Conditional Freedom or Absolute
Freedom
Numbers 22:20-21
G. Paulraj
We
often undermine the word of God and try to use it as putty to defend or to
justify our shortcoming because it has no direct answers to some of our willful
sins. There are many in this world who say that I smoke because nowhere in the
Bible mentioned it is sin and. Some of us strongly argue and defend that
consuming alcohol is not sin because there is no direct word in the Bible
against consuming alcohol. I could give you innumerable examples like this.
However we should know the fact that the Word of God was not given to know our
curiosity but to know the will of God in our lives.
Yes
there are no direct condemnations or warnings in the Bible against smoking,
drinking, watching pornography and so on. However it doesn't mean that Bible
gives us freedom to do all those things that is repulsive to our Holy God. Bible
remains silence because God doesn't give us freedom from His word but within
His word. We can’t find anywhere in the Bible the detailed list of sins that we
can and cannot do. Freedom in our Christian life can be found only within the
Word of God not from the Word of God. Let me explain you the difference between
the freedom from the Word of God and freedom within the Word of God. The first talks
about unconditional freedom and the later talks about conditional freedom. Let us
study about Balaam how he turned God’s conditional freedom into absolute freedom.
Conditional freedom or Absolute
freedom
Here
in our text God gave Balaam conditional permission to do something but Balaam
considered it to be an absolute permission. Thus he has failed to do what God
had said to him "If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but
only the word which I speak to you—that you shall do." But Balaam went
along with the intention to curse the Israelites that he might get abundant
gold and silver from Balak.
Like
Balaam we too consider God’s silence or His conditional permission as an
absolute permission to fulfill our desires. Today many of us think that
"There is no 'Thus says the Lord' about this" - though there may be
dozens of verses that say that one should not do it because of this, that, or
something else. Or, there may be a whole story about someone who does something,
illustrating a principle of a way we should not go. Nevertheless, because
Scripture does not specifically say, "You shall not do this," then
many people think it is okay to do it.
Consider
smoking no place in the Bible says that a person shall not smoke cigarettes. It
does not say anywhere that one should not breathe in the smoke of any kind of
flammable substance. However, there are huge principles - love toward God,
neighbor, and self; not defiling the temple of God's Spirit; slow suicide -
that people totally ignore. This is similar to what Balaam did.
His
thinking process may have gone something like this: "God didn't say that I
could not go. He gave me a condition, but I'm sure it will be all right this
time if I go. If He was willing to give me permission in this case, it must be
okay." So, he went. God gave Balaam
conditional permission. He made him free to do a certain thing, which was to go
with the men, but He put a condition on it: "If they come to you."
Well, Balaam used his freedom, his liberty, as a cloak for vice. Balaam's vice
was money; he wanted riches. He was going to get his riches by cursing Israel -
another vice! Cursing people is not a good thing - certainly, it does not show
love for them.
As
Christians, we have been given grace, freedom, and God-given gifts to do good.
He warns us, "Do not use this freedom to do evil. I have given you, not
freedom from the law, but freedom within the law - to do good and not
evil." Yet, how many have used the liberty given to us by Christ as license
to sin? "God will forgive us! That's what God does best! So, if we do it
just this once, it will be okay!" That is what Balaam did. He received
permission from God in one small area, under a certain circumstance, and Balaam
interpreted it as freedom to do generally as he pleased.
This
kind of thinking motivates today’s Christians to give overriding emphasis on
grace. Truly, grace is a wonderful thing. God has given us so many freedoms,
but there are also law, responsibility, and submission to the will of God,
things Balaam totally left out of the picture. He ignored the conditions God
placed on his liberty. All he wanted was the freedom. And his taking license
came back to bite him severely in the end.
Christian
freedom is not a license to sin but the humble submission to God who saved us
from our sins. However our submission to God is not another kind of slavery but
eternal security. Furthermore St. Augustine the great church father taught that
true freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being what you are meant
to be. Humans were created in the image of God. True freedom, then, is not
found in moving away from that image but only in living it out. The closer we
conform to the true image of God, Jesus Christ, the freer we become. The
farther we drift from it, the more our freedom shrinks.
Martin
Luther in his 1520 treatise On Christian Liberty explains the meaning of
Christian freedom in a nutshell: "A Christian man is the freest lord of
all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all,
and subject to everyone." In other words, according to Luther, because of
what Christ has done for us and because of our faith in Christ, the Christian
is absolutely free from the bondage of the law. We don't have to do anything.
On the other hand, out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us and in us,
the Christian is bound in servitude to God and other people. We get to serve humanity
freely and joyfully. A Christian who doesn't "get" the "get
to" part simply doesn't know the joy of salvation.
Conclusion
Dear
friends too often we put our own desires over the desire of Jesus for His
children to be influencers in this increasingly evil world. We need Light to
penetrate the darkness. But too often we have allowed darkness to influence the
Light of Jesus in us. It happened to God's Children (Israelites) in the
wilderness, and it is happening again in the day we live. When we are more
concerned about my rights, freedom's and liberty's than we are for letting
Jesus be seen in our words, decisions, and actions, then we have become selfish
and living for ourselves and not Christ! As Paul said, “all things are
permissible, but not all things are beneficial. Nobody should seek his own
good, but the good of others."
Genesis 3:15 reveals the will of God on human beings. Genesis 3:15 is a capsule
summary of the history of humans from God’s perspective and it reveals the
abstract of God’s rescue plan which the rest of scripture unfolds.
