 Autonomy
In our exercise to understand the right relationship between our faith in Christ and the sovereign reign of Christ over all things, I want to begin with the smallest realm of authority and work our way out. Jesus is Lord and He has all authority (Matthew 28:18). I am not conceding the idea of Christ as the ruler of all things at all. But rather, arguing that the application of Christ’s rule works its way out from the smallest to the largest jurisdiction. It must be noted that while this article deals with the smallest unit, it is the most crucial and foundational to the rule of Christ in every sense. In this post we are dealing with individual or self government. The term “autonomy” refers to self-government, or the right of self government. This is probably on a popular level what most of us think about when we think about liberty or freedom. However, our self rule still means that the self is being governed. This is not anarchy. Each one of us, even those under regimes that attempt to destroy human agency and freedom are still autonomous at least in that our thoughts and beliefs cannot be controlled regardless of what is done to our bodies. Your Bad Self But the issue at hand in a fallen world is that left to ourselves we are sinners. This means that the acting governor over our hearts is our own sin (Titus 3:3). In this text Paul calls this state of governance slavery. It is ironic that the more humans rebel in sin, thinking that we are exercising our liberty, in reality we are only becoming more enslaved to those very passions and pleasures. We must remember that our sinful self rule is illegitimate. All humans are fully under the reality of all authority being subject to Christ, this includes our self authority. So while still in sin it is not only the sinful actions that are sinful but our rebellious self governance that is sinful. This is why in the quintessential passage (Exodus 34:5-7) about God’s character we are told by the LORD Himself that He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Transgression is rebellion. If God would not forgive rebellion then no one would be saved because our every sinful action and attitude is rebellion. This is the bad news that we are dead in trespasses and sins (Colossians 2:13). If God would only deal with us upon the condition of our own righteousness then we are justly to be utterly condemned and doomed. A New You But God does not just leave all of humanity to the judgment of our own self rule. In the sovereign purpose of God Jesus comes as the good Shepherd (John 10:11-14) and the righteous King (1 Timothy 6:13-16) to bring us under His good government. We must therefore be born again and regenerated so that we are set free from the tyranny of our sinful self governance to true citizenship under the reign of Christ (Philippians 3:20)! God explained to us through the Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:33-34) that this new government would not by the external means of legislation and enforcement but by the eternal means of a changed heart. Upon this new heart is written the good and righteous law of God, and dwelling in this new heart is the very presence of the Holy Spirit of God! So, the most relevant question at this point should be how do we move from our bad self to a new you? The answer is that we must trust in this gracious sovereign King and humbly by His power repent of our rebellion, while confessing truly and honestly that He is Lord (Romans 10:8-13)! If you have not yet been born again then I implore you to look to Christ and plead for Him to rescue you right now!
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