essay on freedom is a gift of god

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Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

Other essays.

Divine sovereignty, which is that God exercises efficacious, universal, and loving control over all things, is compatible with human freedom in that humans are free to do what they want to do, although God is sovereign over our desires.

The sovereignty of God is the same as the lordship of God, for God is the sovereign over all of creation. The major components of God’s lordship are his control, authority, and presence. To discuss the sovereignty of God, though, is to focus particularly on the aspect of control, though this should not bracket God’s authority and gracious presence out of the discussion. The control that God exercises over all things is both efficacious and universal; there is not one thing outside of his control. This even extends to human sin and faith. However, people still remain free and God remains innocent of sin. This is because humans have the freedom to do whatever it is that they want, while their desires are in turn decided by their natures, situations, and, ultimately, God.

The term sovereignty is rarely found in recent translations of Scripture, but it represents an important biblical concept. A sovereign is a ruler, a king, a lord, and Scripture often refers to God as the one who rules over all. His most common proper name, Yahweh (see Ex. 3:14) is regularly translated Lord in the English Bible. And Lord, in turn, is found there over 7,000 times as a name of God and specifically as a name of Jesus Christ. So, to discuss the sovereignty of God is to discuss the lordship of God—that is, to discuss the Godness of God, the qualities that make him to be God.

The major components of the biblical concept of divine sovereignty or lordship are God’s control , authority , and presence (see John Frame, The Doctrine of God , 21–115). His control means that everything happens according to his plan and intention. Authority means that all his commands ought to be obeyed. Presence means that we encounter God’s control and authority in all our experience, so that we cannot escape from his justice or from his love.

When theologians discuss divine sovereignty and human freedom, however, they usually focus on only one of these three aspects of God’s sovereignty, what I have called his control. This aspect will be in focus in the remainder of this article, but we should keep in mind that God’s control over the world is only one aspect of his rule. When we consider only his control, we tend to forget that his rule is also gracious, gentle, intimate, covenantal, wise, good, and so on. God’s sovereignty is an exercise of all his divine attributes, not just his causal power.

God’s Sovereign Control

It is important to have a clear idea of God’s sovereign control of the world he has made. That control is a major part of the context in which God reveals himself to Israel as Yahweh, the Lord. That revelation comes to Israel when that nation is in slavery to Egypt. When he reveals his name to Moses, he promises a powerful deliverance:

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. (Ex. 3:19–20)

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” (Exo 6:7–8)

God shows Israel that he truly is the Lord by defeating the greatest totalitarian empire of the ancient world and by giving Israel a homeland in the land promised centuries before to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nothing can defeat Israel’s sovereign. He will keep his promise, displaying incredible controlling power, or he is not the Lord.

God’s control is efficacious :

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Ps. 115:3)

Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. (Ps. 135:6)

The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.” This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isa. 14:24–27)

Also henceforth I am he [Yahweh]; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?” (Isa .43:13)

…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:11)

‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. (Rev. 3:7)

Not only is God’s control efficacious, it is also universal . It governs every event that takes place anywhere in the universe. Firstly, the events of the natural world come from his hand (Ps. 65:9–11, 135:6–7, 147:15–18, Matt. 5:45, 6:26–30, 10:29–30, Luke 12:4–7). Secondly, the details of human history come from God’s plan and his power. He determines where people of every nation will dwell (Acts 17:26). Thirdly, God determines the events of each individual human life (Ex. 21:12–13, 1 Sam. 2:6–7, Ps. 37:23–24, 139:13–16, Jer. 1:5, Eph. 1:4, James 4:13–16). Fourthly, God governs the free decisions we make (Prov. 16:9) including our attitudes toward others (Ex. 34:24, Judg. 7:22, Dan. 1:9, Ezra 6:22).

More problematically, God foreordains people’s sins (Ex. 4:4, 8, 21, 7:3, 13, 9:12, 10:1, 20, 27, Deut. 2:30, Josh. 11:18–20, 1 Sam. 2:25, 16:14, 1 Kings 22:20–23, 2 Chron. 25:20, Ps. 105:24, Isa. 6:9–10, 10:6, 63:17, Rom. 9:17–18, 11:7–8, 2 Cor. 2:15–16). But lastly, he is also the God of grace, who sovereignly ordains that people will come to faith and salvation :

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:4–10)

Therefore, salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, doing for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves.

If we need any further evidence of the efficacy and universality of God’s sovereign control, here are passages that summarize the doctrine:

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (Lam. 3:37)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Eph. 1:11)

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom. 11:33)

Human Freedom

So the question posed by the title of this article is very pointed. Granted the overwhelming power of God’s sovereign control, its efficacy and universality, how can human freedom have any significance at all?

The term freedom has been taken in various senses. In our current discussion, two of these are particularly relevant: (1) compatibilism, which is the freedom to do what you want to do, and (2) libertarianism , which is the freedom to do the opposite of everything you choose to do. Compatibilism indicates that freedom is compatible with causation. Someone may force me to eat broccoli; but if that is something I want to do anyway, I do it freely in the compatibilist sense. Alternatively, if you have libertarian freedom, your choices are in no sense caused or constrained, either by your nature, your experience, your history, your own desires, or God. Libertarianism is sometimes called “incompatibilism,” because it is inconsistent with necessity or determination. If someone forces me to eat broccoli, I am not free, in the libertarian sense, to eat it or not eat it. On a libertarian account, any kind of “forcing” removes freedom.

In ordinary life, when we talk about being “free,” we usually have the compatibilist sense in mind. I am free when I do what I want to do. Usually, when someone asks me if I am free, say, to walk across the street, I don’t have to analyze all sorts of questions about causal factors in order to answer the question. If I am able to do what I want to do, then I am free, and that’s all there is to it. In the Bible, human beings normally have this kind of freedom. God told Adam not to eat of the forbidden fruit, but Adam had the power to do what he wanted. In the end, he and Eve did the wrong thing, but they did it freely. God’s sovereignty didn’t prevent Adam from doing what he wanted to do.

Our earlier discussion shows, however, that according to the Bible human beings do not have libertarian freedom: As we have seen, God ordains what we will choose to do, so he causes our choices. We are not free to choose the contrary of what he chooses for us to do. Scripture also teaches that the condition of our heart constrains our decisions, so there are no unconstrained human decisions, decisions that are free in the libertarian sense.

People sometimes think that we must have libertarian freedom, for how can we be morally responsible if God controls our choices? That is a difficult question. The ultimate answer is that moral responsibility is up to God to define. He is the moral arbiter of the universe. This is the exact question that comes up in Romans 9:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Rom. 9:19–24)

This passage rules out any attempt to argue libertarian freedom as a basis of moral responsibility.

Nevertheless, we should remember that even this passage presupposes freedom in the compatibilist sense: God prepared the two kinds of vessels, each for their respective destiny. He made the honorable vessels so that they would appropriately receive honor, and vice versa. When a human being trusts in Christ, he does what he wants to do and therefore acts freely in the compatibilist sense. We know from that choice that God has prepared him beforehand to make that choice freely. That divine preparation is grace. The believer did not earn the right to receive that divine preparation. But he responds, as he must, by freely embracing Christ. Without that free choice of Christ, prepared beforehand by God himself, it is impossible for anyone to be saved.

