Chapter 21 - OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE

1 Christian liberty, which Christ secured for believers through the gospel, means we are free from several things: the guilt of sin, God’s condemning wrath, and the law’s curse and severity. It also means we are set free from this present evil world, the control of Satan, the dominion of sin, the harm of suffering, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, and eternal damnation. Furthermore, this freedom includes having direct access to God and being able to obey Him not out of a fear like that of a slave, but out of a loving and willing heart like that of a child. Believers in the Old Testament also experienced the core of these freedoms. However, under the New Covenant, the liberty of Christians is expanded. We are free from the burden of the ceremonial law that the Jewish people were required to follow. We have greater boldness when approaching
the throne of grace, and we experience a fuller outpouring of God’s free Spirit than believers in the Old Testament typically did.

2 God alone has authority over our consciences. He has freed our consciences from any human-made rules or teachings that are either against his Word or not found in it. Therefore, to believe in or obey such rules out of a sense of duty is to abandon our genuine freedom of conscience. To demand unquestioning faith and absolute obedience is to destroy not only our freedom of conscience but also our ability to reason.

3 When people use the excuse of Christian liberty to practice sin or hold onto sinful desires, they're not only twisting the main purpose of the gospel's grace to their own destruction, but they're also completely missing the point of Christian liberty itself. The true purpose of Christian liberty is to be freed from the power of all our spiritual enemies so we can serve the Lord without fear. This freedom enables us to live in holiness and righteousness before him for our entire lives.