How much freedom do we have in Christ? People complain that Church is full of restrictions than approvals. The Church is full of don’ts’ than ahead. Going to church nowadays is not popular with a lot of people as a result.
“Church wants to have a say in everything I do and I find it intimidating,” someone said, “how I should dress, music, food, associates, entertainment, business, relationships, education, etc.” “Going to church is like getting yourself locked up in a bottle, no air to breath, no movement, no adventure, nothing new to try out,” said another. Is this true about God and his church? What do you think?
If you have time with your friends, do this one experiment for me. Take five opaque cups, invert them and place them on a table, and order that your friends only open four of the five cups to get gifts and leave the fifth alone. You will notice how suddenly your friends’ attention and curiosity will be drawn to the fifth cup as opposed to the given four. So they say “curiosity killed a cat”.
This is the same reason why we people do not see the huge amount of freedom that God has given to us because we tend to focus more on the forbidden which is just but one out of a given many.
Take a look for example our first parents Adam and Eve. When God placed them in the Garden of Eden he commanded them as follows:
Gen 2:15-17
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Adam and Eve were given to eat every tree in the garden but one. How many trees were they permitted to eat? Countless trees of every kind, shape, and size were allowed eating but they disobeyed God because of this one tree, so sad indeed.
The two had all the freedom in the world but that one tree drove them to lose everything and ever since then man has not quite changed. Ever since the entry of sin into the world one thing humans do not want to hear is a restriction of some kind. This they will fight until they break its hold.
The same can be said of the Holy Decalogue. In [Ex 20: 1-17] God gave us the Ten Commandments to guide us in our daily living. All are restraints (thou shall not) except two. 80% of God’s law is made up of restraints. The remaining two [20%] are cautioning? Does this then suggest limited freedom? Only to the carnal mind:
Rom 8:5-8
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Just like Adam and Eve left all the countless juicy trees in the Garden of Eden for that one forbidden tree we too have refused to see the life and peace that God has prepared for us but instead we are intimidated by just those ten that he requires us not to. Like our first parents, we risk losing everything as a result. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup because he wanted to satisfy his appetite we too need to tread carefully lest we lose our salvation.
Think about life without the Ten Commandments, chaos? But yet still we take pleasure in breaking it. God did not want men to know about sin. That is why he placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is his will for you and me.
This knowledge we were to acquire elsewhere apart from him. His was to give all that would edify our mental physical and spiritual happiness. The knowledge therefore we acquired from the arch deceiver and since then it has been in man to question and doubt all that God has put restrictions to.
It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,–of sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death,–this was in love withheld. While God was seeking man’s good, Satan was seeking his ruin. When Eve, disregarding the Lord’s admonition concerning the forbidden tree, ventured to approach it, she came in contact with her foe. Her interest and curiosity having been awakened, Satan proceeded to deny God’s word, and to insinuate distrust of His wisdom and goodness.
Satan desired to make it appear that this knowledge of good mingled with evil would be a blessing, and that in forbidding them to take of the fruit of the tree, God was withholding great good. He urged that it was because of its wonderful properties for imparting wisdom and power that God had forbidden them to taste it, He declared that he himself had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech; and that if they also would eat of it, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge.
While Satan claimed to have received great good by eating of the forbidden tree, he did not let it appear that by transgression he had become an outcast from heaven. Here was falsehood, so concealed under a covering of apparent truth that Eve, infatuated, flattered, beguiled, did not discern the deception. She coveted what God had forbidden; she distrusted His wisdom. She cast away faith, the key of knowledge.
There was nothing poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in yielding to appetite. It was distrust of God’s goodness, disbelief of His word, and rejection of His authority that made our first parents transgressors, and that brought into the world a knowledge of evil. It was this that opened the door to every species of falsehood and error. [Education page 24:2 by E.G. White]
Freedom
So freedom we had and we still have more than restraint. Had we realised there was nothing wrong with the fruit itself but definitely with the enemy, we still would be living happily in the Garden of Eden today? Consider the fifth commandment for one. It’s a commandment with a promise and it reads
Ex 20:12
12 ” Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
The question is which part of this commandment is restrictive? Consider the span of life you will enjoy out of this as compared to shortening it over some rude behaviour or some stolen goods. What God promises is more precious than gold. It’s worth listening to God than enjoying a short-lived excitement or moment.
2 Tim 2:22-26
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Next time you have second thoughts about keeping God’s law consider the hidden promises behind it. Do not fall for the short-lived gains that the Devil gives because that’s what he does. He will use you and afterward expose you and dump you.
James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
1 Tim 6:11-12
11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Behind each commandment is a great treasure in store for us. We just have to put our trust in God always and he will open up these for us in due time. The ball is set the choice is ours to make. Are we going for the eternal treasure behind each commandment or the short-lived fame or glory that comes with breaking them? God help us choose wisely today.
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