LIE: Freedom is the right to make my own choices, part 1

Lie: Freedom is the right to make my own choices.

Truth: Freedom is the power to do the will of our Liberator.

If, however, Christianity and the church are in fact reactionary and static, it is because they have lost the basic meaning of the Christian life, which is freedom. They have transformed revelation into a religion. Religion is indeed a conservative, retarding, and restrictive force. In this transformation fellowship with Christ is lost and with it the purity for which everything is pure and everything is possible. This is why it seems to me that the most urgent and decisive task for Christians today, on the basis of fellowship with Christ, is to recover the full meaning of freedom. — Jacques Ellul, The Ethics of Freedom, 1976[1]

Christians are confused about freedom.

The cry of ‘Freedom!’ is heard today around the world because of the encroaching tyrannies plied under the cover of the COVID-19 ‘pandemic.’[2] But because it is so foundational, we need to be clear about what this freedom is.[3]

The truth is we have confused the true and only freedom of the one who has been set free by Christ and a murky, metaphysical, inherent ‘freedom’ of Man. The opening lines of the Declaration of Independence state the lie in stark terms and few question it:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

These words are considered sacrosanct by most of the church in America. To question the truth of them is considered anathema — most will not go there. But we have to go there because, although it recognizes the Creator, it does not recognize sin and the bondage that it brought upon man.

These words were principally written by Thomas Jefferson and endorsed by America’s Founding Fathers who clearly believed and taught that liberty is the natural, inherent and inalienable right of every human being. But is that true? What does this really mean? and does this square with the concept of biblical freedom?

To clarify Jefferson’s belief, here are a few other statements he made on the subject:

Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice. — Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823.

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance. — Jefferson’s Legal Argument 1770.

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. — Jefferson to Isaac H Tiffany, 1819.

It is true that God created Adam and Eve free — truly and completely free.

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” — Genesis 2:15–17

They were free to go anywhere in the garden and eat of any tree. But God also warned and commanded them not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why? Because this tree and its fruit symbolized a free decision and a life built on knowing good and evil for themselves. Eating from the tree meant they had decided to carve out a life of their own based on their own independent research. Perhaps they would take God’s direction as good and wise advice, but in eating of this tree, they were reserving the right to make their own choices based on what they had experienced.

The serpent had deceived them, planted doubts about God’s intentions and questioned whether he was truly for them. Could they really trust God implicitly? These seeds of doubt caused them to withdraw from him and to take matters into their own hands.

They either had forgotten or had dismissed God’s warning that, ‘the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.’ After eating from the tree, they were then banished from the garden and were denied access to the Tree of Life. And with no access to Life, the slow process of death began immediately.

Adam and Eve had been free. They were brought into an environment where they enjoyed a wide latitude. But of course this freedom existed only within the oversight, provision and care of their Creator. How else could a new creature survive? But God’s rule was benevolent, incredibly empowering, and liberating — not authoritarian, not oppressive. He did not micromanage them. He came to them ‘walking in the garden in the cool of the day.’ So apparently they had time for themselves, but with a caring God who was accessible and who offered them love and guidance 24/7. Their Creator/Father was showing them that they could trust him, but he wanted them to see that for themselves, to see that, though they had a lot of freedom, and could live on their own ‘independently;’ still, true life was lived in communion with him, enjoying the awesome privileges of their garden paradise, and taking walks with him in the cool of the day.

But all of that idyllic freedom was lost as soon as they presumed to claim their independence and to ‘make their own choices.’ Then, banished from the garden, and from the Source of Life, God (reluctantly) let them have what they had chosen — he let them experience the consequences of hardship, pain and toil, to experience the alienation and necessity that still characterize our lives today.

