What Is Really Worth Dying For?

Memorial Day Weekend is coming. Some look at it as the first part of summer, with the annual trip to the Lake, fun in the sun, reunions and family fellowship.

Some celebrate it as a holiday from working, a break in the monotony of making a living. Memorial Day is traditionally marked by parades, speeches, and ceremonies, and a time set aside for the decoration of the graves with flowers and flags, to honor and remember the nearly 1.1 million of our nation’s armed services personnel killed in wartime. And many families also remember those loved ones who have succumbed to that grand enemy called death.

Just as Memorial Day reminds us of the casualties of fighting for the principle of liberty, so also, there has been, and still is, a battle for freedom in the spiritual arena. The great controversy battle between Christ and Satan, the war behind all wars, is being fought for the freedom and liberty of every man, woman and child. And the death toll continues to add up daily.

With all the political wrangling and posturing over constitutional rights these days, I wonder if our history of fighting for liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness really matters in the end. I ponder the question; Is the Constitution really worth dying for? There still remains a plague of hatred, malice, prejudice and persecution of our fellow citizens for no other reason than a difference of opinion, skin color, ethnic origin or immigration status. This human experiment called government, by the people and for the people, seems to be failing in the social arena and the death toll continues to add up daily.

Texans have an expression, “Waterhaul.” It’s when you go somewhere for a specific reason, and you discover that you basically wasted your time. Maybe you went to see someone and the person wasn’t home, or you went to town to buy something and the store item was out of stock. That’s a “Waterhaul.” Could all of our politics and patriotic God and Country chaos be just a man made “Waterhaul,” leaving all those who gave their lives defending freedom and liberty in graves without hope?

Without the salvation provided by God through Christ’s life, death and resurrection, there is no life after death for those who died defending the Constitution. The Constitution cannot save anyone from the wages of sin, which is death.

In other words, there is only one life lived that makes any real difference; only one death that makes any real difference; only one resurrection experience that makes any real difference. And that is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s solution to the Memorial Day death dilemma is the victory Jesus won for all of us in the battle against sin and Satan on the Cross of Calvary. Christ suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. ‘By His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

All the people standing around the Cross of Jesus that fateful day, 2,000 years ago, could have thought His death was the end of a great man. Did He waste His life? Did Jesus die in vain? Was the Cross experience of Jesus just another “Waterhaul” event? To answer that question, we need to ask, Why was Jesus born? Why did He come into the world? What was the purpose of His life? The angel said to Joseph at the birth of Jesus, “you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ (Matthew 1:21)

The purpose of Jesus’ life, then, was to save us human beings from our sins. Paul’s response, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

As a Christian, we need to be buried with Him in baptism and raised to newness of life to be of any value to our fellow brother or sister. Jesus transforms us into real citizens of His kingdom, to fight for others not against them.

Jesus has always been the answer to our life and death problem. Christ’s life, death and resurrection transforms lives, but all the governmental politics in the world will not save anyone. The Constitution is a magnificent social doctrine, but it doesn’t save us from sin or death. I choose to live for Jesus AND support and promote the right for freedom and liberty as far possible. What do you say?

Retired Pastor Jim Nichols – Sidney Seventh-day Adventist Church