The illusion of freedom

What troubles me most, especially in debates over human sexuality and civil partnership or marriage, is how otherwise good Christians can forget an essential truth: that from a Biblical perspective people, left by themselves and without the authority of God's Word, will always get it wrong. This morning, I read the opening verses of Hebrews 12, rehearsing the fact that God, as a truly loving Father, both disciplines and punishes us as His children? Punish!!!???  Yes, indeed. For we all sin and get it wrong, at times. And this is the response and working of the true Father, our God, as He deals with us through the prism of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A new book that came out this year, in honour of Andrew Kirk, called Mission in Context ( Ed's J Corrie and C Ross, published by Ashgate), contains an excellent chapter by David Kettle who, in rehearsing the wonderfully prophetic insights of Lesslie Newbigin, in reshaping concepts of missional thinking for Western culture, follows Newbigin in commenting (pp 195-6),

"Authentic freedom is not a natural property of the human mind; it is not - even in its conception - fully realised by us here and now, but lies with God in his sovereignty. Contrary to liberal assumptions, freedom is given in the first instance from beyond ourselves, by God - the unsurpassable freedom, fundamentally, to give ourselves as a living, loving sacrifice. Loss of freedom, or bondage, correspondingly. while it may indeed press upon us from outside - may also rise from within. We cannot assume, as is the liberal temptation, that commitment to doctrines or traditions is against freedom, or that what rises from within us is against our freedom."

Let us hold onto the authority of God's Word in Scripture, reading it in humility, submitting to it and in Christlike submission to Father's will, applying it to our lives. This is freedom in its reality. This is the mindset of those who will inherit eternity, who long for the New Heavens and the New Earth.

A fuller essay by me on this issue can be viewed on http://audiosermonupdate.blogspot.co.uk/