In the western world, with a nearly limitless supply and means for our own provision, we may think we’re free and want freedom. But we are deeply mistaken. How easily we are deceived![4]

Ellul, in his book The Ethics of Freedom, takes great pains to describe the alienation and necessity that really confine Jefferson’s Natural ‘Free Man.’[5]

In the most advanced modern societies man is essentially alienated. . . . The alienation has now taken on new dimensions. It is alienation in the multiplicity, the complexity, the crushing rigor, the non-criticizable rationality of social systems. Man is self-dispossessed because he has come under the possession of phenomena which have an increasingly abstract character and over which he has less and less control. The important fact in alienation is no longer the exploitation of man by man. . . . Man’s enemy is no longer another class of men, nor is it a relatively simple system set up in the interests of a special class. It is a collection of mechanisms of indescribable complexity – technics, propaganda, state, administration, planning, ideology, urbanization, social conformity, and adaptation. Man is less and less the master of his own life.[6]

He also describes how we mistakenly think we want freedom when we’re primarily interested in our own comforts:

One may go even further and state categorically . . . that man is not so enamored of freedom as some have supposed. Freedom is not an inherent personal need. The needs of security, conformity, adaptation, happiness, economy of effort, and so forth are far more constant and profound. Man is completely prepared to sacrifice his freedom in order to satisfy these needs. . . .And when it is a matter of exercising individual, personal freedom, it may be noted that in practice man gives priority to many other needs and longings and that he fears freedom more than he desires it.[7]

If then this vague, metaphysical, natural ‘freedom of man’ is a lie, then what is the liberty — the true freedom — that belongs to the Christian? What does it look like? How is it exercised? And for what? Can we fight for freedom, politically, economically? Are there boundaries to it? if so, what are they? Can we lose it? Get more of it?

I could pose questions like this all day; it’s an inexhaustible subject and central to our lives. It’s been probed by thousands of philosophers, sociologists, and theologians for centuries. But this is an article, not a book. What can I say about freedom that will help recover our true freedom and enable us to use it most effectively and relevantly in our own day?

In this two-part article then, I will deal with four basic questions:

• What freedom is NOT
• What freedom IS
• How can we exercise our true freedom?
• What does freedom look like in the era of COVID

What freedom is NOT

It’s always instructive to clearly state up-front the negative — what something is not. We’ve already said that freedom is not a natural right of humanity, inherent and inalienable. But what else can we say?

1  Freedom is not the right to be left alone. I hear this sad statement from a few solitary and harassed souls who believe that if they could just hole up somewhere on a mountain or a cave, they could be free. Or if the government would just leave them alone, they would be happy. But this is obviously alienation on steroids. If we take this literally, this is a recipe for self-destruction. I don’t need to say much more.

2  Freedom is not a virtue. In all the lists of virtues and fruit of the Spirit, freedom is conspicuously absent. It is not an ethical system or a style.

3  Freedom is not independence or autonomy. Again freedom is not the right to make my own choices. Of course I will make choices and they are my own, but in freedom I do not make choices in isolation from others or from God’s direction. I am not the ‘master of my fate, the captain of my soul.’ By virtue of freedom I am not therefore a solitary soul who makes choices in a vacuum. Freedom is not a ‘rugged individualism,’ being ‘a manly man,’ riding solo over the range into the sunset. No. This ‘ideal’ is wrong on so many fronts.

4  Freedom is not the state of being insubordinate to a superior — the rejection of authority. It is true that being free from disordered and oppressive authorities, dictators, tyrants, is a good thing and we should desire to be free of them. But this is not freedom. As Ellul says:

As concerns revolt against the domination of a superior, however, this is less a matter of liberty than of the will for power, of self-affirmation, of the instinct of superiority. To be governed arbitrarily, to be ordered about, is intolerable, not because I am a free man, but because I myself want to do the ordering . . .[8]

5  Freedom is not an attitude or an outlook on life. Freedom is not the cultivation of a positive attitude or the generation of a feel-good positivity. A genuinely positive attitude that recognizes the Lord and his goodness may contribute to feeling more free. But freedom is not a feeling.

