LIBERTY-CHRISTIAN
If Christ loved the weak believer to the extent of laying
down his life for his salvation, how alien to the demands of this love is the
refusal on the part of the strong to forego the use of a certain article of
food [or anything else] when the religious interests of the one for whom Christ
died are thereby imperiled! It is the contrast between what the extreme
sacrifice of Christ exemplified and the paltry demand devolving upon us that
accentuates the meanness of our attitude when we discard the interests of a
weak brother. And since the death of Christ as the price of redemption for all
believers is the bond uniting them in fellowship, how contradictory is any
behavior that is not patterned after the love which Christ’s death exhibited!
John Murray
Epistle to the Romans,
Eerdmans, www.eerdmans.com,
1960, p. 191.
Wherefore,
though the Christian, as a Christian, is the only man at liberty, as called
thereunto of God; yet his liberty is limited to things that are good: he is not
licensed thereby to indulge the flesh.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 168.
In
fundamentals…faith is primary, and we may not appeal to love as an excuse to
deny essential faith. In non-fundamentals, however, love is primary, and we may
not appeal to zeal for the faith as an excuse for failure in love. Faith
instructs our own conscience; love respects the consciences of others. Faith
gives liberty; love limits it exercise.
John
Stott
Romans – God’s Good News for the World, 1994, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press
UK, p. 252.
To argue from
mercy to sin is the devil’s logic.
James Janeway
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 168.
The moment
any mention is made of Christian liberty lust begins to boil, or insane
commotions arise, if a speedy restraint is not laid on those licentious spirits
by whom the best things are perverted into the worst.
John Calvin
Freedom is
not only the principle in the Christian life. Freedom is for something. God has
set us free for holiness. He has set us free from the guilt and bondage of sin
– but not in order that we might become enslaved to the very sins for which
Christ died to redeem us!... No action which is
contrary to the plain Word of God can ever be legitimate for the Christian. No
appeal to spiritual freedom or to providential circumstances can ever make what
is ethically wrong anything else but sinful. For the Christian is free only to
love and obey the law of God. Therein lies his true
freedom.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Discovering God’s Will, By Permission of the Banner of
Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1991, p. 66.
Aggravating
all of these areas (of legalism) is a class of people who have come to be known
as “controllers.” These are people who are not willing to let you live your
life before God as you believe He is leading you. They have all the issues
buttoned down and have cast-iron opinions about all of them. These people only
know black and white. There are no gray areas to them. They insist you live
your Christian life according to their rules and their opinions. If you insist
on being free to live as God wants you to live, they will try to intimidate you
and manipulate you one way or another. Their primary weapons are “guilt trips,”
rejection, or gossip. These people must be resisted. We must not allow them to
subvert the freedom we have in Christ.
Jerry Bridges
Transforming Grace, NavPress, 1991, p.
130-131. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
[Many things]
are not specifically condemned by the Scriptures, and thus we must apply other
criteria. For example, would these matters cause us to sin, or harm our bodies,
or cause a brother to stumble, or tempt us to fall into a pattern we could not
control? Clearly if those things occurred, then it would be wrong for us to do
them. If not, then we have the liberty to enjoy these activities.
Curtis C. Thomas
Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books,
2001, p. 202. Used by Permission.
We do need to
guard against making absolutes out of personal standards that are not specified
in Scripture, or assuming that others are sinning if they don’t adopt our
standards about issues that may not be traps for them. But why are we so prone
to defend choices that take us right to the edge of sin, and so reluctant to
make radical choices to protect our hearts and minds from sin?
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Holiness, The Heart God Purifies, Moody
Publishers, p. 113.
Freedom in
God’s world never comes apart from structure. When one is free to live as God
intended, he is truly free indeed.
Jay E. Adams
Christian Living in the Home, P&R
Publishing, 1972, p. 75, Used by Permission.
In the name
of liberty professing Christians glut themselves with luxuries, entertainments
and sensuous pleasures. Under the banner of freedom men give the reins to their
thirst for wealth, women dress immodestly, feeding vanity which loves
attention, and youth abandon themselves to athletics and leisure. When self is
fed in this manner it becomes brazen and runs to excess, crowding God out of
the heart… They begin again to serve themselves rather than the Lord.
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 38, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Christian
liberty then does not teach that there are things in the world in which
you are free to indulge yourself. It does not suggest that you may do
anything you wish with God’s creation. But it teaches that there are things
which you are free to enjoy and use as you serve the Lord.
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 41, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Liberty may
be an instrument for giving glory to the Most High, or it may be a curtain used
to shield base indulgence of the flesh (I Peter 2:16). You may discover by
self-examination of your heart which function liberty serves in your life.
