The \u201cLaw of Liberty\u201d has always struck me as a perfect oxymoron.\u00a0 How can you be under the law if you are at liberty?\u00a0 Or how can you be at liberty if you are under the law?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this kind of like jumbo shrimp?\u00a0 How can you have it both ways?\u00a0 Yet the New Testament has many such seemingly contradictory statements.\u00a0 \u201cWhile we look at the things which are not seen\u201d (2 Cor. 4:18).\u00a0 \u201cAnd to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge\u201d (Eph. 3:19).\u00a0 Obviously, we are being asked to accept the impossibility as a figure of speech, and yet to accept the intended meaning literally.<\/p>\n
James uses this term twice in his book.\u00a0 First, in 1:25, \u201cBut whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.\u201d\u00a0 Here James is comparing two men who look into God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 One sees and understands but goes away without changing anything, like a man looking in a mirror and then forgetting what he saw that needed to be fixed.\u00a0 The other man looks, sees, and then changes his appearance.\u00a0 The second usage is in 2:12, \u201cSo speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty.\u201d\u00a0 Here James is warning his readers that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (vs. 13) and be held accountable for what the Word of God revealed to us and whether we heeded it or not.\u00a0 The \u2018law of liberty\u201d refers to all that God has said.\u00a0 James doesn\u2019t limit it just to the Mosaic law but to all of God\u2019s revelation.\u00a0 Even though James may actually be the first New Testament book written, anything spoken by Christ or written under inspiration is still the \u201claw\u201d of God to a believer (see 1 Tim. 5:18, 2 Pet. 3:16).<\/p>\n
Many seem to struggle putting the two concepts together.\u00a0 Some push it to legalism and teach that there are certain things we must to do be saved or remain saved.\u00a0 If we keep the \u201claw,\u201d maybe baptism or church membership or various sacraments, we will be given the liberty from sin.\u00a0 Others, and I think more common today, push this into license and teach that salvation sets the believer at \u201cliberty\u201d from any law which must be obeyed.\u00a0 As to the latter, we often hear accusations that believers who abstain from questionable things or religiously practice good things are judgmental and have not found the true joy in Christ.\u00a0 To them, it seems, liberty and joy can only be found where there is no law pressing upon the believer.<\/p>\n
William MacDonald, however, explains the \u201claw of liberty\u201d in 1:25 this way,<\/p>\n
In contrast [to the forgetful hearer] is the man who looks into the word of God and who habitually reduces it to practice.\u00a0 His contemplative, meditative gazing has practical results in his life.\u00a0 To him the Bible is the perfect law of liberty.\u00a0 Its precepts are not burdensome.\u00a0 They tell him to do exactly what his new nature loves to do.\u00a0 As he obeys, he finds true freedom from human traditions and carnal reasonings.\u00a0 The truth makes him free.1<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Douglas Moo also explains James\u2019 \u201claw of liberty\u201d in 2:10 in a similar fashion,<\/p>\n
God\u2019s gracious acceptance of us does not end our obligation to obey him; it sets it on a new footing.\u00a0 No longer is God\u2019s law a threatening, confining burden.\u00a0 For the will of God now confronts us as a law of liberty<\/i>\u2014an obligation that is discharged in the joyful knowledge that God has both \u2018liberated\u2019 us from the penalty of sin and given us, in his Spirit, the power to obey his will.2<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The gospel does not make demands on us as a condition for salvation but the life of grace does, as we walk in the Christian life.<\/p>\n
Restrictions are necessary<\/span><\/p>\n
Every country has laws which are binding on every citizen.\u00a0 We refrain from killing, stealing, cheating, and other crimes for the sake of peace and liberty.\u00a0 Even the presence of a policeman on the street is a deterrent to law breakers and thus creates liberty for other people.\u00a0 When there is no respect for the law there is no liberty for citizens to go about their daily lives.\u00a0 This week in Chicago we saw a policeman shot to death while trying to help someone in a car accident.\u00a0 The murderer not only robbed the policeman of his right to do good work for the community, he robbed the accident victim of his right to receive help.<\/p>\n
