The Cost of Autonomy

We are living in the age of the Autonomous Individual. People have never had more freedom to determine their own individual identity, construct their own personal religious beliefs, and live according to their self-defined truth.

“Everything” is finally drawn into the self that I take myself to be. Whatever is not of my-self is subject to myself. I am the ruler not only of myself but of all things in relation to myself. Which is to say that I have become God. The sovereignty that is proper to God is repositioned within the individual human. I am the God of my life, I am self-sufficient, I decide who I am, and nothing can intrude on my freedom to be exactly this self-ruled, self-sufficient, self-unto-itself" (C. Kevin Rowe, Christianity’s Surprise).

While the freedom of the autonomous individual is a recent phenomenon, finding new ways to transform the society we have all known, it is not uniquely new. Kevin Rowe explains, "This is idolatry of the most basic kind: the inversion of the Imago. No longer does God image himself in me; I have taken God’s image and turned myself into God."

As autonomous individuals, we have always had the freedom to live as we want. However, we do not have the freedom to choose the consequences. There is a cost to autonomy.

In this sermon, we focus on Jude 4-7 to discover the cost of autonomy.