Monday, December 5, 2016
525 - The Gift of Freedom, Part 2
Spirituality Column No. 525
December 6, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Christianity properly lived is a divine cycle of gifts, giving, grace, mercy, humility and gratitude that multiply into mankind’s complete freedom and God’s ultimate glory.
When Christianity is improperly lived, humanity enslaves itself in guilt, shame, fear, prejudice and want pridefully dividing Christ into “good” obedience, “bad” habits, “suspect” religion and “earthly” burdens that dilute joy and divert hope into self-centered appetites and theological confusion. Condemnation is not what Jesus had in mind.
The difference in the scenarios above emanates from man’s intention either to unflinchingly love and fully trust God’s will, or to merely allow for the possibility of God, conditionally tolerate others and subordinate God’s will to one’s own personal, worldly, rooting interest in a given situation. These various intentions are formed, I think, in the way we understand the debt we have in Jesus, and whether we understand that in Christ “debt” enforces freedom rather than slavery.
It’s just the craziest thing.
Godly freedom, impossibly, is entirely a convoluted gift of giving; a joyous debt. But then Jesus, impossibly, is a savior no human could have expected. God Himself showed up – “the Word became flesh,” (John 1:14) – solving a problem mankind didn’t know it had by offering to us the Godly gift we never knew we wanted: eternal life through His own horrendous earthly death. The problem to which mankind was blind was our inability to match God’s righteousness after the fall of Adam and Eve. Israel mistakenly thought it could bridge that distance with works and piety within the law, further not understanding that God’s intention all along was to bequeath all humanity with the love and trust of freedom, not the shackles of perpetual debt and obedience.
What Aquinas is saying, I think, is that our only “debt” is not to wish to be free from God’s love or to abandon the joy-giving gratitude of sharing it. Our “debt” is to love and give, and it’s in loving and giving that we express our freedom. That’s how we tell God, “Thank you.” It’s not possible to pay Him back, and silly to imagine we could.
Freedom’s proper expression is loving God and others. Hence, we err grievously when we think human freedom is about, “I can do what I want.” That’s pride, and pride is the flip side of a giving and gracious spirit which actually is our freedom in Christ.
Like Paul said: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13).
God indebted us with the gift of freedom so we could freely give it to others.
Isn’t that wild?
December 6, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
The Gift of Freedom, Part 2
By Bob Walters
“The debt of gratitude
flows from the debt of love, and from the latter, no man should wish to be free.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
Christianity properly lived is a divine cycle of gifts, giving, grace, mercy, humility and gratitude that multiply into mankind’s complete freedom and God’s ultimate glory.
When Christianity is improperly lived, humanity enslaves itself in guilt, shame, fear, prejudice and want pridefully dividing Christ into “good” obedience, “bad” habits, “suspect” religion and “earthly” burdens that dilute joy and divert hope into self-centered appetites and theological confusion. Condemnation is not what Jesus had in mind.
The difference in the scenarios above emanates from man’s intention either to unflinchingly love and fully trust God’s will, or to merely allow for the possibility of God, conditionally tolerate others and subordinate God’s will to one’s own personal, worldly, rooting interest in a given situation. These various intentions are formed, I think, in the way we understand the debt we have in Jesus, and whether we understand that in Christ “debt” enforces freedom rather than slavery.
It’s just the craziest thing.
Godly freedom, impossibly, is entirely a convoluted gift of giving; a joyous debt. But then Jesus, impossibly, is a savior no human could have expected. God Himself showed up – “the Word became flesh,” (John 1:14) – solving a problem mankind didn’t know it had by offering to us the Godly gift we never knew we wanted: eternal life through His own horrendous earthly death. The problem to which mankind was blind was our inability to match God’s righteousness after the fall of Adam and Eve. Israel mistakenly thought it could bridge that distance with works and piety within the law, further not understanding that God’s intention all along was to bequeath all humanity with the love and trust of freedom, not the shackles of perpetual debt and obedience.
What Aquinas is saying, I think, is that our only “debt” is not to wish to be free from God’s love or to abandon the joy-giving gratitude of sharing it. Our “debt” is to love and give, and it’s in loving and giving that we express our freedom. That’s how we tell God, “Thank you.” It’s not possible to pay Him back, and silly to imagine we could.
Freedom’s proper expression is loving God and others. Hence, we err grievously when we think human freedom is about, “I can do what I want.” That’s pride, and pride is the flip side of a giving and gracious spirit which actually is our freedom in Christ.
Like Paul said: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13).
God indebted us with the gift of freedom so we could freely give it to others.
Isn’t that wild?
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the living water
of Jesus (John 4:14) is a lifelong thirst quencher, not merely Christmas
refreshment.
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