“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…” Galatians 5:1
Maybe I am showing my American bias towards the centrality of freedom, but I don’t think so. I think the idea is much deeper than America, or The Constitution. The Bill of Rights even says that these truth’s are self evident. They come from God, not from men. In fact it is a gift given by God twice, both involving a tree.
The first tree was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. At this tree, the first Man (and Woman), was given the freedom to choose his own destiny and, ironically, in exercising this freedom, he chose slavery.
The second tree was an instrument of torture and death, the Cross. At this tree, the second man, the God-Man, was given the freedom to choose all of Man and God’s destiny and, ironically, in giving his life over to death, he gave life to all of creation. For death was too greedy, and in swallowing up a man, he found he had taken in God and he was overwhelmed, because death could not hold him. The bonds of slavery that en-shackled men were broken and he was set free.
But, I digress. When considering all of the evil that freedom brought, why was this freedom so important? If you don’t think freedom was that big of a deal, think of this. Before the fall, were their any wars? Before Adam chose to follow his own desires, were there any Hitler’s, or Stalin’s, or Mao’s, or Napoleon’s, or Xerxe‘s?
Without freedom their is no poverty, there is no holocost, or slavery, there is none of the mass horrific pain, suffering and death throughout the centuries.
Since God is good, he takes no pleasure in the suffering of his creation, when we hurt he hurts, as can be seen on the cross.
I leave you with this one, “why?” Why is freedom so important to allow all of this?
