MONDAY
A major part of what makes the gospel irresistible is the freedom that it gives believers. A number of Scripture passages reference this freedom and celebrate it.
John 8:31-32 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
1 Peter 2:16 (ESV) 16 Live as people who are free
Galatians 5:1 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV) For you were called to freedom, brothers.
We will dive into these texts more in the coming days but the freedom these passages are talking about is freedom from sin and freedom from the Law. We talked about this in the second week of this campaign when we were discussing morality—our violation of it and God’s gracious response in salvation. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, the penalty for our sins has been paid. When we place our trust in Jesus for our salvation, we are free from our sin. Therefore, we are free from the curse of the law and free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and give ourselves in service to God and others.
Those are some big statements that we will unpack over the week. This week we are going to reflect on the freedom from and freedom to aspects of this conversation on Christian freedom. Again, we are free from our sin and the Law and free to give ourselves in service to God and others.
St. Augustine (4th-5th century AD) spent much of his ministry life refuting the ideas of Pelagius, a monk from Britain who denied original sin, undermining the necessity of Christ’s death for salvation, as humans were able to be moral enough on our own, apart from God’s grace. Pelagius, therefore, viewed Christ’s death not as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the elect, but more as an example of humility and love for us all to follow. He emphasized human freedom and goodness over God’s election, grace and mercy in salvation. Augustine countered Pelagius by teaching original sin, the necessity of the atonement and God’s election, grace and mercy in salvation. The teachings of Pelagius were deemed to be heretical at the council of Ephesus in 431 AD and the church sided with the teaching of Augustine.
The teachings of Pelagius have resurfaced in recent days as our culture so heavily emphasizes freedom (we will talk about this tomorrow). Moreover, as Evangelicals deconstruct their faith, they look to the history of the church and find that it is more messy than they previously believed (it wasn’t a clean line from Paul to Billy Graham). In doing so they revisit the ancient arguments, often feeling slighted for not being taught about it before and, like a child with a shiny new toy, abandon the good doctrine that has been handed down to them in favor of the new (albeit bad) doctrine recently discovered that confirms what they wanted to believe all along. I digress.
I bring all this up for one fascinating aspect of Augustine’s argument. Pelagius seemed to be on the side of free will and Augustine on the side of determinism. However, Augustine pointed out, rightly so, that only through the saving work of Jesus can our will truly be set free. Prior to salvation humans are in bondage, enslaved (not free) to sin. Because of our sinful nature, we are not truly free to love God. In our pride and selfishness, how can we be? Yet, in God’s grace and mercy in salvation and new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) of the believer, our will truly becomes free because we can then choose to love God genuinely. He describes it as disordered loves. In our sinful nature we always love ourselves, something or someone else ultimately more than God—this is idolatry. In Christ, when we are saved and made new, God orders our disordered loves so that we can love God over other loves. The heart as the seat of our will is “made new” (Ez. 36:26).
Until the heart is made new, it is restless in its idolatry because, remember, we are made by God and for God. Augustine famously prayed, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” In the reordering of our loves, we can then live as we were purposed to do. In the biblical framework then, in the gospel we become more free.
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Reflection
Reflect on this idea of being more free in the gospel. Do you perceive the gospel as freedom in Christ or more restrictive and restraining? If you view it as more restrictive, I hope this week you will see the true freedom in the gospel and come to appreciate it over and against the “freedom” that, according to Scripture, is in reality bondage.