Defining Terms

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36  NASB

Free – Why does the biblical worldview seem so impossible to put into practical application? How can Yeshua say that we should not worry about tomorrow, that we should constantly forgive, that we are not to calculate the requests and demands of others, that we are not to seek self-protection in the face of threat? What could possibly justify such radical claims? Why does this instruction seem so opposed to just plain common sense?

Some of these questions can be answered by an examination of the concept of freedom. The differences between the biblical view of freedom and the common idea of freedom in our culture, and the implications for daily living, are dramatic. These differences point toward a radically altered view of reality.

When we say that a man or woman is free, we usually imply something about the absence of restraint. In politics, this will mean the absence of some dominating and determining factor that prevents self-rule. In finances, this will mean the absence of economic suppression. In the marketplace, it may mean the absence of discrimination in career choice or the absence of cultural and social restrictions on lifestyle. All of these “negative” definitions view the world as a hostile, threatening place that, left to its own devices, seeks totalitarian control over the individual. This control might come from government or from nature, but the result is essentially the same. The world wants sovereignty over me. Freedom is my word for escaping this attempt to control me.

The Greeks recognized long ago that completely unrestrained freedom meant anarchy. Men cannot live in a world where they are totally free to do whatever they wish whenever they wish. Social systems require constraints. This is just as true today. We have only to look at the chaos in societies run by warlords and gangs to see that there is a dark side to freedom. So freedom is constrained by law and law is the attempt of the group to bring into line those who would seek unrestrained existence.

This social-political restraint creates a more difficult problem. If society demands that I live under laws for the good of the whole, in what sense can I ever truly be free? Our Western culture has adopted the Greek answer: to be truly free, you must be free from within. A man or woman who finds inner freedom may live within the society governed by law, but his or her soul is not damaged by the restraint. Restraint of any kind is external. It only becomes damaging when I allow the external circumstances of life to define my own inner world. Wherever external threat becomes the basis of my own self-concern, I come under the control of something beside myself. But even though I may be threatened, I do not need to allow that threat to dominate my life. In our culture, genuine freedom is found in self-control. This is why prisoners emerge as victors over their captors. This is why we recognize the indomitable spirit of Man rising from disaster, from despotism and from degradation. We intuitively know that a self-possessed person can never be chained for even if the physical shackles are in place, the soul is still free to soar.

This Greek view of freedom is at the core of our worldview. It is based on the belief that freedom is essentially the ability to control external threat and that freedom is achieved when external threat is eliminated, even if the elimination occurs only within the person through refusal to be dominated. This view of freedom explains the human passion for self-determination. In this world, Man is made for self-control and wherever that control is threatened, freedom is at stake. Ultimately, this view of freedom must address the sprit of Man. It must confront the inner prisons and break the bonds that hold men captive in their own minds. For Man to be fully free, both the external and the internal worlds must coincide and both must be mastered. In our world, freedom is control of what would otherwise constrain me.   This is at its core an issue of inner resolve. It is ultimately a spiritual matter for in the end, freedom is a state of inner being, not simply the removal of external threats. In the acquisition of freedom, our worldview often moves from the outside in. We first attempt control of the circumstances of life in order to remove the threat to self-determination. But ultimately, even external freedom is not enough. Men must be free on the inside if they are to be ultimately self-determined. This implies that the final basis of freedom is self-control.

Behind the gospel of control is the assumption that given the right decisions, the right technology, the right government, the right society and the right information, control is possible. Without this assumption, the entire structure supporting freedom falls.   It is at this point that the biblical view of freedom is radically different. The Bible does not offer a variation of this concept of freedom. It does not suggest a “spiritual” modification of the idea of controlling life. The Bible confronts the fundamental assumption of the world’s idea of freedom head-on. It simply says that the basic assumption about control is wrong. From the Bible’s perspective, there is NO control. Men and women are NOT in charge of their lives. They are not gods. They do not reign over their circumstances no matter how much effort they put into trying to do so. In the end, the biblical view is that God, and God alone [not in conflict with the “Devil”] is the sole authority. His will prevails—always and everywhere, even if it takes a very long time from our point of view. From the biblical perspective, human effort to bring about human freedom borders on idolatry. What human beings are called to do is cooperate with God’s purposes and manage the results of that cooperative effort as God would manage them. This means that contentment is a major element in the biblical view of human responsibility. It is more important for me to learn acceptance of what God is doing than it is for me to put my efforts into bringing about a world under my control.

That doesn’t mean we must be passive. God is not passive. He expects us to restore His creation and fulfill His purposes with gusto, enormous effort and concentrated desire. But we are workers on His behalf, not masters of our own destiny. Freedom, in the Greek sense, is not only a myth, it is a costly mistake. Alignment with the Creator is the only definition of freedom in the Bible. And that means giving up my powerful desire to make things work out my way.

Topical Index: freedom, John 8:36