Why Did God Give Us The Power Of Free Will?

by Fr. Brenton Cordeiro Faith & Life , God & Mystery of Evil

One of the greatest gifts that God has blessed us with is the gift of freedom. Freedom allows us to choose our actions and proves to us that we are not bound by some predetermined plan for our lives. God granted us this gift as part of the dignity he bestowed on human beings to be able to be the masters of their own actions.

Yet, just because we enjoy freedom, it does not mean that we can do what we want with it ‘as long as we don’t hurt anyone’. This is a morphed sense of freedom. Since we are in control of our actions, we are responsible for our actions. It’s not about the Church trying to ‘interfere’ in our lives with rules or limitations on freedom. Rather, with great power comes great responsibility.

Freedom is the power to do what we ought to do, which is not always the same as what we want to do. At the heart of things, God gave us freedom as it is only in freedom that we can choose God as the Lord and love of our lives and attain the perfection He made us for through loyalty to Him.

I felt inspired to write this post as I lived in a false sense of freedom for many years. But once I realized the meaning behind authentic freedom in my life, it changed my life and I’ve felt the need to share this truth with whoever is willing to listen.

Our free will shapes our lives. We can use it for what it is intended, that is to direct our lives towards God, or we can pervert this blessing in our lives as a license for doing whatever pleases us, even if we know those things to be wrong.

The bad news is that our freedom has been damaged by sin. This is why we often wrestle between choosing to do what we know is right, and the alternative, which grabs a hold of us and draws us to do something we don’t necessarily want to do. I know I definitely struggle with this. There are a number of unhealthy patterns of behavior in my life that have more control over me, than I have over them, leading me to say ‘yes’ to things that deep down I wish I could say ‘no’ to.

The good news is that through Christ, each of us has grace available to us to fight back and to strive to achieve an ever-deeper level of freedom in our lives. In fact, that’s part of the reason why Jesus came to this world to die for us. St Paul writes how it is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1). Freedom is a means to human excellence, authentic happiness and leads us to the fulfillment of our destiny, which for us as sons and daughters of God, is walking towards personal holiness and the salvation or our souls.

3 Ways Our Freedom Can Be Restricted

There are different ways each of us has our freedom restricted. Below are only a few examples:

Desires of the flesh: Many of us live under the power of our appetites, namely hunger, thirst, and sex. Therefore, some of us struggle with overeating or abusing alcohol because we use these things to pacify deeper wounds in our lives. Others live in the grip of pornography, or we frequent hook-up apps like Tinder. Whether its food, drink or sex (in whatever form these may present themselves), if we’re honest with ourselves, we are not choosing these options ‘freely’. Try it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. When you feel the urge to indulge, you cannot actually say ‘no’, and the hard truth is that you are bound by these things. Almost prophetically, the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks about how the abuse of freedom leads to a slavery of sin (CCC 1733).

Unforgiveness: Deep feelings of unforgiveness, especially against people who are closest to us (who as luck would have it, often hurt us the most), can trap us in a cycle where we find ourselves frequently just stewing in the anger, bitterness, resentment, etc, against the people who offended us. We allow someone else’s actions to control us, when often that person is blissfully unaware of our wounds and how they affected us.

Paralyzing fear/shame: Many of us also live in fear or shame because of things that happened (and sometimes are still happening) in our lives. These fears can range from a fear of rejection or ridicule, or shame from bad habits, and so on. We’re constantly afraid that people around us may discover ‘the real’ us or uncover our ‘guilty secret’. Some of us are ashamed of how we look or believe that we are too fat/thin/short/tall/ugly/stupid/etc. And these beliefs are sometimes paralyzing because they can destroy our self-confidence and self-image.

Rather than being bent inward looking in on ourselves or condemning ourselves for our fears, insecurities, sins, addictions and so on, God wants us to live in the fullness of the dignity of divine sonship/daughterhood He has bestowed on us. A line I once heard Bishop Robert Barron say really struck me: “God has loved us into existence and he wants to love us into wholeness”.

In each fork in the road that we encounter whether in times of difficulties or temptations, we have to work continually to use the freedom we have to choose the path that will take us to still greater heights of freedom, instead of on paths that will take us into deeper slavery to sin. Again, we have freedom available to us through Jesus. If Jesus has set us free through His Cross, we are free indeed (Jn 8:36)! The key to breaking chains in our lives is repeatedly speaking the truth into lies we have come to believe. We are beloved children of the Most High. Our wounds and weaknesses neither define us nor ought to control us.

St Irenaeus, a famous saint from the early Church said, “The glory of God is man fully alive”. I am more ‘alive’ today then I have ever been (even though I still have a long way to go). And it’s all because of Jesus! He gave me the grace to let go of a whole list of fears, shame, unforgiveness, addictions, bad habits, and so much more, that had control over me. And in each of our lives, the way Jesus will do this will be different. It calls for openness and seeking his healing, freely available through the sacraments, prayer ministry, inner healing, counseling, recovery programs, intentional efforts to grow in the virtues we most need, etc.

The way I see it, breaking free of sins, addictions, unhealthy attachments, fears, shame, etc is a part of restoring the fullness of the freedom that is ours to possess and striving towards becoming God’s original masterpiece again. I love the joy and peace that came with the newfound freedom in my life, and I’m sure if you seek greater freedom, you too will attain newfound love and peace in your own life.

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Reflections

You are here, free indeed: the peculiar gift of christian liberty.

“So if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”—John 8:36

Of all the values held dear in the United States, none stands above freedom. Liberty is enshrined in our founding documents and depicted in our iconic monuments. American religiosity and spirituality are no less infused by the assertion of freedom—freedom to believe and practice what we wish, as we wish. Freedom of religion is one of the greatest legal and socio-political achievements of the American experiment in democracy, and given the fraught history of humankind and the current traumas of global conflict, such freedom is not to be esteemed lightly.

We all have been loved into existence by the God who created us, and the unconditional love we have received becomes, in us, the love we offer others, whomever they may be.

Yet, as a Christian and an American citizen, I sometimes find myself straining between different paradigms of freedom. Our conventional idea of freedom is freedom from —liberation from restrictions on our thoughts and actions. Being unfettered can sound like a good thing in itself; reducing restrictions seems automatically to imply an increase in happiness. But is “freedom from” sufficient for our fulfillment? Could there be more to human life than minimizing limitations on our range of choices?

A Richer Paradigm

Contributing to the 2021 book Theology, Music, and Modernity: Struggles for Freedom , [1] I joined colleagues from the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale, Duke Divinity School, and other institutions, under the auspices of the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts, to explore how the world of music might bring fresh perspectives to a theological reading of modernity. As the book’s subtitle suggests, freedom was one of our central themes, as we sought meaningful alternatives to the modern western emphasis on freedom from . As I reflect on how much that project expanded my own thinking about freedom, I realize that only rarely do we consider the richer paradigm of creaturely freedom that the love of God in Christ Jesus offers us. In Christ, we find “freedom from” paired with “freedom for, ” and this fullness of creaturely freedom is precisely what so many of us need in our fractured and fearsome world. [2]

What do I mean by “creaturely freedom”? This is the liberty that comes with our identity as beings created by God. There is a wealth of significance in the phrase “created by God.” Beloved, cherished, crafted in beauty. Entrusted with agency, divinely sustained, yet also finite, limited, subject to forces beyond our control.