Someone likened law and liberty to a great train.\u00a0 A locomotive is one of the most powerful land machines that we see and use.\u00a0 Most of us have traveled at sometime on one of these huge vessels.\u00a0 A train is made to travel on a track and if you take the train off of the track and set it in a field or on a parking lot, that powerful creation becomes useless.\u00a0 Without the restriction of the track the train loses its purpose.\u00a0 In a similar way our automobiles must be governed by rules of the road or they lose their purpose too.\u00a0 If we all stopped obeying the traffic laws and went our own ways by our own rules there would be chaos.\u00a0 In effect we would all lose our liberty by eliminating the things that restrict us.<\/p>\n
God gave man liberty by restriction<\/span><\/p>\n
God put the first man and woman in His garden with wonderful liberty to enjoy the garden and to eat of an endless variety of fruit and food.\u00a0 Yet we all know that God also placed a single restriction on the man and the woman, a single tree of which they were not to eat.\u00a0 Charles Ryrie wrote, \u201cThe test to which Adam and Eve were put was both extremely significant and relatively minor.\u00a0 It was minor from the viewpoint that a single prohibition in the midst of all the bountiful provision of the Garden of Eden was a relatively\u00a0 minor matter.\u00a0 Not to allow them to know evil experimentally was a blessing from God, not a lack in their lives.\u201d3<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 What Adam and Eve did not realize, nor did they need to, was that their liberty in the garden was being safeguarded by the restriction to the one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.\u00a0 God was keeping them from knowing evil experimentally which would limit, even destroy, their wonderful liberty in the garden.\u00a0 Satan fooled Eve into thinking that God\u2019s restriction was a negative thing not a good thing.\u00a0 When she and Adam broke God\u2019s simple restriction they consequently lost their liberty.<\/p>\n
Restrictions free us<\/span><\/p>\n
Sometimes we tend to think that the restrictions God has placed on us even now, in our fallen condition, are robbing us of our own liberty.\u00a0 When I pastored in Ft. Collins, CO, a young college student from Colorado State University visited me in my office.\u00a0 He was a Christian young man away from home and living in the dormitory with all of its worldliness and temptations.\u00a0 He was questioning why God would not want him to commit fornication like most of the rest of his fellow students did.\u00a0 He figured if God made him with this desire that it couldn\u2019t be a bad thing; in fact, remaining \u201cpure\u201d seemed to rob him of his \u201cliberty\u201d and was making his life more difficult, not better.<\/p>\n
I asked the young man if he was a born again believer and he gave me a clear testimony.\u00a0 I asked him why he trusted Christ simply by faith.\u00a0 After realizing what I was asking he said, because God said he was to accept Christ that way.\u00a0 Then I pointed him to Scriptures such as 1 Thes. 4:3, \u201cFor this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.\u201d\u00a0 I asked him why he should obey that verse.\u00a0 He smiled and said, \u201cbecause God said to do it.\u201d\u00a0 A believer is a person who believes God in all that He has said, whether for salvation or Christian living.<\/p>\n
Of course, what the young man was about to learn, whether by obedience or disobedience, was that God\u2019s law was actually liberty from a life of destruction and ruin.<\/p>\n
Obedience is of the will, not emotion<\/span><\/p>\n
Our human personality is made up of intellect, emotion, and will.\u00a0 We can know things, feel things, and do things.\u00a0 All knowledge comes from God, \u201cIn whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge\u201d (Col. 2:3).\u00a0 Emotions about things come and go.\u00a0 We can like something at one moment and despise it the next.\u00a0 We can love and we can hate.\u00a0 Paul said of lost men without the Spirit of God, \u201cWho being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness\u201d (Eph. 4:19).\u00a0 If we try to navigate this world by our emotion we will end in an emotional mess.<\/p>\n
