The second ‘but’ is the word freedom itself. Since what we’re talking about here is the
good news of Jesus and the life and times of Jesus and his apostles, the word
we’re looking for is the Greek one – from the New Testament. In English, we have a couple of medical terms
that help us: eleutherophilia – meaning a love of freedodm; eleutherophobia –
meaning a fear of freedom; eleutheromania – meaning an intense and irresistible
desire for freedom. The root of them all
is eleutheria, the New Testament Greek word for freedom.
To ancient Greeks, this ‘freedom’ was a natural law: a
proper state of being, the aberration of which is slavery or bondage. It refers to the power of self-determination;
exemption from arbitrary or despotic control.
However, it was not, in that era, universally available but the
possession of a select few in a class of their own, for whom it means the
possession of particular privileges. At
its root, it carries the idea that a person or thing is “free” when it can and
does perform in the manner and for the purpose for which it was made. A train is not free to act as a fishing boat but
to run on fixed tracks; and a human being is not free when
constrained under the control or bondage of another.
The good news of Jesus (and its apostolic heralding) sees it
as the natural state of being for all who are in Christ – restored and
reconciled to God. Paul expressed it to
the Corinthians this way: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
(2 Cor. 3:17) Paul appears to take the
view that, in Christ, we humans can now live and operate according to the
purpose for which we were created by God – a condition constrained by the
disease of sin and by the futile efforts of law in our unredeemed state.
However, as with all words, we must resist the temptation to
apply all our meanings of our English word freedom onto this Greek word and its
common use in the time the apostles would have used it. One of the main objections people have to the
concept of freedom is that it appears to imply no restraint – and certainly
that is a useful understanding of the idea.
But it is perhaps not the best one to understand its meaning as the
apostles intended.
One of the best apostolic quotes to use to get a handle on
freedom comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:1 – “It was for
freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be
subject again to a yoke of slavery.” As
a matter of interest, the phrase “be subject again to a yoke of slavery” is a
perfect rendition of the word ‘religion’ as we discussed earlier.
What is the nature and substance of the freedom for which
Jesus Christ has set us free? New
Testament Greek scholars (Thayer and Strong for example) give us this insight:
a) liberty to do or to omit things having no relation to salvation; b) liberty
from the yoke of the Mosaic law; c) liberty from Jewish errors so blinding the
mental vision that it does not discern the majesty of Christ; d) liberty from
the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul
what the will of God requires.
And d) above is central and pivotal to the good news of
freedom in Christ. One of the most
important things to understand about Jesus, his gospel and the life and
ministry of the first apostles is that freedom in Christ is not simply a
lifestyle choice by people seeking their own good pleasure or good
fortune. To them, freedom in Christ
comes as a result of laying down one’s life in the cause of Christ, in
repentance and faith, and, in the words of both Jesus and his apostles, being
born again as a gift from God the Father by the will and power of the Holy
Spirit, into a brother relationship with Jesus, where God the Father names us
among His sons.
This
process – all an initiative and act of the grace of God – enables and equips
one to, as point d) above says, “do by the free impulse of the soul what the
will of God requires.” Paul wrote to the
Romans, “... sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but
under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but
under grace? May it never be!” Law is not our Master, Jesus is. Consistent with that, he wrote to the
Corinthians, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things
edify.” In Christ, we are not under law
– any law. But that does not excuse
lawlessness; the same freedom in Christ also gives us the capacity, as I said,
to “do by free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires.” In our unredeemed state, we do not possess
that free impulse; in Christ, we do – as a result of the gracious gift of God’s
Spirit.
In Christ in this way, we are not under any obligation
(another meaning of the Greek word eleutheria) to keep any other law in order
to please and satisfy God our Father.
This is the fundamental reason they sought to kill Jesus, and ultimately
succeeded. It is also the reason for the
continual persecution of Paul and his teams throughout their lives. It is what lies behind the recorded incident
in Acts 15 of the eleutherophobiacs (Pharisees and their adherents) trying
unsuccessfully to bring Jesus’ disciples back under the law of Moses.
And so-called church history is riddled with the holes of an
unrelenting stream of bullets from a continually firing machine gun that
refuses to permit the freedom in Christ of those who opt to lay down their
lives for Christ and, as the New Testament says, “worship the Father in spirit
and in truth.” (See John’s gospel chapter 4.)
In Jesus’ day, they were fanatics and radicals worthy of internment or
death – and little has changed to this day.
As Karl Marx suggested years ago, religion is the sop we take to
immunise ourselves against the reality of freedom in Christ; it is the illusion
of godliness we take on board so we can delude ourselves that we have the
‘benefits’ of having a right relationship with God without actually having the
relationship we think we have.
And now, at this point in history, religion is the preferred
way and freedom in Christ is decried, persecuted and lampooned – as it has been
from the beginning.
But now it’s all coming apart and the opportunity for the
truth to be inserted into the dialogue is imminent and pressing.
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