Christian baker Jack Phillips has been locked in a long legal battle over his refusal to make cakes for a same-sex wedding and a gender transition.

But after over a decade of court battles, Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, recently won a major victory at the Colorado Supreme Court — something over which he’s elated.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Phillips recently told CBN News of the legal win. “And I didn’t expect it right now, but it was good news.”

The baker first found himself in the crosshairs more than a decade ago, when he declined to make a same-sex wedding cake. After that case made its way through the courts, he again found himself facing a new battle after he refused to make a cake celebrating a gender transition.

“I want to make it clear that, at Masterpiece Cakeshop, we serve everybody, but we can’t create every cake with every message that people ask us to,” Phillips said. “In … the first case, the two men asked me to create a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding. To me, a wedding cake has an inherent message, and that’s a message I couldn’t express.”

Watch him explain:

But the second case surrounded a person he described as an “activist attorney” who called and requested yet another cake Phillips couldn’t in good conscience make.

“[The individual] asked if we could create a cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside,” Phillips said. “And then we were told that those colors were symbolic of celebration of changing gender, and then it became a message that I couldn’t create.”

After a complaint from that individual, the baker again landed in legal crosshairs, with the Colorado Supreme Court deciding earlier this month to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the customer.

John Bursch, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom and an attorney for Phillips, told CBN News the court has essentially ended the legal battle over this specific cake.

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“The court did not address any of the First Amendment claims,” he said. “It only dismissed based on the procedural ground, although that’s enough to end the case.”

Bursch continued, “In the meantime, we also had the U. S. Supreme Court decide the 303 Creative case on behalf of our client, Lorie Smith, and there the U.S. Supreme Court made it very clear that the First Amendment broadly protects the right of all Americans to not be forced to speak messages that violate their conscience.”

The attorney said that the case helps solidify a scenario in which every American “wins” and can exercise their freedoms to create messages that comport with their worldview.

As for Phillips, he also spoke about what it’s been like to be dragged through the courts almost endlessly over the past 12 years.

“God was so gracious to us in appointing Alliance Defending Freedom to come to our aid right from the very start,” he said. “They’ve been there, they’ve been supportive, they’ve been encouraging, they’ve helped me understand everything that’s going on — and just the support from the community, and from the church, and just all those things roll together.

He continued, “It’s been a very encouraging time, though it seems like it shouldn’t.”

Phillips said he decided to keep fighting rather than throw in the towel, appealing to the Bible to express his motivation for seeing the case to its conclusion.

“One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes from the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 16:9,” he said. “And it says that ‘The eyes of the Lord range throughout the [earth to] strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.’ So, if my heart is fully committed to Him, He promises to strengthen me.”

Phillips said it is God who provides the strength to enable us to be committed to Him and to find solace in our faith. It’s through that dynamic that he’s found his own ability to persist in peace.

“Just knowing that God is in control of all these issues and I can trust Him implicitly for everything,” he said. “That’s pretty much what’s helped keep us going.”

Ultimately, Phillips said it’s essential to take a stand for truth, regardless of pushback.

“We have to stand for what we believe, and we get what we believe from God’s Word, the Bible,” he said. 

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