Strange how we sometimes become what we fight against. Some Protestants, freed by grace from what they perceived as a legalistic church of works, developed their own legalistic ways to salvation.

As a child, listening to a preacher click off the “steps” to become a Christian, I wondered whether I had repented enough. Was I sorry enough for my sins? My simple realization of finding Jesus wasn’t enough. It didn’t fit someone else’s way of finding Jesus.

Revolutionaries can become the governments they replace. I lived for a while in the North African country of Algeria. Algeria continues to suffer from the aftermath of its revolution against France half a century ago. After gaining freedom, Algerian freedom fighters became more despotic than the colonial power they supplanted.

The early Puritans sailed to the New World to free themselves from the established church. Yet they soon developed a theocracy to rival the one they left.

Today’s freedom is threatened by tomorrow’s tyranny the minute we think we have arrived.