Freedom is one of those words we enjoy using, but the definition can seem elusive. As an American, I live in a “free country” and enjoy protected speech, freedom of assembly, the ability to worship as I prefer and even the ability to take pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and create a post like this. As Americans, we value free thought and free expression. We value the “pursuit of happiness”. But is our independence, really “freedom”.

The Bible gives us a few great pictures of what it means to have real freedom:

Romans 8

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free…

(20) For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

John 8

To the Jews who had believe him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

These verses (and many others like them) make it clear that Jesus came to give us some sort of freedom. We are being liberated from the hold sin has on our lives.

John Piper sums up REAL freedom as having 4 distinct dimensions: desire, ability, opportunity and satisfaction:

There are at least four kinds of freedom. And each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full freedom—”free indeed.” Let me try to sum up these four kinds of freedom in one definition of full and complete freedom: You are fully free—completely free, free indeed—when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make you happy in a thousand years. Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will leave you no regrets forever.

  • If you don’t have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. Oh, you may muster the will power to do what you don’t want to do, but nobody calls that full freedom. It’s not the way we want to live. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don’t want.
  • And if you have the desire to do something, but no ability to do it, you are not free to do it.
  • And if you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, you are not free to do it.
  • And if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it, but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free—not free indeed.

To be fully free, we must have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make us happy forever. No regrets. And only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make that possible. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. To be happy forever, our sins must be forgiven and God’s wrath removed and Christ must become our supreme Treasure. Only Jesus can do that. In fact, he has already done it. He died for our sins. He absorbed God’s wrath. And he rose from the dead and is today therefore supremely precious. And he offers us that now as a free gift.

(John Piper – April 23, 2011)

Where have you seen freedom expressed in your life?