Christian Liberty is the freedom Christ bought for His people.
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
It is freedom from the law as a savior, from the guilt of sin, and from the fear of men.
It is not freedom to serve the flesh.
You were called to freedom.
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another.
The New Testament treats liberty as a gift with a use.
- Jesus said if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- Paul refused to put a yoke on Gentile necks that neither the fathers nor the apostles could bear.
- Galatians will not let circumcision become a second gospel.
- Romans will not let food and days become a court.
The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The strong must not despise the weak. The weak must not judge the strong. Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. Meat offered to idols may be nothing, and a brother for whom Christ died may be everything.
Liberty is real. So is the stumble of another conscience.
- Peter is told that what God has made clean is not to be called common, and he is also told to shepherd the flock without lording it over them.
- James speaks of the law of liberty—the Word that frees a person to do the will of God, not to invent a private religion.
Christian liberty, then, has two enemies.
One is the yoke.
The other is the flesh.
Grace answers both.
- Liberty is from Christ. It is not a mood the strong award themselves.
- Freedom from the law as justification is not freedom from love as obligation.
- Conscience differs on days and diets. Christ does not differ as Lord.
- Destroying a brother with your food is not liberty. It is sin against Christ.
- The flesh always asks for license and calls it freedom.
- Serve one another through love. That is what freedom is for.
- You are not your own. You were bought with a price. That is why you are free.
- Set Free by the Son – Free indeed, not almost.
- No Yoke of Slavery – Circumcision, fences, and human commandments as saviors.
- Not an Opportunity for the Flesh – Freedom has a ban on using people and appetites as gods.
- Love as the Limit – Do not put a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
- Conscience – Hold your own before God; do not bind another where God has not bound.
- Lordship of Christ – Whether we eat or do not eat, we do it to the Lord.
- Law of Liberty – The Word that frees us to obey from the heart.
- Galatians 5:1, 13 – “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
- John 8:31-32, 36 – “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
- Acts 15:10-11 – “Now, therefore, why are you putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
- Romans 14:3-6, 13-15 – “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him… Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?… Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother… For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.”
- Romans 14:17, 22-23 – “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit… The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God… For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:9-13 – “But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak… And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died… Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:12 – “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33 – “‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful… Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor… So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
- 1 Corinthians 9:19 – “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”
- 1 Peter 2:16 – “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
- 2 Peter 2:19 – “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”
- James 1:25 – “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
- James 2:12 – “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.”
- Romans 8:1-2 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
- Romans 6:14, 18 – “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace… and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
- Colossians 2:16-17 – “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
- Galatians 5:6 – “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
- 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 – “For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.”
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Through love serve one another.
If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. Do not destroy a brother with your rights.
All things are lawful; not all things are helpful. I will not be dominated by anything.
Live as people who are free, not using freedom as a cover-up for evil.
You were bought with a price. Do all to the glory of God. That is liberty.
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