Part 4: Liberty and Justice for All

January 29, 2016                     NOTES NOT EDITED
Part 4:  Liberty, Justice, Equality

Galatians 5:1-  

SIS: All liberty, justice, and equality—indeed every human virtue—derives from Who Yahweh is, and What He has decreed.

Because defining anything, much less principles as deep and broad as liberty, virtue, and equality, let me state my sermon in a sentence another way:  There ain’t no liberty, justice or equality until, and unless, a person or persons submit to the rule and authority of Almighty God as outlined in the Word of God, the Bible!

Trying to understand concepts like liberty, justice, and equality without starting with God’s revealed nature and decrees is like playing a football game with no out of bounds markers and no goal lines, and no rules.  Even if one managed to live through four quarters or *** minutes of play, without some agreed upon basis for scoring points, no winner could ever be declared.

This goes back to the very premise of our four-part study.  The title chosen is “Under God?” with a question mark.  The implication of the question mark is that it is not at all clear that we, as a nation, or even as churches, agree on a core set of out of bounds markers, rules for life, or objectives for living.  The result is ever increasing chaos the longer we play this game. 

Politics cannot provide absolute parameters for playing the game of life.  Education is all over the the board and is useless for supplying the parameters for playing the game.  Philosophers are no help.  They don’t even agree with themselves from one thought to next.  Science is the most useless of all for while it is excellent at providing answers to questions of “how, how much, and even what,” science cannot provide any question whatsoever as to “why.”  Science is like a miserly king who continues to gather massive amounts of treasure but has no idea what to spend his wealth on.

America once had near total agreement upon the Ruler of society and the Rulebook.  The Ruler was near unanimously understood by our Founding Fathers to be the God of the Bible, Yahweh.  The Bible, quoted profusely throughout the founding days of our Constitutional Republic was the basis for evaluating all practices of government.  I could easily prove this by a hefty weight of evidence, but for now you must simply except my premise, or come up with a better one of your own.

Unless a nation is “Under” Yahweh, that nation will never be “one” in spirit and pursuits.  That nation will never be “indivisible” in our stand for each other and against common enemies.  That nation will not long enjoy “liberty and justice for all.”  With a “question mark” after “Under God?” a nation simply will not long survive.  Thomas Jefferson recognized this, as did nearly a totality of the 200 or so Founding Fathers.  This statement is enshrined on the Panel 3 of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.:

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

Here again, I do not have the time nor space to show you that the thousands of references to God in the founding documents refers to Yahweh, the God of the Bible.  I will summarize by saying this:  our laws are not compatible with the judicial processes of a godless nation, nor a nation such as India that believes in many gods, nor the Muslim nations that believe Allah in the Quran is Yahweh in the Bible.  We have never been a nation under Sharia Law, the law of Mohammed.  The God of the Quran is a bastardization of the God of the Bible.  The stories use many of the same characters, but an entirely different script.  All this is provable upon substantial evidence, but exceeds my purpose in this message.

Stated again, my sermon in a sentence is this:  All liberty, justice, and equality—indeed every human virtue—derives from Who Yahweh is, and What He has decreed. 

We depart from this basis for American politics at the peril of losing our nation for rebellion against Yahweh is sin and the Bible declares, “sin condemns any people” (Proverbs 14:34).  From here, we can now discuss the issues of “Liberty and Justice for All.”  We will begin by reading from Galatians 5.  In regard to

1.  LIBERTY we understand several important facets (1-6)

We read in Galatians 5:1:  Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.  This verse indicates that there are facets of our freedom or liberty that we cannot lose, and other facets that we can lose.  The most significant aspect of freedom, which we can never lose, is SPIRITUAL FREEDOM.  This inviolable freedom is the basis and source for all freedom.  If someone is not “spiritually free from the bondage of sin,” any other freedom one might enjoy is at best temporary, and at worst an illusion.

Paul describes our spiritual freedom in terms of grace overcoming the bondage to the Law. 

² Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. ³ Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.  ⁵ For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope  of righteousness. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

Specifically, Paul has in mind the Christian leaders-Judaizers-who felt that trusting in Christ’s completed work on the cross was not enough to assure spiritual freedom, hence salvation.  One needed also to keep the Law, which they defined as all the rituals of the Jewish faith.  The primary example of such was the Jewish ritual of circumcision.  Paul’s conclusion is that not only is it impossible to be set free from sin by keeping the Law, it actually becomes another form of bondage.  Look again at verses 3-4:  ³ Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. 

Law and grace are incompatible.  If you want to practice keeping the Law, including circumcision and all the other 1000’s of rules, then you “alienate” yourself from God and Christ.  The ESV gives a stronger sense of what Paul is trying to say,   You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.  Paul may be offering a word play on the idea of circumcision, or “cutting off the foreskin for religious merit.”  Taking into account the context, a useful translation of this text, supported by the ESV would be, “If you allow your foreskin to be cut off for religious merit, you will be cut off from Christ.”  Look at how verse 12 supports this play on “cutting off parts.”  ¹² I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated! (HCSB).

