By intention and design, we were created to live in freedom under the supreme authority of Almighty God. As such, freedom is only possible as we acknowledge God’s existence and fully yield to His authority. Rejection of God’s existence or of His sovereignty results in bondage. The Word of God, the annals of human history, and even the intimate stories of our own lives clearly establish the foundational truth of freedom under sovereignty.

No God, No Rules!

Maybe you believe God doesn’t exist, or if He does, obedience is optional. You may believe that your rejection of God and His authority affords you a measure of freedom. It does not. Freedom can only be fully enjoyed under the sovereignty of Almighty God. Rejection brings chaos and bondage.

Would you like to debate that truth? Please do. No other truth is easier to defend than the existence of Almighty God. Read Romans 1:18-20. To win the argument, you would need to overcome the vast and continuous testimony of creation itself. Look around you — everything you see declares the existence of Almighty God.

Have you ever played no rules basketball? As kids, we would sometimes get frustrated by all the rules and all the arguing about fouls and double dribbles and traveling. Someone in the gang would declare, “no rules!” and what happened next was sheer chaos. Before long, someone would get hurt or mad, and that would be the end of our fun. As it turns out, rules are actually necessary for freedom to be enjoyed.

Freedom is not the absence of rules; it is the absence of chaos. After the chaos of Gettysburg, Lincoln declared, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” I can’t imagine how Lincoln must have felt during the chaos of the Civil War, but I clearly understand why he included the phrase under God and attached it to the word freedom in his address. He was acknowledging freedom under sovereignty.

Many years later, on Flag Day, 1954, Lincoln’s phrase under God would be attached to the words liberty and justice in the Pledge of Allegiance. Again, freedom is not the absence of rules; it is the absence of chaos.
Rejection of a Truth is Hard Work

Rejecting the existence and sovereignty of Almighty God requires rigorous mental effort and possibly dishonesty. Both are exhausting. The invention, promotion, and defense of an untruth are debilitating. Mark Twain famously quipped, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Believing what is obviously true is freeing. Rejecting what is obviously true is restricting. It is hard work to believe Almighty God doesn’t exist.

If you win the God-does-not-exist debate, what is the prize? Without God, the notion of being is meaningless. The natural law of survival of the fittest is the only thing left. Those who strive to win the God-does-not-exist debate strive to gain a prize no one wants—a chaotic, meaningless existence.

H. G. Wells once famously said, “If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters.”
A Wager with Nothing to Lose

Blaise Pascal developed a thought process that became known as Pascal’s Wager. Pascal posited that believers are just better off. If they believe and God exists, then calm, peace, hope, purpose, heaven, and eternity are to be both enjoyed now and gained later. If it turns out God doesn’t exist, then all of those things are at least enjoyed now. In other words, believers are better off either way—and according to Pascal, that makes believing a wager that guarantees the gain of freedom with nothing to lose.
An Important Clarification

It can certainly be argued that God does not exist. The concept of God is often hijacked, and what many people reject is not the existence of Almighty God but rather the existence of a god of human invention. On this, atheists and people of genuine faith agree: not everything called God is God.

Do you reject the existence of Almighty God, or do you reject the existence of a god made up by some religious group? There is a difference, and you may want to give it some thought. Don’t get hung up on a religion’s definition of their God. Almighty God won’t be held captive by such things — and you shouldn’t be either. The worship of Almighty God should result in freedom and an end of chaos.
The Blessings of Freedom Under Sovereignty

When we fully yield to the authority of Almighty God, we receive these amazing benefits of freedom:
• Freedom from the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-18, John 3:16, I Corinthians 15:50-58, John 14:1-4
• Freedom from the burden of a guilty conscience. Hebrews 10:22, John 1:9, Psalm 103:12
• Freedom from the stress of worry. Philippians 4:4-7, Matthew 6:25-34, John 14:27
• Freedom from the despair of meaninglessness. I Peter 1:3-9, Ephesians 2:1-9, II Corinthians 5:16-21, Ephesians 4
Freedom from the prison of bitterness.
• Resentment—bitterness against others. Ephesians 4:32, Matthew 18:21-35.
• Regret—bitterness against self. Romans 7:14—8:2, II Corinthians 5:17

My friends, freedom is still available to us today. It begins when we accept the existence of Almighty God and yield fully to His sovereignty. Are you being held captive by death, guilt, worry, meaninglessness, or bitterness? Is life chaotic and out of control? There is hope — and it is called the Good News of Jesus Christ:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36