Freedom from “Freedom From”

A reader might ask: how can we be truly free, in any meaningful sense, if we are not in control of our surroundings? Is it not necessary to dominate the cosmos in order to be free within it? How else can we keep threats at bay, except to overcome them with brute strength or sheer force of will?

It would certainly be difficult to flourish without at least some freedom from c onstraints. If circumstances or the actions of others rob us of all substantial agency or power to act, then the pursuit of freedom for any purpose beyond mere survival becomes, at best, an unsustainable struggle, or, at worst, an unattainable dream. Yet, the pursuit of a one-sided freedom from, without the leavening of freedom for, can lead us to valorize the lack of restraints as an end in itself, rather a means to a life of meaning, purpose, and joy. If our ultimate goal is to wield control for the sake of control so we can become masters of our own destiny and saviors of the universe, then we are easily tempted to mistake ourselves for the source of our own being—our own god.

But the love of God in Christ Jesus frees us from the hunger for control, and this freedom is a great gift. It offers us perspective. It also poses a challenge to our famed American “can-do” spirit. When we encounter a problem, we often—and laudably—feel compelled to solve it. Yet sometimes, our efforts are driven by mixed motivations. We leap with unjustified self-assurance to speedy conclusions, before we listen. We move with haste to resolve the dissonance that makes us uncomfortable, yet we are not so quick to adopt humble postures of learning. Even our genuine concern for the suffering of others vies with our subtle compulsion to affirm ourselves as saviors. The last thing we want to do is dwell in the discomfort of dissonance. We are afraid to allow ourselves to experience the “constructive suffering” to which so many of us are individually and collectively called—the kind of discomfort that points to our own need for transformation. We are ready to change the world; are we willing to face the possibility that we ourselves might need to be changed?

Once we have experienced freedom from the hunger to control, and adopted freedom to dwell in constructive discomfort, something remarkable can happen: we receive courage to live fully into our vocation as beloved creatures of God. We are empowered to face the complicated truth of ourselves with humility and clarity.

Some of us have learned to deflect responsibility for our actions and our privileges, focusing on how we have been mistreated or what has been denied to us. Even when our grievances have a legitimate basis, we overlook the ways in which we, ourselves, have benefitted from systems that unfairly disadvantage others. We do not know how to dwell in the discomfort of those admissions, so our gaze skates over the substance of the matter, going straight to the scenario that affirms our implicit advantage, the rearrangement that restores us to our comfort zone. We do not realize that the discomfort we avoid brings good news: with the recognition of our need for forgiveness and transformation comes the capacity to experience forgiveness and renewal in Christ.

Others of us have been socialized to bear the weight of other people’s discomfort with our putative otherness and take upon ourselves the responsibility to put other people at ease in our presence. This is a tragic reality. Some of us face the necessity of honing this task into a survival skill, learning how to render ourselves palatable or innocuous to others so we can access and navigate spaces not intended for us. Yet any success we achieve in playing a game rigged against us does not ameliorate the essential injustice and diabolically unredemptive suffering of being forcibly cast as scapegoat for other people’s sin. Justice demands that we who are structurally disempowered and marginalized receive freedom from these burdens imposed on us. Our broken and power-hungry world denies this justice much of the time, and most of us cannot feasibly evade these power plays completely. But we may find occasional opportunities to resist damaging narratives by practicing our freedom for dwelling graciously, generously, comfortably, with other people’s discomfort. Sometimes those moments come when we can feasibly mark and maintain healthy boundaries of resistance without relinquishing our safety. It takes the sweet grace of courage to dwell in that freedom, receiving the person but refusing the weight without rancor or resentment. And when we are empowered by that freedom, it opens us all up to divine acts of healing and restoration, even as it allows others the opportunity to be transformed by graced encounter with their own culpability.

Loved into Existence

At the heart of the experience of accepting God’s unconditional and unshakeable love is the bone-deep acceptance of what it means to be created, and to receive and accept that createdness as our foundational identity. Where we do not recognize the unconditional love of God, where we have not known the enduring faithfulness of God, it seems like our only options are to generate our own value, protect that value with our own effort, and turn every interaction into a weapon in the warfare of existential self-defense. We invent and reinvent ourselves, seeking independence from the one who created us and continues to hold us in love. We feel driven to become our own Maker, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

In contrast, the freedom that comes from God’s love and faithfulness liberates us to recognize the joyful truth of our belovedness as creatures, as well as our agency to co-create, shape, and inhabit our contingent identities in diverse ways.

With this freedom comes liberation from the impulse to try compulsively to make ourselves lovable. For this is the great secret of our existence—that we are already lovable since God’s love has rendered us so. We all have been loved into existence by the God who created us, and the unconditional love we have received becomes, in us, the love we offer others, whomever they may be.

The Flow of Divine Delight

God calls us—frees us— to love one another, love our neighbor, love our enemy. Christian love does not lend itself to cost-benefit analysis. Weighing the worthiness of potential recipients of our love is not an option. Neither is loving those different from us in a merely abstract, general way. We are called to love others and ourselves in our messy particularity, not primarily with declarations of warm feelings but in concrete actions. This love requires and brings about actual change within us to accommodate the love-in-action into which God draws us, as we transform our personal relationships and even society itself: the enemy whom we love cannot remain an enemy, but becomes my neighbor, your friend, their sibling—our beloved.

What would the world look like, and what would Christian life and witness be like, if we allowed ourselves to be the beloved creatures of God we actually are? To trust in the trustworthiness of God and accept our identity as creatures both as a humbling and a liberating reality? To recognize that being a creature is not a passive relinquishing of power but an empowering truth that animates us as active agents of love-in-action in a broken and sometimes perilous world? What if we took to heart the kind of agape love to which God calls us—and allowed ourselves to experience the full freedom of being so utterly loved? To give it forth freely, to ourselves or others, by participating in the flow of divine delight? To love as we have been loved?

Furthermore, what if the creaturely freedom we receive from God, and the love it empowers us to offer, were to animate our pursuit of freedom in the world? What if this deeper liberty—freedom from playing god and for being beloved and loving creatures—became the basis for our decisions and actions, not only in individual relationships but in our roles in the political, military, legal, economic, and social spheres? Not as a naïve alternative to specialized knowledge and pragmatic skill in these areas, but as our spiritual motivation, opening ourselves to be co-agents in the Holy Spirit’s work of implementing God’s good purposes in the world? And what if our political paradigms of freedom took on some of the multifaceted richness that our theological paradigms offer? What if we Christians could share this rich notion of freedom as a gift to the world, along with our own commitment to hope and work together for a fuller flourishing for our communities—freedom for the pursuit of fulfillment of joy and not merely freedom from suffering? Freedom for the common good and not merely freedom from individual restriction?

The spiritual freedom we experience in the love of God, by the grace of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, is not disconnected from the freedom we seek for ourselves and others in our societies and world. This is not an easy love. This is not a simple freedom. But the liberation Christ offers from our own drive to self-idolatry, with its full range of implications for our lives in the world—that is freedom indeed. If we are willing to take a risk on God’s love; to stake all that we are on God’s faithfulness; to receive the glorious, multifaceted freedom freely offered us at so great a divine cost—then we, our communities, our nation, and our world will never be the same.

