True Freedom - Dave Matthews Almost Gets It.

Many of you know that I teach Spinning at a local gym. I love it. It is a time that I can fellowship with the crazy people (who are not paid to come to the class like I am) who wake up to sweat and exhaust themselves on a stationary bike; many of whom have been coming to my class for years. Did I also mention that I get paid to exercise (and a free membership)! Most who come to my class know that I also have a love for live Dave Matthews music. I play at least one of his songs in every class.

But there is one song, called Cornbread, where he begins by saying, "Sometimes I do what I got to do. Sometimes I do what I want to...and, Sometimes...what I got to do and what I want to do, is the same thing!" Wow. I was thinking about that the other day during the class; and I said to myself, "He almost has it! He almost understands true Freedom!"

As humans we want what we want and when we want it. If anything comes in between us and what we want, we don't like it. This gives us a clue as to what bondage really is - wanting something and not being able to attain it. Before someone is born again, he/she wants everything but God; but God will have none of that. What one HAS to do, then, is not necessarily what they WANT to do. There are usually two ways that people proceed.

First, they shell of God altogether saying, "God! How dare you not give me what I WANT. I don't care what you WANT me to do. I am going my own way - I am going for what I WANT. This is called anti-nomianism (or, against (anti) law (nomian)). Its is a fantasy really. No one can run from God. He is everywhere. And His obligations are binding on every one of His creatures. It is the very nature of humanness to be dissatisfied until satisfaction is found in God. This is doing (as Matthews says) "What I want to do, and not what I have to do." This is bondage.

Second, the person can do what they HAVE to do, albeit, begrudgingly. This is legalism at its best. They say, "Okay God. I'll follow your rules. But that's not what I really WANT to do." This is doing "what I have to do, and not what I want to do." This, too, is bondage.

But, what about the believer? The believer experiences true freedom, through repentance and faith in Christ. They have been given a new heart and can now, by nature, do what they want AND what they have to do! They have to love God. That's GREAT! That's also what they want to do! Its like being married. In marriage we are commanded to love our spouse - its what we HAVE to do. But there's more! It's also what we WANT to do! In this life however, the "lusts of the flesh" still linger within us. Those "lusts" cause us sometimes to WANT what we cannot HAVE. This is freedom, but not total freedom.

There will be a day though, in glory, when we will be perfected in holiness. We will be glorified. On that day, and from that DAY on (for eternity), we will finally be free (Rom 7). We will be able to change Dave Matthews' lyrics into, "ALL the time, what I want to do and what I got to do is the same thing!" Can you imagine? In glory, we will never be inconvenienced again! We will never say, "Do I really have to?" We will never try to get out of something. We will never have to fight fatigue, laziness, procrastination, and sin. We will always do what we want to do - and that, by the amazing grace of God, will be exactly what we have to do.

That, my friends, is something to look forward to. That is true freedom. Loving God and loving others forever, and loving every single minute of it!