True freedom is all about love.
You and I long to be free. The yearning for freedom is what brings people to America. It’s why we love weekends. It’s why people want to be wealthy or retired. The love of freedom is why we want to be healthy and strong. It’s why we dislike domineering people, leaders, and organizations, or restrictive clothing, weather, or schedules. Freedom is paradise.
The longing to be free is why our fallen nature resists God. Our fallen nature sees him as the ultimate restriction.
Wrong
But that is not true.
Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
He also said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
In fact, the Bible overflows with the theme of freedom. It is the freedom Book, the freedom story—of God in love liberating people from slavery in Egypt, from bondage in Babylon, from the debilitating oppression of disease, from the burden of the Law of Moses, from captivity to Satan and sin and deceptions.
“The LORD sets the prisoners free” (Psalm 146:7).
Where God is most present, people are actually most free: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Freedom is our destiny; it is for what God in love designed us:
“You were called to freedom, brothers” (Galatians 5:13).
“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1).
“The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
God actually commands us to live in freedom: “Live as people who are free” (1 Peter 2:16).
So, why is the Lord and the freedom he intends for us misunderstood?
The impossible dream of absolute freedom
Our love of freedom gets twisted when we long not for freedom, but for absolute freedom. We lose touch with reality when we long to do anything we want, any time we want, as much as we want, without regard to its effect on our bodies, our emotions, our family and friends, our possessions and financial situation, other people, our world and its environment, and the One who created and sustains us and everything around us. No one, for example, is free to eat chocolate all day, every day, without dire consequences.
So, the problem with absolute freedom is reality. We are inextricably connected to a much bigger reality than freedom of choice and the short-sighted pursuit of happiness, or the self-indulgent focus on me, myself, and I. Absolute freedom is absolute selfishness, unfettered narcissism.
And therefore it is harmful to others and death to self, sooner or later.
Unbridled freedom is slavery
Consider the professional athlete who under the influence of friends begins using cocaine. Before cocaine he was an all-star in his first year in the league. After cocaine he soon lost his starting position, sat on the bench watching others play his position, and eventually was cut from the team. For a new revenue stream, he turned to gambling and selling drugs. Before long, his money ran out, his decent friends were gone, and he ended up in jail.
This story is so common as to be a cliché, but it is a cliché because it is a law. The myth of absolute freedom is actually the worst form of slavery, for it is bondage to what harms and destroys us. The apostle Peter, warning against libertine false teachers, writes: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19).
True freedom
From this, God in his great love and wisdom offers to set us free. He frees us to be able to think, feel, and do what brings life to ourselves and others. The paradox is that God does this by calling us to live in complete submission to his authority and obedience to his commands. Again, this sounds like the ultimate restriction, but it turns out to be the ultimate freedom, because God commands only what is good, life-giving, and freeing.
God loves us and exercises his rule over us in a way that liberates us to be fully alive rather than oppressing and exploiting us. God does not make us puppets or robots; he gave us free will. God is free, and he created us in his image to be free within the bounds of his rule and within the bounds of what is good for us, others, and the world. God gives us the freedom to do what is good, righteous, perfect, pure, just, loving. Thus, he gives us the freedom to be like God.
True freedom is the ability to be disciplined, to control our thoughts, feelings, desires, words, and actions. True freedom is the ability to live with people in a way that enhances our relationships with them. True freedom is the ability to live in a way that enhances our relationship with the God who gives us life and every good thing in life.
Therefore true freedom is the ability to love. God, in love, sets us free to love him with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves. True freedom is about love, and true love is about freedom.
The Year of Jubilee
One of the greatest examples of the loving, freedom-giving heart of God is the Year of Jubilee. When he created the nation of Israel and its laws, he knew that over time some of the people would fall into poverty and lose their economic freedom by selling their land and services to others. So, he instituted the law that every fifty years there would be a year of jubilee in which land would revert back to its owners and slaves would be set free.
Leviticus 25:9–10 says, “On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”
The heart of the Lord is to set people free.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Our fallen nature wants to use freedom as a cover up for evil.
God’s way: Jesus said God sent him “to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
Life principle: We experience perfect freedom when we surrender ourselves to God and live in love.