Freedom?

Each year on July 4, Americans celebrate the birth of a nation. Fireworks blaze across the sky, flags ripple in the breeze, and stirring speeches proclaim that we are a free people. The word freedom rings out from every parade and pulpit. But have we paused to consider what we mean when we use that word?

For many Americans today, freedom means personal autonomy – the ability to do what we want, when we want, with as little interference as possible. But the men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 did not sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for such a shallow, libertine definition. They fought not for unrestrained freedom, but for liberty – something deeper, more virtuous, and more accountable – under God’s authority.

This distinction between freedom and liberty is not just a matter of wordplay. It strikes at the heart of how we understand our nation’s founding, our responsibilities as citizens, and our calling as Christians.

Meaning of liberty

When the founders wrote about liberty, they were drawing from centuries of moral and political thought – from the Bible, from classical philosophy, and from the English common-law tradition. Liberty was not the right to do whatever one pleased; it was the right to live in accordance with truth, reason, and virtue. It was ordered, responsible freedom – not lawless self-expression motivated by base human passion.

Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.”

More importantly, he emphasized that liberty must rest on a moral foundation. In a letter to Charles Yancey, he warned, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.”

John Adams put it even more bluntly: “Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.”

Adams also reminded us that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Clearly, liberty for the founders was not about indulging every desire, urge, and emotion; it was about exercising self-government under the rule of law, in obedience to higher moral principles, which they recognized as coming from “Nature’s God.”

Definition of liberty

The Declaration of Independence itself makes this clear. It does not speak of freedom in the modern sense, but of liberty as one of the “unalienable Rights” following natural law, endowed by our Creator. It is a theological document as much as a political one.

The founders declared not merely their independence from a tyrannical king, but an allegiance to a higher authority. The Declaration begins by invoking “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” and ends with a firm reliance “on the protection of Divine Providence.” Their appeal was not to majority rule or human invention, but to God’s eternal, moral order.

This understanding of liberty was rooted in a biblical worldview and a natural-law framework. The founders may have held different theological traditions, but they shared a basic belief that human rights were given by God and that government’s role was to protect – not create – those rights.

Biblical foundations of liberty

Scripture makes a sharp distinction between true liberty and the false promises of unrestrained freedom.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). Real freedom comes not from casting off all restraint, but from coming into alignment with God’s truth and His sovereignty.

The apostle Paul wrote, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). But he immediately warned: “Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13b).

Biblical liberty is always relational. It is liberty from sin and for righteousness. It is the power to do what is good, not just what is possible. It requires moral discipline, spiritual renewal, and dependence on God’s Word. Self-government is only possible when living in accordance with God’s authority.

Psalm 119:45 declares, “I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.”

True freedom is walking according to God’s commands, not running away from them.

Redefinition of liberty

Tragically, in modern America, the concept of liberty has been eclipsed by a hollow, selfish freedom. We now prize individual expression over moral responsibility. We demand rights but deny obligations. We speak of my truth instead of the truth.

This drift has dangerous consequences. In the name of freedom, we redefine marriage, destroy unborn life, and confuse God-given distinctions between male and female. We call it “progress” when, in reality, it is slavery to self – what Romans 1 calls being “given over” to a depraved mind. Self-governance, in the sense that the founders provided for in our system of government, is not possible when we are slaves to self instead of free in Christ.

We must not forget the warning of 2 Peter 2:19 (NIV): “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’”

Our culture has confused freedom with rebellion. But freedom without virtue is not freedom at all. It is bondage.

Restoration of liberty

What does all this mean for believers?

It means we must be clear and courageous in reclaiming the biblical vision of liberty. We must teach our children that liberty is not about doing whatever feels good, but about living in obedience to the truth of God. We must model lives of integrity, humility, and moral courage – because a free society depends on virtuous citizens.

The founders knew this. So did the Pilgrims before them. The Mayflower Compact, the first covenant of self-government in America, declared their intent to “advance the Christian faith” and form a society governed under God.

As Christians, we are called to be salt and light, to be in the world but not of it. That includes being watchmen for our nation’s soul. We cannot preserve liberty without proclaiming the truth. And we cannot proclaim the truth unless we first know it and live it ourselves.

This Fourth of July, let us do more than celebrate national independence. Let us remember the spiritual foundations of our liberty. Let us teach our families and our churches that freedom apart from God leads only to chaos. But liberty under God – order, moral, and true – is a gift worth defending.