Christian Freedom

Many in the Christian life seem to think that there is no room for gray areas in our lives. Everything has to be painted either black or white. This is a mistake. Such thinking robs us of the joy of freedom that God intended us to have.

Christian freedom is a glorious thing. We see God's love for uniqueness and difference in His creation of beings who look as different from one another as possible. Beyond this, the very first thing God did was to create different pieces of matter with different properties and different functions. The first two humans were created and shared many common traits, but they were fundamentally different from one another. Man was made to be different from woman in temperament, physical structure, and emotional makeup. The creation, both human and all else, shares this essential trait (how ironic): it is distinct. No two beings are exactly alike. All are different. Clearly, we worship a God who values distinction. He stamped it all over His creation.

The people of the Bible are a testimony to the creative and free impulse of God. Over the course of biblical history, God used men as different from one another as possible. Weak Gideon, stout Daniel, and fiery John all made their mark in the ages of biblical history. Short men, tall men, handsome men, ugly men. Beautiful women, bold women, meek women. The canon's cast of characters runs the gamut. God clearly loves to create and use men and women of all different types.

We ought to remember this as we seek to construct a biblical worldview. There is freedom in God's work, and there is freedom in our lives. So much is spelled out for us, and how we love it. How we cherish the words we have and the direction they provide. I personally am a person who loves application in preaching, precisely because I love to have things to go out and do after hearing the sermon. Know that about me. But as the years have gone on, I have also come to prize Christian freedom where it is given. I believe that I am doing right in celebrating it. It was not given by accident. God did not stop speaking because of a bad cold or an over-occupied mind. He said exactly what He wanted to say, and He left us to figure the rest of it out, albeit with the Spirit's help and consciences trained in the Word. The Bible does not give a dress code. It does not give a calendar for our days. It does not give a plan for our lives. It gives principles that inform all of these things, but it gives us a generous measure of freedom in which to apply these principles. As we do so, we grow. We mature. We learn the value of gray. We treasure black, we treasure white, but we love gray as well.