“Give me liberty or give me death” is attributed to Patrick Henry in a speech he gave as he addressed the Virginia Convention in 1775. At this time of year we think on these types of things which helped form our nation and helped our forefathers decide to join together to fight against the tyranny directed toward this land by Great Britain.
This same sentiment was also employed by our founding fathers as they forged together a document declaring our independence and used the phrase: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Unfortunately, many only think about liberty or the freedoms we enjoy around the first part of the month of July or Memorial Day or some other day set aside for such thoughts and celebrations.
Sadly, many fail to realize that a different liberty is attainable and is a premise well known by students of the Bible. The Word of God of the New Testament is called the “Perfect Law of Liberty” by James as directed by the Spirit in James 1:25. In Galatians 5:1 we see that having escaped the bondage of sin in obedience to the gospel, we are to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. He has made us free from sin through His blood which we contacted in the watery grave of baptism.
It is also important to understand that in order to be blessed of God, we must continue in that “perfect law of liberty”. It is understood as James 1:23-25 tells us that we cannot just hear the word and forget it, but must also be a doer of the work. “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
The blessing of which James wrote is to be realized not only in this life, but after this life as well. In John 12:48 we see what Jesus said would judge us. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
In James 2:12 we see that the words of James affirm what Jesus said. “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”
If we do not apply the Law of Liberty and live by it, we will be as those described in Revelation 21:8 and will take part in the second death. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Dennis Strickland