-deception and face the issue squarely. He implores man to come to grips with the implications of man’s mortal existence, no matter how painful the encounter with reality might be. He insists man admit the hopelessness of his dilemma, unless an answer comes from a higher source and authority.

Theirs is not a question flung as a scornful cry into the face of an unyielding fate. But rather, it is framed as an intelligent appeal, from the heart of a man of spiritual wisdom. A man who recognizes that the answer to life’s central question can only come from the one from whom life issued.

Are we, as Paul, justified in holding that in spite of death, we have a valid hope of immortality? Some scoff at such a proposition as a ridiculous paradox. Some shudder at it as a dreadful possibility. Some, not as wise as Paul, turn to history outside God’s Word and are led only to the grave and left there. Because secular history is merely mute about the matter. It neither confirms nor denies the prospect of an afterlife.

Some turn to science, but find no laboratory, apparatus or technique for analysing life or death or discovering the fate of a soul. Some rely upon philosophy and find themselves free to speculate, postulate, formulate and posit theories, but in the end find their hypotheses unreliable, for philosophy has no reliable means of testing its conclusions.

Some of us turn to the only true and reliable source, the Word of God, to find there the only authoritative and satisfying answer to man’s perpetual quest for immortality. We cherish this hope as the established answer. Our hearts vibrate within us as we contemplate Paul’s climatic cry, "O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 

- John White

Our Blessed Hope

There rests within the breast,

Of those who wait for Him,

A fervent, burning hope for rest,

From sin in every limb.


Longing ever to be free,

From the prison of the flesh,

Through faith’s eye the empty tomb we see,

And our hearts are filled with bliss.

And echoing as we pause and listen,

The angel’s cry - "He is risen!" - John White