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in Self-Denial,
1981, p. 43, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
It is not
enough to ask yourself, “Does God’s Word permit me to use these good things of
the world?” You must also inquire, “Will it serve the glory of God?” and, “Will
it edify my fellow Christians?”
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 45, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
When free
believers take their liberties too far and violate the commands of God or
demonstrate a bent toward impiety because they wish to press the outer ranges
of liberty, or when they laugh at piety as if it is beneath them, then they
have stepped out of the spirit of true Christianity.
Jim Elliff
The Care and Feeding of
Flies, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Let’s get rid
of the inhuman philosophy which only allows necessities. Not only does it
wrongly deprive us of legitimate enjoyment of God’s generosity, but it cannot
be effected without depriving man of all his senses,
reducing him to a block.
John Calvin
Let us never surrender
our judgments or our consciences to be at the disposal and opinions of others,
and to be subjected to the sentences and determinations of men… It is my
exhortation therefore to all Christians to maintain their Christian freedom by
constant watchfulness. You must not be tempted or threatened out of it;
you must not be bribed or frightened from it; you must not let either force or
fraud rob you of it… We must not give up ourselves to the opinion of other men,
though they be never so learned, never so holy, merely
because it is their opinion. The apostle directs us to try all things and to
hold fast that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21). It often happens that a high
esteem of others in respect of their learning and piety makes men take up all
upon trust from such, and to submit their judgments to their opinions, and
their consciences to their precepts. This should not be so.
Samuel Bolton
The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 1978, p. 220-221, by permission Banner of
Truth, Carlisle PA.
Only what God
has commanded in His word should be regarded as binding; in all else there may
be liberty of actions.
Quoted by Sinclair B. Ferguson, John
Owen on the Christian Life, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987, p. 154.
True
liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not
being constrained to do what we ought not to will.
Jonathan Edwards
True liberty
consists exactly in self-determination in the direction of holiness. Man is
never more free than when he moves consciously in the
direction of God.
Louis Berkhof
Systematic Theology, by permission of
Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 1998,
p. 548.
The Christian is not
free to do what the Bible forbids. Christian freedom does not entail the right
to fornicate or to steal or to lie or to persist in an unforgiving attitude or
to do anything else the Scriptures explicitly prohibit. And a person who
lovingly points this out to you is not a legalist for having done so!
Sam
Storms
Legalism vs. Liberty, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Christian liberty is itself a good thing. But when
wrongly used, that is, in defiance of love and in disregard for the conscience
of a weaker brother, it can bring disgrace on the gospel.
Sam Storms
Liberty vs. Legalism, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Christian liberty [also] may legitimately manifest itself
in abstinence or asceticism. Christian liberty includes the right to abstain
from otherwise legitimate pursuits if one is convinced in his/her own mind that
such is the will of God for them
personally. In other words, you may fully believe in the truth of Rom.
14:14a, yet choose to abstain anyway. Christian liberty does not include the right to insist that
others likewise abstain simply because you
do. Far less does it include the right to judge them as sub-spiritual for
choosing a different course of action from you.
Sam Storms
Liberty vs. Legalism, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The conscience of
the Christian is obligated and bound only by what the Bible either commands or
forbids, or by what may be legitimately deduced from an explicit biblical
principle.
Sam Storms
Birth Control, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
But what is the nature of our freedom [in Christ]?
It is not release from all restraint. It is not license to indulge our sinful
nature. Our freedom is the freedom to “serve one another in love” [Gal. 5:13].
It is possible to do so, because the Holy Spirit enables us to act in ways that
are contrary to the natural impulses of our sinful nature. Walking by the
Spirit, we are released from the old master that produces hatred, jealousy,
fits of rage, envy, and such. We are released to be loving, patient, kind,
faithful and good.
Lawrence
Richards
Expository Dictionary of Bible Words,
Zondervan, 1985, p. 296.
God’s purpose in redeeming men from sin is not to give them freedom to do
as they please but freedom to do as He
pleases, which is to live righteously.
John MacArthur
Romans
1-8, Moody, 1991, p. 346.
Man’s perennial
efforts to take himself in hand, however he attempts it, lead to
the greatest bondage in which man misses what he was meant to be. Man’s true
freedom does not consist of the unfettered power to direct his life, either in
a political or in a Stoic sense. It lies in life with God, lived as it was
originally intended by God for man. He only gains this as he denies himself.
Paradoxically, the free man does not belong to himself. He belongs to Him who
has set him free.
J.
Blunck
The New International Dictionary of New
Testament Theology, v. 1, ed. Colin Brown, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 1971, p. 718.
There are
many activities that are perfectly legitimate for the believer. But if you want
to be effective for Christ, you have to limit your liberty.
Author
Unknown