Psalm 2:1-6

Freedom inversion.

Someday in the future toward the end of the reign of Christ as king in Jerusalem on this earth, rulers spread across the globe will reject the Lord. With hate and rebellion they will attempt to throw off His dominion so that they can freely chart their own way.

But their search for freedom will take them ever deeper into the grip of evil, opposite the path of actual freedom. The irony of this freedom inversion is tragic, and the King of heaven will laugh at them in scorn. Their end will not be pleasant. They will receive the independence from God they choose, but freedom will not reward them with satsifaction.

Such inversion of mistaking good for evil, freedom for coercion, and life for death is a prominent theme in scripture, reaching well beyond this one group of men at a singular climactic point in human history.

Consider the instruction of Jesus:

“If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself.” (John 7:17)

Challenging the leaders who had skeptical hearts, the Lord offers us an important principle: a willing yieldedness to obey God leads to recognition the reality of God’s existence and the truth of what Jesus tells us about Him.

The inverse is likely true as well: rebellion against God clouds our judgment of reality so that we cannot see God or much of the truth about how life works. For example, reasoning about scientific matters can come to fictional conclusions, especially when they have moral implications.

In this way highly intelligent people can be totally oblivious to matters that are critical to their own well-being. Such choices often eventually lead to a moral inversion, as you can see in Isaiah’s warning:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil. (Isaiah 5:20)

We also see God at times in the scripture adding judicial blindness to people who have chosen this path for themselves.

For example, generally the Bible does not contain language that intends us to look for a hidden symbol, and that’s because God’s purpose is to reveal Himself through instruction rather than to entertain us with a puzzle.

But, the Lord Jesus dealt with crowds full of recalcitrant unbelievers and did so in this way:

“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

Because of their hard hearts, these people were caught in that inversion of their faculties. The had perfectly good eyes but could not see, and perfectly good ears but could not hear.

Or another example is found in Paul’s comments about the proclamation of the crucified Christ. This message was a stumbling block for Jews, and the Greeks considered it foolishness. But for believers who have abandoned their rebellious independence from God, the cross is both the power and wisdom of God. There is an inversion in the perception of reality. (1 Corinthians 1:23,24)

(I might add that in this way perception is not reality, contrary to the secular proverb.)

So we return to consider those millennial rebels who will seek freedom in heavier chains of wickedness. Where is true freedom in life?

As a believer, I am delighted to worship the Lord and to say, "here am I, send me." I am His willing slave, ready to be used at His disposal.

With me, believers thus find meaning in life, fulfilling our created purpose. We live in the truth, and the truth makes us free — free from sin and free to give ourselves to good without compulsions. We enter eternal life from this day forward, glorious, thrilling, satisfying, and wonderful beyond imagining.

There is no greater freedom than simply being what we are created to be: worshipful servants of the living God.

But those future rulers, and unbelievers today, insist on what they think is freedom and doom themselves to coercion and compulsive enslavements, to condemnation where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished. Their rebellion will eat at them forever and they will refuse to have it any other way. (Mark 9:48)

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