What is true freedom?

Ever wonder why a nation loaded with supposedly “freedom loving” people following so many supposedly “freedom loving” talk radio hosts, media personalities, and politicians only seems to find itself sinking deeper and deeper into bondage to the ever-growing power of the American State year after year, decade after decade, and generation after generation?

For all the oodles of energy, talk, and resources spent again and again and again relentlessly analyzing and perpetually playing the American Political Puppet Show Game, we don’t seem to actually ever make any great big positive strides toward culture-shifting freedom, do we? We never actually get around to stopping open, “legally” protected child sacrifice in America. We never actually get around to dismantling the Welfare State. We never actually get around to restoring lost privacy and property rights. We never actually get around to stopping the American Perpetual War Machine. (See: How’s that Pagan “conservatism” workin’ out for ya, Christian?)

Weird, huh?

It’s as though this whole American Political Puppet Show thing is rigged or something…

We have little to no real privacy, we can’t even fully own a home, we can’t stop openly sacrificing 1,000,000+ of our own babies each and every year, and yet we still sing about how “free” we are and are convinced that we are “a shining city on a hill” for all the world to emulate. (See: How “free public schools” make us all renters from the State.)

When we actually look at what we’re doing (and not doing) here in the “land of the free” and the home of the NSA, it sure seems like we have a fundamentally warped and perverted notion of “freedom” in America.

And we do.

As Americans, we’re not really conditioned to associate freedom with subjugation.

Not at all.

We’re relentlessly told, sold, pitched, and propagandized the self-serving, pride-fueling notion that freedom is what naturally flows from the absence of subjugation.

If it feels good, do it.

We can do whatever we set our minds to; we can be whatever we want to be.

We make the rules as we see fit.

We make law as we see fit.

We define (and perpetually redefine) every term and concept in “our world” according to our opinions and feelings.

Anyone hearting echoes from Eden in this? Specifically, echoes of a certain pitch made by a certain serpent?

Either way, this is how “We the People” have been conditioned to think, feel, and live for a very long time now.

This is how the true religion of America in practice – American Statism – has managed to manipulate us into the deep, multi-layered dependence and desperation in which we find ourselves today.

The counterfeit freedom we’ve come to adore leads us deeper into bondage and despair by the moment. While it claims to “make us free” to worship any god we like, marry any person (or thing) that we like, say anything that we like, and do anything that we like, in truth we are increasingly experiencing the opposite of true freedom in every realm of American life as we continue to cling to the lie that “We the People” are able to define our own reality as we go along.

This satanic model of freedom has made and will only continue to make us slaves until and unless we repent of our pride and submit to the active rule of Christ over us.

True freedom requires such subjugation.

Complete freedom requires complete subjugation to Christ.

As with any other force or concept in all of God’s creation, freedom is only as real and as good as it is explicitly rooted in and subjugated to the Author and Sustainer of true freedom: King Jesus.

So while freedom is a supernaturally beautiful thing, it is only so when it is defined by the Nature of the perfect Son of God as revealed in His perfect Word.

While things like truth and freedom are reality-defining concepts and forces in God’s creation, we need to remember that they not only operate in His creation, but they are born of, dependent upon, and sustained by His very Nature. They are more than His mere property; they are a part of Him personally.

King Jesus really is truth:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

~ Jesus, in John 14:6 (emphasis added)

It is only the truth of His personal Nature as revealed in His Word to His people through His living Spirit within them that can ever really and truly produce real freedom anywhere in His creation:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

~ Jesus, in John 8:31-32 (emphasis added)

His Nature is literally the binding, defining reality for everything in His creation – politics, law, civil government, economics; every realm and area of life – and it is all directly impacted and called to restoration through His reconciling work on the cross:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

~ Colossians 1:15-20 (emphasis added)

This is why we are commanded and equipped to take every thought – and thereby every physical action – captive to Christ:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. . .

~ 2 Corinthians 10:5 (emphasis added)

This is how we are called and equipped to advance true freedom throughout His creation, all by His grace, all for His glory, and all to the eternal benefit of His people:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

~ Jesus, in Matthew 28:18-20 (emphasis added)

So what is freedom?

Or  better yet: Who is freedom?

Only when that question is both rightly answered and faithfully applied will true freedom reign here and everywhere else…all by God’s grace, all for His glory, and all to our eternal benefit.