The Reality of Freedom

View this lesson in a browser and print a "take-away" weekly copy. CLICK HERE (see link below)

SUNDAY

April 4

The Reality of Freedom
We often hear people talk about “freedom.” Political movements usually, in one way or another, make great proclamations about “freedom.” One state in the United States boasts the motto: “Live free or die.”
Freedom is, in fact, a very complicated subject. The word means different things to different people in different contexts. It’s not always easy to pin down exactly what people mean when they talk about “freedom.”
One thing, though, is certain: when God created humans, He made them moral beings, and in order for humans to be truly moral they had to have moral freedom. In other words, they had to have the capacity to chose wrongly, if they wanted to. If not, if they didn’t have that option, they really couldn’t be free.
Read Genesis 2:16, 17. What is implied in God’s words to Adam? How is Adam’s moral freedom revealed in these texts

---

---

In Genesis 3:1–6, we see the moral freedom given to both Adam and Eve. Why would God have warned them against eating of the tree unless they had been given the power of choice? Hence, we see perfect beings in a perfect environment allowed moral freedom. At the very foundation of human existence, the reality of our freedom has been made readily apparent.
Read Genesis 3:1–6. What are the places where Eve and Adam both exercised free will? How could they at each of these stages have made better choices? What can we learn from these texts about the kind of choices we make?  

---

---

Human moral freedom must be something very important in the eyes of God. After all, look at what our abuse of that freedom cost Him. So sacred, so fundamental, is this gift that, rather than deny it to us, God would go to the cross instead of leaving us to our demise because of how we misused this gift.
What basic mistake did both Adam and Eve make? How can we, with the knowledge of their mistakes, avoid doing similar things in our own context? In what ways do we face similar temptations?