6  Freedom is not a catalog of civil rights. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to bear arms, etc. These are not freedoms; they are rights granted and limited by the state and of which the state may rescind at any time for any number of reasons: emergency powers, etc. But these ‘freedoms’ are based on a false premise — the supposed natural freedom of humans, which we’ve already discussed.

7  Freedom is not saying, ‘I do whatever the [expletive] I want!’ This is nothing but a childish, reactionary demand provoked by oppression, intimidation, threats, deception, exploitation, etc — all of which may be true. It regularly indulges in tirades like this, full of bluster and profanity, trying desperately to convince the self that it therefore must be true. It may momentarily feel good to say, but the feeling dissipates quickly and reality sets in: we are not free in this way.

What is freedom? Christian freedom — the only real freedom there is

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. — John 8:36

It’s a very basic concept: Naturally, we are bound — addicted if you will — to sin and find ourselves in the throes of death. But Jesus came to set us free. The only way then we will ever be free is if the Son sets us free. And in fact he did this by his death, burial and resurrection.[9] But the reality of this needs to ‘hit home.’ And sadly too few have gotten ‘freed up.’

Here is Ellul on this point:

. . . it is not surprising that for ordinary people in the church freedom has neither meaning nor content and poses no questions. It is a theme which has vanished from the Christian horizon. The believer is not concerned about knowing whether he is free nor is he worried in the least about ways of manifesting his freedom. In my view this is the very thing that explains the insipidity of the Christian life, its lack of meaning, its failure to make much impact on society. Works of love and service may be multiplied, justice may be demonstrated, and faith may be expressed, but none of this is worth anything without freedom. All it amounts to is the pious activity expected of Christians. Christians are there to do such things. Such virtues surprise nobody. After all Christians are amiable and useful people and possibly rather stupid. What is missing in all these works, in all these expressions of the Christian life, is the vital spring, the incontestable point, the incomprehensible quality, namely, freedom. This alone is what makes the work significant and surprising.[10]

I’m afraid that for many Christians, the lie of an inherent, natural ‘freedom’ has simply displaced, or entirely replaced, the need for the true freedom available in Christ. But no amount of political sophistry, even if it is Thomas Jefferson himself, can erase this truth, clearly taught in scripture. The claim that we humans have an inherent, inalienable freedom is not freedom and never will be. It is a lie.

But then what is it? What is freedom?

Because it is such a vast concept, we have to be careful in trying to define it succinctly. But I will nevertheless try.

freedom — the power and platform to discern and do God’s will.

or this, from Ellul:

. . . freedom is not a partial expression of the Christian life. It is not a fragment like joy or patience or faithfulness or temperance. Freedom, the freedom which God gives, is to be understood from the very first as a power or possibility. It is a power to act and to obey. It is a possibility of life and strength for combat.

. . . the world around me can no longer be an object which I use. It is the place of my freedom, obedience, and service.

Freedom . . . is the pedestal on which all the rest [of the virtues] can be set. It is the climate in which all things develop and grow. . . . It is the situation on which everything depends.

Freedom . . . is not a part or fragmentary expression of the Christian life. It is the Christian life.

We are free because we have been freed. Freedom has been acquired. It has been given. We have become free. There can be no altering this. It has become more or less a constitutive element in my life and nature. Why, then, should I worry? It is part of the new nature with which I have been invested. I cannot lose it since it is secured to me by grace.[11]

For Ellul, freedom, if we can really grasp its significance and the immensity of this platform which we’ve been given, will shock and humble us. This grace we’re given is powerful beyond what we can imagine. But this gift, this liberty is not for our benefit, though we do benefit indirectly. This freedom is to be used to love.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” — Galatians 5:13–14

and

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. — I Corinthians 6:12

Love and freedom are reciprocal and without one the other is absent also. They work in concert and are, in some ways, two sides of the same coin. What do I mean? One expression of this freedom-love is self-forgetfulness or self-unconsciousness (as opposed to self-consciousness). The proverb: ‘Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing,’ is an expression of this. Jesus spoke of it in the Sermon on the Mount.

