There is a lot of talk about our ‘freedoms’ today. You could say that there is so much talk about them that ‘freedom’ has become an idol in our culture. Usually when freedoms are mentioned, they are almost always mentioned in wildly selfish terms.
You’ll hear things like:
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“My body, my choice.”
“Don’t be so legalistic, I have the freedom to do that.”
“Don’t treat on me.”
It’s almost as if people have forgotten the need for mutual submission and the need to think of others more highly than themselves.
Another thing we hear when people overly exert their ‘freedoms’ is their wild inconsistencies. The same person that asserts their freedom to do or that to the harm of others is the same person that willingly stops at a red light, or better yet runs the red light because they always have a convenient excuse and reason to break the rules that themselves create.
The biblical view of freedom is God-centric not man-centric. We learn very early on in the Garden of Eden, that God presented limitations to man for His glory and man’s good. Remember when Adam and Eve were given dominion over it all, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Genesis 2:15–17 (NKJV)“Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
You can have it all, God says, but not that one particular tree. You’re free. You’re limited. It’s God’s will.
Limiting our freedoms is God’s prerogative. As our Creator, He has the ultimate right to limit our lives as He sees fit. Sometimes those limits can seem a bit unfair or unjust. Many times that exactly true. But God doesn’t answer to man for what He allows in our lives. We are accountable to Him. He is not accountable to us. Think for a moment about the ten commandments (Exodus 20). What is wrong with these God given limitations? Nothing. Not one thing is wrong with them. They are holy, righteous and good. What about the limitation God places upon man related to salvation. He limits our choice to just one way.
John 14:6 (NKJV) “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
It’s through our limitations that we are able to exercise our free will. We can choose to obey God or disobey God, but it’s wholly our choice.
Choice implies freedom. Freedom implies responsibility. Responsibility implies accountability. There will always be those who will spend their entire lives trying to reconcile the free will of man with the sovereignty of God. Let me make it easier for you. Stop trying to reconcile friends. They both clearly exist even in the tension between them. God will be a debtor to no man. We are ultimately and finally responsible for the choices we make.
Choose wisely today friend. Choose wisely.
