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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Ryan Quigley

Sacrifice and freedom can be considered the best of buddies. Where you find one of them, you inevitably will find the other. There is such a deep-seated connection that they have, which makes it nearly impossible to separate them.

This week we got to celebrate the independence of our nation, the United States of America. While our history as a nation is filled with great victories and failures, what really makes our nation so valuable is the price that was paid to get us here. Even among other nations, our most destitute have more going for them than in many other countries. The reason for that is due to the investment of our people and upon the shared sacrifice that got us here.

Our nation stands upon the blood of countless men and women who sacrificed so much at our founding and in the many conflicts that have followed to preserve this nation.

The hard truth is that this nation will not last forever, and eventually the grave will welcome each one of us. So what matters more isn’t something that can be valued in flesh and material matters, but something more, something eternal … something spiritual.

The Bible tells us that because mankind has failed God, we are unable to reach God in our own strength. This missing of the mark — which we will call sin — has made us slaves to death, slaves to the flesh, slaves to a way of life that separates us from God. But God in his great wisdom saw fit to make a way for us to be set free from that law of sin and death. Remember that freedom and sacrifice are intimately connected. Therefore if we are going to be set free from that old way of sin, God had to make a sacrifice, a shedding of blood, to grant us the freedom we need to truly live.

Enter Jesus.

Jesus Christ was not some mystical Jewish leader or some great man who reached enlightenment. He is God who came to earth and dwelt with man for the whole purpose of giving his own blood as a sacrifice for our freedom. Free from sin and death, free to live for God, free to experience his joy in our lives, Freedom!

In the Bible, in the Book of John we see this wonderful line. “Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” — John 8:36

As we celebrate freedom this week, recalling our history as a people, remembering the sacrifices of our founders and what they bought for us, may we also recall the sacrifice that God gave so we could be set free as well, and just as we in the USA try to use our freedom and extend it to other people, may we who experience the freedom of Jesus Christ also extend that grace to others!

Blessings!

Ryan Quigley is lead pastor at Albert Lea Assembly of God.