250 Years Later: The Self-Evident Truth That Changes Everything
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This month we celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary. Since my word of the year is truth, the basis for our declaration of independence caught my attention.
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.
The founders believed it to be a self-evident truth that God created all men equal and gave each one the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. They maintained that since those rights were given by God, they could not be taken away by any government. Therefore, the responsibility for securing those rights falls upon the people when a government fails to honor God and the rights of the people. I intend to springboard off of these self-evident truths and zero in on God’s provision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in and through Jesus Christ.
“In Him was life.”
John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’”
1 John 5:11-12: “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
The idea the Founders had in mind when they used the term life certainly referred to bios or mortal life. If God creates and gives life, it is self-evident that no one has the right to take or destroy that life. The verses above refer to eternal life, one which swallows up mortal life (2 Cor. 5:4). Mortal life is valuable and to be protected, but God has allowed it to be taken away by the devil and his agents, whether they be governments, parents, or enemies. The life that no one can take away is the life of Jesus Christ. If God gives eternal life to someone, that right to life is eternally secure. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30). This is a life worth pursuing.
Yes, we, the people, should protect the right to life in this world because it is true that God created each individual at conception and gave them bios, mortal life. We have the right and responsibility to elect people to offices of government that promise to secure that right. I hope you will take that responsibility seriously. However, the bios life you have received from God is not eternal. It will be taken from you. David penned in a psalm the temporal nature of life on this earth. “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps. 139:16). Earthly life is limited.
I hope this July 4th, you’ll consider celebrating this Truth: Jesus is the life, eternal life. Do you have it? If you have Jesus, you have the life we should all pursue and celebrate.
Liberty
John 8:31: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.'”
2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Galatians 5:1: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free.”
The colonies declared their freedom from Britain and her king. In the War of Independence, they procured that liberty. It was a long and hard-fought battle for independence. Like bios life, the right to liberty that they believed was a self-evident truth, was a temporal one. It is also self-evident that there are limitations to one’s liberty. One’s liberty should not extend beyond another person’s right to life and liberty. We have also learned from history that once liberty is gained, it also has to be maintained. On July 4th, we will celebrate 250 years of maintaining our liberty from Britain. However, we have given up some of that freedom because the majority of the populace doesn’t have the freedom that Jesus Christ gives.
The Scriptures above remind us that Christ gives a freedom within that no government can give or take away. The grace of God through Jesus Christ, instilled by the Holy Spirit, liberates us from bondage to sin, self, fear of death, and fear of man. Through our union with Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been raised to life and given freedom from the power and penalty of sin (Rom 6:4-7). Even more, we have the promise that one day we will be free from the very presence of sin. That’s true freedom worth celebrating!
Because God placed us under His government—“transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13)—we were given the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance. As long as the Holy Spirit is Lord in our lives, we have liberty (2 Cor. 3:17). We are free to love being set free from selfishness. We are free to trust being set free from fear. As we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy in the USA this month, may we not fail to praise God and worship Him for this great truth: We are free forever to love with Jesus Christ.
Pursuit of Happiness
Psalms 16:11: “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
John 1:16: “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”
John 15:10-11: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
Ephesians 3:19: “…And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
Through a biblical lens we gain a deeper knowledge of this truth about happiness. It is a self-evident truth that every person should have the freedom to pursue happiness, but of course, again there are limitations in the real material world. If one’s pursuit of happiness infringes on another’s right to life, liberty, and happiness, then there must be limitations and definitions or there will be problems. What does God say about our happiness? What is the truth?
The Scriptures above indicate that true happiness, a fullness of life that satisfies the deepest desires and needs of the human soul, is only found when that soul discovers the purpose for which it was made. Man was created to express the fullness of God, or to put it in the words of the Westminster Catechism: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” How do we glorify God and fulfill our purpose? I like how John Piper phrases it: “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” He suggests our problem is that we don’t pursue our happiness as intensely and passionately as we should. We shoot for less than what God intends and promises by not seeking the source of our true happiness enough.
God is only glorified when His life, the life of Christ, through the Spirit of Life, is expressed in one’s life. When the fullness of Christ emanates through our lives, not only is God glorified, thus fulfilling our purpose, but we experience fullness of joy. Do you see that in the verses above? So if we pursue true happiness, the path to that pursuit is a narrow one: obey God’s commandment to believe in Jesus and love as He loves by abiding in God’s love revealed and expressed through Jesus Christ (John 15:8-11).
Celebrate the true declaration of independence
Let me draw this to a close with this great truth: The one who lives to love with Jesus secures and experiences true life, liberty, and happiness. This seems self-evident to me as well as the truths upon which the 13 colonies declared their independence. Perhaps the best way to celebrate USA 250 is to declare our independence from this world by surrendering our rights to an earthly life, liberty, and happiness and putting our hopes in the true, eternally-secure life, liberty, and happiness to be found in Christ Jesus, our Lord and King. On July Fourth we will express our gratefulness for God’s providence in establishing our nation upon the self-evident truths revealed by the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Those truths are but a shadow of THE TRUTH revealed in the gospel of Nature’s God: He has provided the way to happiness, liberty, and life for all men, equally and extensively, by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. Through Him, as our life, we are set free to be truly happy. This truth changes everything. Happy Fourth of July!
God has established The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International as ambassadors of His kingdom proclaiming the good news of His gospel: Jesus is Life. In Christ there is liberty to turn your hearts to God and your families. Living to love with Jesus is the way to true, enduring happiness. All of the resources found at spiritofeljah.com and livetolovewithjesus.com are aimed to equip you to live the the gospel and express the heart and life of Christ as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in Christ, and as children of the kingdom of God.
My daily Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast, 2-5 minutes in length will keep you fixed on living your God-called purpose in life. You can find it on iTunes or Spotify.
I hope you’ll make yourself familiar with Equipping Men: Practical Tools for Life’s Issues, if you are a man seeking to be a godly husband and father, and with Equipped to Love: Building Idolatry-free Relationships, for those who are thinking about getting married or are engaged to be married, and the Anchored in Christ book or mp3 download, if you are going through a difficult storm in life and need encouragement.
As you support Elijah Ministries, you become a member of God’s revolutionary force, declaring your independence from the tyranny of Satan in this world and proclaiming the arrival of His kingdom. May His kingdom come and His will be done in your families and mine as we walk in the reality of pursuing life, liberty, and happiness in Christ.
Living to love with Jesus,
Norm Wakefield and the Elijah Ministries family