A Higher Freedom

Since God by His very nature (love) cannot force anyone to love Him, it would be highly improper to think of a heaven where people were forced to be there. First there must be courtship, and then two can be bound together for life. God had to give us lower freedom (freedom to do evil) in order to achieve a higher freedom for us (freedom from evil).

To carry the analogy further, we are bound by our marriage vows to one and only one person, but we freely chose this state. We are not free to have intimate sexual relations with others (which would be sin), but we chose to be in this state. No one forced us there. Likewise, without a prior state of the freedom to sin we could not properly and satisfactorily reach the higher state of the freedom from sin.

So lower-level freedom (in this world) involves the freedom to sin - the power of contrary choice. In heaven, we trade in this lower freedom for a higher freedom, the way one who is dating trades in the ability to choose many life-partners for the joy and fulfillment of having only one - the one to which we are bound in love (by our free choice) until death.

It would be wrong to claim that we are not free in marriage simply because we should not date or mate with anyone else. Our freedom was expressed at the marriage ceremony when we freely promised to "forsake all others" and cling only to our spouse. Thus we did not really lose true freedom in marriage; rather, we gained a higher freedom that is fulfilled in the bonds of marriage, which we freely chose.

In like manner, when we pass through the veil between this life and the next one, we do not really lose freedom but gain a higher freedom. True, we no longer are free to sin, but that is hardly a loss; rather it is a great gain. To be sure, we no longer have the lower-level freedom to do evil; it is replaced by a higher freedom from all evil.

As to why God could not make this ultimate condition of being freed from all sin up front: Heaven is the end, and earth is the means. One cannot get to the Promised Land without going through the wilderness. Earth is the testing ground; heaven is our final home. We cannot reach home without the proving grounds.

Allowing the choice of good or evil is necessary in achieving the highest good. Again, the highest freedom is from sin (heaven), not of sin (on earth). One is not fit for the freedom from sin unless he has exercised the freedom to sin, for unless he has had the choice of good over evil, he is not ready for a place where good dominates and evil is defeated. Our initial freedom is designed to lead to the ultimate freedom.

- Norman L. Geisler, If God, Why Evil?

Link: If God, Why Evil? (14 May 11)