Freeeeeeeeeeedom

Those were the last words of William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in the movie “Braveheart”.

An interesting bit of theology is that God gives freedom while Satan loves to take it away. Now that sounds odd because God has rules and laws for us to follow while Satan seems to encourage us to do whatever we want (which sounds a lot like freedom).

In the New Testament God talks about us having “freedom” in Christ and through God’s Spirit.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17

Phillip Yancey in his book called “Prayer - Does it Make a Difference?” helped me sort out this confusion of God giving freedom and Satan destroying it. He wrote:

The Bible draws a strong contrast between the freedom-crushing style of evil and the freedom-respecting style of good. In a vivid scene of possession by an evil spirit, Mark 9 shows a young boy foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and throwing himself into fire or water... forcibly overwhelming hum freedom. Contrast that scene with possession by the Holy Spirit. Paul warns, “Quench not the Spirit” and “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” The Lord of the universe becomes so small, so freedom-respecting as to put himself somehow at our mercy.
Words fail to capture the enormity of descent when a sovereign God takes up residence in a person and says in effect, “Don’t hurt me. Don’t push me away.”

God loves us and respects us and therefore grants us much freedom. Satan hates us and the supposed freedom he offers is only a veiled attempt at enslaving us through various addictions (drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling). To be really free we must resist the devil and run to God.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36