Awet Andemicael ’10 M.A.R., ’22 Ph.D ., Associate Dean of Marquand Chapel and Assistant Professor (adjunct) of Theology at YDS, is a theologian who engages patristic and contemporary thought and is also a concert and operatic soprano who has sung at festivals and other performance venues across North America, Europe, and Japan. She has served as a consultant on music and theology, worship and liturgy, refugee studies, and interfaith engagement.

1. Theology, Music, and Modernity , edited by Jeremy Begbie, Daniel K.L. Chua, and Markus Rathey, published by Oxford University Press.

2. In modern Western political philosophy, there is a long tradition of understanding freedom as having at least two senses or dimensions—made famous in Isaiah Berlin’s distinction between “negative” and “positive” freedom in “Two Concepts of Liberty,” his 1958 lecture at the University of Oxford, later published in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford, 1969), pp. 118-172. Berlin criticizes “positive” freedom, which he defines in various ways—as self-mastery, the capacity to act, rational self-direction, and collective self-determination. Skeptical of the existence of any single “positive” ideal of freedom that does not reduce human societies to the “ a priori barbarities of Procrustes—the vivisection of actual human societies into some fixed pattern”—he concludes that “negative” liberty, i.e., the absence of the coercion or interference of others, offers a more flexible, capacious, “truer and more humane ideal” than “positive” freedom (Berlin, p. 171). Berlin’s classification “stimulated” what he considered “wide and … fruitful controversy” (Berlin, p. ix). Some of the more prominent contributions responding to Berlin’s influential model are Friedrich Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960); Charles Taylor’s “What’s Wrong with Negative Liberty,” in The Idea of Freedom : Essays in Honour of Isaiah Berlin , edited by Alan Ryan (Oxford, 1979), pp. 175-193; and Gerald C. MacCallum’s “Negative and Positive Freedom,” The Philosophical Review , vol. 76, July 1967, pp. 312-334. For these and other essays, see The Liberty Reader , edited and introduced by David Miller (Routledge, 2006). In Thomas Hill Green’s 1881 “Lecture on Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract” ( Works of Thomas Hill Green, Vol. III: Miscellanies and Memoir, edited by R.L. Nettleship <1888>, pp. 365-86), he articulated a similar notion of “positive” and “negative” freedom, though with a different assessment, more than half a century before Berlin. Green’s account continued a line of thought stretching at least as far back as Hegel’s distinction in Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821) between the spheres of formal or abstract right, i.e., freedom as non-interference, and the subjective freedom found in the spheres of moral agency and ethical life in community ( Elements of the Philosophy of Right , edited by Allen W. Wood, translated by H.B. Nisbet <Cambridge, 1991>). Using Berlin as a touchpoint to situate my treatment of “freedom from/for” within this larger discourse, I will note that Berlin’s “negative freedom” is essentially identical to the “freedom from” I discuss here. Yet the robustly theo-centric “freedom for” or “freedom to” I describe does not fit neatly into Berlin’s “positive freedom” schema. Rather than simply disputing Berlin and his supporters by promoting “freedom for” over “freedom from,” I recognize the necessity of both modes. Moreover, my primary goal is to propose a theological reorientation of our identities as seekers and finders of freedom, and only secondarily to reinterpret the nature and character of the freedom we seek.

Author photo credit/Samara Sorce ’24 M.Div.

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Religion & Liberty: Volume 9, Number 3

God's gift of freedom must be used to choose the good, by avery cardinal dulles • july 20, 2010.

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R&L: Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, noted that, “The individual today is often suffocated between the two poles represented by the state and the market.” You have noted that the way out of this modern dilemma is the strengthening of culture. Could you elaborate?

Dulles: The political and economic orders, important though they obviously are, do not exhaust the reality of human life and human society. They deal only with particular aspects of life in community. More fundamental than either is the order of culture, which deals with the meaning and goal of human existence in its full range. Culture shapes and expresses our ideas and attitudes regarding all the typical human experiences, and in so doing touches on the transcendent mystery that engulfs us and draws us to itself. In our century, the order of culture has often been subjugated either to political or to economic interests. The state sometimes seeks to use sports events, education, the arts, communications, or religion to support its ideology. Alternatively, business and industry strive to turn cultural activities into profit-making enterprises. This latter tendency is particularly manifest in “consumerist” societies such as ours in the United States. Culture should, however, be oriented toward the true, the beautiful, and the good. Whenever these transcendentals are instrumentalized by the search for power and wealth, civilization is degraded.

R&L: How do you envision the role of the church in culture?

Dulles: Religion, since it concerns itself with the relationship between human beings and God, lies close to the heart of culture. Christians believe that God has manifested his truth, beauty, and goodness unsurpassably in his incarnate Son. The church, by celebrating the memory and continued presence of Christ, attempts to form human beings in a spirit of gratitude, love, and generous service. It thereby contributes to the building of a civilization of peace and love. Without religion as an independent force, morality is turned into a tool for the forces of politics and the market; in this way, morality becomes denatured.

R&L: There is a great deal of confusion today about the meaning of human freedom. What misunderstandings lie at the heart of this confusion?

Dulles: In Western societies, freedom is often defined in political terms, as immunity from the coercive power of the state. In Marxist societies, the emphasis instead has been on economic freedom, or protection from manipulation by the forces of industry and capital. These concepts of freedom, though not invalid, are incomplete.

In current popular thinking, freedom is understood to mean the capacity to do whatever one pleases, without moral or physical restraints. This arbitrary view of freedom points the way to uninhibited individualism, social chaos, and defiance of moral standards. Many people imagine that entering into firm commitments, such as a vocation or a family relationship, will impair their freedom. They therefore go through life unattached, guided by passing whims rather than firm convictions. Such lives quickly become empty and meaningless, moving toward suicidal despair.

Lord Acton and other wise thinkers have taught us that true freedom is not the same as license. It is not the power to do whatever we like but to choose what is good. Morality is not a barrier to our freedom but a condition of authentic self-realization. To make responsible commitments is not to negate our freedom but to fulfill its purpose.

R&L: What, then, is an appropriate understanding of freedom?

Dulles: Freedom consists of self-possession and self-determination. It is given to us so that we may voluntarily embrace the true human good. Jean-Jacques Rousseau erred when he wrote, “Man was born free.” We are born in almost total dependence on others, but, by education and practice, we gradually expand our zone of freedom. In the deepest sense, freedom is a gift of God because we cannot liberate ourselves from our illusions and selfish desires without divine grace. Jesus can therefore say: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn 8:32).

God does not force his truth and grace upon us, but he appeals to us to accept it. “Behold,” he says, “I stand at the door and knock” (Rv 3:20). God respects our freedom so much that he allows us to abuse it by turning away from him and acting against his will for us.

R&L: Allow me to quote from John Paul’s recent “Letter to Artists”: “…all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: In a certain sense they are to make it a work of art, a masterpiece.” Could you comment on how freedom and this task of crafting a life are related?

