Won't Christian Truth Destroy my Freedom? Part 3
Aug 30, 2010
I have been travelling a lot and unable to update the final entry on Christian truth, which I know so many of you have been on the edge of your seat waiting for! The final point that I want to make, and one I think rarely considered, is that Jesus is much more liberating than you think. How so?
Christianity changes the face of the truth debate when the Apostle John writes “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, was with God, and the Word was God…The Word has become flesh and we have seen His glory.” What is John saying? Mainly, that the absolute truth, the Word (logos), has become a person. Absolute truth is no longer and abstraction (set of rules) but a person. We believe in a personal absolute. And here’s what you’re made for; here’s your design: you are made to behold His glory, to love Him, to know Him, to enjoy Him. What difference does this make? If absolute truth is a principle it’s dehumanizing but if it’s a person it’s liberating. Going back to the love analogy above, we said that if you love, you must surrender your independence. But 2 people must do it together. If both adjust, sacrifice, and surrender, it’s heaven, but if only one person does it, it’s hell. If it’s only 1 way, then it is dehumanizing. If relationship with God is only one way, then it too is the same. If God is throwing down abstractions saying you must do this, you must not do this, you must surrender yourself, adjust yourself, and sacrifice yourself, then that is a hellish one-way relationship. But that does not describe Christianity’s God. Our God says God, the absolute truth, became a person and went to the cross. On that cross, Jesus said I’ll lose my independence for you, I’ll surrender for you, I’ll adjust for you, I’ll be exploited for you, I’ll give up my freedom for you (Phil. 2.1-11). The ultimate free Being was bound and nailed so that you could know that you can trust Him. This is liberation. The one-way relationship is slavery but the personal relationship lives the life I should have lived and saves me by sheer grace.
