"FREEDOM!" is the iconic shout of William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) in the movie, Braveheart.
It's not hard to work out that freedom is something most if not all people cherish and aspire to. Just take a look at the official and unofficial mottos that different countries around the world have adopted:
- Argentina: In Union and Liberty
- Columbia: Freedom and order
- Dominican Republic: God, Fatherland, Liberty
- Ecuador: God, homeland and liberty
- El Salvador: God, Union, Liberty
- France: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
- Ghana: Freedom and Justice
- Greece: Freedom or Death
- Hungary: With the help of God for Homeland and Freedom
- Latvia: Fatherland and Freedom
- Liberia: The love of liberty brought us here
- Federated States of Micronesia: Peace, Unity, Liberty
- Lithuania: Freedom, Unity, Prosperity
- Malawi: Unity and Freedom
- Namibia: Unity, liberty, justice
- San Marino: Liberty
- Sierra Leone: Unity, freedom, justice
- South Sudan: Justice, Liberty, Prosperity
- Syria: Unity, Freedom, Socialism
- Tanzania: Freedom and Unity
- Togo: Work, liberty, homeland
- Tunisia: Freedom, Order and Justice
- Uruguay: Liberty or Death
- Zimbabwe: Unity, Freedom, Work
Finally, the pledge of allegiance in the United States contains these words: "...one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
We believe that it's our inalienable right and ability to choose to do whatever we want. We resist those who are in authority over us, just as Adam and Eve did before us. So we devote time, effort and energy to achieving and maintaining a state of being which we regard as "Liberty". Of course, freedom as a concept is quite flexible, so that it suits any number of circumstances in which we feel we are being denied something we deserve. So, for example, there is freedom from oppression, freedom from slavery, freedom from discrimination, freedom from illness, freedom from government interference and so on, even through to freedom from food additives and pesticides.
Reflecting on all this, there seem to be two clear observations. First, freedom is almost universally seen as a good thing that we all deserve. Second, one way or another, it is something that few of us feel that we possess.
When we first began to consider this topic, we reviewed the fact that Adam and Eve lost many things when they rebelled against God and were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Freedom was among them. Whereas before, they were free to obey God and to choose to please Him in their lives, the sin in their hearts had now enslaved them. They could no longer do anything that was free from sin and therefore they couldn't please God any more.
The continuing, stark truth of the situation is that since the fall, everyone in this world has no spiritual freedom, resulting from the choices Adam and Eve made when they fell. This is what God tells us in the Bible:
Romans 6:15-23 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It seems to be a constant theme underlying our actions since the fall that we try to replace the precious things that we lost then with man-made substitutes that don't work. Having lost our eternal life, we pursue ways to extend our lives indefinitely. Having lost an intimate relationship with the One True God, we fill His rightful place in our lives with gods made in our own image. So it seems that a subconscious sense of our loss of freedom drives us to look for all kinds of avenues to synthetic freedoms which don't compare with what we had in the garden, and so never deliver on the warm fuzzy feeling that the "freedom concept" gives us.
The irony is that we are all so blinded by sin that we think we are free now or can somehow achieve true freedom by our own efforts. We can't.
When Jesus came into the world, He proclaimed the truth, and indicated that He Himself (Who is the Truth) was able to set people free from their bondage to sin:
John 8:31-36 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We have already seen that Jesus did this by destroying the power of sin in the lives of His people. Scripture says that the power of sin is the law, but Jesus kept the law for His people and received the penalty for their law-breaking on the cross. So for them, sin cannot be their master any longer, because the law no longer empowers it. They are truly free, in a way that is better than any worldly concept of freedom (which always means having no-one to tell us what to do). For the believer, freedom means being free to obey God's commands from the heart and to become a bondslave to the best, most gracious, kind and loving master there is. Paul expresses this transformation in the following words:
1 Corinthians 7:22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.
Again, Jesus turns the thinking of this world on its head. To be truly free means being a bondslave of the Lord, but being free as the world thinks of freedom is remaining a slave to sin and continuing as a child of Satan.
How does the gospel mitigate a loss of freedom in this world?
For those who do not know Christ, the inevitable losses of freedom they experience in this world often have a significant and even devastating result. They resent that they have been denied something they regard as their right, especially when they see those they regard as less worthy enjoying the very same thing. Bitterness, anger, hatred, self-pity can engulf them.
- They have a better understanding of what freedom actually is. They know that they were born slaves and that Jesus has set them free from sin.
- They know that nothing in this world will ever satisfy the deepest needs of their souls. Therefore they hold more loosely to worldly concepts of freedom.
- They know that God has perfectly planned their circumstances in this world with their very best in mind. So a deprivation can be received as a gracious providence that results in thanksgiving and not bitterness.
- They know that this world will soon give way for them to an eternal paradise where they will fully experience freedom as God intended it. A temporary loss of the world's synthetic liberties is much more manageable seen in this light.
Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,
God's children will all experience a gracious super-abundance in heaven. All the deprivations they experienced in this world will seem trivial at that point, except in one very important sense. God's children will understand very clearly that everything that happened to them in this world equipped them to enjoy God and His heaven to the uttermost. All their losses of "freedom" here will therefore contribute to the fullness of glory and of joy they will know there!
