[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       No question exists that Thomas Jefferson had a profound impact on the speaker when researching and trying to understand this whole concept of independence, or freedom, for the sake of a human’s will. Interestingly, though it may seem strange to some, this whole area of discussion wasn’t much thought about or explored in earlier learnings. That was all reserved for understanding theological matters. But what is interesting is that, really, gaining insight into independence is in and of itself a theological matter. It is important to understand the concept of independence because it certainly influences one’s theology. In other words, where a person stands as pertains to independence affects where one stands on certain theological matters. And with that in mind, then, it does become a significant subject to explore and try to understand.

       The journey actually began in reading Thomas Jefferson’s 'Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. It had always been on the ‘to-read’ list, at least in the vague sense, and then one day it reached the point where it was time to read it. Indeed, it is a short document—some two or three pages—yet nevertheless when reading something it is necessary to try to grasp it fully. To not just try to read it once and think that clear understanding is had. What is interesting is that it provided a different angle, a different perspective on the subject altogether. One could really argue, and not everyone might agree with this conclusion, is that the Statute really calls for leaving love in the equation when it comes to religious freedom. That is, we can argue about what is right and wrong all day long, but it reminds us, subtly and without mentioning it overtly, what actually should be the heart of the matter when we hold our beliefs.

       From there, it really went into a deeper dive in trying to comprehend Jefferson as a individual. And then came books and documentaries in order to try to do that. Thus, time was spent, countless hours in fact, trying to gain insight into the man. Whether it was reading his journal entries—reading the words of the man himself—or whether it was reading a book about the man—or whether it was watching some documentary where he was portrayed—a good understanding was grasped. Surprises manifested themselves and, of course, so did the inevitable disappointments. That second area seems to come with becoming familiar with anybody. There are things we can learn from a person, and things we can like about them. Likewise, there are things we wish weren’t there—decisions made, beliefs adopted, whatever it is, that’s just the way it unfortunately works. If someone was to study our own life, they would find the same kinds of things.

       Nevertheless, it seemed that in trying to gain a good grasp of the man, one then can try to gain a good grasp of the concept of freedom, of independence. “Why does it really matter, anyway?” someone might ask. Well, it matters since we need to decide, as persons, whether we believe God wants us free or not. And if we say, “Of course, God wants us free,” then how does that look? Do we say that God cares about what we care about? Or do we say that God’s primary focus is on what he cares about, and that he wants us to be subjects in this kingdom (indeed), under his domain, doing things the way he wants them done? How does it look? Is it basic? Or is there more to it? Are we too filled with sin to make any good decisions, as seems to be often thought and argued? Or, did God create us good, with his image, with brains, and the ability to make good decisions, and with, yes, our own independence?

       Let us look at what is at the core, the bedrock of our government and society. Jefferson wrote the following in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.” Indeed, the version we know it by heart, rather, is this: “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.” Very similar. Truly, most of us live by that saying.

       The personal agreement, if you will, would be that what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration is correct—that what he stated is the sum total of how it works. That being the case, and this may be surprising to some but perhaps not, is that God created independence as good—that God created humans to be independent. That’s not something heard very often in Evangelical circles. We are often taught that we should be dependent on each other, that we need each other to live correctly, to be whole and complete persons. The truth of the matter, however, seems to be that God created us for independence. That’s how he set things up in the beginning. He created Adam in the Garden by himself, and separate from himself, though Adam bore his image, and though the Spirit of God was present over the face of the earth. Nevertheless, the independence existed. Then God created Eve, and she certainly complemented him. There’s no question about that. Though, she too, was an independent being.

       We know that in the beginning God would come down into the Garden from his own area and visit with Adam and Eve. This, of course, was before they sinned. He would walk in the Garden with them. Yet, notice that God himself was separate from them. He did not always dwell with them, at least, in the physical sense. What’s interesting regarding this is that we learn this is exactly what the recently fallen, rebel angel, Lucifer, would exploit. It was this independence from God that he used to go after them. That’s what the story tells us. One day Lucifer approaches Eve and tells her to question God—to question what he had previously said—and we know the rest of the story. What’s interesting is that if God had been standing right there, right next to her, would she have questioned him—that is, God? Probably not. Thus, it’s the independence that’s exploited. Later, several thousand years later, we will learn that due to the condition of mankind, the fact that we are in a fallen nature, that God now indwells each one of us personally. Is this the rectification of what happened all the way back there in the Garden?

