Freedom That Costs Everything

Cover Article

by Michael Jones · Week of July 5, 2026

Picture a man standing at the open door of a prison cell. The lock has been broken, the chains have fallen away, and warm sunlight pours through the opening. Yet he will not step out. He clings to the familiar darkness because it is all he has ever known. That image captures the human condition more than we care to admit. We celebrate freedom as independence, the power to do whatever we please, yet the deepest slavery is the kind we choose for ourselves. Paul shattered this illusion: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Christ did not set us free to wander without direction. He set us free to live in His freedom, not the world’s counterfeit: deliverance from the wrong authority, the crushing weight of sin, self, and the relentless demand to be our own god. Before we were baptized into Christ, we were “slaves to sin” (Romans 6:17), but having obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching delivered to us, we were “set free from sin” and became “slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). That transfer of allegiance, buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–4), is the hinge on which true liberty swings.

Jesus drew back the curtain on this truth in John 8:31–36. He told those who believed in Him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” His listeners bristled: “We have never been slaves of anyone.” How quickly we protest our freedom while wearing invisible chains. Jesus answered, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34, 36). You can be free politically and enslaved to anger, wealthy and shackled to fear, admired by thousands and chained to the desperate need for approval. Sin never stops collecting its debt: it promises pleasure and delivers emptiness, promises control and delivers chaos. Only Christ breaks that cycle, not by removing all authority but by replacing a tyrant with a loving Lord: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

Here is the beautiful paradox: the person who surrenders everything to Christ is the freest person in the room. Paul described this life in Philippians 4:4–7: “Rejoice in the Lord always… Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Imagine living without the gnawing anxiety that steals your sleep or the bitterness that poisons your prayers. That is what surrender looks like. The one who has handed everything to Jesus is free to forgive, free to serve without applause, free to love without needing anything in return. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17), and that freedom expresses itself in love: “through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

But this freedom is costly; it always has been. When a rich young ruler asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus said, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). The young man walked away sorrowful, because he had great wealth. He wanted freedom but would not release the chain he treasured most. For most of us the price is not money but whatever we grip tightest: reputation, comfort, a relationship turned into an idol, the illusion of control. “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The world’s definition of freedom is a glittering lie that promises liberty while forging stronger chains. True freedom flows from the empty tomb, through the waters of baptism, and into the surrendered heart that trusts God with everything it has and everything it is. As we celebrate freedom this week, let us ask honestly: What am I still clutching that keeps me from walking fully into the light? Lay it at the foot of the cross. There is a wide, sunlit world on the other side of that open door, and the Son is standing in it, calling your name. - MJ

Other congregations are welcome to reprint this. It may be reproduced in another congregation’s bulletin or newsletter without asking permission. An acknowledgement of Orange View Church of Christ is appreciated but not required.

Bible Questions & Answers

How should Christians approach politics and voting?

This question deserves a careful, scripture-driven answer rather than a partisan one. The New Testament gives us a clear framework. Paul writes in Romans 13:1–2, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted.” The Greek word for “subject” here is hupotasso, a military term meaning “to arrange under.” Paul is not suggesting government is always right; he is affirming that God, in His sovereign providence, has ordained civil government for the ordering of society. He specifies the practical implications: pay your taxes, give revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7). Christians are not called to anarchy or withdrawal. We are called to be responsible, law-abiding participants in whatever civil order we inhabit.

However, submission to government has a clear biblical boundary. When the Sanhedrin ordered Peter and John to stop preaching in Jesus’s name, Peter responded, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God” (Acts 4:19). Later the apostles declared, “We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29). The principle is unmistakable: civil obedience is the norm, but divine authority supersedes human authority without exception. The Hebrew midwives defied Pharaoh’s command to kill newborn boys (Exodus 1:17). Daniel prayed openly in defiance of the king’s decree (Daniel 6:10). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow before the golden image (Daniel 3:16–18). In every case, these servants submitted to the consequences while maintaining obedience to the Lord. This pattern teaches us that voting and civic participation are legitimate exercises of responsibility in a representative system. Casting a vote is not rebellion against Romans 13; it is one means by which citizens steward the authority God has entrusted to the governing process.

What must govern our political engagement, though, is the recognition that no earthly party or platform represents the kingdom of God. Paul reminds the Philippians, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). The word Paul uses for “citizenship” is politeuma, a term that carried deep significance in the Roman colony of Philippi, where citizens prided themselves on their Roman identity. Paul deliberately redirects that loyalty: your ultimate allegiance belongs to a kingdom not of this world (John 18:36). On many questions of policy, faithful Christians who weigh the same Scriptures will still reach different conclusions. How best to fund the government, structure immigration, or support of labor unions involves prudential judgment, and we must not make agreement on such matters a test of fellowship, for “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

But we must be just as clear that not every question is merely prudential. Some are questions of plain good and evil, and on those Scripture leaves us no room to disagree. The clearest is the sanctity of human life. God made every person in His own image: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them” (Genesis 1:27). That image gives every human being, born and unborn, strong and frail, an intrinsic worth that no government and no majority may revoke. The psalmist marveled that God formed him in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13–16). To destroy innocent human life for the sake of convenience is not one policy among many to be weighed against tax rates; it is the shedding of innocent blood, which Scripture names among the things God hates (Proverbs 6:16–17).

This is why a Christian cannot give wholehearted support to a party or candidate that is openly hostile to Christ and the moral order He established. Scripture warns the righteous, again and again, not to lend their approval to evil. Paul condemns not only those who do wrong but those who “approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32). “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,” he writes, “but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). Isaiah pronounces woe on those “who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). The principle is not hard to see. Could a faithful believer in the 1940s have cast a comfortable vote for a regime that herded the innocent into death camps? Of course not.

Some evils are so grave that supporting them, or the leaders who champion them, simply cannot be reconciled with a heart surrendered to Christ. There was a time when Christians mostly debated how tax dollars should be spent. Increasingly we are asked something far darker: whether certain human lives may simply be ended. Abortion takes the lives of countless unborn image-bearers, and what is now called “medical assistance in dying” has, in Canada and several European countries, become a government-sanctioned path to suicide that keeps expanding beyond the terminally ill to the disabled, the depressed, and the poor. Solomon’s charge has never been more urgent: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11). No follower of Christ should put his hand to such things, or to those who promote them.

How, then, should we practically proceed? First, vote your conscience as informed by Scripture, not by tribal loyalty. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). Second, refuse to make any candidate or party an object of ultimate trust, and don’t assume that the political party you’ve always supported in the past is the same now as it used to be. “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save” (Psalm 146:3). Third, guard your heart against needless contempt. On the many genuinely disputable matters of policy, when a brother or sister weighs the same Scriptures and lands somewhere different, that does not make them unfaithful, and Paul’s instruction applies: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters… Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” (Romans 14:1, 4).

As we apply these principles, we must not stretch grace intended to cover differences of opinion to cover what God has plainly called evil. Patience with a brother over tax policy is Christian maturity; calling the shedding of innocent blood a mere difference of opinion is not. And, of course, pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2), speak the truth with love (Ephesians 4:15), and remember that the church’s mission is not to win elections but to proclaim the gospel, make disciples, and gather each Lord’s Day around the table of communion (Acts 2:42; 20:7). Our hope was never in a political party. Our hope is in the risen Christ, who alone will set all things right when He returns. - MJ