Thus far we have seen how God experiences some inner compulsion to share himself and his powers with created being; a different being; a being with the power to talk back, to question, and even to reject his advances.
This desire to share is out of the overflowing abundance of a loving God. In time we will see how Christ enters the world and acts out that love, firstly by behaving as God would have us behave, and then by becoming the vehicle by which we too may be adopted into the heavenly family. I know it sounds crazy – I use the word audacity!!!
I love this quotation from the work of one Werner Pelz, “Irreligious Reflections on the Christian Church”.
“God’s freedom is creation. He is free in having chosen his creative work, in continuing it and maintaining it. He is free because he has chosen, not because from moment to moment he can decide whether or not to continue with the work of his choice but because he is committed to his already established, unhurried (13.8billion years ago) choice.
Our freedom is experienced when we discover we have been called into God’s creative work, to participate with God in the ongoing work of God’s still developing creation.
God is free because he is holy, undivided and simple. “God wills what he knows and loves. He loves what he knows and wills. He knows what he wills and loves”. That is his freedom.
God is not free because He can choose between good and evil. He is free because he has chosen. We are free when we are pushed, pulled and dragged by the love of Christ into that togetherness, even with our limited understanding.
We are not free when we think we can choose between freedom and sin. We are free when we discover we are already chosen for freedom from sin. It is this freedom in Christ that we are called to live in and to proclaim.
Our calling is to live by faith in respect of those we love and with our enemies in such a manner as only one now in the Image of God should live.
Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free”. Take hold of your freedom and own it as life’s greatest gift to you. We are not victims, we are free, even as Viktor Frankel said: “I found true freedom in Hitler’s concentration camps – I had learned to set myself free!”
With Grace and Peace to you
Mike Crockett
References:
J.D. Davies “Beginning Now.”
W. Pelz “Irreligious Reflections on the Christian Church
Viktor Frankel “Man’s search for meaning”