Dulles: God, in creating the world, acted with utter freedom and without self-interest. Totally blessed in himself, he made the world simply to give others a share in his infinite goodness. In our existence, bodily life, and spiritual gifts, we participate in God’s own perfection, though, of course, imperfectly. Our freedom to make new things brings us into a close relationship with God the Creator. We mirror God’s creative action most perfectly when we freely fashion objects of beauty, giving aesthetic form to the concepts of our own minds. Pope John Paul II, who was a poet, playwright, and actor before becoming a priest, keenly appreciates the calling of artists. His “Letter to Artists,” as I see it, summons all of us to deeper reflection on the importance of beauty as a transcendental property of being, inseparable from truth and goodness.

As a priest, John Paul II considers the analogies between art and holiness. The saints reflect the freedom and altruism of Christ as they follow him in original and distinctive ways. By freely giving ourselves to God, in imitation of the saints, all of us can through his grace remake ourselves in Christ’s likeness. Just as he was God’s masterpiece, mirroring the Father’s radiant glory, so every human life can be a free and splendid creation, a true work of art.

R&L: Further, what does it mean for people to be co-creators with God?

Dulles: To create in the strict sense means to produce from nothing. God created when he first produced the world, but when it left his hands, it remained in some respects incomplete. By giving human beings dominion over the rest of creation, God invites them to complete, in a certain sense, the work he has begun. Thanks to rapid advances in science and technology, we have witnessed an exponential increase in the production and distribution of goods. This progress is not a usurpation of God’s prerogatives, but a realization of God’s design that we should have dominion over the earth. Whatever we accomplish, of course, depends upon God’s prior gifts, without which we would be powerless.

R&L: How might this perspective be applied to life in the commercial sphere?

Dulles: In making us in his image and likeness, God intended us to work as free and independent agents. With that mandate, to be sure, comes the awesome responsibility to preserve or enhance the beauty of nature and to make the world more pleasant and habitable for future generations.

Production and consumption, trade and profits are not ends in themselves but must be governed by higher norms such as truth, beauty, goodness, and communion among peoples. The institutions of culture can educate people to direct their energies, investments, and purchases according to these norms. The state should protect freedom of initiative in business and commerce rather than seek to regulate everything. But it must sometimes use its authority to see to it that industry and commerce genuinely enhance the lives of all.

R&L: We’ve been touching on areas of Christian social teaching, and, specifically, Roman Catholic social teaching. To outside observers, the Catholic Church seems to be more open to the free society now than it was one hundred years ago. Can you comment on this development?

Dulles: In the nineteenth century the Catholic Church was rightly critical of the liberalism that spread across continental Europe after the French Revolution. “Freedom” was a slogan used to destroy established authority, including that of the church. In their anxiety about liberal democratic movements, the popes leaned toward supporting confessional states, in which throne and altar were allied. But as early as Leo XIII, the popes began to warn against totalitarian systems in which the state claimed supreme control over the economy, education, and religion. With the massive evils of Soviet Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism, the Catholic Church began to speak more favorably of societies in which the church, though separated from the state, enjoyed constitutional freedom to pursue its mission. The Second Vatican Council and the popes since Pius XII have favored free, self-governing societies, provided that the criteria of morality and justice, and the rights and dignity of human persons, are respected as inviolable.

R&L: How do you perceive Catholic social teaching influencing debate in the public square?

Dulles: For the past century and more, the Catholic Church has been building up a body of official social teaching based on the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, and the tradition stemming from these great Christian thinkers. Pope John Paul II has written three social encyclicals dealing respectively with labor, social concerns, and the centenary of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. Catholic social teaching is not an exercise in economics, politics, or sociology. It seeks to set forth the principles required by fidelity to the moral law and to the gospel. It emphasizes human solidarity, concern for peace, care for the poor, and personal freedom.

R&L: What does Catholic social teaching have to say about the role and limits of the state? Why?

Dulles: Catholic social teaching recognizes the importance of the state for safeguarding the public order, which must be grounded in truth, justice, charity, and freedom. But the state has limited competence. It exists for the sake of serving its citizens, not for dominating over them. Subject to the eternal law of God, the state has no right to set itself up as judge over matters of truth, morality, or revealed religion. It must respect the prior rights of individuals and families, including the private ownership of property and the right of parents to choose the form of education for their children. According to the principle of subsidiarity, the state may not arrogate to itself functions that can be adequately performed by lesser bodies, including private agencies.

R&L: As we approach the end of the millennium, many have identified Saint Thomas Aquinas as the most influential person of the past thousand years. Aquinas seems to have had a deep influence on your theology, as well. How do you understand his legacy?

Dulles: I would like to think that Thomas Aquinas has been the most influential thinker of the second millennium. He certainly has had great influence in the Catholic Church, especially since the middle of the nineteenth century, when his philosophy was rescued from neglect. I am not a specialist on Saint Thomas, but there is no theologian for whom I have greater esteem. In all my theological work I try to consult his teaching on the point I am studying; he almost always has something wise and important to contribute.

As a philosopher and theologian, Saint Thomas is exemplary for his respectful attention to the opinions of other thinkers, his modesty and patience, his fidelity to Scripture and tradition, and his capacity to synthesize principles taken from a great variety of disciplines. To understand the religious vision that animates Aquinas’s thought, we should look at his devotional writings as well as his technical works. It would be a serious oversight to ignore his prayers and hymns.

R&L: What are the most pressing challenges for the church and for Christian social teaching as we enter the next millennium?

Dulles: On the verge of the third millennium Christians have two major tasks. One is to assimilate the finest fruits of their own heritage, so that they know what to believe and say. The other is to communicate their vision and their values to the complex and turbulent world of our day. God has given us in Christ a revelation of truth and holiness that is valid for all times, places, and cultures, but we have failed to share this gift with others who are spiritually starving for lack of it. Without Christ, people will never find the true meaning and purpose of life, nor will they achieve the unity and peace that God intends for the whole human family.

Our first task is to believe, to rise to the challenge of faith. If our faith were strong and sound, we would be good witnesses to Christ and the gospel. Our failure to evangelize is due in great part to the weakness of our faith.

R&L: In closing, I would like to quote from a recent New York Times article about you: “An agnostic when he entered Harvard in 1936, the future theologian was drawn to Saint Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic medieval philosophers. He became a Catholic in 1940 while at Harvard Law School….” Would you speak briefly about your conversion to Christianity?

Dulles: I began to discover Thomas Aquinas by reading Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism even before entering college. In college I learned much more about Aquinas, chiefly through the books of Étienne Gilson. My conversion to Catholicism was assisted by some study of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Bernard, Dante, and others. My senior thesis, which turned into a book, was on a Renaissance Platonist, Pico della Mirandola. Through these and many other channels, including the great art and architecture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, I was powerfully drawn to Catholicism.

I became convinced that Western civilization could not advance without being regenerated from its religious roots, which had been preserved without disruptive change in the Catholic Church. Joining the church, I found in it the living presence of Christ, who gave himself for the life of the world.

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The Gift of Freedom: The Believer’s Declaration of Independence

Charles Stanley In Touch Ministries
Updated May 24, 2020

Are you a free person? Most likely, you would say that you are. Perhaps you would base your answer on the fact that you can go most anywhere you choose and do what you like without anyone interfering.

