Freedom or Responsibility

When I studied at Calvin College there was a topic discussed heatedly among faculty, chanted like a mantra by many and condemned by some. It was the issue of "responsible freedom," a pithy phrase designed to give some sort of moral direction to young students desperately trying to figure out how to live as Christians in a hostile and anti-Christian world. This is a question all of us of The Faith must ask. How do we remain holy, peculiar people in a very unholy and mainstream world?

Is the answer found in living the semi-ascetic lifestyle akin to that of the Amish. Is holiness found in removing ourselves from technology, culture and indeed the world? Should we convert our churches into holy hermitages where we use biblical law like anti-bacterial hand sanitizer to scrub out the temptations that make us sick?

Or is the answer to dive into the world so completely that a spiritual audit of our lives would show that there is nothing particularly peculiar about us at all. We look, smell, talk and act just like our neighbor, just like the TV characters at primetime. We still believe on the inside, but the outside cover art we show the world is rather neutral as to what lies within.

So, where does "responsibility" start and "freedom" end? Are they mutually exclusive or can they coexist?

Psalm 1 touts the importance of obedience in following God. Psalm 150 is all about freedom and abandon found in worship of God. If the book of Psalms is supposed to describe the Christian life and these psalms are the psalter bookends placed there for a reason, what does this tell us?

Perhaps rules and obedience to rules are a way of creating a healthy God glorifying habit/life. But rules and the obedience of them are only the beginning and this form of Christianity/faith must be transcended until a life/habit of freedom and abandon in worship is achieved. Perhaps this is sanctification. Perhaps it isn't about following laws even more to the "T" that makes us a peculiar and holy people. Perhaps it is rather to live a life that transcends simple obedience. I do not suggest that the law becomes unnecessary but rather that obedience to law is no longer the chief concern of faith. Worship as life and the freedom found in it becomes the chief end of faith. We can only worship God as Psalm 150 does, with true freedom and abandon if we have first fully acknowledged the sovereignty of God in our life, which is demonstrated through obedience.

Why? Because more important to God then even our obedience is our happiness. And we can only be happy when we do what we were created to do. And that is to worship our God with abandon and to be free even from the hold of sin and law. Psalm 1 sets us on the road. Psalm 150 shows us a vision of heaven at the roads end.