I think for most of us, the first thing that comes to mind is the ability to do whatever we like, whenever we like, however we like. We think of "freedom" in negatives: freedom from the things that prevent us from doing what we want. Freedom from persecution. Freedom from anxiety. Freedom from poverty. Freedom from rules and regulations. That sort of thing.
Christians can also fall into this kind of thinking. After all, Jesus told us that "Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed" (John 8:36). Paul told us that "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Gal 5:1), and "All who rely on works of the law are under a curse" (Gal 3:10). We are told that "the righteous will live by faith" (Gal 3:11). Therefore, many Christians are tempted to believe that, as long as we have faith in Christ, we are free to do whatever we want - even if it means sinning. After all, Christ's sacrifice set us free from the results of our sin, all we need is faith! At worst, this means that "faith" has given Christians the excuse to use their "freedom" to do whatever they like. Or, at best, some Christians are confused about whether they need to follow the "rules" as set out in the Bible or not... and how this fits in to their life of faith.
Well, firstly, I'm delighted to tell you that the belief that Christians can commit whatever sin they like because of the once and for all sacrifice of Christ is an ancient heresy called Antinomianism. We are not the first ones to have thought of it -- this heresy has been around even during Paul's time (see Romans 6).
But this article is not going to be a history lesson on Antinomianism (but it is immensely fascinating stuff, feel free to look it up). Rather, I hope that I can convince you that true Christian freedom, as proclaimed by Paul and by Christ, is much more nuanced, much more complex than simply whether we follow the rules or not. I hope that I can show you that true Christian freedom, if and when we can attain it, is so much more free than you could ever imagine.
Freedom from or freedom to?
I love the movie Schindler's List, there are so many scenes that are so good for demonstrating various aspects of the Christian life... and the following scene demonstrates this idea perfectly.
About 1200 Jews, mostly from Poland, are held in a concentration camp / slave factory in Czechoslovakia at the end of the WWII. As news filters through that the Nazi armies are defeated and the war is ending, the owner of the factory as well as the soldiers guarding the camp flee, leaving the Jews alone in the camp, the gates wide open. Having no where to go, the Jews stay inside the camp.
The following morning, a solitary Russian soldier on a horse approach the camp with its wide open gates. "You have been set free by the Russian army!" the rider declares. The weary, starving Jews look up at him who proclaimed to have set them free. "Where will we go?" they ask. "We have no food."
"I wouldn't go East if I were you," the soldier says. "They hate Jews there. And I wouldn't go West either. Isn't there a village over the hill?"
And the film closes, as the viewer come to the realisation that, although they are set free from their slavery and persecution in the camp, and could indeed do whatever they want, their freedom means very little, if there is not much they are free to do, as they are displaced from from their home and have no money or food, having lost loved ones and everything that was once life. In their vulnerable, impoverished state, they very easily fall back into the slavery from which they were delivered. The deliverance from the Russian soldier was really quite laughable.
I hope I can show you that Christ's salvation is so much more powerful than that of the Russian soldier. Christ's saving act is not a one-time event that saved us from death and then leaves us to muddle through life. Instead, Christ's saving act is continually working in us, to bring us to greater and greater freedom to become what God intended us to be, what we were made for, in the beginning.
In the beginning, we were free
The Bible begins with Genesis, and a declaration that our God is a God who creates. God as the creator means not only that God made everything, but also that God is the rightful owner of all of creation, and that He is King and sovereign over everything - man, beasts, heavens, and earth. The Bible begins with a proclamation that God as creator means God is to be worshiped.
From his position as King, God created human life, and made us different from all other creation by putting his image on us. God gives Adam a mandate: rule the earth. Have dominion over all of creation - being under the rule of God alone. Adam was free to rule everything God had made, his work in the garden of Eden being an act of service and worship to God. Additionally, he alone of all creation was described to have the very image of God. Adam didn't have to work hard at being perfect, he was perfect, just by being himself, the way God made him. (Gen 1:27-30, Gen 2:15.)
Adam was in a position to worship God, enjoy God's presence, and also enjoy creation but without being ruled by creation. Adam could act according to his nature, and his nature was perfect. Adam knew what it was to be free.
Freedom exchanged for slavery: Adam's story
What happened at the Fall of mankind was more than just eating the wrong fruit. It wasn't so much that Adam discovered the difference between good and bad - God had already told him (Gen 2:16-17). Instead, Adam rejected the rule of God in his life and chose to decide for himself - and his decision was that a created object was more important than the word of the Creator. His decision cemented the rest of his life and our lives as well - all humankind afterwards, similarly, choose creation over the Creator, serving idols over the one true God. After the fall, Adam (and all humanity) still acted according to his nature, but his nature had fallen and no longer perfect. His heart still yearns for the contentment he had in God back in the garden of Eden, but his heart looks for that contentment in other things - exchanging the glory of God for idols of various kinds (Romans 1:23). Thus, sin is more than just breaking rules - sin is seeking fulfillment, contentment, security, and identity in created things rather than the Creator. The heart of sin is serving idols rather than the creator, and the idol could be anything from the idols of ancient society like carved wood and stone, to the idols of modern society like money, sex, status, or self-actualisation.
Adam would act according to his nature, but his nature was fallen, and bound to sin and idolatry... and could no longer provide him with the true contentment for which he was created. Adam, and now all humanity, was now enslaved to sin. (Romans 5:13.)