Thousands of men and women have died at home and abroad while protecting our country from those who would oppress us, or fighting to liberate other nations. Freedom is always an expensive proposition, and this is especially true in a spiritual sense.

Many people think they have liberty because no one questions their activities or hinders their travel, and yet they are enslaved by all kinds of bondage. Anger, stress, workaholism, bitterness, unforgiveness, depression, anxiety, and fear can imprison anyone.

While a country can experience liberty won on the battlefield, no nation is free until its people are free. And no person is free unless he or she is free on the inside. The truth is, there is only one way for genuine liberation to happen: As John 8:36 says, “If [Jesus Christ] makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

Wrong Ideas About Salvation

Why did the apostle Paul write his letter to the Galatians? While the church there had many true believers, unsaved people from pagan backgrounds were mixed into their fellowship-they came from religions with all kinds of requirements for acceptance by their so-called “gods.” Christianity, on the other hand, preached salvation by grace alone, not by any works man can do. ( Ephesians 2:8-9 )

The apostle's challenge was to counter these burdensome, false claims with truth-that salvation is by the grace of God through faith in the atoning, sacrificial, all-sufficient, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. So Paul's strong letter to the Galatians is essentially the believer's Declaration of Independence. He declares that we are freed from having to work for our salvation or having to measure up to standards, rules, and regulations. It is human nature to want to add to God's simple requirement of faith; we feel better thinking there is something we can do to assure our place in eternity.

However, nothing that we can do has any value whatsoever for salvation-Christ set us free from this yoke of slavery. ( Galatians 5:1 ) Paul argues that if religious rites could save, then of what benefit is Christ? (v. 2) Besides, we cannot gain God's acceptance by keeping parts of the Law. As James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” The problem is that no one except Christ could keep all the commandments. Romans 3:20 and Galatians 3:24 tell us that the Law was not given to save us, but to show us how absolutely sinful we are and to point out our need for a Savior.

Common attitudes about freedom

It is ironic that the unsaved consider themselves free-they think, I don't have to go to church every week; I don't have to give my money away or carry a Bible. From God's viewpoint, these people are actually in total bondage to sin; they fail to recognize that only the security of salvation can liberate us.

And what about believers? Far too many Christians think they must “perform” in order to keep their right standing before God. They assume that to stay saved, they must read the Bible, pray, give, and help others. Scripture, however, tells us that trusting Jesus as Savior assures us of eternal security ( John 10:28-30 ; 1 John 5:13 ). We can no more do anything to lose our salvation than we can to earn it in the first place. If this were possible, then we could also do something to regain it; in that case, salvation would be by works, which is a clear contradiction of Ephesians 2:8-9 .

Unfortunately, many churches add to the problem by imposing dos and don'ts for believers to follow. I understand this because I became a believer at age 12-I knew then that I was saved not by anything I did, but by the goodness and grace of God. However, the church I attended imposed rules about not listening to music, wearing cufflinks, playing ball, or even reading the comics on the Lord's Day. I was in immediate bondage because I delivered newspapers; I would cut the cord on a bundle of papers, read “Dick Tracy,” and go on with my delivery route. So, I felt guilty every Sunday.

Rules like these only make enslavement worse by increasing feelings of guilt and poor self-image. No wonder Galatians 3:10 tells us, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse.” Christians need to realize that if it were possible to get to heaven other than by the blood of Jesus Christ, then God made a horrible mistake by needlessly crucifying His own Son.

Why God set us free

• God wants us to become the persons He has created us to be. This goal can not be realized as long as we are under the yoke of bondage to anything. For example, if we have insecurity, addictions, bitterness, or a critical spirit, we are held captive by these attitudes and habits. We simply cannot become all that the Lord has in mind for us when our thinking is fragmented and hindering our relationships with others. • God wants us to accomplish the things He has planned for us to do. ( Ephesians 2:10 ) If we are going to minister as the Lord has intended, we must be free. In other words, we cannot be living with resentment, hostility, lust, or a poor self-image if we are to apply the gifts and skills God has given us for His purposes. •God wants us to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, which results in true freedom. ( Galatians 5:22-23 ) Ask yourself, What might be preventing God from flowing freely in my life? Is some habit or attitude obstructing joy and peace on the inside of me? If you are addicted to anything other than Jesus, you are in bondage.

The paradox of the Christian life

In today's world, people take pride in self-sufficiency and independence. To them, being “free” means having control of their life, and no one can tell them what to do or how to do it. But true freedom has more to do with the state of our souls than the positions we hold in society.

The sad truth is, those who do not know Christ are free only to rely on their own efforts to liberate them from internal bondage-and that isn't freedom at all. There is no way to experience spiritual freedom apart from God.

The book of Romans opens with Paul identifying himself as “a bond-servant of Christ Jesus.” Therein lies the secret: The only way to be genuinely free is to fully surrender your life to the Son of God-to go wherever He leads and do whatever He desires. He came to set us free from the bondage of sin so that you and I could relate to each other in a godly, loving fashion. If you lack joy, peace, and gentleness, something critical is missing from your life: You cannot be free apart from the liberty that comes in total surrender to Christ.

Jesus, the only begotten Son of the living God, gave His precious blood to purchase your freedom and mine. Do you know that wonderful liberation? You can make it yours by placing your trust in Christ. If you already know freedom in God's Son, protect your liberty by becoming His obedient servant.

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Theology and Church

Scripture, theology & the obedience of faith, karl barth, “the gift of freedom” pt. 1.

On September 21, 1953 Karl Barth gave an address at a meeting in Bielefeld of the Gesellschaft für Evangelische Theologie (Society for Evangelical Theology). It was published in a little collection of three essays entitled The Humanity of God . I am away from home at the moment and so cannot check Busch to find out what was going on at the time, but there is clear evidence in the lecture that Barth is engaging with some contemporary conversations and issues.

The most important thing to note at the outset is the subtitle of the lecture: “Foundation of Evangelical Ethics.” When Barth uses the term “Evangelical” he is referring to Protestant theology rather than evangelicalism as it is commonly known today. It may be, however, that Barth has in mind evangelical as gospel ; what is beyond question, however, is that Barth is arguing for an ecclesial ethics, one specifically for the Christian community, rather than for humanity generally. Indeed, his ethics are possible only as an evangelical ethics and not otherwise.

The lecture progresses in four sections, the final section serving almost as an excursus. Although it seems natural to discuss the seeming reality of human freedom, Barth asks, “Why deny priority to God in the realm of knowing when it is uncontested in the realm of being? If God is the first reality, how can man be the first truth?” [1] Barth insists that beginning with God does not in any way imply the abrogation of human freedom, although some may want to argue the point with him. God’s freedom is not naked sovereignty or bare omnipotence, but relational freedom, the freedom in which God in covenantal grace gave and gives himself to humanity to be humanity’s God. God’s freedom is not freedom from , but freedom for . God is free to determine his own being to be God for us in and through Jesus Christ. God’s freedom was and is expressed in the gospel, and although surely God’s vision and purpose includes all his creatures, God’s particular interest concerns his human creature, indicated in his becoming human in his Son.

