Liberty And Bondage — A Contrast
Christ's Law -- A Barrier To Destruction
Passing along the highway recently, I saw men under guard at hard labor. Were they free men? No, they were prisoners. Here is a man in slavery to sin, but the world calls him free. What a misuse of terms! What a libel on the word freedom, to use this word to describe the slavery of man in sin. The world wants liberty to sin. They would cast off every restraint .... they would empty the devil's sideboard. They want liberty to ruin themselves; liberty to leap into hell. They want free thinking; free living and free loving. What is freedom in Christ? From Romans 8:21; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1,13, we read thoughts such as the following, "the glorious liberty of the children of God" . . . . "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" .... "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" . . "brethren, ye have been called unto liberty." Men have mistaken ideas about liberty or freedom. What is this liberty? What does it include, and what does it exclude?
Liberty is not the right to believe and practice just anything that suits us.
Some claim the right to add to the worship because of liberty, but this is fallacious reasoning. Liberty is not a license to do as we please unless we please to do right. Liberty is controlled by law, otherwise it will include everything and exclude nothing. Some have argued that we have the right to add instrumental music to the worship because of the law of liberty. In the next breath they will argue that instrumental music inheres in the word "psallo." Well, if it is in the word psallo it is then a law and not an item of liberty to do or not to do, for we are commanded to "psallo." We do not have liberty in what we are to believe. 1 Corinthians 5:11, "so we preach and so ye believed." This verse tells us they believed as Paul preached to them. What liberty did Paul have in what he preached? None whatsoever. Galatians 1:8-9 He could not preach any other gospel. 1 Corinthians 9:16 Woe unto him if he preached not the gospel. The prophets had no liberty in what they prophesied. 2 Peter 1:21 This prophecy came not by the will of man, but men of God spoke what was revealed to them. Christ did not have liberty to believe and preach just anything on earth. John 8:28 "I do nothing of myself.... "as my Father has taught me I speak these things." The Holy Spirit did not have liberty to teach his own will. John 16:13 "he shall not speak of himself." Of course men have a legal right to believe and teach as they will, but no one has a scriptural right to be wrong in religion. Man can drink poison if he wills to do so, but he cannot drink poison and live. Truth makes man free. (John 8:32) Error damns the soul. (2 Thess. 2:11-13)
Liberty is not the right to live as man pleases.
Peter speaks of some who "promise liberty" (2 Peter 2:19), but they themselves were servants of the most corrupt practices, and strangers to real freedom. They were bound in chains to their own lusts. Liberty is not to be used for an occasion to the flesh. (1 Peter 2:16) Christ's law (1 Cor. 9:21) is a barrier to destruction, not a limitation to freedom. The highway sign that says to slow down to 30, is a barrier to destruction. One is a fool who takes the curve at 60 after being warned. "Be not drunken with wine" (Eph. 5:18) is not given to interfere with your liberty, but is designed to keep you out of the ditch. On a deserted island you might have the right to shoot a high powered rifle without regard to direction, but in the city you have not the right. Your rights end where the rights of the other person begin. No one has the right to do that which injures another. (Read Rom. 14 and 1 Cor. 8.) If a man demonstrates that he is not able to control himself, law enforcement officers come and put him in a place where they can control him. His liberty is taken away. When he has paid the penalty, and has resolved to control himself, he is turned out, but he is not free from control. He is now going to control himself under law. Restraint has passed from the jailer to the individual. When one becomes a Christian, he is free — free from control? No, he is going to control himself according to principles of Christianity.
Christian Liberty In Christ the Jews were free to serve God, free from the bondage of the law of Moses. (Gal. 5:1) Christians are "free" from sin (Rom. 6:22), but are still servants (slaves) of righteousness. (Rom. 6:18) We are free to abide in Christ. (John 15:10) We have liberty up to the point of "going beyond that which is written" (1 Cor. 4:16), up to the point of "going onward and abiding not in the teaching of Christ." (2 John 9) We have more freedom under Christ's law, than without it. Real freedom is not doing as you like, but liking to do as you ought to do. Doing right is more fun than going to the devil.