Posted by CB on April 06, 2011 at 08:20:40
I thought Skep's interpretation of "the sin against the Holy Spirit" being the loss or forfeit of free will was interesting. I think about the concept of free will quite a lot. I am strongly influenced a quote by the holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl:
"Everything can be taken from a man or woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Mostly I wonder, "How free am I to choose my own way?" Seems to me I'm not as free as I'd like to be, because too often, "I do the thing I would not do, and the thing I want, I do not."
Seems to me the value of religion, or perhaps more accurately, of spiritual practice, is to gain greater and greater freedom to choose rather than merely react to a situation out of self-centered fear. As a matter of my own choosing, Jesus is the spiritual teacher who shows me a way to live and grow into greater freedom to choose a path rather than react to circumstances. This is not to deny that I haven't lived in emotional/spiritual bondage while thinking I was following the Lord. It's just that over time--as I've stuck with Jesus' spiritual program--I've been able to let go of more and more of the bondage that comes with the religion that grew up around his teachings, life, death, and resurrection.
Just a few thoughts on a deep subject. I sure don't have all the answers. It helps to study the Epistle to the Galatians, which I've been doing rather slowly over the past several months.