No Other Liberty, No Other Protection
States’ Rights and Christian Liberty
States’ Rights and Christian Liberty
(Franklin sanders, The Moneychanger) - At the beginning of my career as a professional defendant, I had occasion to file some papers in Marion, Arkansas, the Crittenden County seat. Now I was coming out from under over ten years of wandering in the wilderness of Randianism and libertarianism. My idol had been Liberty—complete autonomy.
I found the building, a red brick Grecian revival style with white columns. I parked my car and got out. Imagine my confusion when I looked at the courthouse and read on the frieze these words: “Obedience to the law is liberty.”
I have spent the last 17 years learning what those words mean.
WHY CHRISTIAN LIBERTY?
The theme of this conference is “States’ Rights and Christian Liberty.” But why Christian liberty? Does Christian liberty differ from any other kind? Christian liberty is reserved for the people of God alone. It does not belong to all mankind, although they may enjoy the blessings of political liberty in its shadow. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II Corinthians 3:17) At the same time, where the Spirit of the Lord is not, there is no true liberty, nor can there be any liberty.
LIBERTY IS A CHOICE OF SLAVERIES
What is Christian liberty? It is the opposite of something, but what? Bondage to sin. What is the natural state of man? Slavery to sin. It is to choose sin always. It is to be unable to choose the good, unable to obey God willingly. It is always to rebel against the Most High God. But Christian liberty is also positively something in itself, namely, Freedom to obey God, Freedom from sin, Freedom to choose good, not…