We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I love the ideal conveyed here in the Declaration of Independence. Equality and liberty is part of the created design of God. These are self-evident truths. It should be obvious. Every time we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we conclude with this: “With liberty and justice for all….” We shouldn’t need to argue.

But for something we say is a self-evident truth, that seems so obvious, there sure are a lot of obstacles. There have always been obstacles. There were obstacles when our founding fathers declared independence 245 years ago. There were obstacles long before that. It’s baked into humanity’s history.

Ours is the story of a world that falls short of the ideal of what it was created to be. The Bible has a word for that—Sin. Sin means missing the mark of God’s created design. This happens within individuals, but that’s never been the full story. God created our world with equality and liberty in mind, but enslaving, freedom robbing patterns and problems repeatedly emerge between people and within people. 

Jesus came to right what has gone wrong—to free us from all that enslaves. And as Jesus says in John 8:36 … “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” My prayer for us is that we will embrace the freedom Jesus brings. Don’t live in fear or shame. You are not stuck. Jesus holds the key to unlocking the sin that holds you down.

And the best way to embrace the freedom of Christ is to express it through love to God and others. That’s how we know that we are truly free (Gal. 5:6).