The Last attribute; GOD"S FREEDOM

This is the last attribute of God. To discuss this attribute, we will need multiple definitions, and these will not be an easy one-liner. To define God’s Freedom will be a discussion, and then we will talk about, compare, and contrast man’s freedom.

God’s attribute of freedom, God, is absolutely free; nothing can hinder Him. There is no power outside of Himself that can hinder Him. Yet God’s freedom is hampered by his NATURE. Why did I capitalize NATURE? I capitalized NATURE because we need to remember this word, and I will continue to capitalize NATURE throughout the rest of this blog. Why did I say that God’s nature hinders God’s freedom? Just as God cannot lie, God cannot do anything contrary to His NATURE. God, however, is the supreme being. Therefore, He is the only absolutely free being. You say this sounds like a contradiction. I can see why you think it’s a contradiction, but it is not. God, as we have seen through our discussion of His attribute is perfectly holy, righteous, loving, Just, and He is perfect in His wrath and jealousy. So, He is also perfect in His freedom. However, God in His freedom cannot display His wrath unjustly, and He cannot show His love at the expense of His justice, God is constrained in His freedom by His nature. So far, I have restrained myself from saying God’s free will, this is ultimately where the discussion of freedom goes, and this leads us into the similarities and differences between God’s freedom and man’s freedom.

In the beginning, God! Everybody knows what this is about, Genesis 1:1.  God has created the heavens and the earth, and He created man, male and female he created them. God also created them in His image, and God said, let us create him in our image. Everybody knows where to find these references. When God rested on the seventh day, he looked at everything he had done and said it was Good. The serpent slithered into the garden and convinced the woman and the man to eat the forbidden fruit.  “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:12 ESV). This is the same lie Satan told himself before he got kicked out of heaven. Adam and Eve saw that the fruit was good to eat and good for wisdom and they ate. In doing so, they were trying to shed God’s authority over them.

Prior to this point, Adam and Eve were in a state where they had a free will, much like God’s. Their freedom was also limited by their NATURE, being created beings, it is said that they, “Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5NLT).  Now this verse is also rendered Angels depending on your translation. I am not a language expert, but I am told that this could go either way. The point is, is that we were not gods either with a capital G or a small g. We never had the same exact NATURE as God because if we did, then our first parents would not have fallen. Their freedom was based on a will that was Good, not perfect as God is perfect. Adam and Eve were the original couple, but what about us.

WHAT MAKES US THINK WE ARE LIKE GOD? The same lie Satan and Adam And eve all believed. You must shed yourselves of this false belief.

Today we are still in this fallen estate; we cannot cure ourselves. Why? Because just as God’s freedom is based on His NATURE, just as Adam and Eves’ freedom was based on their NATURE, your freedom is based on Your NATURE. What does the word of God say about your NATURE, “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together, they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”  “Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18). This is your spiritual condition before a righteous and holy God who will judge the living and the dead. Your NATURE is dead. This is our condition as a race, dead. If dead people could raise themselves from the dead, do you think they would lie rotting the grave? So, the word of God tells us we must be born again. Even Nicodemus new; it is physically impossible to be born again. He said, can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb? Does a baby decide who its parents will be? What control over your birth did you think you had? Just as you had no control over your first birth, you have no control over your second birth. Because you have a dead, sinful NATURE, your freedom/free will is based on your dead, sinful NATURE. You are not equipped to say yes to Christ on your own. Supernatural regeneration/rebirth is what is required, then based on your new NATURE given you at regeneration, you can and will choose God of your own new volition. Regeneration precedes choice.

Having said all of this I want you to be sure of something. We are created in God’s image, and even unbelievers bare that image. I have been learning about the image of God in MY MDIV courses, and I now see it everywhere. I see it when the scriptures talk about how God moved men along by the Holy Spirit. Man and God in relationship with one another. The image of God is in the institution of marriage and all other relationships. Christ is the image of God, “that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them” (2 Corinthians 4:4-7).      “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3) It is with this in mind that I plead with you to open your eyes and serve God, And Love the Lord.

You won’t be hearing from me on my blog for a while. I am going to be too busy until June. Then I will look at what is next. I apologize this one took so long to get out. Again, if you are feeling the call of God on your life, don’t wait. Many are not getting younger, and being young doesn’t guaranty tomorrow. Seek Christ and His Salvation while it may be found.