The well-known definitions of the essence of God and in particular of His freedom, containing such terms as “wholly other,” “transcendence,” or “non-worldly,” stand in need of thorough clarification if fatal misconceptions of human freedom as well are to be avoided. The above definitions might just as well fit a dead idol. Negative as they are, they most certainly miss the very center of the Christian concept of God, the radiant affirmation of free grace, whereby God bound and committed Himself to man, making Himself in His Son a man of Israel and the brother of all men, appropriating human nature into the unity of his own being. [2]

In the second section of the lecture, Barth turns his attention to human freedom and here his exposition runs entirely counter to modern expectations. Human freedom is indeed the gift of God, grounded in God’s own freedom. But God is not simply the source of human freedom; he is also its object and goal. The natural freedom given to humanity in creation has been lost through sin, by which humanity is alienated from God and self. Humanity does not now know its original freedom, nor indeed what it means to be human. [3] Barth therefore implies that we cannot know what freedom is and entails by phenomenological analysis of human existence and action. We can, of course, understand the human capacity of choice, decision, and action, but this in itself is not freedom.

The concept of freedom as man’s rightful claim and due is equally contradictory and impossible. … Man has no real will power. Nor does he get it by himself. His power lies in receiving and in appropriating God’s gift. … God does not put man into the situation of Hercules at the crossroads. The opposite is true. God frees man from this false situation. He lifts him from appearance to reality. … It would be a strange freedom that would leave man neutral, able equally to choose, decide, and act rightly or wrongly! What kind of power would that be! Man becomes free and is free by choosing, deciding, and determining himself in accordance with the freedom of God. … Trying to escape from being in accord with God’s own freedom is not human freedom. Rather, it is a compulsion wrought by powers of darkness or by man’s own helplessness. Sin as an alternative is not anticipated or included in the freedom given to man by God. [4]

Apart from the gospel, then, humanity is “unfree.” What freedom is can be known only by understanding Christian freedom, that freedom which is given to humanity in Jesus Christ. Barth, echoing Luther, insists that freedom can be understood only in terms of “the freedom of the Christian.” [5]

To Be Continued …

[1] Karl Barth, The Humanity of God , trans., J. N. Thomas & T. Weiser (St. Louis: John Knox, 1960), 70.

[2] Ibid., 72.

[3] Ibid., 80.

[4] Ibid., 76-77.

[5] Ibid., 75, 82.

3 thoughts on “ Karl Barth, “The Gift of Freedom” Pt. 1 ”

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Is this a book or an online series of lecture?

Hello Romulo, Barth’s essay “The Gift of Freedom” is found in his little book called The Humanity of God . Thanks for visiting.

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Human freedom is a gift from God, Pope Francis says

November 22, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2018 / 11:05 am ( CNA/EWTN News ).- To be able to take “risks” in helping others is a gift of the freedom received from God the Father and revealed through Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said in a video message Thursday.

“Human freedom discovers itself to the fullest when it understands that it is generated and sustained by the loving freedom of the Father, revealed in the Son in the face of Mercy. Under his compassionate gaze, every man can always resume the path of the ‘risk of freedom.’”

“Dear friends, I wish you to be free people and not to be afraid of spending yourselves and getting your hands dirty to do good and help those in need,” the pope said Nov. 22.

Pope Francis’ message was sent for the start of an Italian conference on the social doctrine of the Church, being held in Verona Nov. 22-25. The eighth edition of the “Festival of Social Doctrine,” is on the theme of “the risk of freedom.”

“To risk, in fact, means to get involved. And this is our first call,” he said. “Together we must work to eliminate what deprives men and women of the treasure of freedom.”

Catholics must also rediscover what it means to be free, and to work to “preserve the common home that God has given us,” he emphasized, noting that “The world needs free people!”

In his message, the pope underlined three situations in which he believes men and women are not putting their God-given freedom to good use – in poverty, the domination of technology, and consumerism.

Poverty, which he said continues to be perpetuated by injustices around the world, causes waste and reduces men and women to “surplus.”

“Not only do [people in poverty] experience the evil fruits of others’ freedom on them, but they are defrauded of the possibility of ‘risking’ their freedom for themselves, for their family, for a good, just and dignified life,” he said.

Francis explained that technology use can also have an impact on freedom, such as when it is not accompanied by an adequate development of “responsibility, values, and conscience.”

The third negative situation is the reduction of men and women to mere consumers, he stated.

Quoting his environmental encyclical, Laudato si , he said the paradigm of consumerism “makes everyone believe that they are free as long as they retain a supposed freedom to consume, when in reality those who possess freedom are those who belong to the minority that holds economic and financial power.”

“As Christians, faithful to the Gospel and aware of the responsibility we have for all our brothers, we are called to be attentive and vigilant so that ‘the risk of freedom’ does not lose its highest and most demanding meaning,” he said.

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Freedom brings out the very best in us. Praised be God now and forever.

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The Gift of Freedom

July 3, 2008

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

I’d probably read that in my Bible a hundred times, but on one particularly difficult day, I found myself wondering how on earth it could be true. If Jesus had already set me free, then why did I feel so bound up? Why did I still struggle with the same issues that I struggled with before I came to know Him? And if the church is supposed to live in freedom, why did so many others, not just me, still seem to be in slavery? Why does freedom seem so unattainable?

And so began my journey to find out what freedom really is, and how can I walk in that reality.

The epistles often use the analogy of the Christian walk being like running a race or training like an athlete, so I use this analogy: Those who will one day become elite athletes have the gifts and natural talents they need to become elite athletes when they are born — but you would never put newborns at the starting line of the Boston marathon and expect to see them at the end. First, they need to learn to walk. Then they can jog. And then run.

And the first run they go on will probably not set a world record. They must train to become elite athletes, even though the potential is there.

So how might we walk in the fullness of the freedom that is available to all of us?

There are a lot of different things that have helped me cultivate freedom. One important one is to get to know God. What better way to find out how to attain freedom than to spend time with the One who gives it? There is nowhere I can go and not be in God’s presence, of course. But while I’m always in His presence, that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily spending time with Him. And I can’t be in a relationship with someone I don’t know.

I brought a lot of misconceptions about God into my Christian walk. Often, these would surface at times when I was really struggling to see how God was working in a situation. I realized that deep down, I thought God was distant, insensitive to the difficult realities of life, preoccupied, unconcerned with my struggles, and intolerant of my doubts, my questions and my failures. In my head, I knew these things weren’t true, but that’s what I felt in my heart. So often my perceptions, experiences and feelings can paint a very inaccurate picture of who God really is. So I need to confirm that what I believe about God is consistent with who He says He is in His Word.

Another thing I needed to do to learn to walk in freedom is to say yes to grace and say no to sin.

Accepting grace into my daily life was one of the keys to helping me overcome my struggle with habitual sin. I used to try to achieve obedience, freedom and mastery over my sin by my own strength. I would pray and ask for God’s help, of course; but then when I’d fall, I’d beat myself up for a good amount of time because of my fall.

This behavior fit right in line with how I treated myself before I became a Christian, especially as it pertained to my struggle with an eating disorder. If I ate too much (in my faulty opinion) or didn’t exercise enough, or if I woke up one day and my weight was too high, I’d belittle myself and make resolutions about how to change whatever it was that I didn’t like.

