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One day a friend of mine asked me, "You say that God has given us freedom of choice and action. You also say that He wants us to obey His commandments. I don't understand. I think freedom gives one right to act as he likes. Why is he expected to obey "
This is the problem with the people who confuse themselves by giving human interpretation to God related terms.
Dictionary defines a word in the context of its usage among the human language speakers.
We cannot apply the human usage of words to religion related matters.
For instance, our Nicene creed refers to the Son of God as 'begotten, not made'.
Dictionary defines 'beget' as
'bring (a child) into existence by the process of reproduction'.
In the human context, the child cannot exist before it is begotten.
But in the Divine context the Son of God is eternal, one with the Father from all eternity.
Just because we refer to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as 'Son', we have no other go but to use the human word 'beget'; but it should not be taken in the human meaning.
We should interpret it in the Divine context where everything that refers to God is eternal.
Any human word with human meaning cannot be applied to God or God related matters.
The same thing applies to 'freedom' in the religious context.
Dictionary defines freedom as, 'condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited'. (Cambridge Dictionary)
But God-given freedom does not come within this definition.
God gave man freedom of choice that he may choose his reward himself and get the reward by merit.
God created man that he may know Him, love Him, serve Him and enjoy eternal life with Him as a reward for his knowledge, love and service.
God created man from nothing out of pure love.
Having been created from nothing, man needs God's help in every step of his spiritual life, in knowing, loving and serving God, just as he needs it in his material life.
We call the spiritual help as 'grace '.
God gives us His grace freely to be of help in our spiritual progress.
It is God's will that man wins the eternal reward by his merit.
To win by merit man should have the freedom either to accept or reject the grace given by Him.
If he accepts the grace by his free choice he wins the reward.
If he rejects the grace by his free choice he loses the reward.
So, God-given freedom does not mean that man has full permission to behave as he likes.
Suppose, your father says to you , "Today you are free to go wherever you like to go and do whatever you like. "
Such a freedom includes permission.
He cannot take you to task even if you go for a film as he has given you freedom to go wherever you like to go.
Because here freedom includes permission.
But if he says, "Tomorrow there will be a merit scholarship test. You are free to attend it. Those who attend the test will be eligible for scholarship ".
God given freedom is of this type.
Here those who use the freedom to attend the test will be eligible for scholarship. Those who use their freedom not to attend the test will not be eligible for scholarship.
God given freedom gives us two choices -
either to accept His grace
or to reject it,
in other words,
to choose eternal life
either with Him
or without Him.
With Him means Heaven, without Him means hell.
If we choose Heaven, we must love and serve Him, that is, we should obey His commandments.
If we choose hell, we can disobey His commandments.
So, we are free to choose obedience or disobedience.
Now it must be clear : obedience to God's commandments is the object of our freedom.
Saints freely surrendered their freedom to God's will.
"Thy will be done" is the best prayer as we surrender ourselves fully before God by this prayer.
We must remember that Jesus taught us this prayer; Jesus Himself said this prayer in the Gethsemane garden just before His Passion.
So obedience is not contradictory to freedom; by obeying God by observing His commandments, we are using our freedom correctly.
Lourdu Selvam.
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