09/04/2025
Do we wake up in the morning to a life of freedom, or have we given control of ourselves to something or someone else? Are we independently ruling our lives, or have we given ourselves over to a grand idea or something else such as our family, job, perhaps drugs, or some other thing… how about God? Is being free really a choice we can make, or are we owned, and just being rebellious by considering ourselves free? Let's explore our freedom as it relates to God, Jesus Christ, and faith.
We all like to see ourselves as being free, but where did that concept come from? In studying scripture I have found that freedom is a gift from God Himself. Adam and Eve were free to choose, and they chose wrongly beneath the tree of Good and Evil. They belonged to God, and yet He gave them a degree of dominion over the animals and of themselves as evidenced by their disobedience. Even though they ultimately belonged to God, their creator, they then chose to disobey Him... they rebelled against His ownership and tried to claim total dominion over themselves.
“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 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 ultimately has ownership as well.
Sometimes children rebel against their parents because they feel unloved, or that they can never please them or satisfy their expectations, some rebel against society because they feel like outcasts, and some push back against authority because they view themselves as being wrongfully oppressed. There are also many reasons why people deny the dominion and ownership of God, but rest assured that in all of creation there is nothing that can wrest us from His hand, and that God loves us more than anyone... even more than we can love ourselves.
“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 persons of faith, we acknowledge that God created the universe and everything that is in it, and that it is all His, but even as those words pass from our lips we attempt to distance or exclude ourselves from His other possessions, and we feel justified in claiming ownership over ourselves. How disheartening this must be to God, 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 thus sinned against Him. Through Jesus He has reiterated His claim of ownership over us, but we must choose to accept it... will we chose to acknowledge Him? Will we choose to recognize 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 over to His Son Jesus Christ, so the question now becomes... will we acknowledge Jesus as being our Lord? Will you serve Him as He who has dominion over us? Or will we choose wrongly again as Adam and Eve did and seek to rule ourselves as God’s equal?
“"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 with marbles on the playground. We would draw a circle on the ground and each of us would place a set number of our marbles in the center of it, then we would hold one of our marbles in our hand and shoot it with our thumb towards them. There were a few simple 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 out of the circle became yours, and if you knocked one out you could shoot again.
God's dominion and ownership over us is a lot like that game of marbles. Once we placed some of our marbles within the circle we relinquished ownership over them, and if someone else knocked them out of the circle during the game, then they became the property of that person. We played this game day after day and year after year, so the ownership of those marbles was always changing hands, and who might take them home on any given evening had dominion over them… and this 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? They belonged to the game, and without the game they were worthless… they were simply some pretty round pieces of glass. In life the “game” is God… and He owns all the marbles.
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 whoever holds them for Him on any given day, and whoever pours them out on his bed and counts and admires them each night, is determined by His rules…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 on our bed and admire it, we always know that it will be placed back in the bag and that it will return to the circle the next day... so do we really own it? Is it really ours? Or are we deceiving ourselves when claiming that we own, have dominion, or are ultimately free without God’s permission?
“"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 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 he that is in the earth as he attempts to misguide me into feeling that I rule myself. After all, he can’t sift me without your allowing it, and even then his efforts will come to serve you. Holy, Holy, Holy are you my God who was, and is, and is to come. You are undeniably my God, and in you resides all dominion, wisdom, might, knowledge, and the ownership of all things. Holy are you who loves me enough to set me free to determine my faith and who will take me home at the end of the day. Take me home Lord and let me be pleasing to you in your presence for all eternity!
Amen, Amen, Amen!
“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