1. The liberty which Christ hath
purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin,
the condemning wrath of God, the rigour and curse of the law, and in their being delivered
from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of
afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, and ever- lasting
damnation: as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not
out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind.
All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them; but under
the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the
yoke of a ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater
boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit
of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.
( Galatians
3:13; Galatians
1:4; Acts
26:18; Romans
8:3; Romans
8:28; 1
Corinthians 15:54-57; 2
Thessalonians 1:10; Romans
8:15; Luke
1:73-75; 1
John 4:18; Galatians
3:9, 14; John
7:38, 39; Hebrews
10:19-21 )
2. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and
commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word, or not contained in it.
So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray
true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute and blind
obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.
( James
4:12; Romans
14:4; Acts
4:19, 29; 1
Corinthians 7:23; Matthew
15:9; Colossians
2:20, 22, 23; 1
Corinthians 3:5; 2
Corinthians 1:24 )
3. They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practice any sin, or cherish any sinful
lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own
destruction, so they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being
delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in
holiness and righeousness before Him, all the days of our lives.
( Romans
6:1, 2; Galatians
5:13; 2
Peter 2:18, 21 )
Copyright ©1999-2007, The Reformed Reader, All Rights Reserved