Commitment
I’m writing this the day after Independence Day in America, my native land. Not surprisingly, I’m still thinking about the ramifications of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolution that followed and the nation that emerged from it.
It wasn’t only July 4 that brought on those thoughts. In the past months I’ve been thinking about the inception of our nation, the men who conceived it, the deadly war they were willing to fight for it, and the extraordinary Constitution they wrote and ratified in the following decade (1787-89). Those things have been on my mind because of our current state of affairs, socially and politically.
It appears to me that an increasing number of Americans (especially young-adults) don’t much value (or are even aware of) the work of those Founding Fathers, the freedoms the Founders and their generation won for us, or the extraordinary nature of the nation that grew from their wisdom, toil and blood.
In these long-since famous words, the Declaration begins with its reason for being:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….
After enumerating reasons for the necessity of independence from Britain — addressed directly to “the present King of Great Britain,” i.e. George III — the Declaration recounts specific and numerous curtailings of freedom the King laid upon “the governed” in the American colonies without their consent. It then concludes:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States….
The 56 signers, some orthodox Christians, some not, and by trade lawyers, merchants, physicians, farmers, plantation owners, and one minister, ended with this commitment: For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Signing the Declaration was a bold, courageous act for every one of these men. Each one knew he might be asked to give his life for the Cause he had committed to. And indeed, some were tortured and some died in the Revolution; others lost their livelihoods, their homes, businesses, property, families and health. Reading about what happened to a number of the signers is a sobering exercise:
If it came to that, and they realized it well might, these men were willing to lose everything in their commitment to freedom for themselves, their families and their fellow citizens (not subjects).
That has got me thinking: What am I willing to give, or give up, to fight tyranny? My country is dear to me, and tyranny (evil undergirds it) must be fiercely fought, including on the home front, if we are to maintain our freedoms. Tyranny is cropping up here and now. Passivity in its face doesn’t cut it.
Yet my ultimate commitment is to God. Would I, like the Apostles, and the saints martyred across history’s centuries, and the hundreds of thousands of martyrs in our own time (right up to this moment) commit to laying down my life for the Savior of the world? My Savior? The Apostle Paul, and Peter, knew ahead of time what Christ would require of them. They would each be led “where they did not want to go.” They were tortured and murdered by a tyrannical government, with the enthusiastic consent of former co-religionists, because they preached and would not deny Christ as Lord. If “standing up for Jesus” were to cost me my life, would I do it?
Up until fairly recently we in North America never gave that much thought, I dare say. But I suspect that the ongoing moves by those on the radical left against Christians and our faith are beginning to make some Christians count the cost of continuing to follow Christ here in the U.S., and in Canada. (Consider the nasty vilification, already begun, of potential Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic. And the calls for violence.)
The answer to being able to “carry our cross” is to pray that Christ will give us his Spirit to boldly confess his name and confront what we must, however torturous. And He will. Both Matthew and Luke assure us of this:
On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (Matt. 10:18-20)
When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. (Luke 12: 11)
Note Jesus says, “You will be brought…” / “When you are brought…” — not if. We must “take up our cross” and follow him. But the reward is vast: Blessed are those who endure to the end. We “will receive the crown of life,” the Apostle James assures us (1:12), “which the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
Reformed Revelry 