This is Part 2 of a 5-Part sermon series titled “Liberty and Justice for All” preached at Mt. Gilead UMC in Georgetown, KY. The whole worship service is in the link below titled “Sermon Video,” and the sermon begins at minute marker 4:44. Click here for Part 1.
Give Me Liberty…
“Give me liberty or give me death!” These words were the final plea of the fiery orator, Patrick Henry, in 1775 as he sought to convince those in Virginia to send troops to help in the fight against the British in the Revolutionary War. “Give me liberty or give me death.” Our country was founded upon the belief in freedom or liberty; freedom from oppressive governments and monarchs and dictators; freedom from taxation without representation; freedom from tyranny; freedom from religious bigotry and persecution. We know that the early settlers and colonizers in the Americas were fleeing from something, seeking a new world, a new life free from the toxic political environment of England and Europe at that time. And they were seeking more than just freedom from something—but also freedom to something; freedom to live how they wanted; freedom to worship how they wanted without government persecution; freedom to rule themselves instead of be ruled by others. And so the early Americans’ pursuit of liberty sought both a freedom from something and a freedom to something.
And today when we think of what freedom is or what liberty is, either what it means to us or what it meant to them back then, we usually think of it in terms of political freedom, religious freedom, social freedom, freedom of speech—“we can do what we want, say what we want, when we want, how we want.” “We can do as we please, thank you very much.” “I thought this was a free country.”
And while defining freedom that way isn’t bad or wrong, when we come to the Bible, we see freedom defined in some different ways. The Bible talks a lot about freedom, and when it does, it usually has to do with freedom from two things: freedom from sin and freedom from death. “Give me liberty from sin and death.”
…from Sin and Death
Now we hear a lot today about freedom from sin in church. In fact, much of Christian faith today emphasizes sin, and I think really overemphasizes sin. We hear a lot of preachers and evangelists trying to convince us that we’re sinners. You’ve heard it before: you’re a sinner, Jesus came to forgive sins, ask Jesus to forgive you, and you’ll be forgiven. And that’s that, right? Isn’t that the Christian faith in a nutshell? Well, that’s what we’ve been told. But is that truly the case? Is all of Christianity about sin and our sinfulness as humans and God’s remedy for our sin? If you asked me, I’d say that I really don’t think so. Do I think that forgiveness for sin is important? Absolutely! Is it a part of why Jesus came to die on the cross? Yes. But if you asked me if I think that freedom from sinful living and sinful hearts and our sinful natures is the end all be all of the Christian life, then I would say, “No.” It is certainly part of the Christian life. But in the large scheme of things, it is really the beginning of the Christian life. That’s where we start. It’s the door into the house. In the Apostle’s Creed, we say, “I believe…in the forgiveness of sins…” But it doesn’t stop there, does it? It goes on to say, “I believe…in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
You see, the Christian life and Christian faith is good news, not bad news. So much of Christian preaching and evangelism today focuses upon the bad news about humanity. Yes, we’re sinful. Yes, we’re messed up. Yes, our world is full of hatred and fear and death because of our sin and sinfulness. But that is not what we hear preached in the New Testament as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t hear the first Christians proclaiming doom and gloom about how sinful everyone is. That wasn’t their approach to reaching the world with the Gospel. They didn’t start by trying to convince everyone that they were sinners and that Jesus would forgive them of their sins if they just asked forgiveness and repented from their sins. And they didn’t even go around proclaiming, “Jesus saves,” or “What would Jesus do?” or “Jesus loves you” or “You’re going to Hell” or “Jesus forgives you.” While all of those things might be true and be important parts of Christian beliefs, they are not the Gospel message that we see proclaimed to the world in the New Testament. Instead, what we see in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Acts, is that Peter, Paul, and the early Church proclaimed over and over again the message that “God raised Jesus from the dead.” That was the Gospel message of the early Church. Time and time again, all throughout the Book of Acts, again and again it says, “but God raised Jesus from the dead” (3x). That is the Gospel. That is the Good News. And it is Good News because it is an announcement of freedom, freedom not only from sin, but freedom from death—what Paul calls “the last enemy” of humanity.
