The Problem of Autonomy

 

The first step of any spiritual journey is understanding that we need God.

We cannot live our lives or make it to heaven without him. We have no hope without him. The Christian life begins and ends with full dependence upon God.

This is why the devil does everything in his power to make us believe that, somehow, we can live independently of him.

As beings created in the image of God, we have free will. We have the capacity to choose. We can love God or hate God; we can obey him or disobey him.

We have some level of autonomy. We are self-guided and self-directed.  We can decide which direction our life takes. 

In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve faced a similar choice, to choose the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They could determine their own destiny. (See Genesis 2:8-17) 

The two trees represent two ways of thinking and believing. The Tree of Life represents surrender to God.  It showed that Adam and Eve loved God and wanted to honor him and obey him. God was their first priority. They wanted nothing more than to commune with him and fellowship with him.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents rebellion against God. It showed that Adam and Eve believed they knew better than God and could live independently from him. Their own selfish desires were their first priority. They were more concerned with their own fulfillment and ambition than a relationship with God. 

When Satan came slithering into the Garden and began tempting Eve, this was the root of his argument, that they could live completely independent from God, they could be completely autonomous. 

Look at his conversation with Eve in Genesis 3:

1.  Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2.  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3.  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5.  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

There it is, in a few verses, Eve was deceived, and with Adam, rebelled against God, and plunged the world into sin and chaos. 

We can see Satan's deception; he wanted her to doubt God's wisdom and goodness. He convinced her to believe that her own judgment was superior to God's. She knew better than God.  She didn't need God.  She didn't need to trust him or obey him. She could be a god herself if she just ate the fruit.  Complete autonomy and independence, that is what Satan offered Eve, and she ate his poisonous fruit.

God wants us to have free agency and self-determination, but he wants us to use that capacity to follow him, serve him, and ultimately to love him. He wants us to seek after him like a hidden treasure, like a pearl of great price. Time and again in the Old and New Testament we are commanded to love God with all our hearts. In order to enter into that relationship of covenant love, we must sacrifice our autonomy.  We must give some of our freedom to God and come to trust in him completely. To rely on him and depend on him without reservation. Though we do not lose freedom when we come to know Christ, it is freedom that we find. We will either find freedom in Christ or remain in bondage to sin. Most people live out their day-to-day lives believing they have complete free agency, but the truth is that they are deceived and blinded by the wicked one and locked in a cage of their sinful desires. The path of self-reliance only leads to a prison of sin. It is only when we surrender to Christ that we find true liberty.

Much of the pain and disorder in this world stems from this craving for autonomy. We want to live our lives independently from God. We want to choose to do our own thing, we believe we can choose to do what is right in our own eyes. We think we don't need God and inevitably this only leads to sin and death. God is life, and anything in this world that we pursue that is not him will only lead to death. The life lived independently from God only ends in destruction.

When we humble ourselves, let go of our indolence and autonomy, and surrender our will to the Lord, it is then that we find our life's true purpose and meaning. We find depths of peace and joy as we walk in intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. The most satisfying and fruitful life is one lived in communion with God. 

God created us in his image with some level of autonomy and he wants us to use that gift to seek after him with all our hearts. The problem is that we push that autonomy too far, we want to be independent, self-sufficient, and that only leads to iniquity. To live the fruitful, blessed life God has designed for us, we must surrender our will to him and love him with all of our strength.

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