Battle Cries from the Cross: Freedom!

Braveheart

The is THE battle speech of all battle speeches.  “Fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live, at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now…would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!”  I remember in high school, you weren’t cool at all unless you had memorized the whole thing. I mean, if someone tells you today that they haven’t seen Braveheart, you’d seriously consider that they were an alien from another planet.

When Braveheart came out, this speech stirred the hearts of men across the world, sparking an absolute phenomenon.  The question is why?  I know men love action films and stories of heroism, artsy types love the poetic cinematography and well choreographed battle scenes. But so many men, including myself, will confess without hesitiation that it is their favorite movie of all time, regardless of the fact that it feels so cliche and over-liked. Why?

I think that the story of Braveheart perfectly captures every man’s desire for ultimate freedom. The reason why it grabs the heart and emotions so strongly is that we are all aware, subconsciously or consciously, of this feeling of oppression in our lives, a sense of some tyranny over our souls. Even in a country founded on personal liberty and freedom, we’re all still beset by depression, neuroses, disorders, and stresses of all sorts and kinds.  We all feel imprisoned by sin, evil and death…and we want to fight for our freedom. That’s the bottom line.

Every other religion is based on man’s desire to fight for and earn their own spiritual freedom. But the Gospel is the truth that God has purchased our freedom for us. We are unable to save ourselves, but God, through Jesus, has done the impossible. The person that really explained this to me was Tim Keller at the 2007 Gospel Coalition, in his point on “The Gospel as Historical”. Based on wisdom he gathered from Martin Lloyd-Jones, he said that all religions have to deal with this truth:

A King is going out to defend his kingdom from an invading army, an evil force that desires to conquer, pillage and enslave his people. Every other religion essentially says that that king has not been defeated, but the invading force has been held off for a time. They therefore send back to the kingdom a group of military advisors, who give advice or counsel to the people, telling them that the battle for their freedom is coming, and they are going to have to fight for their lives.  So you see, the rites, rules, rituals and laws of other religions are essentially those military advisors telling people that they need to do all these things in order to save themselves, and the motivation is fear.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, on the contrary, is the truth that the King has defeated the invading army, and therefore has sent back messengers (heralds, good-newsers) with a report, to tell the people that their freedom has been won, their salvation has been achieved, for them. And all that is asked of them is to live in light of that reality, to spread the good news, and respond out of gratitude and joy.

The Bible tells us that on the Cross, God won our freedom for us. So when we watch a speech like the one from Braveheart, and we feel that ultimate desire for spiritual freedom tugging at our heartstrings, we can look at the Cross and know that God has not left us to fight for our lives, and see him say the truth that changes everything: “It is finished.”

 

Jesus Died for Our Freedom

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