... the text for May 8, 2020

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - John 8:32

The comments today made this point:

...having unbounded freedom is a two-edged sword.

If we were free to do whatever we want with no restrictions, the world would be much worse than it is right now. Here's an ultimate truth: Nothing is truly free. I'll explain in a moment.

The only Being who has absolute freedom is Jehovah Himself, the Almighty God and Creator of all things. He can do whatever he chooses. In creating humans, he allows a relative freedom to make choices.

In an earlier post, I stated that there are 2,500 varieties of apples in the world. Jehovah provided those apples. We have the freedom to choose which of those 2,500 apples breeds to eat, cook with and grow. That's our relative freedom. If we demanded absolute freedom and ate as many apples as we liked, we would get sick. So, we limit how much we eat, right?

Jehovah designed gravity. We are bound to gravity. Gravity benefits us by keeping us firmly planted on the ground; it governs the tides of the oceans; it helps shape and form us. To demand absolute freedom from gravity comes with a cost. A very high cost. We've seen it before with the Challenger disaster; the fall of Skylab and other accidents in man's attempt to explore space. So, we obey gravity and enjoy the relative freedom it provides us.

But, the truth will set us free. The truth of what?

• There is no life after death. There are no ghosts or spirits to affect the living. When Adam and Eve rebelled, God simply said, "...until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken." (Gen. 3:19) There was no talk of being taken to heaven or anywhere else. If Adam had not rebelled, there would have been no need for heaven at all!
• There is no hellfire. Jehovah didn't tell Adam that he was going to punish him forever for what he did. Being in a non-existent state (dead) was enough. Later, the apostle Paul wrote this simple statement: "...
  the wages sin pays is death,,," (Rom. 6:23) Pretty easy to see that we live if we obey, we die if we don't. That's Jehovah giving us relative freedom.

 In Rom. 6:23, Paul added this: "...but the gift God gives is everlasting life". Have you seen an advertisement that promised a free gift if you spend a certain sum or money or bought that particular product? Therefore, nothing is truly free. We pay a price for it, either in a bad way (consequences and punishment) or a good way (contentment and happiness). We don't earn everlasting life. There is nothing we can do, that will create a debt that Jehovah has to pay us. It's impossible! But, receiving the gift of life from God is easy. (John 17:3)

As we follow the counsel in John 17:3, and accept what Jesus taught and become Jesus' disciples, we can line up to receive the free gift of life from the One with absolute freeom to give it.. The two truths I cited above is just part of the learning process. 

Would you like to live forever enjoying relative freedom? JW.org has online bible study sessions where you can learn other truths that will set you free.