God deals with us primarily through the will.\u00a0 He reveals knowledge to us and tells us to do the right thing based on that knowledge.\u00a0 In our fallen condition doing the right thing is not always easy, in fact it can be very difficult because our fleshly emotion wants it another way.\u00a0 Our very salvation starts out by an act of the will as God says, \u201cwhosoever will may come.\u201d\u00a0 Our Christian life continues as God says, \u201cwhosoever will, let him take up his cross and follow me.\u201d\u00a0 God never asks us to feel right and then do right.\u00a0 Trusting God is a matter of obeying first and finding the right feeling because we obeyed.\u00a0 This is why love can be commanded,\u00a0 \u201cHusbands, love your wives.\u201d\u00a0 Believe what God says, set your will in that direction, and the joy of the Lord will certainly follow.<\/p>\n
The cross kills and gives life<\/span><\/p>\n
The Roman cross of crucifixion was not a pretty thing.\u00a0 It was ugly and cruel, merciless and deadly.\u00a0 It killed effectively and completely.\u00a0 Jesus died for our sin on such a cross.\u00a0 He paid the penalty for our sin.\u00a0 His was a foreign guilt, our guilt, which He bore for the whole human race.\u00a0 When we accept that death for us, we receive a foreign righteousness, His righteousness, which is placed upon us.\u00a0 As the song writer wrote, \u201cTis done, the great transaction\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The repentance process is to realize that we should have died there on that Roman cross.\u00a0 We would deserve what we got.\u00a0 Faith is to realize that Jesus did not die for any sin of His own but for our sin and therefore He died as our Substitute.\u00a0 The proof that He died for our sin and not His own is His resurrection bodily from the grave because death had no claim on Him. When we come to Jesus by faith we acquiesce to His death, or in fact, we die with Him.\u00a0 Paul said, \u201cI am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me\u201d (Gal. 2:20).<\/p>\n
As a believer in Christ, I am directed by my will to take up my cross and follow Him.\u00a0 I am walking to the death of myself.\u00a0 It is not always kind nor pleasant but it is the direction my Savior went.\u00a0 Yet as I go I find that this cross, this yoke, is easier than I thought and the burden is lighter than I thought.\u00a0 I find a liberty in my soul, yes even in my emotion, that comes from such a cross.\u00a0 \u201cWe are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body\u201d (2 Cor. 4:8-10).<\/p>\n
Law is not legalism but liberty<\/span><\/p>\n
A.W. Tozer compared the old cross of the Bible with the new cross of culture.\u00a0 He wrote, \u201cThe new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.\u00a0 It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect.\u201d4<\/sup>\u00a0 There are always those who think of restrictions as something \u201clegalistic,\u201d something God would be less than God if He insisted upon.\u00a0 So the cross is redirected into a lotion for the emotion, so to speak.\u00a0 James had severe words for such an attitude, those whose very prayers were to consume things upon their lusts.\u00a0 \u201cYe adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?\u00a0 Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God\u201d (James 4:4).<\/p>\n
To cover up for that friendship one only has to accuse others of legalism.\u00a0 This is the vernacular for saying that pleasing God involves outward showiness and is almost always hypocritical.\u00a0 It is implied that a person who maintains any outward separation from the world is working for salvation, to coax reward from God by works rather than by faith.\u00a0 Some years ago a well-known writer and speaker made this same accusation of legalism about conservative Christians.\u00a0 Dr. Ernest Pickering answered that man in a booklet titled, Are Fundamentalists Legalists?<\/i>\u00a0 He wrote, \u201cThe writer also declares that Christian leaders formulate rules of conduct so that persons obeying them can \u2018earn God\u2019s acceptance.\u2019\u00a0 After many years of ministry among thousands of churches both in this country and others I believe I can say with confidence that I have never met a pastor or Christian leader who believed this.\u201d5<\/sup>\u00a0 And neither have I.\u00a0 One may disagree with another believer\u2019s life style, but one should not accuse such a person of working for his\/her salvation.\u00a0 To be saved is to be accepted by God.<\/p>\n
It is right to try to please God<\/span><\/p>\n
