When Freedom Becomes a Cage
No one froze at Valley Forge for a lifestyle
The biggest oxymoron in America today is the notion that we are “free to sin.” The next time someone says, “It’s my body, I get to do what I want with it, I’m free to make these choices,” tell him the truth. No, you are not. You are never free to sin. That is not a freely made choice. That is the choice of a slave rattling his own cage.
You are “free” to commit adultery. You are “free” to commit sodomy. You are “free” to look at pornography. You are “free” to get drunk. And somehow you think those are free choices? They are the choices of a slave straining against his shackles. Never tell me again that they are free.
No one froze at Valley Forge for a lifestyle. I hear it from Republicans all the time—they will not say a word against anyone’s chosen lifestyle. But no one signed the Declaration of Independence for a lifestyle choice. Nobody died on Bunker Hill for a lifestyle choice. Nobody froze at Valley Forge for a lifestyle choice. Do not tell me it is American to lead a lifestyle. We are marking two hundred and fifty years of independence—two hundred and fifty years of a broken yoke—and no one who fought for that freedom thought he was fighting for the right to express himself.
The will that sins is not free. That is the number one mistake people make when they say, “We have free will.” The will that sins is not free. The will that sins is enslaved. The enslaved will cannot freely choose to do what is good; it is compelled to do what is wrong. That is the very definition of futility.
Paul saw it in Galatia. He wrote to a church infiltrated by false brethren—men who “came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage” (Galatians 2:4). It is the oldest trick there is: to sell a man a yoke and call it freedom. So hear the text plainly. “Ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh” (Galatians 5:13). Paul means ordered liberty—not unrestrained libertinism. Christ did not give us our liberty so that we could be “free” to sin, free to bite and devour one another, and ourselves. Because that is what sin does—it bites and devours.
If you want to be free, imitate God. There is only one Being whose nature is to be free. He depends on no one. He needs nothing from anyone or anything. He is self-contained, independent, and utterly free—and He is God. That is why He alone can write the song of freedom in the human heart. So if you would be free, imitate Him—and you do that by keeping His law.
Do you want your mind to be free? Then think the thoughts of God. And where will you find them? In the Scriptures. Read the Psalms. Read the Proverbs. That is how you set your mind free. Not by a drug. Not on a trip. Freedom is not an experience. The mind of God is free. The thoughts of God are free. The acts of God are free. The grace of God is free—you did nothing to earn it. In His free image we are made, and by Christ’s free sacrifice that image is restored.
The only path to freedom is through the cross. There is no other road. It runs through the cross, where the shackles of sin are broken loose, the head of the serpent is crushed, and the tyrant of this world is overthrown.
We used to know that. We used to teach it to our children. We used to believe it—and deep down, I suspect we still do. So the only question left is how many of us will see where we stand, come forward, say it out loud—and then begin to live it.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the men and women of the colonies did exactly that. Are we truly their heirs? Are we truly their sons and daughters? I pray that we are.
Adapted from a sermon preached by the Rev. Jake Dell at the First Congregational Church of Woodbury, Connecticut, to commemorate Independence Day, July 5, 2026.