The Cost of Freedom

As a little girl I would watch as my mother cut her beautiful flowers from her garden. Fragrant Peonies and Hyacinths, colorful tulips, and tall and stately Iris were the most common flowers blooming at the end of May. She would wrap them in newspaper and place them in a tub of water and put them in the trunk of our car. We children would be excited as we traveled over the mountain to McConnellsburg to the cemetery where a lot of my relatives are buried. But we were there on Memorial Day to honor all the veterans who had given their lives in service to our country. I was raised in a patriotic home. I learned to appreciate the sacrifice given by our service men and women, whether they lived to come home or died in the field.

A large group of gathered children would be given bouquets of flowers to lay on the graves of the veterans signified by the American flag. I enjoyed doing this with the other children. There would then be a short service including the singing of the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, and at the end, the playing of Taps.

My own father, John Franklin Stenger, was only seventeen when he lied so he could join the Army and serve during WWI. When I look at a picture of him in uniform, I see a young boy. But his childhood had made him grow up into a man too soon. And off to war he went, like many before and after him. Over the years some have served willingly and some were drafted. But we are grateful for their sacrifice so that we can live in a free country.

Here in the United States we have many freedoms that not all people in other countries enjoy. We have freedom of speech, religion, the press, right to bear arms, freedom to congregate, freedom against unreasonable search and seizures.  We are a blessed people, especially here in our country.

Our Memorial Day celebrations include parades, picnics and play! Nothing wrong with that. It has become a family day of gatherings with babies and grandparents and all those in between enjoying each other in relationship. From time to time as I sit in a group of people of all ages and from many walks of life I look around and see them having a good time. But my heart looks deeper and I wonder how many of them have a concept of eternity without Christ. How many even know the plan of salvation? How many do know and are running away from God?

On Memorial Day evening after we returned home from a lovely day with our family, I saw a picture on Facebook of a cemetery with an American flag standing in the breeze at every graveside. My heart could have wept when I thought of the hundreds of thousands who are represented in pictures just like the one I saw. And then I thought, “But there is One who died to give all of us a much better freedom”.

Romans 5:7-8, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 9 – “Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, even more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

A short outline of what we receive through Christ:

1. We are reconciled.
2. We are saved by his life

In Romans 5:10 we learn that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:12 – “Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sinned.”

3. Free gift brought justification

Romans 5:17, “For if, because of one mans trespass death reigned through that one man (Adam) much more will those who receive the

4. abundance of grace and the
5. free gift of righteousness reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ.”
   Romans 5:19 – one man's disobedience (Adam) – many were made sinners (and sinful nature)
   one man's obedience- through Christ, many will be made righteous.

6. Romans 6:18 – You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.

7. Romans 6:22 – wages of sin is death but the free gift of God's eternal life is Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ died so that we can have these seven things: We are reconciled, we are saved, we are justified, we have an abundance of grace, we have the gift of righteousness, we are set free from sin and we have the free gift of God's eternal life! We have all this because Jesus gave his life for us on the cross.

Heb 9:28, “So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.”

Have you been set free from sin?  Have you accepted the gift of salvation that was paid for by Jesus shedding His blood on the cross?  If not, do it today!