Source/Author: By Bishop Dr. Ong Hwai Teik

"Merdeka" has been defined as not dependent or controlled by another person or thing [Kamus Dwibahasa Oxford Fajar].

Like many nations, we remember the treasured gifts of freedom and liberty whenever the birth of a nation is celebrated. But for the people of God in the Church, our celebration of freedom from the Biblical perspective does not make freedom as an end in itself. True freedom is not visionless, for freedom is for a purpose.

In surveying the Old Testament, one could make a convincing argument that freedom from slavery is the principal theme as the people exited Egypt as narrated in the book of Exodus. But the Hebrew people were freed FROM enslavement by Pharaoh in order TO worship and serve God and His vision and purpose. In fact, this momentous and miraculous moment of freedom in which the Hebrew nation was freed from slavery in Egypt so as to become a chosen nation belonging to God is foreshadowed in Genesis, and repeatedly recounted throughout the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures.

In the words of the well-known Christian author and social critic, Os Guinness, “Negative freedom is freedom from - freedom from oppression, whether it’s a colonial power or addiction to alcohol oppressing you. You need to be freed from negative freedom. Positive freedom is freedom for, freedom to be. And that’s what’s routinely ignored today.”

In the New Testament, we read that the Lord Jesus has come “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners” [Luke 4:18]. In the writings of Paul in the New Testament [which numbered no less than 13], especially in the letter to the Romans, the theme of freedom from sin and death is the unmistakable and conspicuous principal announcement. He declares – “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” [Romans 6:6,7].

Paul then goes on to direct us into "positive freedom" that believers in Christ have:
“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love” [Galatians 5:13]. Along with this strong caution against the abuse of this powerful life transforming gift of freedom in Christ over the destructive power of sin and death, the Christian is reminded that this freedom comes with responsibility!

From another perspective of responsibility, the English Catholic historian, politician, and writer, Lord Acton, said - “Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.” He was also the man who gave us the famous saying - “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Today as God’s people in Malaysia
• We need to demonstrate our freedom in Christ as people who “have turned away from their wicked ways” [2 Chron 7:14] in a country that has been saturated with news of crippling corruption in high places. Such infection is also equally real in the ordinary day to day business of living.
• We need to perseveringly pray to Almighty God for His sovereign mercy for freedom from all that are ignoble, corrupt, racist and extremist among politicians, policies, paradigms, practices and people in leadership in government especially cabinet ministers, and public institutions. Let us boldly ask – that in His mercy He will give to us -“those who are noble, plan noble things, and by noble things they stand” [Isa 32:8] and work towards this end.
• We need to pray and act beyond a shallow “freedom from want, from worry and from hardship” - from the materialistic angle with only our personal needs and interests in mind; we need to humbly ask God for a changed heart in our nation, especially those who are at the heart of the nation’s life. A healthy heart is like a healthy tree that bears good fruit, not bad and diseased ones.
• We need to use our freedom in Christ for engagement of change in public, political and economic structures to bring about greater Biblical values of justice and stewardship in the face of “structural evils”.

It is interesting to note that "stand" is a standard mark of those who are healed and strengthened in the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus said to the man healed from a withered hand – ‘“Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there’ [Luke 6:8]. Paul commanded the healed lame man: ‘“Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk’ [Acts 14:10].

Thus, “standing up” in newly empowered physical life became a metaphor depicting standing up in the power of a new spiritual life. So Paul said in Acts 26:22 – “To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place…” Paul also emphatically said - “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all [everything], to stand firm" [Ephesians 6:13].

Ours in the Church is not a visionless freedom at this time in Malaysia, but one with Divine vision, destiny and purpose on which we stand in Christ. In this generation and especially in this uncertain, critical and precarious time in our nation, the sovereign Lord calls us to “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” [Gal 5:1] of sin and death, but “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God” [1 Pet 2:16].