And Jesus himself proclaimed this Gospel announcement of freedom in Luke 4 when he says, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). And what Scripture was he talking about there? None other than Isaiah 61:1-9 (NIV).
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. 5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. 6 And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. 7 Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. 8 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”
My friends, yes, we are sinners. Yes, we are sinful in our very nature. And yes, the punishment for sin is spiritual and physical death. But let us not think for a moment that proclaiming our sinfulness and our deserving of death is the Gospel. No, the Gospel is that Jesus has set us free—he has set us free from the power of sin, which, no joke, is very powerful indeed; and he has set us free from death, the punishment of sin. Through the cross, Jesus paid for our sins and wiped them away and removed them as far as the East is from the West. But as Paul says the cross without the resurrection means nothing: “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17). And so, that which is of utmost importance to the Christian faith, what is right at the center is belief in the resurrection of Jesus. That is the Gospel message: “God raised Jesus from the dead.” Translation: death—the ultimate menace and enemy of humanity—has been defeated. It’s not just that three days later, Jesus walked away from the grave. His resurrection wasn’t just a resuscitation where he came back to life in his old body. No, his body was transformed and glorified. That’s why the disciples didn’t recognize him at first. That’s why he told Mary not to touch him. God raised him from the dead and gave him a glorified, resurrected body, free from sin, death, decay, hunger, thirst, mourning, and crying. The NT writers call Jesus the firstborn from the dead and they call his resurrection the firstfruits of the new heavens and new earth. And this true freedom from sin, death, and decay was not just for Jesus. That’s the Good News. Jesus didn’t just defeat death for himself, but for all of us. That is the kind of freedom and justice for all that God wants for the world. That is true freedom for people. True freedom is not about kings and queens, presidents and Supreme Courts, oppression and slavery. Freedom from those things—tyranny, slavery, oppression—are important and good and right, and I believe that God wants those things too. But freedom, defined in the Scriptures, is not about choosing between liberty or death. Rather, it’s about liberty from death.
My friends, death is not our friend. Yes, as Paul says, it is better to depart and be with the Lord, but that’s because it leads to being with the Lord, not because the departing itself is a good thing. No, people were never supposed to die. Adam and Eve were given freedom, freedom to eat any fruit in the Garden, except from that one tree; freedom to choose whether or not they would obey God’s command, and we know how that story ended, or at least we think we know how it ended. We tend to think that the end of that story was sin, disobedience, death, and the world going to Hell in a handbasket. But that’s not really the end of the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve’s story is our story too. We live in a world of sin and death and chaos all around us. But that’s not the end of their story, our story, the story: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:21-22). That is the Good News and the end of our story: all in Christ will be made alive.
God’s Freedom for All
This is the liberty that God desires for all. And I know that death has hit us all hard this year. We’ve all lost people that we know and love, or at least we know people who have lost people that they knew and loved. We’ve all been reminded this past year of just how fragile life is, how in just a moment life as we know it can just immediately be changed and turned upside down. “Death waits for no man.” Except for Jesus and those who follow him. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
And that’s the question that Jesus is asking us today, this morning: do we believe this? This is the center and core of the Gospel message—“God raised the Lord and he will also raise us by his power” (1 Cor 6:14)—do we believe it? If we do, we will be saved; if we do, we will be freed, liberated. As Paul says, “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified [made righteous], and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom 10:9-13).
My friends, I know that you believe this. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. But I also know that we all need reminded of this truly Good News that we have, that is not just for us to share with the world but is for us to take in more and more each day for ourselves as well. We can’t give others what we don’t have ourselves. The Lord has set us free, and we are free indeed, but not completely yet. That day won’t come until Jesus returns and the sky is ripped apart and the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, praise the Lord, oh my soul, and as Paul says, “we will all be changed,” and the Scriptures will be fulfilled that say “Death has been swallowed up in victory,” and “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:51, 54-55). I pray that the Lord will give you joy in the midst of hardship and death, knowing that death is not the final word or the end of your story or your loved one’s stories or anyone’s story. And I pray that the Lord will give me and you an eager desire for that day to come, that day when even “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). And I pray for you, as even Paul prayed for the church in Rome, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). Let us pray.
Dr. Timothy J. Christian 
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