Yesterday we talked about what Paul meant by Freedom in Galatians 5:1. I heard a real interesting talk this morning by Michael Frost who relates an article written in the Sydney Morning Herald about a man who lives right next to the Gap... a very popular suicide spot on the South Head of Sydney (also a popular tourist destination, the photo above). He tells of seeing a young bloke perched on the edge, obviously ready to jump. He tried to talk to him... he talked to him for a while, he then asked him to come away from the edge, offered him a cup of tea or a beer at his place. The young bloke responded "no" and jumped. As he tried to reach to out to him, all he was able to grab was the young bloke's cap which flew off as he jumped. He has since spoken with hundreds of people perched on the edge of those cliffs, offering them an ear, a cup of tea, anything to get them away from the edge.
We live in a world that has real sense of hopelessness. That lack of life purpose that you just can't find in any of those "self-discovery" or "self-authentication" lifestyle religions.
Here's where Freedom comes in and sets Christianity apart... Paul challenges us Christians to understand what it truly means to be Free... not just freedom from... but also freedom for! As the theologian E. J. Epp puts it:
The implications of
this Christian freedom as Paul develops it are vast and far-reaching, but
essentially he sees freedom as a reality effected in and through the
Christ-event, which has broken the power of sin and neutralized the individual
hostility against God, which at the same time has covered the guilt and stain
of sin and erased the past; which has crushed all enslavement to self, to
religious convention, to the present power of evil, and to cosmic forces: and
which has triumphed over every force that dominates humankind, including human
mortality itself. But that is only one side of the coin – the “freedom
from what?” side; there is the also the significant “freedom for what?” side.
Freedom means: free to do what we were created for! It means purpose, it means mission. As a community, first and foremost, we are called to accomplish God's will on this earth. To bring hope to the hopeless, shine the light in a darkened world... to surrender all we are for the sake of His Kingdom.
By truly embracing what God's Freedom for His people means, by putting in as much effort in fulfilling His will for this earth as we do in building up our own lives... then we may find fewer people standing on that edge.
