In Plato’s Republic, Plato’s brother Glaucon tells the story of the ring of Gyges. The ring has magic properties that cause the wearer to become invisible, essentially allowing them to do whatever they want. The person shepherd who finds the ring uses it to meet the queen and plot with her to kill the king so that he takes over the Kingdom. It is the argument that with this ring, and without fear of negative repercussions, that even the best person would never live a life of justice. That the freedom found in this power to do whatever you wanted would lead everyone to think only of themselves and follow their own desires and wants to the exclusion, and even the destruction, of other people. If there was anything that would prove that we are ultimately only self-centered people this would be it. I remember in a political philosophy class, after reading this part of the Republic, the professor asked what we might do if we were to have this ring, to have this level of freedom that we could do anything we wanted. I said that I would sneak onto planes and travel the world. But, it was the response of one of the women that stood out to me, and she said that she would refuse to take it because she wouldn’t want to have to deal with the responsibility and power of it. What I remember about that was that it was so different, and honest, and something I hadn’t even thought of. After all we were told what we’d do with the ring, not doing anything wasn’t part of the question, but more importantly was how could you not take this opportunity, this freedom, to do whatever we wanted. Ultimate freedom, and so it’s with that idea that we move onto the gift that we receive at Christmas from God because of the gift of Christ. Last week we looked at the gift of reconciliation, and today we look at the gift of freedom.
So, what does it mean to say that we have been set free in Christ? What does that freedom look like, or how do we understand that freedom? Our typical definition of that word, in English at least, is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” We hear this a lot these days about people asserting their rights. They have the right to do whatever they want, and no one can stop them, and now allegedly they can’t even be criticized for doing what they want, otherwise it’s tyranny. And another understanding that plays alongside of this is “the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.” And so, if someone’s rights are restricted, then it’s tyranny, and they are enslaved. But, is that what scripture meant, and Paul and Peter in particular, when they talked about freedom in Christ, that we are therefore allowed to do whatever we want, the world be damned? Clearly there were some early Christians who believed that, and it still exists today, who want to believe in what is known technically as antinomianism, or rejection of the law. If we have been freed from the law as given to the Israelites, because of the grace of God given through Christ, then doesn’t that mean that we are freed from all moral restrictions? After all we can just as for forgiveness and therefore do whatever we want. Isn’t that the fullest extent of freedom? We see Paul dealing with this in his first letter to the Corinthians, and he is correcting their ideas that, as they say to him, that “all things are lawful,” and Paul responds that “not all things are beneficial” and “not all things build up.” (1 Cor 10:23)
And so, it’s clear that these arguments have gone on for a
long time, and that they are wrong. Because while we have been freed from the
law, it is not to self-indulgence, but to a better understanding of being freed
from our slavery to sin and death. That’s the ultimate freedom found in Christ.
Now does this mean that sin and death no longer exist? No. we know that’s not
the case. But they need not be what controls us, because they are not what has
the final rule and say over us or our lives. That our freedom in Christ comes
not that we get to do whatever we want because of Christ, but that instead the
freedom in Christ is to join with Christ, to yoke ourselves with Christ as we
heard from Jesus a few weeks ago. And that means working with Christ, alongside
Christ, and at the direction of Christ. It is to say that we are going to
follow Christ, to put it more blatantly as the scriptures do, that we are going
to become slaves to Christ. In the natitvity story, Mary might be the best
example of this, as we think of her response “Here am I, the servant of the
Lord.” Christ will become our King, and that means that we have to follow what
the King tells us to do. We don’t get to say that Christ is King, and then we
get to do whatever we want. Instead, we pledge allegiance to Christ and the
ways of Christ. That, as we heard several times when we talked about the Fruit
of the Spirit, as Paul says in Galatians that we must die to ourselves so that
it is not us who lives, but it is Christ Jesus who lives and works in us. And
this is freedom because we freely get to take it on. It is not forced upon us.
Now again, this does not mean that we no longer make
mistakes, that we no longer sin, but that we are no longer slave to sin
because, as Paul says, the wages of sin are death. But because of the forgiveness
we receive, because of the call to reconciliation, the gift we looked at last
time, sin does not lead to death, the end, because freedom in Christ leads us
to eternal life. That’s what Paul says in his letter to the Romans, that in
being freed from sin, we enslave ourselves to God, and the advantage of that,
the end of that, is eternal life. Because when we are slaves to sin and death,
then they are our masters and they have the final word. But when we accept the
freedom of Christ, when we call for Christ to live in us, then God claims the
final word because God becomes the master of our lives. And so, freedom in
Christ does not mean a path of self-indulgence, but a path to righteousness, a
path to love God and to love our neighbors, to not seek our own advantage, but
to seek the advantage of others. That doesn’t sound anything like the freedom
that gets talked about in secular culture, which is focused on the individual,
and that’s why this freedom is just as counter-cultural today as it was for the
early church. Because this freedom calls us to something more, something
deeper, it calls for us to turn our lives over to God, freely, for God to guide
and lead us, to seek the will of God, not our own, for the world. Jesus frees
us to be co-creators with God in the world to bring hope, and peace and joy and
love.
And so, we should hear that passage again then that we heard
from Isaiah this morning, in what is known as the peaceable Kingdom. Last week
we heard Isaiah talk about the nations coming to hear and learn from God and to
walk in God’s pathways and when that happened that we would turn our swords
into plowshares and study war no more. Today we get an even greater vision of
that, except that it tells of the coming of the one who will bring this peace.
Someone from the line of David upon whom the Spirit of the Lord will rest,
giving him wisdom and understanding, counsel and knowledge of the Lord. This is
the coming of the King, the messiah, the prince of Peace. And as I already
said, if there is a king then people need to follow the rules, the guidance
that the King establishes. Because then we get this vision of peace, “The wolf
shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and
the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Now in
that vision, are the wolf and the lion acting in their freedom, doing whatever
it is that they want? No. They’re not even doing what is natural to them, of
being predators. Instead, they are subordinating themselves, their nature, to
this one who is bringing peace. They are practicing gentleness, as we
understand it as power tamed and controlled. They are being set free of their
natural desires in order to live into something else.
And so, it is with us. We were once slaves to sin and death, for the wages of sin are death. But Christ was sent to free us from that, not so that we can use that freedom for self-indulgence, as Paul says in Galatians, but so that we can learn to love the Lord our God and to seek first God’s righteousness, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To become servants to the world, following the light of Christ in the world. Seeking to overcome the darkness of the world through the power of the Spirit because it is Christ living in us. Not because we have to do it, but because we get to do it. We freely take on this role, because we accept the gift of Christ, and we know, that as Jesus says, that the truth will, and has set us free, and the end gift of this is eternal life, freedom from death. It is not that sin and death no longer exist, but that their power has been removed from destroying us or having the final word. First because God gives the gift of reconciliation, bringing us back into right relationship, to tell us of the love of God from which we can never be separated. Empowering us into deeper relationship with God and with each other. And then leading us to the knowledge of the freedom we have received in Christ, the freedom to willingly and cheerfully take up the cross of Christ and to follow him as our Lord and savior. To allow Christ to abide in us and we abide in him, and to learn from him, working side by side to bring forth the Kingdom, to work to bring forth these visions we receive from Isaiah of the peaceable Kingdom and a time when we learn to live together in hope and peace and joy and love. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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