“Give me liberty, or give me death!” Patrick Henry uttered this now famous phrase in his speech to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, as they discussed whether or not to form a militia of Virginian troops independent of the British Crown on the eve of the American fight for independence in the Revolutionary War. This one line is credited with swaying the votes of those attending the convention to forever stand on this mantra: give me freedom or give me death—including two future presidents and several other founding fathers of the United States of America. This phrase is often viewed as the foundation of our country, and rightly so. Most Americans view their freedom as the most blessed treasure they have. Many millions have made this country their home because of the liberty that is promised on this soil. That liberty molded our generations, our American history, and in essence the world and the church as we know them today.
The generations before us made strong proclamations about their liberty. Many early colonists sought to build a better country, believing that, given freedom and liberty, self-determination, that goal could be accomplished, that nation established. After the Revolution had founded a nation of freedoms, later pioneers had more individualistic goals: a life for oneself and one’s family, claiming land and building a homestead, working to leave a legacy for future generations. By the turn of the 20th century, the goal for many had become to make a name for oneself. Through technology and opportunity, one could invent, design, or create a better product or a better process that would make life easier, more profitable, and give the individual more liberty with finance or time, or both. By the mid-twentieth-century, the focus turned to an even more internal goal, and liberty was redefined: “You can be whatever you want to be.” A generation of post-World War II children was taught to use the freedoms that they had been afforded to achieve, accomplish, and build what past generations had only dreamed! Anyone could be an astronaut, a doctor, a businessman, a firefighter, or even the president of the United States! Millions were convinced: You truly can be whatever you want to be. The new mantra led to the conclusion that, “if I can be what I want to be, surely, I can have what I want to have!”
But what if you cannot be whatever you want to be, and therefore you will not have whatever you want to have? The thought that you can have whatever you want to have has led our society to the greatest debt crisis the modern world has ever known. But it’s not just houses, cars, and stuff that I want to possess, it’s also knowledge, understanding, and enlightenment! My freedom, my liberty says I deserve it! I am entitled to have what I want when I want it! This use of liberty has developed into a culture that has destroyed the original intent for what American liberty and freedom was built. What seems to be the last step in this process defines our entire world today. What is liberty today? You can change whatever you want to change. You can change the economy, poverty, politics, religion, and the rules. You can change your name, your career, your social status, your sexual orientation, your identity, and even your gender. Literally nothing is out of reach. Nothing is off limits. Everything can change “for the better.” This is our current society’s idea of liberty.
Of course, I was not asked to write an article on American history, but I do believe God will use this timeline to illustrate for us the downward spiral and coming destruction for someone that is using liberty for an occasion to the flesh. In Galatians 5:1 God’s Word says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Because of the illustration shared above, it seems that we may have a problem viewing liberty in the same way that God does. Our view of liberty is selfish. We are primed to see how Galatians chapter four points out that we are not of the bond woman Hagar but of the free woman Sarah, and thus we can view the liberty that Christ has given us as a label or a stamp of approval upon anything we choose. We can do this because we quickly forget the theme of the Bible. If I read the word of God with a me-first attitude, asking the question on the outset, “What does this mean to me?”, I will quickly come to the place of thinking about my freedoms, my liberties, how God has blessed me!
While this is in no doubt true, God gives us a clear understanding of what real freedom and liberty looks like when we keep at the forefront of our study that the theme of the Bible isn’t my salvation, or the “scarlet thread”, or the cross, or even the resurrection; the theme of the Bible is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! The Bible is about Jesus’s kingdom and Jesus’s throne—not mine.
With this in mind, why do I have liberty? The pinnacle verse of the book of Galatians is a defining verse of the Christian life: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). My freedom, simply put, is a freedom from myself: a freedom from living a life that is self-gratifying, self-indulging, self-proclaiming, and self-centered. My liberty is not a liberty that says I can make a life for myself, make a name for myself, be whatever I want to be, have whatever I want to have, or change whatever I want to change. My freedom is meant for one thing and one thing only: to let Christ live through me, and that means I am to extend the love of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world, to selflessly lay down my flesh, my desires, and my hopes and dreams to love others, to fulfill the law of Christ! “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:13-14).
Loving others isn’t easy! A selfless love for others, making self of no reputation, is quite the opposite of making a name for oneself, but that is biblical liberty. We can do all things through Christ! But, contrary to the me-first Christian society “all things” probably will not include running touchdowns and hitting home runs; far more likely “all things” will mean dealing with persecution, loving the unlovable, overcoming sin, and laying down our lives for others—for some, that may be literal. Because of what Christ has done, He has made available all the freedom, the liberty, and the power to live that life: the life that fulfills the law of Christ, and the outcome of that life is found as you continue in Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
Brothers and sister, let us die to ourselves, to our flesh, and use the liberty we have in Christ for His glory: love our neighbors and share with them the source of our love.
Give me death, it is liberty!
Seth Keenum is the spiritual development pastor at Decatur Baptist in Decatur, AL where he oversees the young adults ministry.
