This last article that I wrote prompted me to give a sermon on the topic (you can find it here). While putting my thoughts into writing, one thing immediately struck me: we have a negative connotation of words like « Law » or « commandments, » but why? These words evoke the idea of obligation, and obligation evokes the idea of loss of freedom. In France, where we cherish our freedom, the creation of new laws is often met with resistance. However, at the core of a law is the idea of helping us live together and grow in the right direction. So why has this become such a big problem?

Partly, it’s because of philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that man is naturally good_1_. His writings claim that if man were set free in nature, he would be « better » than a man plagued by civilization. For him, what corrupts the human race is society or civilization. Man should strive to live autonomously, without any ties to others. The natural man should choose his own « social contracts, » and anything imposed upon him makes him bad. Man is called to construct himself, and relationships that involve unchosen obligations (parent-child relationships, marriage, the Church) should be abolished. This philosophy even led him to abandon his own children.

Of course, one could ask how the « naturally good » man of Rousseau ended up in such a state. If he was good, then how could he impose his will on others? This question applies both to Rousseau personally, where his philosophy was imposed upon his children, and also to man as imagined in the beginning. Rousseau’s philosophy doesn’t hold up, and furthermore, it doesn’t align with what we see around us. Sin and evil are rooted in the very heart of infants, and wild animals are… well, wild.

So, what does the Bible say about true freedom? The idea of an autonomous man is completely absent from Holy Scriptures because man was created to live in communion with God. Thus, human beings are always in search of a greater purpose than themselves. Paul presents it in this way: either man is a slave to God or slave to sin (cf. Rom 6). The freedom of man as generally conceived is an illusion. This is what we tried to demonstrate in our previous article. True freedom, as described in the Bible, is not about living independently from all things, but about living for God and being delivered from the grip of sin. Freedom is no longer being under the dominion of the evil master but ending up under the dominion of the good master who takes care of us. The sacrificial love of Christ liberates us from self-centeredness and evil, redirecting us towards God. The cross restores us to our communion with God, the purpose for which we were created. That is true freedom – living out our purpose!

1 In this article I get most of my ideas from PEARCEY Nancy, Total Truth, Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2004, p. 137-142.