While specifically Paul is addressing the Jewish ritual of circumcision, in a broader application, Paul is condemning any attempt to gain spiritual freedom apart from grace, whether it be religious practice or philosophical reasoning.  Grace, and grace alone, provides the SPIRITUAL FREEDOM that releases one from bondage to sin and eternal damnation.  This is “true” freedom and the source of any other freedom.  This freedom, once gained, is permanent and can never be diminished in any way.  It is freedom from the PENALTY of sin.  Theologically, it refers to justification

There is also in regard to the matter of Liberty, the facet of PERSONAL FREEDOM.  This relates to the freedom from the power of sin in one’s own life.  Look at verses 16-

16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.  18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious:  a sexual immorality, moral impurity,  promiscuity, 20 idolatry,  sorcery,  hatreds,  strife,  jealousy,  outbursts of anger,  selfish ambitions,  dissensions,  factions,  21 envy,  o drunkenness, carousing,  and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Spiritual freedom, at least theoretically, is absolute.  Christ did not offer a partial redemption on the cross.  However, salvation is not only an event, in which we by the grace of God, are made immediately justified upon our repentance, but salvation is a process.  We call that process, sanctification—or, the process of being made “holy.”  We see the “absolute” quality of our freedom in Christ in the conditional statement of verse 16.  If we “walk by the Spirit,”—this is absolutely possible—then we will not “carry out the desire of the flesh,”—this is highly probable.  While we are in this body of flesh, we must constantly battle the temptations of our sinful nature.  When we give in to our sinful nature, “we are submitting again to the yoke of bondage” (v1).  To be PERSONALLY FREE we must constantly exercise our faith and trust in Christ to overcome temptation.  If we don’t, any manner of sinful addictions and predilections will overcome us.  While a Christian’s soul can never again become enslaved to the penalty of sin, the Devil can gain absolute control over the mind and body.  This is why so many Christians cannot overcome heroin addictions or any number of the sinful predilections we read in the list above.  This is why so many Christians never really come to an understanding of what it means to be a “child of God.”

So many Christians think they can drink like the world, dance like the world, talk like the world, party like the world and not suffer the consequences of God’s wrath in the body like the world!  Paul said in 1Cor. 11:30:  That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead! Sin can’t kill the soul of a Christian, but it will kill the body as sure as night follows day!

Third, our Liberty is a matter of POLITICAL FREEDOM.  By this, I do not mean freedom from government restriction, government oppression, or even outright, government persecution.  What I mean by “political freedom” is the freedom from the PRACTICE of sin in our daily interactions with other people.  Look at the end of verse 21 through verse 23

--that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,  kindness,  goodness, faith,  23 gentleness,  self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

Political freedom is a matter of how one “practices” one’s faith.  We can follow all the selfish, self-righteous, self-gratifying penchants of the flesh, or we can choose to express the “fruits of the Spirit.”  We don’t need government permission or sanction to “love our neighbor.”  We don’t need political power or preferential treatment to feel the “inexpressible joy of our salvation!”  We don’t need the government’s sanction to “live peaceably with others” or “be patient, kind, or good.”  Our “faith” is not dependent upon who sits in Oval Office, but Who sits on the Throne of Heaven!  We have no need whatsoever for the government’s help in practicing “gentleness or self-control.”  We have complete and total freedom in our political interactions with both friend and foe to “practice the fruits of the Spirit.  Against such things there is NO law!”

Victor Frankl, a famed psychiatrist and survivor of a German prison camp, gives this advice on how to remain truly free:  “When we cannot change our situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”  The essence of freedom is not what government does or does not do, but true Liberty is a matter of What God is doing in our hearts.

So, liberty, like all virtues stems from how one stands in relationship with God through Christ.  When we are “Under God,” we have complete freedom—SPIRITUAL, PERSONAL, AND POLITICAL.  Another issue we must consider is in regard to

2.  Justice

Defining even the simplest terms can be like nailing jello to a tree—a technical term often used by theologians in scholarly debates.  It seems like the answer to the question of “what is justice” would be as simple as opening the dictionary and reading the definition.  That would tell us something like this:  “the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness.”  Have we now settled the issue of what it means in our Pledge of Allegiance to provide “Justice for All?

While in English, justice and righteousness are two different words, in both Hebrew (the O.T.) and Greek (the N.T.) they are one word.  There are verb forms, referring to the “act of being just,” and noun forms relating to the state of being we refer to justice.

Our Pledge of Allegiance makes a plea for “Justice.”  But, what exactly does that mean.  It is not so easily defined as Liberty.  But, in a sense, understanding justice is quite simply.  To be just or righteous (two words in English but only one in both Hebrew and Greek), simply means, “doing what God would do in any given situation.” 

Throughout both testaments, the Bible speaks of righteousness, justice, judgement and related ideas.  God even debates with Job when Job entertains the idea that God is not being just, along with three of his friends.  God replies to the challenge to His righteousness beginning in chapter 38.  We read

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind.  He said:

² Who is this who obscures My counsel with ignorant words? ³ Get ready to answer Me like a man; when I question you, you will inform Me. ⁴ Where were you when I established  the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, ¹⁰ when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place, ¹¹ when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here.

