FEEEDOM OF THE WILL
FEEEDOM OF THE WILL 423
spiritual, like the natural, world rests on certain sequences : if A takes place, then B follows. We are responsible for choosing or not choosing A, and so for the consequent presence or absence of B. The only modifications are that («), if we may judge from the practice of St. Paul and of all early Christian evangelists, we are never justified in acting as if the consequences of evil were finally fixed ; and (6) even when the time for choice seems to have gone by, and man, racially or individually, is dead in trespasses and sins, the atoning death of Christ provides means for another appeal to the will (see art. Atonejient). In reality, therefore, freedom and necessity are not exclusive states. If psychology, in common with all observation, would
f)oint out that choice is never unconditioned, re- igious insight shows that it is never to be treated as non-existent.
(3) Relation of redeemed soul to God's indwelling and inivorking. — The third form of the question of freedom arises when St. Paul is analj'zing the distinctively Christian experience. Here also puzzling antinomies are met with. The Christian is in Christ, saved ; he shows the fruit of the Spirit ; all things are his. Yet he must watch and pray, and 'butlet his body' (1 Co 9^'') : his salvation is not complete ; it needs working out. Each Epistle ends with practical exhortations, often quite ele- mentary. Here St. Paul takes refuge in Avhat seems a contradiction in terms : ' work out your own salvation . , . for it is God that worketh in you ' (Ph 2'-). The meaning here is, however, ' you must no longer be dependent on me ; you must live your life yourselves as Christians ; and you need not be apprehensive ; for it is God that worketh in you.' The exact question of the rela- tion of the human to the Divine will is not raised here (see art. Will) ; but a conception is implied which is of the first importance. When a man is freed, i.e. made a son instead of a slave, he is not simply transferred to a new kind of obedience ; he is entered by a new spirit ; his freedom is the free- dom of the Father Himself ; he sufiers no cancel- ling of personality ; nor is he really subjected again to law in any full sense ; he attains the onlj' freedom which is complete. But this is obviously not freedom of choice ; nor can God's freedom be so described : it is rather freedom of unimpeded activity ; not self-determination, but self-manifes- tation (see artt. GoD, UxioN WITH GoD).
(4) What actions is a Christian at liberty to per- form ? — The fourth form is practical and ethical, raised by a community which, newly rescued from the licence of heathenism, recognizes the need of laws for its guidance as well as of guidance for its attitude to law. This was particularly necessary for a community of Gentile converts, at once con- taining a Jewish leaven which held to the whole body of INIosaic restrictions (cf. the discussions in the Aboda Zara), and, apart from this, liable to various puzzles, e.g. about food which, ottered for sale in heathen markets, had been contaminated by connexion with idolatry. On such points 'strong' and ' weak ' brethren would easily ditier. ' We are free from the Jewish Law ; but how far does that freedom take us ? ' St. Paul is unhesitating ; he does not even refer to the Jerusalem Decree (Ac 15-*) ; he replies : ' all things are lawful ; freedom is absolute; but not all things are expedient ; and the inexpedient must be avoided' (1 Co 6^^ 10'-^). Was this a back-stairs way for the return of law ? Not in reality. The contrast is expressed later in ' all things do not build up' (v.^). There is for the Christian no body of Jewish regulations ; but the Christian is not therefore left to do as he likes. That would, in the end, involve falling under the old tyranny of desire and passion. He gained his freedom from law by coming into the family of God.
The new relation to God means a new relation to men. His freedom is that of a member of a free society. Obviously this means that he will always act in full recognition of his fellow-members. To deny their claims would be to deny his own exist- ence. It would destroy freedom and everything else. He can no more do that which will hinder his brother's life than he can take the limbs of Christ and join them to a harlot. But is not this, then, after all, simply exchanging one law for another? Yes ; the difierence is that under the old Law there could be no acquiescence, and hence there was always a stimulus to disobedience and sin. The essence of the new Law is that the Christian sees in it the expression of the life that he has chosen. It becomes once more the embodiment of the real Torah (' law,' properly and by derivation 'instruc- tion') as we meet it, e.g., in Ps 119, the actual out- working in detail of the experience of the grace of God in the heart.