By Consent of the Governed: Independence Day 2017

We celebrate our independence as a country this week. For us believers this is a special time as we remember the special truths from the Scriptures that were the basis for our founding as a nation. Truths like “we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.” And, “all men are created equal;” and for certain, “that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men…by the consent of the governed.”

As Christians we know we have been set free from the power and penalty of sin. Sin is the tyranny in our lives that must be rebelled against, just as the colonists rebelled against the “taxation without representation” of their British rulers. We know we are born in sin and that the knowledge that each person in the new country that was America was also born in sin bore a profound impact on our founders. If all men are fallen, then the governments of all men are also fallen, for government is made up of men. Therefore government can only rule by the consent of the governed; that the authority to govern comes from God first because He created all men and gave them their basic human rights. As the people give the government the right to govern them for justice and fairness for all (for all are equal as God’s creation) the government is to remain limited and subject to the people. And when the government gets “too big for its britches” as my Dad used to say about me, then the people rise up through elections, protests (remember that little tea party that was held in Boston harbor?) and yes, if it is necessary, even war to make government subject to the people again. But the people must also remember that they are fallen and that the only way any of the grand experiment that was America will work is that all will be subject to the grace of God. “God shed His grace on thee” means we are none of us capable of ruling one another; only God can rule and we are subject to Him first, then subject to one another in humility and to our governments as they rule under the authority of God and with the humility from knowing that government is limited just as each one of us are limited. Only God is Sovereign.

We also know that the rights given to us by God are for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Note it is the pursuit of happiness, not the guarantee of happiness, which has been granted as one of our unalienable rights. Life came to us by God; liberty came to us by God; and happiness will also come to us as we yield and subject ourselves to God.

When we pursue those things that are not in keeping with God’s will we will never be happy, and yet we have convinced ourselves that happiness is best found outside of God’s will. We think happiness is getting to do what we want when we want the way we want, and then we wonder why we’re not happy. But America is the best place in the world to pursue it when our government remains limited and subject to the will of the people and when people remain limited and subject to the will of God. Any other pursuit is chasing after shadows.

Let freedom ring this holiday: freedom from the power of sin, freedom from the tyranny of our poor choices, and freedom from injustice. Let God govern our great nation through His truth which is surely marching on inexorably to lead us to His great kingdom. If our lives fall apart from our personal sin or from the sin of others as they make choices that affect us, let us remember that we are in the best place in all the world to start over. We “thank our lucky starts to be living here today.” If you find yourself needing to start over, seek God’s grace that has shed upon us “from sea to shining sea,” and you will find that hope and happiness are indeed possible. With God, there is always hope. God bless you all, and God bless America!