Signing of Declaration of Independence
10-29-12
Back in the day President Carter gave voice to reinstating the draft. A young man vigorously protested by carrying a placard stating, “Nothing is worth dying for.”
Commenting on this Charles Colson wrote in God and Government: pg 259
“To many, these words seemed an affirmation of life, the ultimate assertion of individual worth. What they fail to reckon with, however, is the reverse of the slogan: if nothing is worth dying for, is anything worth living for? A society that has no reference points beyond itself “increasingly becomes a merely contractual arrangement,” says sociologist Peter Berger. The problem with that, he continues, is that human beings will not die for a social contract. And “unless people are prepared, if necessary, to die for it, a society cannot long survive.” Pg 259.
One of the powerful dynamics of true Christian faith is the insistence of Jesus that those who actually follow Him as disciples must, as well as taking up His cross, death, be willing to live a transcendent life for Him in the face of scorching adversity.
Further, Christ moves the relationship between Him and His people to one that is much higher than a contractual or social relationship, to an actual familial one. A New Testament writer put it like this: Hebrews 2:11: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,”
Copyright © 2012 Larry Lilly
Back in the day President Carter gave voice to reinstating the draft. A young man vigorously protested by carrying a placard stating, “Nothing is worth dying for.”
Commenting on this Charles Colson wrote in God and Government: pg 259
“To many, these words seemed an affirmation of life, the ultimate assertion of individual worth. What they fail to reckon with, however, is the reverse of the slogan: if nothing is worth dying for, is anything worth living for? A society that has no reference points beyond itself “increasingly becomes a merely contractual arrangement,” says sociologist Peter Berger. The problem with that, he continues, is that human beings will not die for a social contract. And “unless people are prepared, if necessary, to die for it, a society cannot long survive.” Pg 259.
One of the powerful dynamics of true Christian faith is the insistence of Jesus that those who actually follow Him as disciples must, as well as taking up His cross, death, be willing to live a transcendent life for Him in the face of scorching adversity.
Further, Christ moves the relationship between Him and His people to one that is much higher than a contractual or social relationship, to an actual familial one. A New Testament writer put it like this: Hebrews 2:11: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,”
Copyright © 2012 Larry Lilly
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