A Parable of Three Slaves

     There were three men bound in chains, slaves to an evil taskmaster. One day, a free man approached them. He took pity on the slaves, so he gave all that he had to purchase the slaves from the taskmaster. He took the keys and went to release the men from their chains. He told them that he offered them complete freedom, with no obligations or cost to them.
     The free man offered the key to the first slave, who carefully considered it. The taskmaster had deceived him into believing that he was not really a slave. He was used to the life he had and did not see the true nature of his captivity. He was suspicious of the key and suspected that it would lead him to a worse fate.  He rejected the key.
     The free man was heart broken, but moved on to the second slave and offered him the key. This man recognized his situation and received the key gratefully. Once his chains were removed, he thanked the free man then set out on his own path, excited about his freedom. The free man tried to warn him of the dangers of becoming enslaved again, but the second man took no heed and went his way.
     The third man received the key humbly and wept at the free man's feet, thanking him with all his heart. The newly freed man kissed his deliverer's hands and offered him his life in service. 
     "Would you become a slave again so quickly?" the deliverer asked him.
     "There are many more who are still enslaved as I was," he replied. "I would gladly pledge my life to helping you set them free."
     The man with the key smiled and said, "Follow me."

***

Last week, during a Bible Study on Ephesians, there was a discussion of free will. In the midst of that discussion, the Lord gave me this parable. For anyone who might not see the symbolism, here's the message:

The three men were all slaves to sin. The first man rejected the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and remained a slave to his sin. The second man received Jesus as his savior, and was set free from the bondage of sin. However, he chose to follow his own path and live life his own way. Most likely this man would fall back into sin. The third man received salvation, but also made Jesus the Lord of his life, pledging a commitment to follow His leading.

Yes, this is a very simple picture; but I believe the gospel is just that simple. I have given a lot of thought to this over the past week. The most wonderful revelation that I have received is this:

God is not a control freak.

Do you know how liberating that is? God is not trying to control me or manipulate me. He has given me the absolute freedom to do whatever I please. How much greater does that make my decision to follow Him? That excites me! The Sovereign Most High God, Creator of the Universe, who has the power to completely control everything in existence, chose to give me free will.

Now, you may be thinking that God controls everything... the tides, the orbits of the planets, sunrise and sunset. But let me ask you this... do you have a programmer sitting at your computer controlling every action that it makes? No, because the programmer designed a system that will operate independently of his control. When God created the heavens and earth, He designed systems to govern natural processes (for a glimpse of this wonder, I suggest reading Job 38, a personal favorite of mine). Those systems are so perfect that they have been running without error for thousands of years. Can God control them? Yes. Absolutely. At Joshua's word, God stopped the movement of the sun and moon in the valley of Aijalon (Joshua 10).

God chose to give us free will. He honors that free will without exception. To me, that means that He has bestowed a great honor on me. He loves me enough to let me choose. That is a very difficult concept for most people. We tend towards control, often thinking that it is safer for us to control our situations and the people in our lives. I submit to you that control is a false sense of security. It is fear-based and perpetuated by the devil, who is the ultimate control freak. I won't spell it out for you here, but if you study it out in scripture, you'll see it.

One of the hardest things about being a parent is to allow your children the room to make their own decisions and learn from their own mistakes. Do we set boundaries? Yes. Children need them. Are there consequences for bad decisions? Yes, that's how children learn. God is the Master Parent. His Word is our boundary. Consequences are programmed into the system. He loves us enough to let us choose. He leads, He prompts, He guides, He woos and He sends others to point us towards Him. But, never, not once, does He get into a power struggle with us. And when we mess up, He corrects us; but He never condemns us. Not if we are in Christ.

This has been an amazing revelation for me. I intend to study this out further, especially in Jesus' actions towards others. I believe it will prove itself. In the meantime, I recognize that to be more Christ-like, I must lean less on control and more on faith in God. The more faith I have in Him, the easier it is for me to give Him control of my life. God does not demand of me that He have control of my life. I give it to Him freely, as a gift. I know I can trust Him with it, because He has my best interest at heart.