Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

Christmas, 2008

It was a tax collection decree that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, the village where the Almighty Creator of the Universe became flesh in order to redeem mankind from death and sin.

Many often recite Benjamin Franklin's mordant observation that nothing in life is certain except for death and taxes. This truism is usually invoked by those who urge submissiveness in the face of government's ever-expanding demands on the product of our labors.

But Franklin's formula omits mention of another apparently inevitable reality ? that of sin. While sin is unavoidable, Christians must still struggle against it. And those who understand that all people and institutions are subject to God's law must never relent in the fight against that form of institutionalized theft called taxation.

The teachings of Jesus, if universally accepted and practiced faithfully, would rescue mankind from the corruption and oppression of human government. And the expiatory death and resurrection of Jesus Christ made both death and sin reversible, which is the incomparable gift we celebrate today.