Freedom

What is freedom in Christ? 
While reading "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller a couple of quotes stood out to me that brought this post to life. 

"There is a great deal of freedom in how absolutes are expressed & take form in a particular culture.  For example, the Bible directs Christians to unite in acts of praise, but it doesn't prescribe the meter, rhythm, level of emotional expressiveness, or  instrumentation-all this is left to be culturally expressed in a variety of ways. Christian diversity was built into the Christian faith in Acts 15. No one owns the Christian faith. Christianity has taken more culturally diverse forms than other faiths."


What does freedom in Christ mean?  I think part of what this freedom means is cultural diversity, this freedom to know & communicate with God in your own style, to worship in your own unique way, to be creative, in short to be yourself.

It's not about a certain type or specific way of doing things.  The principles are foundational, the way those principles are expressed are subject to take on different forms.   Over & over in the new testament we see the focus is on the type of person you are, on how you treat your neighbor. We see that being emphasized in Colossians 3, Ephesians 4, Romans 12, Galatians 5. The Bible is all about how to relate to God & to each other. We don't relate to God by observing specific days, festivals, or traditions made by man.  Stuff we have to do as Galatians 4:8-11 & Colossians 2:16-23 says. These things do not make us holier or better in front of God. The longer I live the more I am convinced it is not what we do, but why we do things that matters to God. And we humans cannot judge why someone does something, we can't judge the internal motivations.

God seems to be very concerned with why people do things, not with what they do, the heart of the matter, as Amos 5:21-24, Joel 2:12-13, Ezekiel 33:30-33, Ezekiel 14, & Jeremiah 2:32 says. God seems very ticked at people who only do things at face value, "who honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" Isaiah 29:13. When I defend this position & say "God looks at the heart", many legalistic people respond & say "ya but what's on the inside shows on the outside." By the outside they mean a particular way they dress or style their hair or decorate their body. This just not the case, according to the Bible what's on the inside shows on the outside through your attitude, words, character not in the physical way you look.