The Liberty of Slavery

Patrick Henry once yelled, “Give me liberty or give me death!” That being the case, we may as well die because liberty doesn’t exist. Even if we threw off all external constraints and had hold of every right for all we were worth, then we would be nothing more than slaves to our rights. Humans are slaves, nothing more. The only option we have is to whom we choose to enslave ourselves. If liberty is defined as the freedom of choice, then the world’s liberty is utter independence, the ability to do whatever one wants whenever one wants to do so. Christian liberty is submission to God, one does what He says when He says to do so. Both kinds of liberty are a type of slavery; the true question is which one gives liberty inside this slavery.

Slavery to self seems like the freest choice. If a man can dictate what he wants and when he wants it, then he is essentially in control of his life. How glorious it would be to have the liberty to seek after whatever pleasure one desires, to be free from tyrannical constraints and have the complete freedom to pursue happiness. Sadly, this type of freedom only brings further enslavement, since that man is unable to submit or do anything he does not please. Unable to lay down the very things he sought so hard after, he is now a slave to them and in seeking his ‘liberties’ loses all happiness.

Yet, can slavery to God be any better? At least with slavery to self, the man got to choose what made him miserable. When enslaved to God, he does not appear to even have that choice. God, with His complex rules and regulations, so limits what he could do there seems to be no freedom of choice at all. Though this is how the world seems to view God’s slavery, it is not quite the case. God demands that the man does what would bring honor to Him. This single rule allows him the freedom that he did not have when enslaved to himself. Since the source of slavery is now outside the self, the man can choose what course of action to take to appease the master. He can have his rights when appropriate, but most importantly, he can give them up. He has the freedom to say yes and to say no. With his only consideration being to bring honor to his master, the man has perfect liberty to do what seems best in a situation, giving him greater freedom of choice.

Of course, there is still the issue of the many rules that God has in place. While this is true, the rules are in place not to enslave the world, but to keep the world from enslaving itself. When man was seeks after pleasures of self, he enslaves himself to these pleasures. Contrarily, God’s rules allow humans to find liberty. For example, God’s command not to lie gives greater freedom since lying only traps a person in a web of deceit that perpetuates itself in every attempt to keep from being discovered. The liar is never able to lay down lying, he is enslaved to it. Once a man begins to participate in what God declares as sin, it is nearly impossible to stop and once again, that person is in slavery to his own wants and desires. God is a better master than self, since men seek what they think is good for themselves and end up enslaved to false goods. God seeks what is truly good for them, and gives them what is truly good.

The world does not see God as freedom, for its desire is to serve itself. This is not possible, for this only brings slavery to whatever false good it decides to chase. When serving God, humanity has true freedom of choice. If one thinks it is more honoring to take up his rights he should do so, with all the might and bravado of a full out Revolution. However, if it is more honoring to God to lay them down, he can do so with joy. The things the self seeks after with it’s ‘liberty’ do nothing more than enslave it, since it has no ability to lay them back down. Simply ask any addict. In humanity’s slavery to Christ, we are not enslaved to any right or privilege, but we are in control to use them as life and God demands. This, then, is really freedom, the power to take when it is time to take and to let go when it is time to let go.