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.)
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For it is good to bear my yoke, and my burden is light."
and you shall know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free."
"In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that every one who commits sin is the slave of sin.
For when they had come to know God, they did not give Him glory as God nor render Him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened.
for he who has paid the penalty of death stands absolved from his sin.
But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed. You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness--
For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin. For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do. read more. But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law, and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them. For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not. For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do. But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it. I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God; but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.
for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.
You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!"
You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!" The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;
Now by "the Lord" is meant the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is enjoyed.
Now, however, having come to know God--or rather to be known by Him--how is it you are again turning back to weak and worthless rudimentary notions to which you are once more willing to be enslaved?
and yet the bodily infirmity which was such a trial to you, you did not regard with contempt or loathing, but you received me as if I had been an angel of God or Christ Jesus Himself!
All this is allegorical; for the women represent two Covenants. One has its origin on Mount Sinai, and bears children destined for slavery. This is Hagar; for the name Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, which is in bondage together with her children.
Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery.
This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures. For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined. read more. But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not subject to Law.
The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence; good faith, meekness, self-restraint. read more. Against such things as these there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their lower nature with its passions and appetites. If we are living by the Spirit's power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power.
For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves. It is God's gift, and is not on the ground of merit--
with darkened understandings, having by reason of the ignorance which is deep-seated in them and the insensibility of their moral nature, no share in the Life which God gives.
and might set at liberty all those who through fear of death had been subject to lifelong slavery.
For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words-- a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added. read more. For they could not endure the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, shall be stoned to death;" and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, "I tremble with fear."
But he who looks closely into the perfect Law--the Law of freedom--and continues looking, he, being not a hearer who forgets, but an obedient doer, will as the result of his obedience be blessed.
Be free men, and yet do not make your freedom an excuse for base conduct, but be God's bondservants.
And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God--God continues in union with him, and he continues in union with God. read more. And, as for us, we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it. God is love, and he who continues to love continues in union with God, and God continues in union with 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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor; He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners of war and recovery of sight to the blind: to send away free those whom tyranny has crushed,
If then the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed.
I am the Door. If any one enters by me, he will find safety, and will go in and out and find pasture.
But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him; because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die. read more. Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God. In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus. Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings; and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right. For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of Law, but of grace. Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed! Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result) But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed. You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness-- your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures--and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness. For when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no sort of subjection to Righteousness. At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death. But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result.
(Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!)
for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; read more. in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.
Christ having made us gloriously free--stand fast and do not again be hampered with the yoke of slavery.