Reference: Liberty
Hastings
Moralists are accustomed to distinguish between formal freedom, or man's natural power of choice, and real freedom, or power to act habitually in accordance with the true and good. Scripture has little to say on the mere power of choice, while everywhere recognizing this power as the condition of moral life, and sees real liberty only in the possession and exercise of wisdom, godliness, and virtue. Where there is ignorance and error, especially when this arises from moral causes (Ro 1:21; Eph 4:18; 1Jo 2:11 etc.)
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take my yoke upon you, and learn to be meek like me, and of an humble temper: and ye shall enjoy tranquillity of mind. for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
and the truth shall make you free.
Jesus answered them, I declare unto you, whosoever committeth sin, is a slave to sin.
because when they knew God, they did not with gratitude glorify him as God, but their reasoning became extravagance, and their minds, void of judgment, were involv'd in darkness.
for by its being dead, we are set free from sin.
but God be thanked, that you, who were the vassals of sin, have sincerely obeyed in the manner the gospel prescribed. being then set free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
for we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold a slave to sin. what I do I allow not: for what my mind leads me to, that do I not; but what I have an aversion to, that I do. read more. if then I do what I in my mind am against, the consent of my mind is, that the law is right. now then, it is not wholly I that do it, but the sinful passions that dwell in me. for I experience, that in the carnal part of me dwells no good: for it is familiar to me, to will, but not to execute that which is good. for the good that I purpose to do, I do not: but the evil which I resolve against, that I do. now if I do that which my mind is against, it is not meerly I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a settled custom, that evil is objected in my way whenever I have a mind to act well: for my mind takes delight in the law of God, but I perceive in the animal part of me another law warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my animal part.
the divine grace thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. so then, with the mind I my self am devoted to the law of God; tho' my carnal inclinations are enslaved to the law of sin.
for the christian dispensation of a spiritual life has set me free from the legal state of sin and death.
for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father.
for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father. the same spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God.
for the spiritual meaning of the law centers in him, and the spirit of the law is gospel-liberty:
or rather that you are favoured by him, how can ye turn again to the weak and beggarly elements of the law, to which you desire again to be in bondage?
yet you did not despise me for the trial which attended my person, nor treated me with scorn; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
these things have an allegorical meaning: the two women signify the two covenants, the one from mount Sinai, which is represented by Agar, whose children were born in a state of servitude. this Agar answers to the Jerusalem now in being, for she is in servitude with her children:
Stand fast therefore, and be not hampered again with the yoke of bondage.
I say then, conduct yourselves by the spirit, and you will not then gratify the animal passions. for the vicious desires are contrary to those of the spirit, and the inclinations of the spirit are contrary to those of the animal part; these are opposite to each other, so that you do not the things that you would. read more. but if you are governed by the spirit, you are not subject to the law.
but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, sweetness of disposition, beneficence, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. read more. now they who belong to Christ, have crucified the animal nature with the affections and passions thereof. if we live by the spirit, let us regulate our actions by the spirit:
for by grace are ye saved, thro' faith (and that not from us:
which are overspread with darkness, and averse to a religious life, thro' their innate ignorance and obduracy:
and deliver them who thro' fear of death were all their life-time in a state of slavery.
You do not approach to any thing corporeal, to scorching fire, to smoak, darkness, and tempest, nor to the sound of trumpets, and the voice which pronounc'd such words, that they who heard, intreated they might hear it no more. read more. nor could they endure that threat, "if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned." and so terrible was the appearance, that Moses cry'd out, "I tremble with the fright."
whereas, he that attentively considers the perfect law of liberty, and is attach'd thereto, he is not a forgetful hearer, but reduces it to practice, and his conduct is crown'd with hapiness.
men. You are free, don't let your liberty serve as a pretext for vice: but act as the servants
and we have seen, and do testify, that the father hath sent the son to be the saviour of the world. whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. read more. and we have known, and are convinced that God hath loved us. God is love; and he that cultivates social affection, dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Morish
Besides the common application of this term, it is used in scripture symbolically, as
1. The liberty obtained by Christ for those that were captives of Satan. Isa 61:1; Lu 4:18; Joh 8:36.
2. The conscience set free from guilt, as when the Lord said to several, "Thy sins be forgiven thee: go in peace."
3. Freedom from the law, etc. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." Ro 7:24-25; Ga 5:1. Jesus said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Joh 10:9.
4. The Christian's deliverance from the power of sin by having died with Christ, as in Ro 6:8-22; and, having reckoned himself dead to sin, experimentally enjoying liberty, as in Ro 8:2-4, after experiencing that the flesh is too strong for him The deliverance is realised by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the love of God is known and enjoyed. Christ is then the object before the soul, and not self.
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"the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
if the son therefore shall make you free, you will be free indeed.
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved; he shall go in and out, and find pasture.
since then we died with Christ, we are persuaded that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, is to die no more; death hath no more dominion over him. read more. for as to his death, he died upon the account of sin once for all; but as to his being alive, he lives to the glory of God for ever. in like manner consider your selves as dead to sin; but alive to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, by making you slaves to the lusts thereof. neither yield your members as instruments to iniquity: but yield yourselves unto God, as being alive after having been dead; and your members as instruments of righteousness. for then sin shall have no dominion over you: because you are not under the legal, but under the gospel dispensation. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under the gospel? by no means. know ye not, that to whom ye subject your selves vassals at command, his vassals you are whom you thus obey; the vassals either of sin to destruction, or of obedience to justification? but God be thanked, that you, who were the vassals of sin, have sincerely obeyed in the manner the gospel prescribed. being then set free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (I allude to civil affairs, because of your unacquaintedness with spiritual matters:) as then you made your natural faculties subservient to impurity, and all manner of vice; make them now subservient to virtue and holiness. for when ye were the vassals of sin, ye were not in the service of virtue. what benefit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? since they terminated all in death. but now being set free from sin, and actually in the service of God, the present advantage you reap is holiness, and the future everlasting life.
O wretched man that I am, what shall deliver me from this body of death? the divine grace thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. so then, with the mind I my self am devoted to the law of God; tho' my carnal inclinations are enslaved to the law of sin.
for the christian dispensation of a spiritual life has set me free from the legal state of sin and death. God having sent his own son invested with a body like that of sinful men, as a sacrifice for sin, thereby destroyed its power; which the law could not effect, human nature being in such a corrupted state. read more. so that the moral obligations of the law might be fulfilled by us, in living according to the spiritual, and not the carnal tenor thereof:
Stand fast therefore, and be not hampered again with the yoke of bondage.