As those of us in the United States celebrate our Independence Day this weekend, we have a reason to think about our independence given to us through grace by our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been freed from the destruction and eternal death that comes from sin that once enslaved us—"for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

We have our independence from sin, but independence is not complete until we have both a "from" and a "to". If we have our independence from sin, but we do not have our independence to a growing, committed faith in God, we soon fall away from our independence. Without the right "to", we are like the people of Israel in the Old Testament who even after all God had done for them would repeatedly resume worshipping the idols of their neighbors. Devastation would come to them, and God would save them and win their independence from their oppressors, but after mere years of faithfulness, they would fall into sin again.

Paul wrote in this passage that our independence from sin must be coupled with an independence to a healthy walk with Christ. In his instruction, he provided a list of several goals that we have "independence to".

Independence to growth: Just like a plant either grows or dies, our faith has to grow or it fails. Paul encouraged his readers to strengthen our roots and build up our faith. Just like a plant cannot go without good roots, we are dependent on remembering the Truth we have been taught so that we can nurture and grow our understanding and awe of who God is and how God is working in our lives.

Independence to choose wisely: When Christ has given us our freedom, we have the opportunity to choose to reject that freedom and sink into sin again. This is one more remarkable characteristic of the miracle of Grace, that not only have we not earned it nor do we deserve it, Love even allows us to reject it. Paul warned that most people don't choose to oppose God. Instead, they choose to follow other appealing teachings and philosophies that have the effect of distracting and diverting them from the Way.

Independence to become complete: When Paul wrote these words, he was combating a false teaching that reasoned that Jesus could not have been fully God and fully human. This philosophy asserted that the perfect God had to be separate from our imperfect world, but Paul strongly disagreed. Instead, through God, we have the opportunity to put off our imperfect self and become that perfect being that God intended before we were brought into being.

Independence to thanksgiving: The more we understand about Grace and Love, the more we are in awe of who God is, and the more we are humbled and amazed by how God chooses to participate in our lives. The natural outcome of our growth in faith is a stronger devotion and an outpouring of gratefulness to God.

Independence to obedience: The full cycle of independence is that we choose with all that we are to serve God. Before we had our independence from sin, we could battle using all our human strength against evil, but we had already lost the war. Elsewhere in his writings, Paul compared this to being in a small boat on the sea during a storm, as sin tossed us about. When Grace first gave us our independence from sin, we gained the opportunity to choose and to follow the faith that we had placed in God. As our faith grows to maturity, we find ourselves willingly enslaved to God, not by force and not without choice, but in joyful obedience to the one who is our source of Life.


This is the completeness of our independence, that in our independence we find and embrace our total dependence on God. We come "full cycle" in our freedom in choosing to dedicate ourselves to the One who makes us complete. Just as Jesus taught in Luke 9, those who "lose their lives for my sake will save it."