       Of course, the whole indwelling of the Spirit of God into the individual was made possible, we say, by what Jesus accomplished on the cross. By the fact that he came to the earth as a human—came as we are, lived a perfect life (without sinning like Adam, Eve, and the rest of us), and yet died for our sins—to free us from the enslavement we found ourselves in by following after the advice of the wrong person. So, by the indwelling of the Spirit of God into the individual who believes, we have restored Communion, kind of like Adam and Eve. We are with God forever from this point. And that being the case, we might pause and ask ourselves why is it that if Jesus defeated Satan’s way at the cross, why is that people are still born into sin? Hasn’t sin’s power been broken? Yes, sin’s power has been broken. Satan’s power has been broken. Yet, Satan and his followers, those other fallen angels and demons, didn’t cease to exist at that moment. The mere fact of why God doesn’t lock them up at this point and be done with them, we truly don’t know for sure. That answer belongs to the Spiritual Realm.

       Therefore, Jesus was the New Adam, as the Apostle Paul argued. He stated, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19, ESV). Unfortunately, as we sit here today, the effects of sin still ripple all throughout the earth. They are spread wide and far, and we cannot get away from them. The beautiful thing is, to change to the positive, is that when Jesus died on the cross, he made us ‘legally’ free. You see, when we were all under sin, when we were under the enslavement of the Old Man, Adam; we were under Satan’s legal jurisdiction. When people died, Satan had a legal claim on them because Adam and Eve had effectively handed the keys of the earth over to him back at the Garden. As a result, when people died, because Satan had dominion over the earth, and because everyone had sinned, everyone had a record of debt that stood against them, Satan had a legal right to them.

       And that was the problem, right? The problem was that everyone had sinned, and “death reigned from Adam to Moses” as Paul told the Romans (Romans 5:14, ESV). That connection that Adam and Eve originally had with God had been broken. They no longer had their independence when they sinned and handed over the keys, but became enslaved to sin’s way, to Satan’s way actually. So that becomes a significant question, and that is whether this independence that people originally had, was that independence the chief value that Adam and Eve had? In other words, was their freedom the most important value? We said that had God been standing there, perhaps they wouldn’t have made the choice they did. If we were to say that independence is indeed the most important value, does this explain why people still stay in Hell after they die? There’s a whole other subject we haven’t delved into yet. The subject of Hell. Do people stay in Hell because they are condemned to Hell, or do they stay in Hell because they are choosing to by their free-choice?

       Let’s evaluate this for a moment. Sin might be more than a mistake, right? We could say that sin is an addiction—it’s something that people get pleasure out of and something that they want to do. Thus, if we were to think that a person lives 80 years of a life being self-centered and prideful, doing whatever they want to do, that kind of becomes their nature, right? So, if they were to die and go to Heaven and stand in front of Jesus, due to their character, they would scoff. They would find his high-conscious presence intolerable. They wouldn’t be able to stand being around him. It’s kind of like when a person wakes up in the morning. You know that first feeling some of us have, when you open your eyes that have been in darkness for hours and see the bright, sunlight room. When we do that, it’s unpleasant. It hurts. We immediately want to close our eyes again. We don’t want to face the light. We want the darkness again where it is comfortable. Consequently, the person who sees Jesus actually sees him and knows he is God at that point. But why not choose goodness then? We actually have an example of this. Satan sees Jesus in the flesh during this time. He’s seen him in the flesh. He knows he is God. But he doesn’t choose goodness.

