On Monday I wrote about freedom and offered a pretty weak effort, I think. It’s been a tough few days around here with everyone except me being sick at one time or another (and mostly all at the same time) and I fear that my article on Monday reflected a lack of attention. There is one thing I had wanted to say on Monday that I somehow did not quite communicate. I’m going to take another swing at it today.
We, as sinful human beings, seem naturally inclined to believe that there is greater freedom outside of God’s will than within it. I believe from a plain reading of Scripture that God intends that husbands will lead their families and that wives will submit to their husbands. I believe that this submission is far less humiliating than many in our culture would believe simply by hearing the word. Yet it is submission nonetheless, and submission comes very, very hard to human beings. And the more sinful the leader is, the harder it must be to submit. Every one of us owes submission and allegiance to God, the perfect God, and we can all attest, every day, just how hard that it is and how often we fail. Every time we sin we are telling God that we can live better outside of his will than within it. If we find it hard to submit to God, how much harder is it to submit to husbands or church leaders or Presidents and kings and Prime Ministers?
What we learn as Christians, though, is that there is greater freedom within God’s law, within God’s boundaries, within God’s will, than there is outside. If you are a parent, you know this already. Your children are more free to live a fulfilling, joyful life when they obey you than when they do not. Your child gains no freedom from touching the hot stove after you have told him not to; she gains no liberty by running across the busy parking lot when you have told her to stay put. Such freedom is no freedom at all. It leads only to pain—perhaps immediate and consequential pain or perhaps the pain of punishment later on; perhaps both. Yet every day you and I battle this very thing. We battle the desire to run away from God, to do things our way, to do things in whatever way we determine is best.
I think we sometimes feel as if God has saved us to a lifetime of captivity to his laws. Now that we are Christians there is so much we cannot do. There is so much we must do. Suddenly we see that “wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” We see that “every person [must] be subject to the governing authorities.” We see that our submission to Christ leads to submission to others. We see that our submission to Christ requires us to do so many things that come so slowly and reject many things that come so easily. And we regard this as captivity. We may even resent these high, tough standards that God requires.
But God gives these high standards, he gives us these laws, he gives us these boundaries for our good and for our freedom. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). As we grow in our knowledge of God and as we grow to be more like him, we see that what we thought was freedom was really slavery and what we thought was slavery is in reality glorious freedom. We find our freedom in submitting to God and obeying him, even when such obedience goes against all we want to do and all we want to believe. God knows best and we live best before him when we submit to his ways, whatever the cost.
Comments (13) »
1. Sam
February 4, 2009
10:18 AM
a train off its tracks is anything but free, devastation instead of destination.
2. Betsy Markman
February 4, 2009
10:56 AM
It’s impossible to convince our flesh that what looks like bondage is truly freedom. I guess that’s why we’re told not to walk in the flesh at all, but in the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The flesh cannot find freedom in submission. But the Spirit makes all the difference.
Still struggling with this stuff, but believing. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement to keep pursuing the truth, even when it looks like bondage at first.
3. sarah
February 4, 2009
11:32 AM
I hope you don’t mind if I quote you; this is excellent.
4. Dan H.
February 4, 2009
12:16 PM
Tim,
For what it’s worth, I saw nothing wrong with your first post on this subject. Your analogy was clear, simple, and insightful as was Sam’s train/track example above.
Left to our own devices, sin prevails because our very nature is rebellion. It is only by the Spirit that our heads and hearts are turned away from the caustic confines of sin.
On another subject, you’ll notice that in the results of your post(s) there is a lack of clarity in the proper understanding of the biblical meaning of “submit”. Might this issue be a worthy topic for your pen (keyboard) in the future?
In Christ…
Dan…
5. Phillip Ross
February 4, 2009
1:16 PM
“Worship leadership was given to men, not because they were better at it, nor because they enjoyed a superior status. Rather, I suspect that it was a function of need. It is for our sanctification. How so?
We know that the leader always gets more out of the lesson than the student, if only because the leader has spent more time in preparation. And because men are naturally lazy and irresponsible, God chose them to lead worship because they need to spend more time in preparation, because they need the additional burden of leadership responsibility to counteract their natural tendency to be irresponsible, and because they need the additional sanctification that results from additional effort.
Women tend to suffer from a different character flaw. Women, following Eve’s lead (Genesis 3), tend to usurp authority. Women, because they are the natural caretakers of children, have a natural tendency to take charge of everything. That tendency, coupled with the character flaw of men toward irresponsibility, is socially and culturally deadly because it encourages the growth of male irresponsibility. Thus, God requires each sex to counteract their natural tendencies. Women are to submit rather than to take charge, and men are to be responsible rather than irresponsible. Each sex is required to grow in sanctification by denying its natural tendency and engaging its weakness—submission for women and responsibility for men—in order to grow spiritually. Clearly, team effort, mutual support and mutual encouragement are required. Men and women are mutually dependent upon each other for their spiritual growth.”
