The New Humanity . . .

THE NEW FREEDOM

The man who as a slave received the call to be a Christian is the Lord’s freedman, and, equally, the free man who received the call is a slave in the service of Christ.—(1 Cor. 7:22 NEB)

There is the story of the old slave who was being auctioned off, but there were no bidders since he was now worn out from long years in the field and of little value. But one plantation owner had compassion for the old and gentle slave and paid the necessary money to make him his property. Then he said to him: “You’ve worked long enough and hard enough for anyone man. I’m setting you free. Go, you’re a free man.” The old Negro could hardly believe his ears, and deep inside him he had a feeling that he had never had before as he watched his emancipator walk away. Running after him, he cried out: “Wait, master, I want to be your slave!”

Even though he was still a slave, as he had been all his life, the relationship was vastly different. Now his servitude was voluntary. His bondage was a matter of his own will. not that of another.

From the very first page of the Bible the Lord has made it a principle that man is to have dominion, but it is not a dominion over others. Man is to harness the powers of the earth and of the animal kingdom for his own good and for the glory of God. But he is not to harness his fellow men. When a man allows himself to be under the dominion of any man, thus surrendering his God-given personal liberty, he sacrifices his dignity as a person. So does the person who demands that others look to him as sovereign. Each man is to be the manager of his own life. It is a sacred trust.

The beauty of the Christian religion is that it never imposes itself on anyone. To the extent that it does to that extent it is corrupted. The painting of Jesus knocking on a closed door, with no latch on the outside of the door, beautifully illustrates this truth. Jesus may seek to be a constraining influence in men’s lives, but not a restraining influence. As the scripture above indicates, those who become slaves to Christ are in voluntary servitude, which is the highest expression of freedom.

In A Book of Protestant Saints, Ernest Gordon tells the story of Mathilda Wrede, a woman of station and wealth, who became “Angel of the Prisons” in that she carried the message of Christ to men doomed to spend their lives behind bars. A governor’s daughter and a woman of wealth, Miss Wrede chose a life as bare as that of the prisoners themselves in her chosen ministry. Her dress was the simplest, her food hardly ever more than soup and crusts of bread, and her wealth turned to poverty as she gave her all to the poor. When only 20 she went to the chief of prisons in Finland and asked for permission to visit prisoners all across that nation. For 40 years she fulfilled her ministry, living as simply as the prisoners themselves, which they knew, thus identifying herself with them.

Though Miss Wrede was a free woman she chose a ministry that made her a prisoner for Jesus’ sake. She was like Paul in this regard: “I am a free man and own no master; but I have made myself every man’s servant, to win over as many as possible” (1 Cor. 9:19) It is only the free man who can say, “I made myself like one of them,” in order to be a blessing to them.

This is the new freedom that man can enjoy only in Christ. The true libertarian is he who through Christ is disciplined in the wise restraints. The same Paul who asserted that he was indeed a free man, along with all the rights that implies, also said: “But I have availed myself of no such right. On the contrary, I put up with all that comes my way rather than offer any hindrance to the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:12). This is the disciplined life: doing what one does not have to do, restraining from what one is free to do. This is the test the apostle places upon freedom in 1 Cor. 8. Though a saint is free to eat meat he must be careful and not use his liberty in a way that wounds his brother’s conscience. Paul tells us he would not do such as long as the world stands. This is the truth that our traffic safety folk are appealing to in urging that Right of way is something to give, not to demand.

There is the story of an accomplished musician who was showing tourists through the home of the great Mendelssohn. When he pointed to the master’s piano where he had done much of his composing, a young woman in the group urged the guide to play a few bars. When he refused, explaining he could not bring himself to sit where Mendelssohn sat, the girl showed her shallowness by sitting down herself and dashing off a few notes of some ditty. It is obvious enough that the freest of the two was the one who showed restraint.