       This all sounds good, great even, but we need to consider another side of it. What about Christ’s presence? If Christ’s presence is so high, and we believe that it is, so full of love, mercy, and compassion, doesn’t that have an effect on the sinner? Like for instance, we can understand on the earth that people, when exposed to those of higher consciousness than themselves, are often positively influenced by that individual while in their presence. When they leave their presence, they may go back to the way they were, and often do, but when in the presence of a person with higher consciousness it has a positive effect. An example of this is that it is often hard for us to criticize a person when we are standing right in front of them. It is easy to criticize them while we are thinking about them in our minds. It may even be easy doing it online in digital form. But when we are in their presence, it’s a lot harder, isn't it? And in the same way, it’s hard to not see at least some benefit in the presence of great teachers, of moral people, of those with an attitude to help and even serve others.

       You see, while people are on the earth, they have independence from God. Not just because of sin (we already went over that), but because they are experiencing a physical distance from him. Thus, it becomes, as the preacher of old argued, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon "A Divine and Supernatural Light,’ that because of God’s inherent beauty, no individual could reject him to his face, but would rather be drawn to him. So, the presence of God, we could say, is powerful—just like the presence of those who try to do good, who try to imitate his characteristics. Now, at this point, someone might object “This sounds like irresistible grace!” “Are you arguing for irresistible grace?” Actually, it seems that it’s just logical. It’s just logical that a person wouldn’t choose anything else when they see the goodness of God. It’s not that they can’t—they could technically go against it. It’s just that they logically wouldn’t. “But hold up!” the same person will say. “That means we aren’t free!” And the objection would continue, “Are you saying that God hides his Presence in order that people can have free will?”

       It seems rather that God’s Presence is hidden due to the presence of sin in the world. God is holy, and he is perfect. He doesn’t want to be around sin all the time. If he didn’t mind sin in the believer, for instance, then why would he want the believer to live righteously? God’s Presence is not on the earth not because he wants us to have ‘free will,’ to have independence, or the freedom to choose. God already created us with independence, and independence is good. If independence were bad, and God hides his presence so that we can willingly choose him, then doesn’t he need Satan to accomplish this mission? Doesn’t Satan then become his right-hand man who he needs by his side to test us? Then someone might say in response, “But that proves the point! Adam and Eve were around God when they sinned, and yet they made the wrong choice!” And the response back to that would be, “Actually, they weren’t around God when they made the choice. Satan exploited God’s absence.” Did God have to step away from Adam and Eve in order to test them? Of course not. We already established that God created us with independence, and that independence is good. Therefore, it is good, normal, and the way we were designed to be, for us to have some independence from God—as contended as that may be.

       Isn’t this what we call the incarnation, that of Jesus as God becoming a man, the fix to this very situation? Remember, Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (7:14, ESV). Jesus didn’t come to the earth to establish a new way of doing things—a new set of rules to follow. Jesus came to the earth abolishing the fact that there was a gap between God and man. Satan now can never exploit our independence. Now, someone is going to object, “If God has high consciousness and therefore sin becomes impossible, then why did Satan choose to tempt Jesus in the wilderness? It would be pointless for him to do so.” And the response would be, “Not if Satan believed that he could get Jesus to sin.” God is not the only one with hope. Humans are not the only ones with hope. Satan too has hope—even if it is delusional. Satan was blinded by his lower consciousness, his own pride we might even say (not too surprising, is it?). Thus, what Satan was trying to do, really, in reality was cause a second Garden of Eden event. He led Adam and Eve into sin which condemned the whole human race. Well, if he could have led Jesus into sin, look what that could have done.

       However, the reality of the whole thing is that Satan was fighting a losing battle. Christ’s consciousness, even in human flesh, was so high that it really didn’t matter what Satan did. To Satan, Jesus’s human flesh looks to like a weakness he can exploit. But in reality, the fact that Jesus is God and has that highest consciousness means it’s a lost cause already. Satan believes he can win, and even goes all the way to having Jesus killed at the execution of the cross, but what happens? He’s destroyed by the actuality of who Jesus is. He killed someone who had never sinned. He broke the law—the law he had laid claim to. That which gave him the ‘legal’ right over humans was violated when he killed Jesus. He had no legal right to kill Jesus. So, it was a trap, a trap from God the Father when he turned away, when the Sun grew dark, when everything went down at the cross. It was a trap that Satan stepped right into. And thus Christ won authority back to himself, won authority that he could reclaim the keys from Satan. Satan broke the rules—he no longer had the legal authority and right anymore. Satan killed Jesus and lost.

