God, Life, and Liberty

Donald Sensing has a great essay up about God, Life, and Liberty, but I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that.

The Law of Moses defined freedom in two ways. On the one hand, the law defined what was forbidden. On the other, it stated what was obligatory.

There is always a tension between the forbidden and the mandatory. But the Bible seems clear that human freedom is found somewhere between the limits of what must not be done and what must be done. With no limits there is no freedom because there is no orientation on God. Without obligations there is no justice. Without prohibitions there is no community. When either individuals or societies attempt to ignore either prohibitions or obligations, bondage results. Falling into slavery is easy, staying free is hard. Jefferson said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The reason is that the natural state of human beings is not freedom, but slavery.

Some people expect freedom to mean that there are no boundaries, no limits, but that's not the case. For example, if everyone were free to kill on a whim, how free would we as a society really be? I could go on, but I basically agree with everything Donald wrote, so just go read his essay.