Freedom in Christ is the liberty to realize one’s potential according to the will of God. It is to recognize that just as God made us different he expects us to serve him according to our own unique selves. Freedom is not only the liberty to be different, but also the liberty to allow the other person to be different from ourselves. Since, as the text with which we began indicates, the freedman in Christ is one who voluntarily accepts bondage in order to serve God more gloriously, he is one who will conform as much as conscience will allow, and he will not insist on being different just to be different. The man who conforms when he can is freer than the one who has to be different. And the man who cannot stand for others to be different from himself is far from the liberty that is in Christ.

Christian freedom delivers us from that carnal habit of passing judgment on others. It is a terrible burden to have to serve as judge in the lives of others, determining their loyalty or disloyalty, soundness or unsoundness. Jesus lifts this from us, allowing us such freedom that we do not even have to judge ourselves. Paul puts it this way: “For my part, if I am called to account by you or by any human court of judgment, it does not matter to me in the least. Why, I do not even pass judgment on myself, for I have nothing on my conscience” (1 Cor. 4:3). He goes on to say, “My judge is the Lord,” a truth that would liberate us from many foibles, if we would but give heed.

Freedom in Christ is not only liberty to but also liberty from, which may be the most important aspect of all. In saying that “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” Jesus must have had in mind freedom from. Freedom from sin, to be sure. And freedom from ignorance. It should also mean freedom from dogmatism and authoritarianism. And bigotry and selfishness and pride. It seems that in these respects the most religious people are often less free than those of the world.

A recent study reported in Psychology Today indicates as much. Part of the conclusion is: “Most disturbing are findings that show that the religiously devout are on the average more bigoted, more authoritarian, more dogmatic, and more anti-humanitarian than the less devout.” The report also claims that church members are more prejudiced than other people.

Most of us will admit that we have seen more of this than we like to admit, some of which has been in our own lives. We need not try to answer the question as to why good church members are often more prejudiced, dogmatic, and bigoted than others. It is enough for us to insist that it should not be so, and that church members may well be in need of the freedom that is in Christ. If these things are true of professed Christians, then it is also true that they are less free than other people. Such as this caused Paul to write: “You, my friends, were called to be free men; only do not turn your freedom into license for your lower nature, but be servants to one another in love.” (Gal. 5:13)

Notice that Paul equates being free men to being servants to one another in love. The free man in Christ is a man in love. He is ruled by love rather than those passions that give way to prejudice and bigotry. 1 Pet. 2:16 puts it this way: “Live as free men; not however as though your freedom were there to provide a screen for wrong-doing, but as slaves in God’s service.”

This is the new freedom that is realized only in Christ: becoming free by becoming a slave. It is saving one’s life by losing one’s life. It was not so under the old dispensation, and certainly it is an idea that defies all logic, as well as the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans. The world associates freedom with that liberation that knows no restraint. One cannot be half slave and half free, says the wisdom of this world. But in Christ he who is fully slave is the one who is wholly free. When one’s life is “hid with Christ in God,” a suitable metaphor to describe Christian liberty, he is then free to serve humanity in a way acceptable to God.

It is the Jerusalem that is above that is our mother and that is free, says Paul in Gal. 4:26. This makes possible the New Humanity. The contrast in Heb. 12 is bold and definite. There is that religion that makes men fearful. It is represented as “darkness, gloom, whirlwind, and trumpet blast.” Such was God’s only alternative when the Hebrews rejected the ministry of freedom that he intended to give them. Even Moses was so appalled by the sight that he said “I shudder with fear.”

But the revelation of God was soon pointing to Christ, when something very different would come to bless mankind. Through him the community of heaven would be given the ministry of reconciliation, based on love rather than fear, in which every man could respond to God both by his own choice and according to his own individuality. It was not by birth as under the old dispensation, but by the new birth.

We now stand before Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and in him there is no cause for fear. Through love he makes us servants of one another, and if the Christ makes us free we are free indeed.—the Editor