The debate over the 1960s and its moral legacy (in the area of personal freedom) often confuses two different phenomena. One is the freedom to choose how to live. The other is the freedom to consider oneself unbound by moral rules. However, when pressed Americans usually make a distinction between them. The former, they usually insist, is something worth having and is part of the American ethos. The latter, most of them feel, is something worth avoiding, for it destroys social cohesion.
It may be suggested that the debate over the origins of the Republic and to what extent the freedom/liberty envisaged was based on Christian or Enlightenment principles has confused two further and different phenomena. One is the ideal of the individual, personal freedom and rights associated with life in the Republic that is available to people of any religion or none; and the other is the ideal or perfection of individual, human freedom as presented by Jesus and his apostles.
The words of some preachers, televangelists, Christian action groups and politicians sometimes give the impression that the “freedom/liberty” for which the USA stands in the world, and which is part of the American way of life at home, is basically what “Christian freedom” based on the New Testament is all about when embodied in a state and culture.. And they seem to mean more than that it is compatible with Christian principles.
The main point, I suggest, about the biblical presentation of personal freedom in Christ is that it is available from God anywhere in the world at all times and under any kind of government or social situation. That is, a fully committed Christian is as free before God and in Christ in North Korea or Iran as in the USA and Canada. For the Christian is as free when being persecuted as when being rescued from physical danger by the state.
In brief, the following may be said in explanation of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience.
1. Freedom/liberty has been purchased by Christ Jesus in his Cross for all who live under the Gospel.In short it is a freedom to be what God calls his children to be because one is set free from the power of the world, the flesh and the devil and given the desire to walk with the Lord. This freedom is given to and available to all believers in all countries, under all governments, in all social contexts, in sickness and in health, in poverty and riches, and from all tribal and racial identities.
2. The liberty consists of freedom from the wrath of God against sinners, from the curse of the Law of God, and from the guilt of sin.
3. It also consists in being delivered from this present evil age/world, from bondage to Satan, from the rule and dominion of sin, from the sting of death and from everlasting damnation.
4. Further, it includes, positively, access to the Father through the Son, with desire and power to obey the Lord not out of slavish fear but with a willing and loving mind.
5. Finally, it is free to be led by the Holy Spirit in the way of Christ Jesus and in boldness of access to the throne of grace in the name of Jesus.
Regrettably, some believers are not wholly aware of this gift of freedom in Christ and so do not avail themselves of it, and also other believers long only for the “freedom of the West” and cannot see that they are free already in everything that really and truly matters (from the perspective of eternity!).
To state all this is not to repudiate or to make to be of no importance the ideal of personal freedom with rights that is found in western countries like the USA. It is to remind ourselves that however highly we evaluate it, it nevertheless belongs to this world and this age, both of which are severely affected by sin and are under the just judgment of God.
To return to individual freedom in Christ. It must be emphasized that the Lord Jesus Christ frees a person, not by releasing him from his obligations and by allowing him to do whatever he may think is right or good, but by providing the inner strength and motivation to keep the commands of God the Father and the Lord Jesus in letter and spirit. Of course, the perfection of this freedom, where the believer desires and does the will God every moment and habitually, is not immediately realizable after his baptism/conversion and will only be fully experienced in the age to come. There is always the struggle for the believer in this world/age between what he is – a being saved, forgiven sinner – and what he is called to be – the person wholly conformed to Christ. Thus he is never completely and wholly free for there is always a part of him yet to be purified, renewed and sanctified. Yet in freedom he seeks to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and to do so in whatever social and political structure in which he lives.
The Christian who is free in Christ is in this world/age but not of this world/age (not even when it is in the form of a Republic or Democracy), even as he desires to be for (in terms of evangelization and loving care) this world/age.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever. (John 2:15-17)
October 29, 2005 petertoon@msn.com
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