Freedom

What is freedom? Is it the lack of constraints, the opportunity to do whatever we want, or the opportunity to do that which is most beneficial to us? When people are told that the gospel is freedom, they are often puzzled by the fact that it comes with many regulations on how they should live. If I am free, why am I not free to engage in debauchery? This question is valid because, on the surface, it seems that freedom is merely the absence of rules or constraints. The only problem with applying this definition to our lives is that it is a simple definition and it cannot be applied to a complex situation. If I am given the freedom to do anything I please, I may do something that will cause me to be incarcerated, or otherwise constrained. Therefore, freedom is not merely permission; it comes with a set of rules, which show us the way toward a life that is free of harmful constraints.

With this view toward freedom, many circular questions are avoided. “Why doesn’t God want me to get drunk?” “Why does it matter whether or not I give glory to God, if His glory is not subject to my actions?”…. I could go on. When we realize that part of freedom is rules that set us free from many things (things that we call sin), we see joy in the rules and cease to follow them without meaning or personality. This is why many Pharisees offended Jesus, they demeaned the rules that were created for freedom by making them into constraints; the very thing they were meant to destroy.

So, we see that there are two extremes when viewing moral law, and that neither is true. First we have the view of the anarchist: rules cannot beget freedom. Second we have the view of the legalist: rules should be followed for their own sake. Both of our characters have fallen into deadly traps of slavery. The anarchist is a slave to himself, while the legalist is a slave to rules. One has bastardized freedom, while the other has bastardized order. If only we could see that the two are not separate, I believe we would be on the road to the freedom that is promised through the gospel of Christ.