Sermon Snippet – Putting the Dependence into Independence Day
INTRODUCTION – Often, our nation’s fight for freedom from England is called the Revolutionary War. The folks who fought thought otherwise, for it was the king of England who had broken faith with the American colonists. King George III had violated his contract with the settlers. In so doing, he had violated his own laws and, even worse, God’s laws. Thus, the American freedom seekers spoke of the War for Independence, not the Revolutionary War. That perspective gave us the Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution of the United States. These documents do not give American citizens rights; rather, they enumerate our God-given rights and strictly limit the powers of government. Those early patriots had seen tyranny and did not want to experience it again. Our nation’s formative history provides a framework for today’s message.
1. OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR PITS US AGAINST GOD
Genesis 3:1-6 is the beginning of mankind’s rebellion against God. The false premise of Satan is that sin would cause Adam and Eve to be “gods” (verse 5) – that is, separate and self-existent. Instead of gain, of course, only loss ensued: strained relationships with God (verse 8) and others (verse 12); hard, frustrating work (verses 17-19a); and death (verse 19b). We are not made to be self-existent, and any attempt at such so-called independence is actually enslavement to the Christian’s three enemies: Satan, the sin nature, and the system of the world. This Revolutionary War is doomed to failure – everlasting failure.
2. OUR WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE PLACES US ON GOD’S SIDE- THE WINNING SIDE
Even in Genesis 3, a bleak and tragic passage, we find hope. Verse 15 is the first Biblical promise of a Messiah (no such promise was needed before Adam sinned). Verses 23 and 24 evidence mercy and grace, teaching us that we must put our dependence in God: He alone exhibits true independence (Isaiah 40:13-14). This core characteristic of God is the basis for the right kind of independence – for God’s freedom (Ephesians 2:1-6) that reverses the effects of our benighted Revolutionary War. Instead of bad relationships, we can serve one another (Galatians 5:13). In place of onerous labor, our work becomes eternally meaningful (Colossians 3:23). Physical death remains a reality, but spiritual death is replaced with spiritual life (as we read in Ephesians 2).
CONCLUSION – Each one of us needs to put the dependence into Independence Day; that is, we need to place our trust fully in the finished work of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It has often and rightly been said that freedom isn’t free. Certainly for Jesus, Who died on the Cross to set us free, our freedom was not free; it was purchased at the greatest cost possible. May we call upon Him for His salvation, and may we then live differently, serving Him and others. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).