Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
In the U.S. today, Americans are taken up with general jollification over the gift of political liberty won for them by their ancestors in the American Revolution. One aspect of jollification which most people don’t need to work too hard figuring out is that it has no “practical” value. We don’t play in order to achieve something or fulfill some grim economic necessity. We play because play is good and we are creatures whose dignity is properly reflected by play, just as the Creator’s dignity is properly reflected in creating a universe for no other reason than because He gratuitously decided to do it. In the same way, we are not free “in order that” some utilitarian purpose may be fulfilled. We are free because we ought to be free: it suits the sort of creatures we are, free creatures made in the image of the free God. So light off a firecracker for freedom today and thank God, who is the Author of freedom for the gift of freedom.