Pleasing God should not be seen as a fleshly effort of legalism or Pharisaism.\u00a0 In fact, pleasing God is specifically a New Testament life-style, a \u201claw\u201d of the New Testament for the believer.\u00a0 Consider the following admonitions.\u00a0 \u201cBut as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts\u201d (1 Thes. 2:4); \u201cFurthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more\u201d (1 Thes. 4:1); \u201cThat ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God\u201d (Col. 1:10); \u201cAnd whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight\u201d (1 John 3:22).<\/p>\n
The \u201claws\u201d of the New Testament have always been understood, not as works \u201cfor\u201d salvation, but as works \u201cbecause of\u201d salvation.\u00a0 This is the only way to understand Paul\u2019s warnings against good works and James\u2019 admonitions to good works.\u00a0 The author of Hebrews simply said, \u201cHow much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?\u201d (Heb. 10:14).\u00a0 Being born again and eternally secure, the believer should desire to please God with the time he has left on this earth.\u00a0 There is no better way to be relevant to the present generation than to please God.<\/p>\n
And so . . . <\/b><\/p>\n
In light of these things, the law of liberty makes sense.\u00a0 It is an oxymoron but only as a figure of speech.\u00a0 The laws of God as seen in the Word of God protect the believer\u2019s liberty.\u00a0 They stand as a warning just as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood as a warning to Adam and Eve.\u00a0 Our life is freer and better when we heed those warnings and abstain from (or adhere to, as the case may be) those things that would hurt us and thus impede the liberty to which Christ has made us free.\u00a0 Freedom is not free, for Christ paid the awful price for our sin and disobedience.\u00a0 Our freedom, our liberty, comes freely to us in salvation but admonishes us to walk as He walked, in obedience to His laws.<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/p>\n
\n
- William MacDonald, Believer\u2019s Bible Commentary<\/i> (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995) 2224.<\/li>\n
- Douglas Moo, Tyndale New Testament Series, James<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 98.<\/li>\n
- Charles Ryrie, A Survey of Bible Doctrine<\/i> (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1972) 108.<\/li>\n
- A.W. Tozer, Man, the Dwelling Place of God<\/i>. Kindle version, chapter 10.<\/li>\n
- Ernest D. Pickering, Are Fundamentalists Legalists?<\/i> (Decatur: Baptist World Mission, nd.) 15.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The \u201cLaw of Liberty\u201d has always struck me as a perfect oxymoron.\u00a0 How can you be under the law if you are at liberty?\u00a0 Or how can you be at liberty if you are under the law?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this kind of like jumbo shrimp?\u00a0 How can you have it both ways?\u00a0 Yet the New Testament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-7236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-christian-living-cross-discipleship"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Law of Liberty - Aletheia Baptist Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Law of Liberty - Aletheia Baptist Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The \u201cLaw of Liberty\u201d has always struck me as a perfect oxymoron.\u00a0 How can you be under the law if you are at liberty?\u00a0 Or how can you be at liberty if you are under the law?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this kind of like jumbo shrimp?\u00a0 How can you have it both ways?\u00a0 Yet the New Testament […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aletheia Baptist Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AletheiaBaptist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-01T15:44:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Rick-2010-jpeg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"387\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Shrader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Shrader\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Shrader\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/#\/schema\/person\/588b75c574dc86d40cf5fb13774181b2\"},\"headline\":\"The Law of Liberty\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-01T15:44:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\"},\"wordCount\":2818,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Rick-2010-jpeg.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Christian Living \/ Cross \/ Discipleship\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/the-law-of-liberty\/\",\"name\":\"The Law of Liberty - 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