Hebrews 11:6
And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
In
light of this overwhelming acceptance of our autonomy, many people have
outright rejected the idea of God. God can only get in the way of a person’s freedom
to live life as they wish. So, instead of dealing with the idea that there
might be an authority greater than ourselves, we jettison the idea of God as uninformed,
prosaic, and outdated. People in ancient times may have needed the idea of a
god to give them purpose and direction in life, but we have progressed beyond
that. We are better informed about our world and better equipped to face life
on our own. We have the right to stand on our own two feet and determine the
course of our lives for ourselves.
This “new”
autonomy is the greatest obstacle to faith. I put “new” in quotes because it
isn’t really new at all. The sin of Adam and Eve in the garden was the sin of
striving for autonomy. If they ate of the tree of good and evil, then they
would be like God and would not need Him anymore. I don’t think they really
understood that that was what they were seeking, but that was the outcome. They
didn’t realize what they were sacrificing to “stand on their own two feet.” The
consequences of their decision were no at all what they desired.
People
today are still seeking autonomy; the right to be the master of their ship. They
don’t want anyone else telling them what they can and cannot do. At first, this
approach to life does seem freeing, but the consequences are almost always not
what the person was looking for.
Several
years ago, I read a biography of Ty Cobb, one of the greatest baseball players
of all time. When he was a young man, his father told him that he would not amount
to anything. He spent his entire life trying to prove his father wrong. As a
baseball player and as a person he was ruthless, striving, and unrelenting. He
accomplished greatness as a baseball player, although his father didn’t live
long enough to see it. He gained financial success. But his life was empty.
Near the end of his life, he was asked what he would do differently if he could
go back and start again. His response was telling. “I would have friends.” He
was the master of his ship. He set his own course in life. And in the end, he
came up very short of his goal. Instead of being fulfilled, he was empty.
We all
face the challenge of wanting to be autonomous. We all desire to set our own
course and make our own decisions. Within boundaries, this is not bad, but if
we stray beyond the boundaries that God has set for us, the consequences will
be less than satisfying. Our desire of autonomy is the greatest obstacle to
genuine faith. As long as we insist on sitting on the throne of our life, we will
struggle with our faith in God.
The
first step to genuine faith is giving up our autonomy. Jesus made it very clear.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to
them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to
gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
As Tim
Keller points out, all freedom has boundaries. When we live within those
boundaries, we experience the joy and delight of our freedom. When we move
beyond those boundaries, we actually forfeit our freedom. God has set the
ultimate boundaries for life. If we will submit to those boundaries, we will
discover amazing joy. If we refuse to submit to those boundaries, we may
experience some temporary pleasure, but we will also face some unpleasant
consequences.
John 3:16-19
“For God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes
in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the
verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil.”
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