by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Freedom in Christ

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

If you live in the United States, maybe this Fourth of July feels different to you. There have been big changes to the national landscape over the past year. Some of us might be struggling to find something in which to rejoice, feeling like our nation has left us. Others of us are ready to break out the fireworks, believing that our nation has been reclaimed.

Age is giving me a new perspective on contemporary events. I grew up in turbulent times. Eugene, Oregon, where I grew up, is home to the University of Oregon where I remember protests and riots because of the Vietnam War. I had a one of my youth group counselors hit three times by bullets in the conflict and survive. I remember the assassinations of the Kennedys and Matin Luther King. I remember Nixon and Watergate.

Are things worse now? Are they better? Those are impossible questions to answer.

No matter how we feel about celebrating our nation’s independence, our freedom in Christ remains the same. In fact, Paul reminds us that it is for freedom’s sake that we have been set free.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1 English Standard Version

But from what have we been set free? We are free from our sin destroying nature through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are free from condemnation under the demands of God’s law. We are free to be the people that God has called us to be now and into eternity.

For some of you those words probably seem trite as though I’m ignoring the pressing issues of the day. No, what I’m attempting to do is give you a base from which to operate in this crazy world. God’s absolute mercy for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus allows us to struggle with the life we now live. It frees us from the condemnation of not getting things right.

Now matter how you feel about your freedoms wherever you live, know this: Christ has set you free for freedom’s sake. That you can always celebrate.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado