Freedom From vs. Freedom To

Often in life we see the concept of freedom. We feel that freedom is intrinsically good. And of course we are right. Freedom is a great intrinsic good.

But too often freedom is thought of as "freedom from" something. Freedom from regulation, freedom from rules, freedom to do whatever we please. And while these things may be fine at times "freedom from" is never a fully Christian view of freedom.

Christian freedom needs to have a sense of "freedom to" do something. Freedom to follow God. Freedom to do good. Finding true freedom in obeying the law.

True freedom is freedom to become who God intend us to be. Freedom from something lacks the compete fullness of a robust sense of freedom.

The Human Will and Human Freedom

A lot of theologians, philosophers, and thinkers have argued about the nature of the human will. The bible depicts the human will as being free in that it chooses what it pleases.

Many forms of freedom wish to define freedom as the "ability to do other wise" so that the will may act in any direction at any moment.

It is an interesting philosophical definition but it doesn't have a consistent view of person-hood or a biblical basis. The bible defines freedom as doing what one pleases.

In the deepest sense we are most free when we follow God. That is true freedom when our will matches God.

Those in sin are free none the less. Their will is aligned against God and they are doing what they please in this regard.

True Freedom

The world defines freedom as the ability to do what one pleases or the ability to do what one chooses. A lot of Christians define freedom in the same way.

The definition is not terrible, but I do not think it is correct. The reality is that it causes the ability to sin to be part of the nature of freedom.

God in this definition is hard to see as free. Also it in many ways appears by this definition that man is more free post-fall than pre-fall.

The knowledge of good and evil did not make man more free it rather made him a slave to sin.

I have come to the conclusion that true freedom is the ability to do what pleases God. To be truly free is to follow God.

The reality of life is that man was more free when he simply did not know what evil was to a large extent than when man knew what evil is.

A lot of effort is being poured into attempting to teach people the difference between right and wrong. There is some value here, but I believe the frequency of serious wrong doing out of actual ignorance is very low (claimed ignorance is probably more of an excuse than a reality in general).