Genesis 1:26-31
I cannot imagine that there is any living
soul who does not long to freedom.
I believe it is bred into us – part of
the divine likeness that, though corrupted through sin, is part of the original
nature of our being.
But I do find it to be curious that, in
the history of mankind, there are two groups of people who have been the most
focused on liberty:
· The Jews
· The Christians
I am also very interested in the fact
that, in the history of Western Civilization, those people who have championed
are:
· First the British
· Followed by Americans
The reason that is interesting to me is
because the Baptists in the British Isles (Wales in particular) have always
insisted that theirs is an unbroken chain of Baptist doctrine tracing back to
the Apostles of Jesus Christ.
That the British Isles have a unique link
to Liberty is historically undeniable.
Almost from the beginning of their
Monarchies, when King Alfred [1]in
the 10th Century had parts of the Bible translated into the Old
English and distributed among his citizens, the British have held to a higher
form of government than any other people in Europe.
In the height of the Monarchies of
Europe, England’s monarchy stood alone – it is labeled “British Exceptionalism”[2]
because their monarch has never been a totalitarian one.
· They were the envy of the people of Europe and
· They were the ire of the Monarch’s of Europe
Because it was always understood that the
British people, though having a Monarch, ruled themselves. As early as the
900’s AD they had trials by jury rather judgments handed down by the King, an
indication of their rule over one another.
The Magna Carta of AD 1225[3]
was not so much the beginning of liberty in England as it was a document
reinforcing what already existed in England.
The people of England were free men.
And although it was
· Often challenged and
· Never practiced perfectly
it was always understood that the people
of England had the right to rise up and replace their leaders if they did not
keep their end of the contract with their citizens.
By the way, this is why, when the
Thirteen Colonies fought for independence from England, they were within their
rights and British citizens and not in violation against God’s blessings.
Thomas Jefferson said as much in the Declaration
of Independence, “…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security….”
With God’s help I plan to preach on
Sunday mornings on the subject of liberty, not so much as we view it in the
world of government and politics, but as it is revealed to us in the Word of
God.
I want to begin at the only period of
human history when I think an argument can be made that there was perfect
liberty, before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden.
I am sure there is someone who would
challenge me, but I am convinced that man was created perfectly free.
I see three characteristics of this state
of perfect liberty:
I. THEY HAD DOMINION OVER THE EARTH
(Though they did need to subdue it)
Genesis 1:26, 28
Both the words subdue and dominion, have
as a primary meaning, to tread under foot.
God gave Adam and Eve – and their
children – liberty to possess a piece of land:
- To till it
- To inhabit it
- To work it and to
make it to produce
John Locke took from that man’s
inalienable right, he said, to “life,
liberty and the pursuit of property.”
And God gave Adam and Eve – and their
children – liberty to govern the earth.
In this case it was the
- Fish
- Fowl
- Cattle and
- Creeping things
He has liberty to possess a piece of
land, to till it, to enclose it and to put beasts of burden within it.
John Locke argued that since the American
Indians had never actually fenced a piece of property, it was technically not
theirs.
If you study much about the founding
fathers of our country you will learn that a good number of them were obsessed
with possessing land and were skilled in the trade of surveying.
They believed in the liberty to
- Mark out a piece of
property
- Claim it as their
own and
- Put it to work
The liberty, according to Locke, was the
pursuit of property. You don’t have a right to property; you have a right to
earn property.
God did not give us liberty to be lazy
and receive without labor – not even before the fall.
Adam and Eve were as free as any people
have ever been, but they were free to gain through work; not free to get
without working.
We live in a corrupt world and the truest
of souls practice truth imperfectly.
But the modern liberal concept that the
wealthy own it to the poor to share their wealth with them is contrary to the
“perfect law of liberty.”
- To give a person an
opportunity to work is a noble thing
- To give a person
the means to survive without working is to rob him of something more
valuable that life – his dignity
In a world of perfect liberty they had
dominion over the earth.