Yahweh continues this same kind of challenge to Job’s challenge for four chapters.  God impresses upon Job, and you and I by application, that He not only is “just,” but He is the essence of justice, and the foundation for any kind of justice in the world. So powerful was God’s presentation and self-revelation that Job finally replied in chapter 42:

² I  know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted. ³ You asked, “Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance?” Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to  know. ⁴ You said, “Listen now, and I will speak. When I question  you, you will inform Me.” ⁵ I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes  have seen You. ⁶ Therefore I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes.

One of the reasons our nation is in such a mess is because, like Job, we “speak about things we do not understand” (v2).  Lawmakers and political pundits think they know what is “just and right” but they speak from a mere human standpoint that is light-years away from reality.  Justice cannot be understood, much less distributed among the populace, unless we begin with Yahweh Who is the essence of justice.  In Deuteronomy 32:3-4 justice is described as that which is like God and conforms to His decrees in the Bible.

³ For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Declare the greatness of our God! ⁴ The Rock —His work is perfect; all His ways are entirely just. A faithful God,  without prejudice, He is righteous (just) and true. 

Take God out of the equation of human politics and “justice” will be more elusive than a unicorn.  Liberty and Justice have no meaning whatsoever apart from Who God is and What He has declared in His Word.  Now, let us address the final issue in our quest to put the Pledge of Allegiance into a biblical context.

3.  The Issue of EQUALITY-Liberty and Justice FOR ALL

Again, we come to one of those matters in national life where everybody can tell you what it means for men and women to be “equal,” but it leaves us with nearly as many options as there are people with opinions.

Are “all” men and women “equal” in this world?  I don’t think anybody would venture to answer yes to that question.  According to Fortune Magazine, the world’s 8 richest men hold as much wealth as the half the world’s population of roughly 3.6 BILLION people.  That hardly seems “equal.”

Equality, like most important concepts is more easily defined than understood.  Coming up with a good explanation is a bit like nailing “jello” to a tree.  It may be helpful to see three different facets of equality.  I can only mention them briefly.

There is basic HUMAN EQUALITY.  By virtue of being a human, everyone has intrinsic value.  Every person was or is created by God.  As the cliché goes, “There is only one race—the human race.”  Paul suggests this Peter suggests that God views all people equally when he says(Acts 10:

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism ³⁵ but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.

Second, there is the matter of CIVIL EQUALITY.  God instituted government, and government institutes “civil laws.”  We, as believers, would hope that “civil” laws are founded upon God’s Law, but this is not the case.  A glaring example of the divide between God’s Law and Civil Law is the legalization of homosexual marriage.  This is the “civil” law of the land.  We as Christian citizens should have resisted this becoming civil law—and many did—but it is now the law of the land—unless and until it can be changed.  We, as Christians, should seek every legal means to change the Law, but for the time being, we must accept it.  This is God’s design, not ours.  He said (Rom. 13:1-4):

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities,  for there is no authority except from God,  and those that exist are instituted by God. ² So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror  to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. ⁴ For government is God’s servant for your good.

There are more edges to the puzzle pieces of “civil” law versus God’s Law, but this is the foundation.  Under our government, every citizen is bound by “civil” laws.

This brings us to a final consideration in regard to “equality.”  This is the matter of MORAL EQUALITY.  While all men and women have basic human rights, and under our form of government men and women have basic civil rights, all men and women are not MORALLY EQUAL.  What government declares “right” oftentimes God declares “wrong.”  Let’s follow our line of thinking in regard to homosexual marriage.  It is now a “civil” right granted by government and enshrined in law.  But, is a homosexual marriage morally equal to heterosexual marriage in God’s eyes.  We read this in Romans 1:

¹⁸ For God’s wrath  is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,  ¹⁹ since what can be known  about God is evident among them,  because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world,  being understood through what He has made.  As a result, people are without excuse. ²¹ For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.  ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools  ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. ²⁴ Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves

Certainly, God views heterosexual marriage differently than homosexual marriage.  Not all actions and attitudes are “morally equivalent” even if they are equal in the civil code.  At some point, when a nation’s civil laws diverge to such a degree as to incur the wrath of God, the consequences are grave.  Our nation is at that point now.  What is “civilly” right is often not “morally right.” 

“Liberty and Justice for All.”  This is the altruistic promise set forth in our Pledge of Allegiance.  However, unless we return to a position as a nation being “Under God,” liberty and justice for all will become bondage and injustice for all but the powerful.

All liberty, justice, and equality—indeed every human virtue—derives from Who Yahweh is, and What He has decreed. 

As we reflect back upon this study putting the Pledge of Allegiance into a biblical context, it should have been a sobering undertaking.  As we now see a new leader in the White House, we must seek a new passion for the Lord in the church house, or our nation does not have many good years left.

Our Pledge refers to us as “One Nation Under God.”  But, the question is, are we really “Under God?”  The challenge for us as believers is to seek with all our passion to “erase the question mark” after the words, “Under God.” 

Let us pray for and work for a revival in our own lives that extends to our churches, to our communities and to our nation.