When Liberty Kills

Information and knowledge becomes more widespread and easily accessible with each passing moment.  For those who think the ills of mankind reside in ignorance, this is an indictment against them.  Though information is readily available, people still face the same problems which have plagued them from the beginning.  Man knows the truth but lives in conscious opposition to it, convinced that the truth does not apply in his unique case.  He lives in denial of God's existence, embraces subjective relativism to avoid guilt, and lives as if he is a god.  Generation after generation impales itself upon lust, greed, power, and pleasure, always learning but never receiving the truth of the Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ.  There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death.

This tragic saga is not only perpetuated by those who reject God and His righteous commands.  Through the prophet Hosea God lamented, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hosea 4:6)  Even though God had provided His Law and priests, Levites, and prophets to instruct His people in how to keep it, the people remained without knowledge.  The people excelled at keeping ordinances and the minutiae of the oral commands made by men, but they missed the main point.  The Law was intended to reveal the righteous character of God and display man's inability to be holy through external means.  Paul explains in the New Testament that the Law is a schoolmaster which leads us to Christ.  Galatians 3:24-25 says, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."  Faith in Christ brings forgiveness and freedom from sin.  We are freed from keeping the letter of the Mosaic Law because we are now governed by the law of liberty through the leading of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  We are free from the penalty of breaking the Law because Jesus has met the righteous requirements through His sacrifice.

The Mosaic Law governed a man's external actions, but now the Holy Spirit holds us to God's holy standard from within.  Through Him we have both the will and ability to live a life fully pleasing unto God not according to the letter, but according to the Spirit.  In the book written to the Galatians, Paul marveled how the people received Christ by faith but quickly went back under the Law.  They fell into the trap of thinking a man is righteous by what he does, not by who he is in relation to Jesus Christ through faith.  The opposite error Paul sought to correct in his letters to the churches in Rome and Corinth.  People were using the grace and forgiveness of God as an excuse to pursue sin.  People rejoiced in the "liberty" they had in Christ, misunderstanding what this "liberty" actually means.  Liberty is both what God has saved us from and what He has saved us for:  He has liberated us from the oppressive bondage of sin and death, and has liberated us to serve and glorify Him forever.

This misunderstanding of what liberty is and what it is not remains a massive issue in the church today.  How many Christians have been shipwrecked through the exercise of what they thought or claimed as liberty, but in reality was a retreat back into bondage!  Liberty is not freedom to placate and satisfy the flesh, but the opportunity to honour God through godly action.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:9, "But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak."  It is understood that Christians ought to also beware that this liberty of ours can be a stumbling block to ourselves - because we too are weak!  It is only through God we are strong.  God did not grant us liberty so we can justify ourselves from the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, having graciously pulled us like helpless sheep from the teeth of Satan, sin, and Hell.  How foolish and ridiculous it would seem if us sheep, having been spared a horrible end and given exceedingly great and precious promises through Christ by faith, used our remaining time on earth to flee from the Shepherd and seek shelter in a dark pit - perhaps the same dark pit we used to frequent before we were saved.  What kind of liberty is this?  The mind is of such a one is still enslaved in old ways of thinking.  Proverbs 26:11 reads,  "As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."  Foolishness in the Bible is directly related to wickedness.  It is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no God." (Ps. 14:1)  To atheists and Christians alike Solomon says in Proverbs 1:22:  "How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge."  Fools hate knowledge, and it is because of the lack of knowledge God's people perish.

Let us not be foolish, but wise concerning what liberty actually is.  If my exercise of liberty is not bringing honour to God or is a justification from the Holy Spirit's conviction, I willingly return to bondage.  Psalm 10:4 states, "The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts."  I find this verse very convicting.  The righteous must seek God, and God should be in all my thoughts.  I confess to you that I am righteous only through faith in Christ, for in my flesh no good thing dwells.  It is my hearts desire that God would be in all my thoughts, and I have much room to grow!  Let us follow the command of Christ:  seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.  I find I am not able to do this, but God has liberated my heart, mind, and body to both will and do His good pleasure by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Praise Him!