Skip to main content

Freedom

             It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law. (Galatians 5:1-3)

If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. (James 2:8)

Freedom is a hot topic. Some folks are saying that unless they can choose whether or not to be vaccinated or to wear a mask, they are not free. Others say that unless they can choose (and dictate to others) what pronouns to use to discuss them, and decide what gender they want to be at any given moment, they are not free. Others claim that until everyone treats everyone who is like them in some way in the way they dictate, they aren’t free. As I’ve noted earlier, I have a friend who says that until or unless he can do anything and everything he decides to do (even things that violate laws of nature like gravity) he’s not free.

When Paul wrote this passage about freedom, some people were trying to convince the Galatian Christians that in order to be a Christian, one had to become a Jew and follow the Law. There were others who maintained that because they were free, they could do anything, and were not bound by any laws. These antinomians were rather like that friend who thinks himself not free because he can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.

The truth of the matter is that like peace, freedom is hard work, partly because we like to make rules while simultaneously rebelling against any rules that are set. When I lost weight, I did it by following rules with which I am still familiar, but I can’t bring myself to free myself from food by being a “food Nazi.” I love an organized and clean household, but I can’t bring myself to put everything in its place – though my current bout of organizational compulsion may make some of that a little easier. At least, I hope to have a place for everything figured out.

What all of this seems to teach me is that freedom is not the absence of laws but is found in the choice of good laws – right laws. Both obeying and disobeying laws have consequences. We’re not free to choose those.

I thank God for the freedom He has granted me so far, and pray that as I go forward through the next year, I’ll become freer to make choices and to live by them and not abuse them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more