I remember the first time that I used a GPS. I have a miserable sense of direction and I frequently get lost, so the presence of a GPS was a welcome addition for our family. We would simply tell it where we wanted to go and it would give us step-by-step directions. If we did exactly what it said, we would get where we wanted to go.
Here is the question: Did the GPS bring freedom or did it bring limitations?
It certainly brought limitations. Instead of simply going wherever I wanted, I was instructed on exactly when to turn, when to exit, how many miles to travel, and what freeways to take. It would be hard to argue that the GPS didn’t bring with it some limitations, but it also brought freedom. It freed me from anxiety that I would go the wrong way. It freed me from ignorance about how far I had to travel. It freed me from the consequences of consistently being late to meetings or appointments. The GPS brought freedom, but it also brought limitations.
We often think that freedom and limitations are at odds, but they come in tandem more often than we might think. We experience the freedom of security when we limit how we spend our money. We experience freedom from conflict in our relationships when we limit our words and don’t speak flippantly or rudely to others. We experience freedom from addictions when we limit our use of food or alcohol or other things.
Freedom is not at odds with limitations; the two are connected.
There is no way around the limitations that are given in the Bible. While we may choose to ignore them, God clearly has given us limitations through His ethical commands and limitations when it comes to our options for how we understand truth.
The Bible teaches that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), one Savior (Acts 4:12), one way to salvation (John 14:6), one path to life (Matthew 7:13-14), one true gospel message (Galatians 1:8-9), and one way to eternal life (1 John 5:11-12). On top of this, the Bible gives us commands and limitations when it comes to sex (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), marriage (Matthew 19:1-9), money (1 Timothy 6:6-10), our words (James 3:1-12), and our attitudes (Galatians 5:19-21). There is no doubt that those of us who embrace the Bible embrace significant limitations on what we do and believe.
The big question is not whether or not God gives us limitations, but rather how these limitations impact our freedom. Do they kill our freedom or do they bring us freedom?
The book of Galatians is all about freedom. The Apostle Paul writes because of his passionate desire that God’s people would experience the freedom that God bought for them through His Son, Jesus Christ. But this freedom comes through one gospel (1:10) from one divine source (1:12) about one path to justification (2:16) through one Redeemer (3:13), bringing us into one new family (3:26-29). The freedom presented in Galatians comes to us only when we embrace the limitations given to us in Scripture.
If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on salvation, you will be called intolerant by those around you. If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on morality, you will be called prudish and judgmental by those around you, and you will have to deny yourself a lot of things that look appealing. There is a cost to embracing the path that Jesus gives us. But this cost, with its limitations, is not the enemy of freedom.
These limitations are the path – the only path – to the freedom that Jesus brings.
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