God calls us to do the right thing – no matter the consequences.
It was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Before the Civil War, Congress enacted a law which demanded that all citizens return slaves who were fleeing from the South. Thankfully, thousands of Americans violated the law, in obedience to the greater law of God: “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you” (Deuteronomy 23:15). Regardless of their respect for our government, and for the rule of law in general, many followers of Christ – and others compelled by conscience – refused to do what they knew was fundamentally wrong.
Like many other matters of church and state, understanding when civil disobedience is warranted requires the utmost care. You and I are called to honor God, to honor God’s law, and to honor the authorities whom God has placed over us. We’re to honor and pray for government leaders whom we would not have chosen, and to respect the laws of the land unless they directly coerce us to violate the laws of God. The Bible clearly does not address every issue of political concern, but it does include some general principles to guide us toward the truthful and the good.
I respectfully contend that the swiftest currents in the river of Biblical truth flow in the direction of freedom and democracy, and that such deep channels of God’s common grace have fashioned and preserved the very best of our Western Civilization. Admittedly, the words “politics” and “democracy” came from the Greeks, and an ancient Hebrew would not have understood such lingo, but I suggest that the foundational concepts of individual liberty and freedom of conscience (“soul freedom”) flow directly from the Word of God.
If you’ve paid attention to Venezuela in recent years, you know that the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis there is heartbreaking. Though having to live in hiding most of the time, the 58-year-old María Corina Machado, an industrial engineer by trade, stands out as a modern-day hero. Tirelessly, and at great personal risk, Machado has pledged to advocate peaceably for her beloved fellow Venezuelans “hasta el final” – “until the end.” I find promise and hope in her sacrifice and perseverance, and I’m glad to report that Machado is now a Nobel Prize laureate.
As she has watched her beloved homeland self-destruct, Machado has observed the fallout from the abandonment of democracy: “Socialism always follows the same pattern. It elevates the state above the citizen, strips away your autonomy, your conscience, your dignity, your ability to choose. And it does so with a seductive lie. It whispers of equality, but the only equality it delivers is at the bottom – where everyone is dragged down together. That has been the case in every nation, on every continent, in every culture where it has been tried. The result is always the same: a gigantic state that crushes the people beneath it, and once it takes hold, is terribly hard to remove.”
What I want you to consider today is not simply that the Venezuelans have lost their way – and that we need to pray fervently for them – but that there’s a steep and tragic price to be paid by society at large whenever we ignore the deep-rooted principles of the Scriptures. Since we are created in God’s image, we share in and exhibit certain divine attributes. Despite our many sins and failings, we’ve been “created a little lower than the heavenly beings, crowned with glory and honor, and given dominion over the works of God’s hands” (Psalm 8:5-6). Such inherent and intrinsic dignity demands freedom for all people – for each one is a divine image-bearer. Venezuela forgot that.
I’ll quote Machado one more time: “Only free societies – where the individual comes first – can nurture both liberty and the responsibility that sustains it. Because freedom without responsibility decays, and responsibility without freedom is tyranny. But when merit becomes the path to rise, when effort and creativity are rewarded, then every citizen is called to succeed – the whole nation rises together.” If you ask me, that philosophy flows nicely from the portion of God’s songbook which I quoted in the previous paragraph: “crowned with glory and honor!”
The great translator, John Wycliffe, who gave us our English Bible, contended that God’s Word affirms “government of the people, by the people and for the people” – a phrase which has reverberated through the centuries since long before Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The faithful Puritans stood in that tradition when they declared, “Rebellion to tyrants means obedience to God.” Those powerful and prophetic words were proposed by none other than John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson for the Great Seal of the United States.
You and I are to be seekers of righteousness and justice not just because we’re Americans, but – in the ultimate sense – because we belong to the God of righteousness and justice. In the form of a penetrating question, Micah 6:8 sounds our clarion call: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Can you imagine a society – or a government – without goodness … justice … kindness … and humility? What I want you to see is that we didn’t imagine those noble things or discover them in a vacuum – but those bedrock notions which promote human flourishing come from the sacred Scriptures. Justice and freedom are God’s will for His children, and the inevitable and ultimate goal of human history: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” God’s people have always understood that our Sovereign God uses evil to destroy evil – and to usher in the common good.
The quest for freedom rallies the human spirit. Though born a “commoner,” the claim to fame of Sir William Wallace was the First War of Scottish Independence (1296 – 1328). You may remember how Mel Gibson captured Wallace’s persona and passion in the film “Braveheart” … “Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live – at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
I contend that freedom blesses the underdog. Freedom blesses those on the periphery – the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the suffering. I believe that the essence of democracy includes not just the power of the majority to implement its will, but the right of the minority to maintain and express its point of view – even in the face of a dominant and hostile majority. Surely our God who spoke the world into existence would not want His image bearers muzzled.
Friends, it is the Bible’s priority of personal liberty which paved the initial way for the freedoms of religion and speech with which we are presently blessed in America. Please let that sink in. The First Amendment did not originate with sophisticated men in a back room smoking cigars and chatting philosophy, but it flowed from a God who values freedom so much that He sent His only Son to purchase ours.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Freedom, when it’s real, can be costly. The prophets of old were the greatest dissenters of all time. They were misunderstood, feared, hated, rejected, maligned, and persecuted. In certain seasons, they were imprisoned, exiled, and even killed. But they were never silenced. At important moments in history, God raised up His brave people to do great but costly things – and they paved the way for the patriots to come.
Our Lord Jesus explained (Matthew 24:12-13) that “because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Gospel faithfulness is our highest priority, and perseverance is required.
May our freedom in Jesus Christ translate into a love for every person who is living without such glorious freedom. And may the “shalom” with which our Lord has just visited Israel inhabit all the Earth.
Hasta el final!
Pastor Charles
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