The Human Will as a Beast...

This past Sunday, we heard the words of the psalmist,

9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you. 10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD. 11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

This portion of the psalm resonated with something I read of Luther's. In his classic work, On the Bondage of the Will, Luther argues with the great writer Erasmus of Roterdam about the nature of free will, and in the introduction, Luther characterizes the human will as follows.

Thus the human will is placed between the two like a beast of burden. If God rides it, it wills and goes where God wills, as the psalm says: “I am become as a beast [before thee] and I am always with thee” [Ps. 73:22 f.]. If Satan rides it, it wills and goes where Satan wills; nor can it choose to run to either of the two riders or to seek him out, but the riders themselves contend for the possession and control of it.

Here, I think about our lives, being compelled through Satan's bit and bridle of sin to live apart from God. We are brought into a world that is thoroughly bridled so that sin and brokenness seem normal. Yet we do not need that bridle of sin. Christ calls us to freedom in God's steadfast love. In Christ that bit and bridle are removed from us so that we might be led by Christ in the promise of the gospel.

For many in the world, the Christian life seems to be a burden. The Christian life seems to be lacking in freedom and choice. But for ages, Christians have found precisely the opposite that to be led in God's path by Christ, to be a disciple of our Lord Jesus, we find not a burden, but true freedom. We begin to find that we are freed from sin so that we might be freed for worship God and serving only Him (from the gospel reading on Sunday) in many and various ways.

Peace,
Pr. Brian