As someone who has just gone through surgery myself, I can identify with the temptation to milk it for all its worth. I said that I can identify—I didn't say I was doing that! Praise God, though, for a loving wife, who is laying down her life, allowing the Lord to show His love through her selfless acts of caring. Her free will has been shaped by the Lord's own definition of freedom. As the 4th of July approaches, this country's focus will be on freedom, but so often, we are looking for freedom in all the wrong places.
Today, all freedom means to so many is that they get to do what they want to do, and when they don't—they cry, "unfair—my rights are being violated." But someone once said, "There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." And yet, many fail to realize that the most clamor and complaining takes place in the free countries; it is under the dictatorships that there is very little complaining, but a whole lot of pain and suffering. And still the misperceptions of true freedom persist—thinking I should always be free to have my way!
Now, understand—this is perfectly natural in the godless society in which we live, everything being oriented around "self." But, Oh, how tragic it is when it can be found in so much of the Church today! In religious circles, the debate is over free will—God creating us to be free to make our own choices. The problem, however, is that often it is used to be free from Christ and His expectations, instead of being free in Him. At the outset, we need to see the Biblical truth. A.W. Tozer once wrote, "How can you be a Christian and not be aware of the sovereignty of God who has loved us to death. To be sovereign, God must be the absolute, infinite, unqualified ruler in all realms in heaven and earth and sea. To be Lord over all creation, He must be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. With all that is within me, I believe that the crucified and risen and glorified Savior Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord. He takes no orders from anyone. He has no counselors and no advisors. He has no secretary to the throne. He knows in the one effortless act all that can be known and He has already lived out our tomorrows and holds the world in the palm of His hand. That is the Lord I serve! I gladly own that I am His; Glory to God! The Christ I know and serve is infinitely beyond all men and all angels and all archangels; above all principalities and powers and dominions, visible and invisible—for He is the origin of them all!" Well, with that being said and with that being true—and it is—how in the world does free will, or free-anything, for that matter, fit it with such an awesome and in-control God?
It doesn't! But I guess I need to be clearer than that—the normal or false understanding of free will does not line up with a sovereign Lord. God's understanding of free will, however, does. Let's go back to the very beginning—Creation itself! In Genesis 2: 16-17, we are told, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die." God had laid down the law, but within that, they were given some freedom. In fact, a great deal of freedom—in the Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, this "freely" refers to something given gratis—with no cost, and no way to earn it. Its root word intimates a graciousness that is precious, kind, and favorable, and specifically, one that is shown to an inferior by bowing down. As incredible as it may seem, the problem is, that, from that time on, people have wanted something else—freedom to do their own will. But true free will is freedom and the ability to do God's will. Adam and Eve had been given plenty to satisfy them, but they listened to Satan's lie and allowed self-will to rule.
God, in His mercy, used another Hebrew word to portray His concept of freedom, and He did so 17 times. Throughout Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and even in the Psalms, God refers to His people worshiping Him with "freewill offerings." By definition, they are something presented spontaneously and voluntarily. The Lord is not looking for devotion due to duty, but for love that comes out of the abundance of love that He has already given in Jesus Christ. We see this very clearly in Hosea. This prophet, whose name actually means "salvation", was called by God to prophesy to the crumbling kingdom of Israel during her last 30 years before the Babylonian exile. God even went so far as to call Hosea to take a prostitute as a wife to dramatically demonstrate the whoredom of God's people. For generations, and, in fact, from the very beginning, people had chosen their own free will contrary to God's. And now, they were about to go down for it, but—there would be one last opportunity to repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Hosea 14:4-7a tells us, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel, he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree…They that dwell under his shadow shall return…" Yes, God would love them freely, but would they repent? Not yet, and off into captivity they went. But Praise God—this amazing promise would be fulfilled in Christ—God's people would return to Him through the coming Messiah. At the very close of Hosea's prophesy, this Messiah speaks: "I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found…For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein." (vss. 8b-9)
What is really the problem? You guessed it—a faulty understanding of God's freedom. I have seen so many, claiming to be following the Lord, but off insisting on their own free will. They find no problem in letting the unsaved—whether they be friends, or even husbands and children—rule their lives, even to the detriment of their own spiritual lives. Others decide when we leave for church. Others decide if we leave for church. Others decide when we run here or there for them, tying up our time that should be spent in the Word, in prayer, or in the presence of the Body of Christ. Others decide, by their overbearing demeanor and anger, how far we go with the Lord and how seriously we take Him and His commands. "But wait a minute, Pastor," you might say, "aren't you being just a little hard here? After all, it's not our fault they can be so controlling." Isn't it? What about free will? The unsaved are quick to use theirs—but why does our free will have to line up with theirs? Why do their expectations get honored, and not God's? What happened to the amazing abundance the Lord has freely placed in our hands to be used for His glory?—"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24) As much as we love those around us, what have they ever done to compare with that? What about spontaneously, and quite voluntarily, giving our all the to One who already gave His All? What about letting Him be Lord and King, instead of giving that awesome position to the unsaved around us? Huh, what about it? Will the world shape our free will, or will He—Christians have the free will to decide that!
Remember—"From me is thy fruit found." Free will was not given for our own purposes, whatever they may be. As the poet Tennyson once put it, "Our wills are ours, we know not how; our wills are ours to make them thine." Freedom is given for His glory, and His alone. Christ said it clearly—"It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." (Rev. 21:6-7…read vs. 8 to see what happens if you don't) He also said, "Freely ye have received, freely give." (Matt. 10:8) Quit looking for freedom in all the wrong places—"If the Son therefore shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36) True freedom—repenting of your sin, turning from it, and submitting your will to His! It is just what the Divine Doctor ordered!