II. THEY HAD LIBERTY IN THEIR APPETITES
(Though there was a restriction)
Vs 29-30, 2v16-17
I am going to mess up the
- Evolutionary
- Vegetarian
- Tree hugging
- Environmentalist
right now.
Not only did Adam and Eve have the
liberty to fence in the animals of the earth, they had the liberty to eat them.
The evolutionist has fed us a line so
deeply that event he average Christian thinks that the first people only ate
fruits and vegetables.
But I want to ask you some questions:
Why would Adam and Eve want to capture a
fowl, a fish, a cow or a creeping thing if they only ate fruits and vegetables?
Do you honestly think that God was giving
them permission to possess and aquarium in their living room?
Is it really possible that when God told
them to have dominion over the fowl of the air all that He meant was they could
train a Parrot to say, “Polly wants a cracker”?
John Gill writes (in the 1700’s)
concerning Genesis 1:26,
“That is, to catch them, and eat them;
though in the after grant of food to man, no mention as yet is made of any
other meat than the herbs and fruits of the earth; yet what can this dominion
over fish and fowl signify, unless it be a power to feed upon them?”
Gill understood, 100 years before Darwin
came up with The Origin of the Species,
that when God gave Adam and Eve liberty to have dominion over fowl, fish,
cattle and creeping things – they were
gonna eat them!
Taken together, verses 29-30 can be read
to mean that
- Every herb
- Every Tree
- Every fruit
- Every beast of the
earth
- Every fowl of the
air and
- Every thing that
creepeth upon the earth
Has been given to eat.
We don’t read it that way because we have
been so conditioned to think that men were supposed to only eat
- Fruits
- Nuts and
- Vegetables
In a world of perfect liberty, their was
perfect freedom to eat whatever God had created.
But there was one restriction.
Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
It is a perverted sense of liberty that thinks freedom means NO
rules.
It is impossible to live above the animals without rules.
I have a German Shorthaired Pointer.
- She loves to run and hunt and chase rabbits
and fetch quail.
- She loves to explore and be free.
But if I leave her outside unattended too long do you know what
she does? She gets in her kennel.
She knows in there she is safe and she is not going to get in
trouble.
Put a little child in a room
- With someone who is not paying any
attention to the child; who gives that child absolute liberty to do
anything, anywhere the child wants, and
- With someone who pays attention to the
child, who lets the child know what he or she can and cannot do
The child will gravitate to the person who cares enough to place
some restrictions in his or her life because he or she knows that person cares
about them.
Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world of perfect liberty, but even
there they had a restriction.
III. THEY HAD LIBERTY IN THEIR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
(Though He was and is God)
Genesis 2:18
Notice just three words with me:
“…Lord God said…”
- The Lord is the
Self Existing One
- God is the Supreme
or Mighty Being
- Said means that
Adam spoke to Him
Genesis 3:8
And they heard the voice of the LORD
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Though by Genesis 3:8 Adam and Eve had already sinned and their
fellowship with God was broken, the implication of the phrase, “walking in
the garden in the cool of the day” tells us that this was something they were used to.
- This was a regular occurrence.
- This was a part of daily life for the
person who was perfectly free
They were free to fellowship with God.
They were free:
- To speak with Him
- To listen to Him
- To walk along side
Him
But they always knew that He was the
Supreme One.
He had issued a command
Genesis 2:16
And the LORD God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
And He had given a warning if they disobeyed that command
Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
The freest person in the world is the
person who knows God and knows his rightful place before God.
Conclusion
It is true that, because of the
corruption of sin, the best a man can have on earth today is an imperfect
liberty.
Liberty is something we fight for –
something we know we ought to possess – something that is an inalienable right
that forever slips our grasp.
Except, that is, when we know Jesus
Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:17
… where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty.
Through a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ any man or woman can be perfectly free:
- Free from the
condemnation of hell
- Free from the
bondage of sin
- Free from the
burden of guilt
- Free from the fear
of death
- Free from the
corruption of the world
Are you saved?
Are you free?
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