The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. -- Psalms 103:6
If we wrestle not against flesh and blood but with spiritual
foes, it makes sense that oppression, that is, circumscription of or
constraints upon our liberty would be spiritual as well.
I’m a member of the NRA.
I have been for years and will be for many more years. Personally, I am very conservative. Politically, I am libertarian and vote
Republican most often, occasionally voting for Libertarian or other third party
candidates. I spend a lot of time
complaining about intrusive bureaucracies, government schools, and the
oppressive, obsessive, statist control freaks that want to tell me how to
live. I don’t think they are any better
or wiser than anyone they are trying to intimidate and control. We ought to try and elect people who will
leave us alone; nevertheless, politics is not capable of ultimately rescuing us
from despots and tyrants. We need to be
free before we can enjoy freedom.
No one ever became a better person because he or she was restricted
from doing bad things and harming themselves and others. It’s true that sometimes people in prison,
for example, turn their lives around, but that’s because they realize the
bondage they are in, and they decide they are going to change their lives. Being caged can get your attention, but it doesn’t,
by itself, change you.
Liberty, freedom from oppression is more than just a state of
mind. We will never be free apart from
Christ. So long as we live by the old nature,
we live as slaves of sin. The Cross
releases our will and allows us to freely choose to serve the Lord – because,
as Dylan says, we’re going to serve somebody.
In fact, the process of learning to be a servant of God, becoming a
disciple, is essential to our liberation.
Even though our position has changed when we confess and
receive Christ, our minds still have to be renewed. We have, especially some of us, a lot of
mental strongholds behind which the enemy hides and from which he attacks the
new man. Those have to identified, taken
and destroyed. We do that through
disciplines such as prayer, worship, communion, confession, submission and
obedience to authority, studying the Bible and fellowshipping with the
saints.
No one can really give another person freedom. A slave
is one who waits for someone to come and free him (Ezra Pound). Even Christ can only offer us our
liberation. The Lord makes it possible;
He works righteousness and justice. It
is up to us, though, to decide we are going to accept and live in the freedom
He is creating for us.
8 comments:
"We have, especially some of us, a lot of mental strongholds behind which the enemy hides and from which he attacks the new man. Those have to identified, taken and destroyed."
No doubt. But I don't think they can be destroyed. Maybe this is from Father Stephen lately about not making progress. I think at best we can only be in a state of "destroying".
I see what you mean, and I agree in one sense.
What I mean by stronghold is a sort of habitual thought pattern, or fabric, that leads me to misinterpret or mis-perceive input.
We can't do anything about the old nature, and that is what I get as Father Stephen's point. We are always bearing that cross.
I should have just used "mind parasites". They cause our thinking to short-circuit.
Temptation is probably not a bad word, either.
I wasn't really disagreeing with you. Only that it could sound like something one could accomplish. Related: I don't think it's necessarily bad if temptations continue. I'm starting a book on Origen and I think he's of the mind that they might even increase as one progresses (he uses the word progress in the vertical sense, I think).
Yep. The ongoing nature of temptation is something that I thought about before. Temptation isn't sin. Every time we face temptation "successfully", we might say, it's like lifting weights.
The Lord says to pray "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil". I see that as "don't let us be overwhelmed by temptation to the point that we give in" more than just "don't let us be tempted".
"No one ever became a better person because he or she was restricted from doing bad things and harming themselves and others. It’s true that sometimes people in prison, for example, turn their lives around, but that’s because they realize the bondage they are in, and they decide they are going to change their lives. Being caged can get your attention, but it doesn’t, by itself, change you."
That's a very important point. I heard, can't remember where, someone say that the proregressives are essentially prohibitionists of liberty.
I thought that was an apt description. I could easily see us going to a speak freely speakeasy, worrying about raids from the feds.
Speak freely speakeasy. That sounds about right. I like it.
Makes me think of Paul's words in Ephesians 4 to put off the old man and his corrupt ways. He tells us that based on what he said in Romans 6, the old man has been crucified (past tense) that the body of sin (flesh) might be overcome.
My old man is dead, but he left behind a lot of really nasty habits to be overcome. And, my flesh with all of its appetites is ever distracted and led away by temptation.
So, I think the key, as poorly as I practice it, is to consider myself (old man, old identity) dead, which he truly is, and to live by the standard of my new identity in Christ.
Hey, Roger, you presage today's post.
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