Freedom from the Enemy


Have you ever had to tell a child “no” more than once? Ever had to do it more than ten times in the same conversation? You know what I’m talking about. You say no and they just keep coming, like a middleweight boxer they dart in and out hitting you with jabs and whines and why nots. You keep defending yourself but you’re getting tired, your legs are giving out. You just want to sit down. But you can’t get out of that ring.

I was in one such verbal contest with my son one time and he complained, “You always say no to me!”

“It’s my job to say no,” I told him.

I wasn’t trying to be cruel or even flippant. I just don’t want to be a parent that caves in to every whim of their child. Sometimes saying no is the best gift you can give a child.

Jesus once said “This generation is like children whining for what they want and complaining when they don’t get it.” (Matthew 11.16-17)

There is something about us, even when we are young, that is selfish and wrong. Christians call this “wrongness” Original Sin. We’ll get to the “original” part in a little bit. But basically, sin is not just the wrong things we do, but it is a part of us, a disease of our nature. We are not yet out of our mother’s wombs and already something is wrong in our natures.

I tried to point out the doctrine of original sin to our recent graduates. This doctrine, if you think about it, can be curiously liberating. Speaking to a gathering of youth , a preacher once encouraged his listeners to begin a prayer these words: “Lord, I am the failure that you always knew I would be.”

Now, maybe that thought is not Commencement Speech material, but it expresses a deep truth nonetheless.

St. Paul himself, much later than his teenage years wrote this,

“I don’t know what I’m doing. I do the very opposite of what I want to do. I want to do good but I keep on doing wrong. . .God’s word tells me this good truth about sin - it’s living in me. It’s in my body, in my will. I can want to do right but I have trouble following through. In fact, it’s impossible for me to do the right thing. I am always obeying the evil in me.” Romans 7.15-20 (my paraphrase)


It’s like the football coach once said, “We have met the enemy and they are us.”


In his book, Beautiful Boy, David Scheff writes about the years of torment of his son’s drug addiction. What Scheff wrestles with to the brink of mental and emotional collapse is how could his bright, beautiful, talented, kind and loving son turn into someone, something, that he no longer recognized? It was the drugs sure. But the drugs did something to his son’s mind and heart. Or maybe the drugs revealed something that was already there.

The most potent, insidious, and persistent enemy any of us will ever face is the enemy within. Paul calls it “the body of this death,” because death is the only place it leads to. How did we get to be this way? How did this happen? The Bible says what’s gone wrong in human beings went wrong a long, long time ago, pretty much at the very beginning.


Well, the original sin goes back to Adam and Eve in the garden. Remember that is new creation is an expression of the love of God and really the character of the Trinity – as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in community, so their love is expressed in the creation. God tells Adam and Eve that they have free reign of the Garden – enjoy. But one thing you must not do – eat of that one tree.

The question soon comes up, “Well, why not? What’s so bad about eating of that tree?”
“What is bad, anyway?”

God seems to be saying to humanity, “Obey me about the tree just because you love me. Just for my sake.”

How many times have I said this to one of my sons, “Just because I asked you to.”

God says, “Just because.”

And we failed. We don’t just break a rule, we lose relationship. The world loses something – it’s wholeness, it’s purity, it’s balance. The world stops thriving.

But God doesn’t leave us there. The Son of God is born into the human community to begin a new humanity. Paul calls Jesus “the last Adam.” The first Adam was tested in the Garden of Eden, the last Adam in the Garden of Gethsemane. The first Adam knew that he would live if he obeyed God about the tree. But he didn’t. The last Adam was also tested by what Paul called a “tree,” the Cross. Listen to this, Jesus knew that he would be crushed if he obeyed his Father. And he still did.

The first Adam gave up his freedom in disobedience. The last Adam, by his obedience, made a way for our freedom finally and completely. What sort of freedom am I talking about? I’m talking about the freedom to be other than what sin dictates us to be. I’m talking about Freedom from the Enemy, which is a Freedom for God.


Listen to the invitation Jesus gives:

“Come to me, all you that are weary and heavy- laden, and I will give you rest. . .”

Sounds good so far, doesn’t it?

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. . .”

What is a yoke? It’s what beasts of burden, oxen in particular, have around their necks and shoulders to tie them together and tie them to the plow or wagon.

That doesn’t sound as attractive.

Jesus anticipates that reaction, perhaps.

“I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus seems to be saying that if you will hitch yourself to my wagon you’ll find that the going is maybe not as hard as it might appear. You’ll find the peace and rest you’re looking for.

There is a choice before us, to choose to follow Jesus or to continue our own way. To be sure, when you choose Jesus you say no to other things. You lose options.

Timothy Keller writes, “Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitation that comes from being in committed relationships, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things. You will never get a sense of true self by standing still and making everything revolve around your needs and interests.”

Saying no to your sinful self opens up the freedoms of the open road of following Jesus. Perhaps it’s time for you to get moving.