Freedom

Before I go any farther into the year, it seems important to use a devotional guide rather than rely on my feeble attempts to glean something from reading through the chronological Bible. The first problem is that I struggle with the NIV translation. Second, I have blank spots in my thinking and need the challenges given by other writers.

I’ve selected Truth for Today, a book written by Pastor/teacher John MacArthur. We were members of his church in California in the 80's and I know he will not only challenge my mind, but bless and feed my spirit.

Today’s reading is based on Colossians 2:8-10, a warning by Paul to the church at Colosse. The Christians there were being wooed by human philosophies and needed a reminder that they must evaluate everything by Jesus Christ. This passage says:

Beware lest anyone cheat your (or plunder you, or take you captive) through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

MacArthur notes that human philosophies often consider this world locked in a closed system, a time–space dimension where God, if He exists, is outside of the box. In this way of thinking, mankind cannot escape the box since the natural cannot enter the supernatural. If God did create this world, then He is watching things happen but never involved.

As the devotion points out, human beings have this longing to know what is outside their box. Some invent deities and thus religions proliferate. These represent that human desire to escape the box, but sadly, no matter what we invent, we are confined by our time-space nature to the box.

Thinking this way is more than frustrating. For even the mildly curious, there is no hope. Yet the desire persists. Besides spawning religions, it is likely at the root of all science fiction and many other philosophies. Yet that desire to get out of the box (and being unable to do it alone) is God-given. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”

This desire has been also described as a God-shaped void, a place of longing that cannot be filled by anyone but Him, making the desire to get out of the box actually a yearning to know our Creator and heavenly Father.

MacArthur asks if there is a way to escape this box, then goes on to say that Christianity acknowledges that no one can by their own efforts. However, because God has invaded the box from the outside, we have great hope. Jesus Christ entered into our world to show us how we can live forever with God.

This is the good news of the Gospel, so familiar to me, yet so thrilling. Jesus, who is God in human flesh and the fullness of God, not only choose to come to earth to die for sinners like me, He also humbles Himself to live in my heart and make me complete in Him.

Our church chose John 8:32 as a theme verse for 2009. It says: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Knowing and experiencing truth is just another way of saying that Jesus took the lid off the box that had locked me into bondage to sin and set me free to know God.

I need no other philosophy, no other source of grace or hope. Jesus rules over all other ideas and authorities, and because He took the lid off, He alone is my freedom.