Freedom - Do we really know what that is?

Freedom is something of which the world dreams but rarely defines and, even more, rarely experiences.  It is most often mentioned in the political realm with the desire for a people, race, or nation to be free.  But freedom of any type always involves responsibility.  True freedom is never freedom to do all of one's wishes.  True freedom must always be restricted by law.  Mankind, in his current state will not govern himself.  Total freedom results in total depravity.  Man, without law to restrict his behavior, becomes the measure of behavior on an individual level - which is the problem.  Man is not God and never will be.  My personal selfishness and lusts (defined by myself as "freedom") will inevitably overrule another's personal selfishness and lusts, thereby restricting that person's freedom.  The oft repeated question, "Why can't we all just get along?" is worth answering.  But the answer does not come on the societal level.  Nor is the answer a statement.  The most accurate answer to that question is another question, "Why can't I get along?"  For the answer to man's wars, slaveries, murders, and holocausts are not plural - it is the problem in the individual.  My individual desires drive me to use others for my good, which must clash with their good.  Without restrictions to his freedom, man has consistently displayed the wild, uncivilized, savage beast that he is.  The evolutionary rules of "survival of the fittest" and "the ascent of mankind" must involve judgement of who is fit and who has or has not ascended, which begs the question, "who is fit to judge fittest for survival?"  And, when that judgment is made, the response is not freedom, but murder, war, and genocide - the history of mankind.

The history of mankind and our inability to rule ourselves will be repeated continually until the history of man, the individual, is changed by man, the individual, receiving the ability to rule self.  True salvation is not just salvation from sin - it is salvation from self.  And, if I have been saved from myself, mankind has been saved from me.  The personhood of Jesus, the Truth, offers me freedom as I know Him;  as I have relationship with Him He gives me freedom from self.  Only Truth personified, living in the individual man, can bring personal freedom.  And only personal freedom for man, the individual, can produce freedom for man, the species.

Be blessed.