Author Peter Kreeft asks these penetrating questions in his book, The Two Greatest Novels Ever Written: The Wisdom of the Lord of the Rings and The Brothers Karamazov: “Why did God create time and free will at all? And, “Why did he enter it?” These are hefty questions indeed, but he also offers an answer, not the only answer, but a very insightful and challenging one. He writes: “So that we could not only eventually find eternal peace, but so we could find it through temporal war, so that we could not only eternally have it, like the angels, but enter it, out of darkness. He entered into [time] so that we could enter into him.”
Freedom and Free Will. Do we have a full, mature understanding of these two terms? They are related to each other, but they are not the same thing. Generally, we understand the concept of freedom in political terms, as something to be promoted and protected. We think of it in terms of laws that articulate certain rights and duties of citizens, that concern the ordering of a just and prosperous society. This concept, of course, has its own nobility and reason for being, for in human terms, freedom is related to the peace and happiness that all human beings desire. The God-given gift of Free Will pertains to a far greater level of freedom (and responsibility), in both earthly and eternal matters, precisely because it is related to a higher law, that is, the transcendent and perfect law of God.
As Christians, we understand freedom as liberation from sin, which is the source of all the suffering and injustice that we experience in our lives. Through Jesus’ death on the Cross, we are freed from the bondage of sin. But we are also challenged to maintain that freedom through knowing and abiding in God’s law. In freely choosing to abide in God’s Law, we are enabled to live lives of righteousness, thus making it possible for us not just to be good citizens of our country but also to become true citizens of the kingdom of God. God’s law is truth in its fullest sense, and His truth alone is the real source of our freedom. Jesus himself reveals this to us: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (Jn 8:31-32).
Our free will is used more freely and effectively when we come to know Jesus Christ and begin to choose to obey his commandments. Jesus tells us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). The Father gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, and Jesus entered into time as one of us to show us the face of the Father, and to show us the way, the truth, and the life that leads us most certainly and directly to that eternal place of perfect freedom and joy that we so deeply desire in our hearts, the kingdom of God.
Jesus reveals the wisdom of the Law of God in his humanity. He shows us, in his humanity, that we can not only come to know the law of God, but that by grace and through our freely willed observance of the Law of God, we can transform our lives, and even the life of our country into the freedom of his ways, his truth, and his life. Our free will is more and more effective in the journey toward that righteousness that we are called to, when we freely engage in the necessary efforts it takes to come to know and to love the Law of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. We know instinctively, and by experience, that this is not easy in this world that can be so indifferent and even violent toward the Law of God and those who practice it.
Remember, though, what Jesus said on this matter: “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30). St. Augustine intuits the truth of this passage in his famous line: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Whenever we stop letting Jesus transform us into his likeness and we start transforming Him into our likeness, we have created a new form of idolatry. Jesus is the only source of true wisdom in all things. It is when we choose to practice the art of keeping our eyes, our total focus, on the way, the truth, and the life that Jesus shows us in the Gospels, that we become liberated from the bonds of sin in our lives. By deepening our knowledge of God, we empower our free will to be used in the way that God intends.
A couple of final questions: What if all of us who call ourselves Christians were allowed Jesus to transform us into His image in every aspect of our lives? Would the world look, feel, and be different from what it is at the moment?
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