       All this being said, what is the highest value in Creation that God gave to us? Is it our independence, or free will, or is it something else? We might say that if ultimate free will leads to our destruction, then it’s not truly a gift, but it’s a curse. But if free will is a secondary value, and the highest value is actually that of connection to the truth—being one with the Truth—that seems to make more sense. In other words, if our free will is something by which we can resist God, then in actuality what we are saying is that our free will is more powerful than God’s inherent beauty. But if it’s true that we will always move toward the truth rather than away from it, when it is set right before us, then that shows that we truly bear God’s image in each one of us. Indeed, the problem isn’t our free will and our ability to choose the wrong thing. The problem is that we had an absence from God, and Jesus arrived on the scene to fix that absence. The war between God and Satan is a side effect. It isn’t what it is all about. What it’s all about is actually the union of God with man. And as the union comes to its completion, the war will cease. You see, independence was our design, but it wasn’t our destiny. Our destiny was actually for us to become one with God.

       Originally, back at the Garden of Eden, we were created to grow in life as independent beings, and this probably somehow would led to us becoming temples for God to indwell. Yet, we see that Satan exploited the natural progression that was supposed to occur. Thus, God decided at that point that our independence without his indwelling would not work—at least here on the earth. This was because Satan fell, remember, after the Creation. Therefore, by God coming in human flesh, it made it impossible for man and God to be separated. That way of separation could no longer be exploited by Satan. For the time being, anyway, our independence has been replaced with interdependence. Back when Adam and Eve fell, God could have said to himself, “Gee, they should have used their free will better.” But rather, what did God do? God took on the responsibility of the situation, really, responsibility that arguably wasn’t even his to take on. It was radical responsibility. When God saw the independence had been exploited, he said to himself, “I will go down there and fix it myself.”

       Yet, this whole indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us seems like a violation of our independence. Is it a violation of our independence? Actually, no, it’s not since we are still independent beings after all. When we are indwelled by the Spirit, we don’t lose our personalities. We don’t lose our free will. We simply are no longer by ourselves. So, we could say, and you better buckle in for this one (this one is big), we could say that what happened at Pentecost is just as significant as what happened at the Cross. Really? At least in terms of independence. The cross rendered Satan and his forces as powerless. Pentecost completes the job. The Holy Spirit occupies us so that what? So that Satan can never exploit us again. He can never gain ownership of us again. When we were completely independent of God, that’s when Satan gained ownership of us. But now that we are interdependent with God, that can never happen again. We are sealed forever. That’s the importance of our indwelling by the Spirit of God. That’s the significance of it.

       The Holy Spirit’s indwelling is not a violation of our free will if we believe that we were meant to be like God. Again, before when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they were susceptible to Satan’s lower consciousness. Fast-forward to today. Now that we are indwelled by God, we have God’s light always with us. It’s as the Quakers of old called it, the Inward Light Within. We don’t have to try to find God to be safe; we are safe within ourselves. We are online, so to speak, with God’s Truth as we have God’s Spirit dwelling within us. This not only makes sin bad, it becomes illogical. The Holy Spirit doesn’t force us to stop sinning if that’s what we choose, but as we grow up into becoming more like Jesus we simply aren’t going to want to do that. Sin becomes more and more illogical in our eyes. We start to truly see it for what it is, stupid rumblings of our old nature. The Spirit isn’t a competitor or a problem to our freedom; He is what leads us to our transformation, which, again, is what we were originally intended for. And as we come to believe that’s what we really want, then as we grow we are happy that He does indeed dwell in us. It is as Paul has said, “[W]here the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17, ESV).

       Thus, taking this roundabout back to the beginning, it becomes as John Adams said some 200 years ago, on his deathbed, on July 4, 1826, “Thomas Jefferson survives” or "Jefferson still lives.” If Jefferson represents independence, then that is true for us. Our independence survives, our independence still lives. So may that be what is said as pertains to each and every one of us at the end. Let us conclude with this. Romans 6:18-19 states, “and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”

- Daniel Litton