How Free Hearts Muster Free Men

Kneecapping the inner tyrant before defying the outer one

“Your heart is free.” - Malcolm Wallace

Several weeks ago I published a field guide of grievances in response to our city’s new “Green Bin” program. Since that time, I’ve no doubt violated our bin countless times with heinous, non-biodegradable items. It’s not just because I’m a vindictive loser. It’s because I’ve frankly got better things to do than stand around exegeting the afterlife of my muffin wrapper.

I’m also pretty sure I’m not alone in this, which means you should probably start shopping around for a new compost supplier.¹

Today I wanted to change course towards something more cheerful and constructive. After all, ‘tis the season when even the steeliest curmudgeon might throw open his heavy Victorian drapery, fling some shillings at a passing orphan, and demand he acquire the largest turkey from the local butcher shop.

So let’s talk freedom.

Specficially, let’s talk about how free people are supposed to live freely in the midst of green bins, zoning laws, and climate shennanigans. This is important because there seems to be a rumour floating around that “freedom” amounts to protests and F**k Trudeau flags. I want to suggest that while the opportunity to engage in such things without being kidnapped and waterboarded by state police is part of what freedom means, it isn’t the whole picture.

Free Society starts with Free People

“Free republics are never built by slaves to sin.” - Doug Wilson

Freedom contains both a positive and a negative definition. Negatively, it means the freedom to object to that which would enslave us — hence, the need for protests and symbols of resistance. Positively, it means the freedom to know and to do the good one ought to do. There’s a time for everything, Solomon reminded us. There’s a time to protest tyranny, and a time to rebuild after the smoke clears and the statues have been toppled. There’s a time to tear down and a time to start drawing up some blueprints.

What we need to understand is that a building is never going to be greater than the sum of its parts. If the plans suck, or the building materials are shoddy, or the labourers don’t know which end of the hammer is up, the new buildings are going to be just as bad as the old ones. 

We appear to be approaching a unique moment in which the abject lunacy of progressive elites seems to be catching up with them. Conservatives are jumping around like small dogs who’ve finally caught up to the clown car they’ve been chasing for years.

But . . . now what?

What do we actually do when the blown-out clowns stumble out of the car and we’re left trying to steer this thing back onto the road? That’s what we need to talk about. And that’s exactly what Conservatives aren’t talking about; and for good reason. I say for good reason because Conservatives don’t actually have a clue as to what “Conservative” means anymore. They have made so many concessions, and given so much ground, Conservatives are now hardly distinguishable from the clowns on the other side of the road.

Conservatives want us to recover some kind of national ethos that will quarantine radical leftists, but still let us keep all the idols that wrecked us in the first place. But see, that’s the problem. If our hope is to “build back better,” but we’re still in love with with our godless materialism, we’re no better than we were. You can’t want freedom and still want the things that are keeping you a slave. You can’t want to recover the nuclear family and still endorse homosexual marriage and drag shows. You can’t want the restoration of public conscience and still insist that multicultural relativism is the best way forward. You can’t want clean cities and and still fund consumption sites. You can’t want a robust working class and be shelling out millions in social assistance.

The greatest threat to free society isn’t just bad people but bad doctrine. And the bad doctrine on the street today says there’s a way to fix things that doesn’t involve us returning to fixed, transcendant principles. For all the brilliant boldness of Shapiro, Walsh, Peterson & Sons, this is why they can’t help us. It’s the prophets — the hated prophets and their “Thus says the Lord” — who must do so. The reason prophets are so hated is because their first targets are the “respectable idols” that are no longer viewed as a problem. The reason prophets are so hated is because their judgement begins at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). That is, with the “good guys.” The message is repent, and it’s repentance all the way down.

The good news is that those whom the Son sets free, are free indeed. This isn’t a conditional promise, but an unequivocal statement. If you’ve been forgiven through Jesus’ blood, you are free, whatever prisons and thievery the government is engaged in. This is true across the board, whether you’re rancher in an open-carry state, or a prisoner in a labour camp in North Korea. Both, in Christ, are free, in the fullest, truest sense of the word. Having been reconciled to God, they are no longer under the power of sin, nor the fear of death.

If we want to see a revival of dangerous people in the land — dangerous to tyrants that is — it’s going to start with a revival of people who aren’t afraid to die to themselves first. The only people who aren’t succeptible to shame are the people whose shame has already been dealt with.

The story of freedom starts at the cross.

** If you haven’t done so already, please take this time to sign-up for our upcoming conference. You won’t want to miss this great opportunity for fellowship, worship, and practical teaching on what it looks like to be a builder in Babylon **

1. Question: What does an umbrella, a sharps disposal container, and a human skull have in common? Answer: They all live next to your tomato plants!