Perhaps following Jesus...Rights, part 2

I wanted to quickly restate the original idea behind this theme of rights before I posted the rest of this blog idea.  Perhaps following Jesus is just as likely to lead us to lay down our rights as it is to lead us to fight for them. 

Anyways, back to the idea of our religious rights being stripped away; I almost wonder if in fact it won’t be such a bad thing when the dust settles.  Naturally there will be a lot of backlash to begin with, but maybe it would benefit all Americans if politicians stopped claiming God as a member of their party as opposed to submitting their lives to Him.  Not to mention if some religious rights were taken away, it might just start a revival of some sort as nominal Christians’ true colors are shown when they are asked if they actually believe in a Creator God who became God in flesh in the deity and person of Jesus Christ.

Take China for example.  Christianity is outlawed in that country and yet it continues to spread like wildfire.  Compare that to the former USSR who when they had a decidedly atheistic rule was able to easily tear down the church by tearing down their buildings and attacking the leaders.  They took out the leaders of the church and the church fell apart completely and has still not recovered.  China on the other hand believes in easily replaced leadership.  One leader is kidnapped, and another easily replaces him.  Not pretending here that a pastor is easily replaced on some levels, but on the level of another leader taking over in his place and pastoring the people into a deeper relationship with Christ.

As citizens of America, we have been taught that we have to fight for our rights and many heroes have died protecting those very rights.  In spite of this, and I have military vets on both sides of my family so don’t think for a moment that I’m in any way trying to disrespect vets, maybe we have been misguided all along on fighting for our rights.  True freedom comes from knowing Christ.  People say freedom isn’t free, and they’re usually referring to the idea that thousands upon thousands of soldiers have laid down their lives to protect our nation’s freedom.  I would say from a Biblical perspective though, freedom has much more to do with the state of one’s heart than it has to do with external circumstances.  You can be in prison but have more freedom than someone on the outside in civil society at large.

Back to the original song lyrics that state, “I’m laying down my rights.”  Let me be clear that I am in no way advocating for Christians to sit idly by and watch our religious rights be eroded by the media and government.  What I am saying is that if my prediction comes true, that there will be positives to come out of it, just as there always are when God chooses to use a situation to refine His people in the fire and the redeem them.  These will surely be difficult to identify or even acknowledge, but they will still be there.

Also, as a response to the highly predictable argument that some readers may have been storing up while reading this entry, of course this song lyric is referring to laying down our rights to Jesus and submitting to His will and His way in our lives.  I chose to focus instead on how if our rights are taken away how we should anticipate that and act as a result of whatever may come our way. 

Laying down our rights to Jesus is something entirely different though, isn’t it?  We let go of our entitlement mentalities in light of the cross and resurrection power found in Him alone.  Instead of arrogantly pretending that God owes us something, we come to the realization that we owe Him everything.  When we come to the point of willingly laying down our rights in order to submit to His will for our lives instead, we have come to a place of sacred ground that is simply beautiful.  When we lay down our rights, which could also be perceived and described as dying to ourselves as an additional thing to consider, we instead pierce our ears and become slaves of Christ. 

In the Old Testament, after a slave had served his sentence of 7 years to pay off his debt, he had the option of being free or choosing to stay to work for his master.  If he chose to stay with his master, his master would pierce his ear as a marking that he now owned the slave for good so to speak.  David says in one of the Psalms that God has pierced his ear, meaning that David was now a slave to God for the rest of his life.  Similarly in the New Testament, we read about the need to become slaves to Christ.  This doesn’t make any sense to the modern reader, does it?  With all the negative connotation that comes along with the word slave, whether in reference to slavery as practiced in colonial America or modern day human trafficking, we find it extremely difficult to wrap our minds around being a slave, on purpose nonetheless, of Christ.

Those are the only two options when you get right down to it.  We can either choose to be a slave of Christ, or we can choose to be a slave to the things of this world and whatever is occupying the thrones of our hearts.  Although I want to add here that we often don’t choose to be slaves of other things, it’s more of a gradual slide into slavery that we aren’t perceptive to at all until it’s almost too late in some cases.  Maybe it begins with a flirty coworker that gives you the attention that you’re lacking at home and it eventually ends up in an affair that costs you nothing less than your marriage itself.  Or maybe it’s the unlucky person who wins his first time playing the lottery and is instantly hooked as a result of the momentary euphoria he has experienced, never realizing that it might just end up in an all out gambling addiction that depletes his life savings.  It is impossible though, to slip into slavery of Christ.  You will undoubtedly fall along the way and encounter bumps and even mountains, but rest assured that one does not simply fall into willing slavery to Christ.