If God is King and Sovereign, He can not possibly tolerate a subversion of order in his kingdom as what Adam has done. To tolerate a subversion like this would be simply un-kingly and un-sovereign. And yet, in his mercy, God still seeks people to worship him and know him (John 4:21-25)... I say in his mercy, because God knows that our hearts are most satisfied when we find him (Ps 17:15, or as St Augustine famously said, our hearts are restless, O God, until it rests in thee. Confessions of St Augustine, Book I).
And so, God stages a rescue plan. (The below is, of course, a gross over-simplification of the plan. To get the whole thing in its glorious entirety, you'll have to read the Bible. Preferably cover to cover.)
Slavery exchanged for freedom: Israel's story
At this point you might wonder, where does the law come into it?
As it happens, phase one of God's rescue plan involves a small nation called Israel. God saves Israel out of Egypt to do just what he has created humanity to do - worship (Exod. 3:12, 4:23, 7:16, and so on). God chooses to reveal himself to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel)... Then to Moses, as He uses him to lead the nation out of bondage and slavery in Egypt. Unlike the Russian soldier in Schindler's List, God doesn't free the people from slavery in Egypt and then leave them to their devices. Instead, God initially dwells with his people in their midst while they journey (Exod. 13:21-22), then inside the tabernacle (Exod. 40:35 - the word "tabernacle" literally means "dwelling place"), until they reach the land which God has promised to them will flow with "milk and honey". Once inside the promised land, God promises the Israelites that they will regain some of what was lost from Eden - that is, they will enjoy the fruits of the land, they will enjoy the presence of God in their midst, and they will get to worship him.
The laws were given to Israel as they were on the cusp of entering into the promised land. You might perhaps think, "What a let down. Rescued out of slavery, only in exchange for a set of laws! What kind of freedom is that?". But if that is the way you think, then perhaps you don't really understand the mood of the average God-loving Israelite at the time. The ten commandments start with a declaration of who God is: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery". The average Israelite at the time knew the full ramifications of that statement - and would have experienced every miraculous deliverance up until that point. The laws which followed would not have been a burden or obligation, but instead a joy to observe (Psalm 119:13-16). "After all," they might say to themselves, "why would we covet when we have the LORD in our midst? Why would we steal, or give false witness, or oppress the homeless? What could we possibly gain that we don't already have in the LORD?"
Freedom exchanged for slavery: Israel's fall
The pattern of idolatry from Adam continues. The problem with Israel is not so much that they could not obey the laws - although they couldn't, but that their hearts are still fallen, like Adam's heart. They forgot about the God who lead them out of slavery, and their hearts again sought satisfaction and fulfillment from idols (Amos 2:4-8, Hos. 2:13, Hos 11:1-2). Their rejection of the right worship of God meant that even when they performed the right sacrifices according to the law, God could not accept them, because their heart was not right (Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:8). We see that, although they were set physically free from Egypt, they still were not free from the sinful nature inherited from Adam. Once again, God the sovereign King can only act according to His sovereign nature. Israel was taken over by neighbouring countries, and the pattern of slavery continues.
What God lamented the most, over and above the captivity and slavery of the people's physical bodies, was the captivity and enslavement of their hearts. Through Israel's prophets, God tells his people about the next phase of God's rescue plan. God plans to do something completely new - he will give the people a new heart and a new spirit to replace their old, sinful and fallen hearts. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34, 24:7, Ezekiel 36:26-27).
What God lamented the most, over and above the captivity and slavery of the people's physical bodies, was the captivity and enslavement of their hearts. Through Israel's prophets, God tells his people about the next phase of God's rescue plan. God plans to do something completely new - he will give the people a new heart and a new spirit to replace their old, sinful and fallen hearts. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34, 24:7, Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Lessons from Adam and Israel
You might feel that I have taken a very long detour from Genesis to get to Christ, when a simple "Christ came to set us free" could have sufficed. But I hope that I have demonstrated to you that God's plan for salvation is not simply to set us free from sins or death. God's salvation plan is for us to be set free to greater glory. We will no longer be ruled by the things around us -- our anxieties, perfectionism, legalism. Instead, we will be set free to be truly human as He created us to be - radiant, strong, with the integrity to enjoy all of creation, but not afraid of losing anything because we have God which is greater than all.
Also, I hope I have shown you that the problem is not simply in our inability to obey God's rules. (Exod. 19:8 shows how willing the Israelites were to try.) Rather, the problem is in our very nature - we simply can not worship God in spirit and in truth as he desires. We were born outside of Eden, into slavery. Something very drastic and dramatic is required. We need a heart transplant.
You might feel that I have taken a very long detour from Genesis to get to Christ, when a simple "Christ came to set us free" could have sufficed. But I hope that I have demonstrated to you that God's plan for salvation is not simply to set us free from sins or death. God's salvation plan is for us to be set free to greater glory. We will no longer be ruled by the things around us -- our anxieties, perfectionism, legalism. Instead, we will be set free to be truly human as He created us to be - radiant, strong, with the integrity to enjoy all of creation, but not afraid of losing anything because we have God which is greater than all.
Also, I hope I have shown you that the problem is not simply in our inability to obey God's rules. (Exod. 19:8 shows how willing the Israelites were to try.) Rather, the problem is in our very nature - we simply can not worship God in spirit and in truth as he desires. We were born outside of Eden, into slavery. Something very drastic and dramatic is required. We need a heart transplant.
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