Isn’t Christianity restrictive?

‘You’re gonna struggle to get anyone in my generation coming to church.’ So said an agnostic Jew I spoke with recently.

We had a wide-ranging conversation about fascinating subjects. He acknowledged many of the benefits of Christianity but remained utterly uninterested in taking things further. Why?

At bottom he saw Christianity as positive – for society and for individuals – but he could never see himself submitting to ‘organised religion’ as he called it. And when I suggested that he read the Gospels he simply moved the conversation onto something else. It’s not something he’s looked into (at least not since childhood) and he doesn’t now feel the need. Christianity would feel like a restrictive detour from the life of fulfilment he’s trying to pursue. In other words he values freedom as his highest goal. And as far as attaining that goal goes, he considers God to be the problem while he is the solution. This thinking is shared by so many of my friends and family – I’m sure yours are similar: Christianity is fine for some, but please don’t restrict me. How can we respond?

We’ve been considering Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) [see also the article 'An Unusual Apologist'] over the last couple of months. He famously said that critiques of the faith require us to do three things, not just one. We shouldn’t only – or firstly – assert the truth of the gospel, we should also show how it’s respectable (it makes sense of life) and it’s desirable (we should want it to be true). So let’s apply this to the question of freedom. Does Christianity take away our freedom?

It’s respectable

If someone is worried that Christianity will take away their freedom, there’s a simple way to reassure them. You can say: ‘Jesus will not take away your freedom, I promise.’ As your friend says ‘Phew’ you can follow up with: ‘You never had any freedom to take.’ This is a confronting reality, but I think we can show how it makes sense. All of us are a bundle of competing ambitions and so many of them are self-destructive. Letting these loose does not liberate us but only enslaves us.

The prodigal son is the definitive example. He thought liberation lay in the far country but soon discovered that his own desires – apart from his father – led to a pigsty, not prosperity. Before he left the family home he should have considered: Who am I? Whose am I? What am I for? Where do I belong? No freedom worth the name can be found without first answering those questions. A goldfish might consider themselves ‘restricted’ by the fishtank, but they will not find liberation by ‘breaking free’. They will find it in the environment for which they were made.

It’s desirable

The Christian story is not about free people getting bound, it’s about lost people getting found. Apart from the love of God, we are like goldfish spluttering around on the living room carpet. The very best thing that can happen to us is an almighty intervention – getting plucked from life on our own terms, and returned to the environment for which we were made. Jesus is the eternal Son who has forever cried ‘Father’ to the Most High. And Jesus has come to invite us home: to enjoy this love in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Our friends might not see themselves as lost, but when they hear the good news they ought to feel homesick.

It’s true

When it comes to freedom, it’s not that I am the solution and God is the problem. It’s exactly the other way around. I am the problem and along comes Jesus, our Redeemer. What we give up is not freedom but our enslaving self-will. What we’re given might look like limits, but look harder. That garment being wrapped around the prodigal’s shoulders is not a straitjacket, it’s a robe.

Our friends and family may not yet share this outlook on freedom. But as we live it out before them, with fearless joy, they can see which kind of life restricts and which enlarges, which limits and which liberates. In time we pray they can sing Mumford and Sons’ secular hymn and to know its truth:

Love, it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.

Glen Scrivener is director and evangelist with ‘Speak Life’ in Eastbourne, which trains Christians in personal evangelism, in person, in podcasts and videos.