As Independence Day rolls around each year, I think often about the young English Protestant Reformer John Frith, who was burned at the stake as a heretic on July 4, 1533. Why did he die? In short, he died because he refused to reject his biblical convictions regarding the Lord’s Supper and justification by faith alone.
Frith lived and died in an era when few people could even conceive of the God-given liberties, expressed in the Bill of Rights, that United States citizens enjoy today. Though he died unjustly at the hands of English authorities, Frith died – in one sense – a free man. Indeed, although he was not free from religious persecution, he discovered in Christ Jesus the spiritual freedom to live for God and stand for his biblical convictions no matter the consequences.
On Independence Day, I also often think of a poignant scene from the chapter titled “The Fourth of July” in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, Little Town on the Prairie. In the scene, as Laura and her family join their neighbors to celebrated Independence Day, Laura’s Pa begins singing the patriotic hymn, “My country, ‘tis of thee.” The crowd joins in as he continues to sing:
“Long may our land be bright
With Freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!”
The story continues: “The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the Song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America’s king. She thought: Americans won’t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn’t anyone else to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.
“Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. ‘Our Father’s God, author of Liberty—’ The Laws of Nature and Nature’s God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God’s law is the only law that gives you a right to be free.”
In that moment, Laura hinted at a truth that we would be foolish to ignore: God gives us freedom that we may live in virtue, that we might love Him with all our being and love our neighbors as ourselves.
By faith in Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross, we find freedom from sin, death and hell. But, with great freedom comes great responsibility and purpose, as the apostle Paul says,
“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:13-14).
This truth is expressed, in other terms, in Eph 2:8-10: “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”
Within the United States, God has granted us another kind of freedom – namely, from religious persecution and political tyranny, but He has also given us the freedom to love our neighbors within the public sphere. With such freedom comes the responsibility to practice and encourage virtue within society.
Of course, one way each of us can do this is by registering to vote and, when the time comes, by voting. The last day to register to vote in the Aug. 6th primary election in Missouri is July 10, and the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 5th general election is Oct. 9.
The stakes are high in Missouri’s elections this fall, since pro-abortion groups are striving to enshrine expansive abortion rights in Missouri’s Constitution through a ballot initiative. Let’s use our freedom this fall to foster public virtue and, in particular, to defend the unborn.