07/04/2026
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Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, which means that all across the country people will be gathering with family and friends, firing up grills, setting out lawn chairs, watching parades, and buying fireworks from tents that somehow inspire both confidence and concern at exactly the same time. In fact, I am pretty sure there is an unwritten rule that the best fireworks are always sold by someone who is either missing a finger, knows someone who is missing a finger, or has a story that begins with, "Now technically, what happened was..." and ends with a trip to the emergency room. It is all part of the experience.
There is something about this holiday that makes us stop and think about freedom. Not because our country is perfect. It is not. Not because our history is perfect. It is not. But because freedom is one of those things that is easiest to take for granted when you have always had it. Most of us did not have to fight for it. Most of us did not have to leave everything behind to find it. Most of us simply woke up one day in a country where certain freedoms already existed because somebody else paid the price to secure them.
And the more I think about that, the more I realize how similar that is to the Gospel.
Most of us have heard the story so many times that it no longer sounds shocking. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus rose again. Salvation is by grace through faith. We have heard it in church. We have heard it in Bible studies. We have heard it from pulpits and Sunday school teachers and Christian radio stations. We know the words so well that sometimes we stop marveling at what they actually mean.
Imagine hearing it for the very first time. Imagine being told that the God who created the universe knew every mistake you would ever make, every selfish decision, every failure, every sin, every moment when you would choose your own way instead of His, and He loved you anyway. Imagine being told that instead of waiting for you to somehow earn your way back to Him, He came looking for you.
Imagine being told that Jesus willingly walked toward the cross knowing exactly what awaited Him there. The betrayal. The mocking. The beating. The nails. The weight of sin. Not just the sins of the people standing there that day, but yours and mine as well. Then imagine hearing His words, "It is finished."
Not mostly finished.
Not almost finished.
Not finished if you are good enough.
Not finished if you manage to get your life together.
Finished.
Paid in full.
Debt canceled.
The prison door standing open.
Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
I think sometimes we forget just how radical that freedom really is. We are free from the impossible burden of trying to earn God's love. We are free from believing our worst mistake gets the final word. We are free from carrying guilt that Christ already carried to the cross. We are free from spending our lives wondering whether we have somehow done enough to deserve Heaven. We are free because Jesus did what we never could.
And let's be real for a minute. If getting into Heaven depended on being good enough, some of us would be in serious trouble. I cannot even make it through a grocery store parking lot without having opinions about the people who abandon their shopping carts three feet from the cart return. Apparently my spiritual gift is noticing things that could have been prevented with approximately six more seconds of effort.
The amazing thing about Christianity is that it is not ultimately a story about what we do for God. It is a story about what God did for us. Every other system eventually comes back to trying harder, doing better, proving yourself, or earning your place. The Gospel says there is nothing you can do to earn salvation because Jesus already paid for it. The ground at the foot of the cross is remarkably level. The wealthy stand beside the poor. The educated stand beside the uneducated. The pastor stands beside the former addict. The person who has followed Jesus for fifty years stands beside the person who surrendered to Him five minutes ago. Every single one of us comes the same way: by grace.
Tomorrow many people will celebrate the freedom won by brave men and women who were willing to sacrifice for something bigger than themselves. And we should be grateful for that. We should remember that freedom is costly because somebody always pays the price.
But as thankful as I am for the freedoms we enjoy in this country, I am even more thankful for a hill outside Jerusalem where another sacrifice was made.
Because one freedom allows me to speak.
One freedom allows me to worship.
One freedom allows me to gather openly with other believers.
But the freedom Christ purchased does something even greater.
It allows a sinner to stand before a holy God and be called forgiven.
It allows the guilty to be called innocent.
It allows the lost to be called found.
It allows people like us to be called children of God.
And unlike every earthly freedom, that one cannot be voted away, legislated away, conquered away, or taken away.
Tomorrow night the fireworks will fade. The smoke will drift away. The grills will cool off. The lawn chairs will be folded up and put back in the garage until next year. The holiday will come and go just like every holiday eventually does.
But the freedom Christ purchased nearly two thousand years ago is still here.
Still available.
Still changing lives.
Still setting captives free.
And that is something worth celebrating long after the last firework burns out.
