Obedience, freedom, and freewill are topics I believe Christians must begin to dialog about more. What does a Christ-centered worldview teach us about these difficult topics? I have written some opening comments as to how I see the topic in hopes that we might discuss these things further.
Obedience is compliance to someone else’s will even though it may not align with one’s own. Whatever the nature of Christ’s power as God was while he was on earth, one thing we can say is that his freedom was limited, at the very least, to temporal and spatial realities of the world. The Gospels show us that he limited his freedom in another way, to the will of his Father. In the garden of Gethsemane, the night before he was to die, Jesus, God incarnate, prayed this prayer, "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36) The Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus, in order to follow through with the events that were to follow, had to surrender his own will to the will of his Father.
In our American culture, freedom has become our god. We want to be free to do what we want, when we want, how we want, and no one should be able to tell us differently. If the ideology of freedom is pushed a bit further, one will see that, at the core is idolatry. We have all become little gods doing as we wish. Christianity suffers from the same idolatry and has even applied it to our theology of freewill. My question is simply this, If Jesus Christ, God incarnate, limited his freedom to the will of his father, should we, his followers, not do the same by limiting our own freedom, in obedience to Christ? The author of 1 Peter puts it brilliantly, “live as free persons, yet not using your freedom as a cover up for wrongdoing, live as slaves to God.” (1 Peter 2:16) Christians are called to used their freewill to live as slaves to the will of God. This is the message of the Gospel, when we become slaves to God’s will, then and only then is true freedom found.
Your thoughts ? ? ?
2 comments:
I agree that only freedom is found when we live as Christ lived, and place all of our self into living for the Father. He knows what's best, as a parent to a child, except with no fault. His desire for the world is so grand and amazing. If we follow what He instructs, we will do right. To be His slave, is to be free. True freedom is found in Christ, not in the "freedom" we want to have to do everything we want here and there. What do you believe to be true?
The best response I can think of for this is a quote from Perelandra by C.S. Lewis: "I think He made one law of that kind in order that there might be obedience. In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your own eyes also. Is love content with that?"
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