Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for his higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.
~C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
~ Jesus The Messiah in Luke 4:18-21, Referring to Isaiah 61:1
There is a gorgeous enigma in the Word of G_d.
We are totally free. There are no rules in the Universe.
Based on Who Jesus is, and what He has done – we are now completely free. There is but one law.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
~ James 1:25
Yeah, did you catch that beloved? The law of the New Covenant is: Liberty! Now, let’s not get too wrapped around the axle here. We are not talking about the license that is available to us through the flesh. Surely, we can do all sorts of stupid stuff, and in the doing we will create all sorts of consequences for ourselves.
We are talking about a better kind of liberty.
See, in Christ, we are finally, totally, absolutely free to begin a new life. And this new life is no longer bound to our own selfish desires. Rather this life is a Life that is finally free to live righteously. We are, finally, able to freely love other people. We are now free to live at peace with our G_d. We are free to Live a life flowing with the strength born of joy in the L_RD.
This is very good news.
What might our lives look like if we simply reckoned this truth true in our lives, and began to walk this truth out in our lives? Might everything be different? Might all we do take on a totally different flavor and motivation?
Free to Live
Free to Love
Free to give our lives for others that they might live.
I am much struck with the contrast between Christ’s mode of gathering people to himself and the way practiced by Alexander the Great, by Julius Caesar, and by myself. The people have been gathered to us by fear; they were gathered to Christ by love. Alexander, Caesar, and I have been men of war, but Christ was the Prince of Peace. The people have been driven to us; they were drawn to him. In our case there has been forced conscription; in his there was free obedience.
~Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
