“Liberty”
Isaiah 61:1
The Son of God
came to make sinners free, “to proclaim
liberty to the captive!” What a word that word “liberty” is. Nothing in all the world can be compared to it. Social, economic, and
political liberty are great privileges; but spiritual liberty is an
indescribable boon of God’s free grace in Christ. Those who have this liberty
are “free indeed” (John 8:31), and shall be free forever! This liberty
that Christ gives to all believers is fourfold.
LIBERTY FROM THE LAW - All believers are
totally free from the curse, penalty, dominion, and terror of God’s holy law in
Christ. Read the Book of God (Rom. 6:14-15;
7:1-4; 8:1-4; 10:4; Gal. 3:13; Col.
2:14-23), and ignore those work mongers who would bring you back under the yoke
of bondage. The law of God has absolutely nothing to do with a believer (I Tim.
1:6-10). And we who are dead to the law and married to Jesus Christ by faith
have no more to do with the rule of the law than a woman does the rule of her
dead husband, after being married to another man (Rom. 7:1-4).
LIBERTY FROM SIN - The liberty which Christ
proclaims to and produces in redeemed souls is liberty and freedom from sin (Rom.
6:6, 18, 20, 22; I Pet. 4:1; I John 3:5). By his blood atonement, Christ has
delivered us from the penalty of sin.
By the application of his atonement to our hearts, by the efficacious grace of
God the Holy Spirit, our consciences are purged from the guilt of sin. In regeneration, we are delivered from sin’s dominion. When we drop these robes of flesh
in death, we shall be freed from the body
and being of sin. And in resurrection glory we shall be freed from all the consequences of sin forever.
This is what Paul calls, “the glorious
liberty of the sons of God” ( Rom. 8:23).
LIBERTY FROM HUMAN RELIGIONWhen the Son
of God sets men free, he frees them from the customs and traditions, practices
and labors of human religious inventions (Col. 2:20-23; I Tim. 4:1-6; II Tim.
3:1-5). No man, no pastor, no church has the right to impose practices and
behavioral rules upon men that God has not specifically revealed in Holy
Scripture. We are not, and must never try to be, lords of other men’s
consciences. And we must never allow ourselves to be brought into bondage by
others.
LIBERTY OF LOVE - The Lord Jesus Christ gives
regenerate souls a happy, delightful liberty of love and marriage (Rom. 7:1-4).
A good marriage is a marriage held together by love, free of law. I pity the
man whose wife serves him because it is her duty! While believers recognize
their duty to serve Christ, they do not serve him because it is their duty. Our
service to Christ arises from deep gratitude and free, loving devotion. We need
no other law to regulate our lives.
Don Fortner