Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of God

Let me preface with this, because I do not want anyone reading this to have any incorrect misconceptions. I love my country, and am proud to be an American. In no way do I want any of you reading this to think for one second that I am criticizing America, I simply want to challenge the philosophy of modern Evangelical Christianity in America. That being said, I will now begin.

We as a country have gravely confused our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and our view of government.  Because we feel so strongly about our libertarian freedom from governmental tyranny, we have developed a sense of entitlement from God because of this volitional autonomy in respect to our governing authorities.

All of this comes back to the three rights we possess that our government has no right to infringe upon. These three rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. This is true in America. The three inalienable rights we possess as Americans are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But what is theologically wrong with this statement? The problem is that God doesn't promise any of these, at least not in the same way our country has come to. News flash: there are more Christians (and non-Christians) in the world living without these rights than there are living with these rights. We as Americans own these rights proudly (as we should, we fought for them), but as humans, none of us are entitled to them by God.

From a Biblical perspective, God owes none of these freedoms to human kind. Biblically, we as humans are not alive, rather we are spiritually dead; nor are we free, rather we are enslaved; and finally we are not entitled to the pursuit of genuine happiness, rather we are creatures of wrath and will only ever pursue our own selfishness, ultimately resulting in wrath. The inalienable rights of humanity are actually: Death, Enslavement, and the Pursuit of Wrath.

 All of this is due to our sin. This is our punishment by a Holy and Just God. And there is no way around this. It is not as if we are sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. We at no point can actually choose not to sin, thus claiming these rights. This is because sin is not something we do, but something we love. Apart from God, we can do nothing but sin. We are utterly consumed by and enslaved to sin (Romans 3:23).

However, God did not leave us in our state of total and utter depravation. He has actually provided a means in which we can receive these "inalienable" rights, and that is through Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.

At the Cross of Christ, there is life, there is liberty, and there is the pursuit of genuine happiness in God our Father. The Cross of Christ takes the dead, the enslaved, and the wrathful, and transforms them into the living, the free, and the hopeful. The Bible is clear that belief in Jesus Christ, results in life (Ephesians 2:4-5), liberty (Galatians 5:1), and the pursuit of God (I Timothy 6:11). All of this is done by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, humanity, because of sin, has rightfully earned death, enslavement, and wrath. But God being rich in His mercy, decided to send Jesus Christ, and only through Christ can we obtain life, liberty, and the pursuit of true happiness, which is found in God our Father.