A Few Thoughts on Christian Liberty

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farm:

In the last sermon before I went on vacation as we were talking about the final portion of Genesis 3 one of the subjects I brought up was Christian Liberty. The latter word there is something we are quite familiar with. The whole concept of Liberty was the very foundation of what caused our nation to come about. Our forefathers wanted a union where they were free to live under a civil authority that was bound by the same law they were. However, some have confused this idea with an understanding that what Liberty means is that I am free to do whatever it is I want. Besides sharing their first six letters the true definition of Liberty is not libertarianism, or to put it in Biblical terms, licentiousness. A Believer’s Freedom is the right to not have any man-made or man-derived doctrine or teaching placed over our heads that the Scriptures themselves do not command. Our Church’s Westminster Confession of Faith has an entire chapter on the subject.

That portion begins its first section by saying: The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law…as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and willing mind. That might sound like a lot, but it perfectly encapsulates what we mean when we talk about Christian Liberty...

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