Servitude: "Living in the fish bowl"

Kids were screaming and running everywhere. Absolute delight filled their little voices. They ran from place to place often with no adult supervision. Yet no one was concerned…. The children never even realized the fence that enclosed the yard to keep them safe. The very same fence that kept them in was the fence that allowed them to run without Mommy or Daddy to hold their hands.
At last year’s carnival, Mom’s and Dad’s anxiously followed their child’s every move careful to make sure they didn’t run into a busy street. There was no safety net to protect the children. The children may have looked freer because there was no fence, but in reality there were more restrained.
– Mrs. Jackson’s explanation of the VBS Carnival at the Powell home... And the year before on the street oustide the church

Today in Sunday school, the adult class was talking about Liberation Theology. Having not heard the term before, I was intrigued at the meaning. Liberation Theology is the idea that the Bible’s message is to free us from all –isms. Such as racism, sexism, elitism, etc. After man is freed, he is now given autonomy. This notion of the gospel was propagated by men such as Martin Luther King. But this idea of scripture doesn’t understand the true nature of man. Man is a creature. God does not set man free from something and give him autonomy. There is no such thing.

Man is set free from the slavery of sin to become a slave of the King. God defeated Pharaoh and freed Israel from servitude in Egypt. But, he didn’t then release them to their own devices. Bringing them to Sinai, he there gave them the commands on how to serve Him. Just as when Christ saves us from our slavery to sin, he doesn’t just let us loose. Paul tells us that Christ has saved us, and now we are to live like it. We are now in his service…

My pastor often gives the illustration of the fish in the bowl. A man walked up to the fish bowl. “How sad!” The man thought. “This poor fish is so constrained by his environment. I will set him free.” The man then plucked the fish from his watery haven and put him on the living room floor. The fish then died.

This may seem like a silly example, but God place boundaries around us to keep us safe. The dead fish isn’t very free is he? Man wasn’t meant to run amuck by his own devices. We are creatures meant by God to be His servants. And now in a world affected by sin, man is either a slave of sin, or a bondslave of Christ.