(from my book Arsy Varsy—Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians)6. Cliff
February 4, 2009
1:21 PM
I would rather be ‘slave’ to God’s Will then be a slave to sins any day, any time.
7. James Hakim
February 4, 2009
1:23 PM
Nothing wrong with your first or second post. For those stimulated by Tim’s writing that want to go after this from the Bible now, follow the topic through the core of Romans…
Rom 6, the theological foundation and reality of freedom
Rom 7, the felt necessity for freedom
Rom 8, the Spirit-powered, Love-inflamed experience of freedom in Christ
You will find, as Tim has been saying, that the law is a great, indispensable ally in enjoying real freedom in Christ. And yet, though it is a tremendous ally, it can never be the power—that is Christ alone by His Spirit alone.
8. Phillip Ross
February 4, 2009
1:28 PM
Please allow me one more:
“In Christ we are free indeed. Yet, our freedom is not a license to confuse those who are not as mature in the faith as we are. Our individual freedom in Christ is bound by our love of and service to the body of Christ. We are free from our bondage to sin in order to become willing servants—slaves—to Christ, and through Christ, to His people, the church, the body of Christ. The mature in Christ are obligated and bound to assist in the sanctification of the immature in Christ, and at the very least, not to become stumbling blocks to them.
To the mature Paul said, “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8:8). There are no moral or spiritual consequences related to the consumption of food. The point is that the rights of some can lead others astray because the less mature do not discern their own weaknesses. Immature Christians often overestimate their own spiritual development. The ESV translates the Greek word, exousia, as rights, whereas the word also means authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power and strength. Exousia is a freedom, an ability, an authority, a power. And it can be abused. The freedom of one person can become a means of sin and abuse to another.”
(from my book Arsy Varsy—Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians)9. Suzanna
February 4, 2009
11:49 PM
This is excellent! Love your clarity on something that is, after all, quite clear…strange how murky it’s gotten. I guess it’s not that strange: those who won’t submit but seek to understand will never be able to clear the fog… Anyway, your simplicity was so right on.
This is my first time reading your blog and comments, and my interest was piqued because of the marriage emphasis. Submission and masculine headship in marriage was a pill that I could not come to swallow until it was taught by a man who had championed a sick wife for 20 years, cleaning the house, taking care of kids, and weeping with joy whenever she was able to get up out of bed and exhort the church. Discipled by him in biblical marriage unity, now it’s a drug we (husband and I) can’t get enough of. The joy of even beginning to live this out is incomparable.
Biblical marriage is a bridge the church can cross not by sticking to her theological guns, but with a good bit of crucified flesh. Jaws drop and doors open wherever a dead (to himself) husband is found leading his family. I think it’d be hard to find a woman who could resist it, either.
God bless! Keep writing!
10. lindsay
February 5, 2009
12:39 AM
this post and all the subsequent comments could not have come at a better time for me. thanks, tim, for your ministry.
11. Tom Sturch
February 5, 2009
9:17 AM
Tim: When I am teaching Law and Love I use the analogy of a football field. The Law defines the boundaries and rules of the game, but it is not the game. Under Law, none are worthy to take the field. Christ comes to invite and teach us to play the game in grace and joy so that the boundaries and rules become superfluous. Without submission to Christ, however, there are only rules and boundaries, and we find ourselves on the bench once again. (Confessions of a bench warmer - hee hee.)
12. Ministry Addict
February 6, 2009
3:44 PM
Christians have clear instructions from the Word of God on how to relate to the authorities the Lord has ordained to govern us. These instructions can be found in numerous passages of Scripture, but I Peter 2:17 is a good summation: “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
Notice that Christians are generally to esteem others better than themselves (Philippians 2:3), but to different degrees, and with different types of deference. All men who are worthy of honor should be honored (Psalm 8:4-5). Other Christians (“the brotherhood”) are to be loved (Ephesians 1:15). Christian love is an active love, a giving love, and a love which carries a sacrifice of self, and a true desire that the recipient of love will grow in Christ-likeness (Hebrews 6:10). The king, or, in modern terms, the high-ranking government official, is to be honored in his office, regardless of personal politics (I Samuel 24:6-8).
The highest esteem – fear – is reserved for God (Matthew 10:28). This encompasses all the other forms of esteem – honor, love, reverence, etc. – and speaks of a very real desire to please a loving Father who wants to give good gifts to His children, but is not overly hesitant to chasten in love. Biblical fear of God is an often misunderstood and unpopular concept in today’s culture, but it is a great comfort for the true believer and lover of the Living Word. After all, the fear of God is both the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10), and the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).
13. Tim
February 10, 2009
12:39 PM
Right on. Real freedom is the ability to do what is right.