09/04/2023
Do you wake up in the morning believing you are a free man or woman, or have you given control to something or someone else? Are you independent, or have you given yourself over to a grand idea, your family, job, perhaps drugs, or some other thing, how about God? Where does He fit into your idea of freedom? Is being free really a choice you can make, or are you owned, and just being rebellious when believing otherwise? Let's explore our concept of freedom as it relates to God, Jesus, and our faith.
We all like to see ourselves as being free, but where did that concept come from? The idea of freedom is a gift from God Himself. Adam and Eve were free to choose, and they used that dose of freedom to choose wrong beneath the tree of Good and Evil. They belonged to God, and yet He gave them a degree of dominion over themselves as evidenced by their ability to disobey Him. Even though they belonged to Him, their creator, they made the choice to disobey and stray from His will... they rebelled against His ownership and tried to claim total dominion over themselves. They desired to be gods.
“But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."”
Genesis 3:4-5 ESV
Having dominion is an interesting concept. It doesn't imply ownership but rather the right to rule over something or someone. Local governments have dominion over their counties and citizens, State governments have dominion over local governments, the federal government has dominion over the states, and yes... God has not only dominion over the federal government and all nations, but all things belong to Him... He has ownership as well.
Sometimes children rebel against their parents because they feel unloved, or that they can never please them or meet their expectations, some rebel against society because they feel like outcasts, and some push back against all authority because they view themselves as oppressed. There are many reasons why we deny the dominion and ownership of God, but rest assured that in all of creation there is nothing God loves more than us... than you and me.
“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”
Deuteronomy 10:14-15 ESV
As faithful people we know that God created the universe and everything that is in it, and that everything is His, but even as those words pass from our mouths we attempt to distance or exclude ourselves from His other possessions, and we feel justified in claiming this dominion over ourselves. How disheartening this must be for Him, because He chose to love us above all else. He even sent His own Son to redeem us and reconcile us to Him... not because He had lost dominion or ownership over us, but because we had chosen to deny His right to those things, and had sinned against Him. So Jesus came, and He established ownership a second time, but we must choose again too. This time, will we choose to acknowledge Him as our sole owner, and God? Will we choose to honor His dominion and ownership over us?
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
God has given us to His Son Jesus Christ, so the question now becomes... will we acknowledge Jesus as being our Lord? Will we serve Him as our creator, and our owner? Or, will we chose wrongly again as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, and seek to rule ourselves?
“"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
John 17:6 ESV
When I was a boy I liked to play marbles on the playground. We would draw a circle on the ground and each of us would place so many of our marbles in the center of it, then we would hold one of our marbles in our hand and take turns shooting it with our thumb towards them. There were just a few rules... you had to shoot with your hand held outside the circle, you could only shoot when it was your turn, any marble you knocked outside the circle became yours, and when you knocked one out of the ring you could shoot again.
God's dominion and ownership is a lot like that game of marbles. As boys, once we placed some of our marbles within the circle we relinquished ownership over them, and if we did not knock them out of the circle during the game, then they became the property of someone else. We played this game day after day and year after year, so the ownership of those marbles were always changing, and who took them home on any given evening (dominion) was constantly in flux. So who did the marbles actually belong to? Did they really belong to me on any given night? When you figure this out then you will understand the nature of man... and his relationship to God... because the marbles didn't truly belong to any one of us… did they?
We like to think we have ownership, and we like to think that we have dominion over ourselves, others, and things, but in truth all the marbles belong to God, and who holds them for Him on any given day, and who pours them out on his bed to count and admires them each night, is determined by His will.
So if freedom is placed in a small cloth pouch with a pull string on top, and each night we pour it out and admire it, only to place it back in the bag by morning, and return with it to the circle the next day... do we really own it? Is it really ours? Or, are we deceiving ourselves when claiming that we own, have dominion, or are free to be our own person?
“"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”
Leviticus 25:23 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for holding all the marbles, and I thank you for allowing me to play with them so that I understand you in the process. Holy Father, it is my great wish and desire that one day you will hand me a pouch of marbles that represent your revealed mystery, and say to me, as you did to Jesus, these are yours. Praised be your name Lord, and even as my heart leaps to your service, I pray that I choose rightly, and in full understanding of your absolute ownership and dominion over me. Don't let me deceive myself, or give voice to the dark one that is in the earth as he attempts to misguide me into feeling that I can rule myself. You are my God, and in you resides all dominion, wisdom, might, knowledge, and the ownership of all things… and as your creation, special as I might be to you, I remain one of these.
“Daniel answered and said: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.”
Daniel 2:20-22 ESV
Rich Forbes