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. — Matthew 6:1–4

In other words, the charitable deed is to be hidden, even from ourselves. This is made possible because the need of the other person, whom we are loving, fills our vision. We see nothing else. If we do become conscious of our deed, and of course we do become aware enough to, for example, reach into our pocket for the money to give, we then ‘automatically’ forget it and refocus on the person. This is not performance or skill or duty; this is simply the exercise of freedom-love.

But love is not just stroking, encouraging, or serving practically. It’s also ‘speaking the truth in love,’ correcting, warning. ‘As many as I love I rebuke and chasten,’ says the Lord.

Again, Ellul on this point:

. . . there is no freedom where there is no love.

. . . love presupposes freedom

. . . It takes a free man to love, for love is both the unexpected discovery of the other and a readiness to do anything for him.

Love demands action without saying what action. It does not allow avoidance of the other.

Jesus looks at the man and in love finds the word which is valid for this one man in this one situation. He replaces a morality of abstract rules by a free word which delivers man by setting up a relation that means life.

. . . love is not a restriction of freedom. It gives it its meaning and orientation. At the level of human behavior one might say that the totality of the Christian life amounts to a dialectic of freedom and love.

In Christ there is no freedom without love, for without love freedom would be incoherent and a turning back upon itself. How can we believe that self-admiration or self-centeredness is freedom when all that we have is enslavement to what is most immediate and alienating, our body, our opinions, our needs, and our passions.[12]

Freedom not only has this horizontal axis of human love — love toward neighbor; it also has a vertical axis — it echoes and points to the glory of God, that is, it reveals and reflects what God is like, his essential grace-filled character.

The world by nature is rapacious, devouring, seizing, exploiting, consuming. and violent. Consequently, the average person in the street gets the impression that this is life — this is the way it is — and in turn becomes covetous, selfish, consumed with getting and getting even. Giving, if it’s on our radar at all, is only done when we know the ‘giving’ will be reciprocated. But this is not our God. In stark contrast, our God in Jesus Christ pours out his life, sacrifices his life in love for us. In shock we see the Son of God — God in human flesh — spread-eagled on a cross.

So as we slowly awaken and learn that no law, no boundary, and no formula can keep us from loving the individuals and enemies in our lives (‘against such there is no law’)[13], and that this is the kind of love at the heart of our God, we increasingly dive into that reality, knowing we are therefore safe for he has already arrived there. He has always been there. This is the freedom-love that glorifies God.

Hear Paul on this:

. . . to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. — Ephesians 3:19–21

And again:

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. . . . Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:1–2, 5–11

In this part 1, we’ve discovered what freedom is and what it is not. In part 2 we’ll see how to use and express this freedom.

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[1] Ellul, Jacques, The Ethics of Freedom, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976, pg 193.

[2] I will not pretend to respect the global ‘pandemic.’ We are way past the time to lend it any credibility. To any honest, thinking person, the reality of it should be crystal clear by now. The last two years are not about a virus; it’s about a massive deception to establish top-down controls on a global scale. But if you’re still not sure about it, please continue reading!

[3] For this article I am deeply indebted to the writing of Jacques Ellul and his book The Ethics of Freedom.

[4] See also my article, LIE: We are not slaves, we are free

[5] To Jefferson’s credit, he made the point that it was the pursuit of happiness — man was not able to be completely or always happy.

[6] Ellul, Freedom, pg 27.

[7] Ibid, pg 35.

[8] Ibid, pg 35.

[9] For a summary of the gospel and how it liberates, see my article: What is the gospel of Jesus?

[10] Ibid, pg 105                                                                  

[11] Ibid, pgs 103–104

[12] Ibid, pgs 200–207

[13] Galatians 5:22–23