This way of thinking made me pretty legalistic. I made all sorts of rules for myself in an attempt to measure my faith — because I thought it would be easier to follow rules than to try to live in the reality of grace. After realizing the futility of what I was doing, that not only does it not work, but that it’s actually not biblical, I began to more thoroughly explore what grace is and how it can help me in my battle with sin.

I’ve found this to be one of the most difficult truths to grasp in my Christian walk. Though I would have never argued that I needed to do anything to achieve salvation, somehow I carry that striving to achieve into my Christian walk. If I messed up, I made myself mope around as a sort of penance. I would try to appease God with my actions rather than with my heart.

I finally came to terms with the fact that though my sin upsets God, it has less to do with my actions than it has to do with my heart. Sin says something about the condition of my heart, and ultimately, God just wants my heart.

Look at the Pharisees. God said that in their worship of Him, they may have honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were not set on drawing near to Him. Externally, they seemed to do everything right. They followed all the rules, but they wouldn’t give God their hearts. God just wanted to connect with their hearts.

As I allow myself the freedom to experience the goodness of God’s grace, I realize that I have the freedom to say no to sin. I can embrace the truth of God’s Word that says in Christ, I have everything I need for life and godliness. I begin to see how I used to be enslaved by sin, but through Christ I no longer am, that the reason God called me is so that I can be free. God’s intention was never that I would struggle through life, just barely holding on till heaven. In fact, Jesus died so that I could have an abundant life here on earth — not just in heaven.

Saying no to sin is a learning process. Again, we’re back to the analogy of training, running a race. When we were slaves to sin, our body and mind were trained that, when faced with temptation, we sin, we give in. And most of the time, we don’t think twice about it. So like athletes need to discipline themselves to train, even though it feels much more natural to sit on the couch and watch TV, we too need to train and discipline ourselves spiritually so that when we are faced with temptation, we, like Joseph when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, flee the scene rather than give in and say yes.

So being able to accept grace into our struggle with sin actually can enable us to say “no” more often.

Another way I’ve found to cultivate freedom is to be honest about my faults. Learning to walk out our freedom always happens in the context of Christian community. This isn’t something we can learn alone. I think one of the biggest lies the enemy tries to convince us of is that all I need to heal is me and God. That’s simply not true; it’s simply not biblical. James 5:16 says, “confess your sins to one another” (notice it doesn’t say “To God alone”) “and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”

I’m not trying to imply that it’s simple or easy to confess our sins to one another. And in some ways, it seems illogical. Shouldn’t we just confess our sin to God, or to the person we sinned against, if applicable? Why should I confess my sin to someone who had nothing to do with the situation?

That’s a really good question. All I can do is challenge you to try it sometime. I’ve found so much freedom in bringing my sin into the light and having people say, “I’ve been there” or “I’ve struggled with that, too.” Even in situations where the person had no idea what it was like to struggle with that particular issue, they can generally find common ground in one of their own struggles. Once they know what I’m dealing with, then we can pray that God would help me and give me the grace and the strength to say no in the face of temptation.

You may be concerned that your sin is just too ugly to share, that there’s no way anyone could possibly understand, or you’re too embarrassed or ashamed of your sin to bring accountability into your life. I’ve been there, too. Not only did I struggle with same-sex attraction for years, I had an eating disorder where I was addicted to laxatives (talk about embarrassing) and I self-injured. I cut myself with anything I could get my hands on, and when I decided that was not acceptable, I punched things, punched myself and banged my head against walls. Talk about ugly.

But I came to the point where I just didn’t care what anyone thought about me. I couldn’t live this way anymore — my desire for experiencing freedom in my life began to outweigh any shame or embarrassment I felt. I became more disgusted by the sin in my life than I was concerned about what anyone thought about me.

Ultimately, it only matters what Jesus thinks about me and how I present myself to Him. So I took God at His Word, and I’ve found James 5:16 to really work in my life. There is truly something about confessing our sins to one another that continues to put our sinful nature to death, silences the lies we’re believing about ourselves and about our sin, and ultimately brings healing into our lives.

These are just some of the many things that I’ve learned about walking in freedom. Today, I can honestly say that I feel free. I no longer feel bound and burdened by my struggles. That doesn’t mean I have all the answers, and it certainly doesn’t mean I’m not tempted or that I don’t stumble. What it means is that when I do fall, I’m quick to accept grace and the help I need to keep on going and try again.

Maybe that’s what true freedom is — not that we never struggle, but that we are willing to embrace the process that leads to freedom. Maybe freedom is not just our heavenly destination, but a lifelong journey as well.

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About the author.

Brenna Kate Simonds, her husband, and their three kids and their cocker spaniel reside just south of Boston. Brenna Kate is a missionary, a worship leader at her church and director of Alive in Christ, serving individuals and families impacted by same-sex attraction. She enjoys gluten-free cooking, blogging and spending time with family.

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COMMENTS

Why did God give us freedom? - Aleteia
However, God gave us freedom for a reason, and it is a gift we need to understand in order to use it properly. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “ Freedom is the power,...
Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom - The Gospel Coalition
Definition. Divine sovereignty, which is that God exercises efficacious, universal, and loving control over all things, is compatible with human freedom in that humans are free to do what they want to do, although God is sovereign over our desires.
Why Did God Give Us The Power Of Free Will? - Catholic-Link
St Paul writes how it is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1). Freedom is a means to human excellence, authentic happiness and leads us to the fulfillment of our destiny, which for us as sons and daughters of God, is walking towards personal holiness and the salvation or our souls.
Karl Barth, “The Gift of Freedom” Pt. 2 | Theology and Church
Freedom, in Barth’s vision, is the gift from God by which unfree and enslaved humanity is set free for the service of thankful obedience, for participation in the causa Dei, for the joy and hope of being God’s child both here and hereafter.
Free Indeed: The Peculiar Gift of Christian Liberty
But the love of God in Christ Jesus frees us from the hunger for control, and this freedom is a great gift. It offers us perspective. It also poses a challenge to our famed American “can-do” spirit.
God's gift of freedom must be used to choose the good
In the deepest sense, freedom is a gift of God because we cannot liberate ourselves from our illusions and selfish desires without divine grace. Jesus can therefore say: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn 8:32).
The Gift of Freedom: The Believer’s Declaration of Independence
Jesus, the only begotten Son of the living God, gave His precious blood to purchase your freedom and mine. Do you know that wonderful liberation? You can make it yours by placing your trust in...
Karl Barth, “The Gift of Freedom” Pt. 1 | Theology and Church
Human freedom is indeed the gift of God, grounded in God’s own freedom. But God is not simply the source of human freedom; he is also its object and goal. The natural freedom given to humanity in creation has been lost through sin, by which humanity is alienated from God and self.
Human freedom is a gift from God, Pope Francis says
To be able to take “risks” in helping others is a gift of the freedom received from God the Father and revealed through Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said in a video message Thursday.
The Gift of Freedom - Boundless
I’ve come to believe that freedom is both a one-time gift and a process. The moment we come to Jesus Christ, He gives us freedom through the Holy Spirit so that we are no longer slaves to sin. [1] Romans 6:17-18 But that freedom is something we need to learn to walk out.

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The Gift of Freedom

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