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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And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Whoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. read more. If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man: But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself testifieth with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But now, after ye have known God, or rather are known by God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which ye desire again to be in bondage?
And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. read more. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. read more. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
And deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage.
For ye are not come to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and to darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard, entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: read more. (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble:)
But he who looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. read more. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love: and he that dwelleth in love, 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 GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to publish good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
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 recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
I am the door: by me if any man shall enter he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. read more. For in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth to God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts of it. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants in obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, to (work) iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, to (work) holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and having become servants to God, ye have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: read more. That the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.