Liberty or License
Liberty or license? This is the question of our day. When the rest of the world is finding new ways of practicing hedonism and self-indulgence (neither of which is a new thing) what prevents the church from impacting the same lost persons with the Good News? The freemen of His cross have become bond slaves of their own license! The breastplate of righteousness is made of Christ Himself! Is there any room then for unrighteousness in the person of the wearer? Absolutely not! That is why it is called "the narrow way!" We must "deny ourselves" and take up the cross daily. Personal purity brings holiness (we are what we eat). Why do you think the Apostle Paul talks about "putting off the old self"? Before we can put on God's armor, we must first take off our own!
"Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes." (Ephesians 4:21-23 NLT)
The word liberty brings with it the idea that we are delivered from something. In this sense we are delivered from the bondage of our own deception! Arthur W Pink, in Practical Christianity says:
"Again, many are never saved because they wish to divide Christ; they want to take Him as Savior, but are unwilling to subject themselves unto Him as their Lord. Or if they are prepared to own Him as Lord, it is not as an absolute Lord. But this cannot be: Christ will either be Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. But the vast majority of professing Christians would have Christ’s sovereignty limited at certain points; it must not encroach too far upon the liberty which some worldly lust or carnal interest demands. His peace they covet, but His “yoke” is unwelcome. Of all such Christ will yet say, 'But these Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me' (Luke 19:27)."
Liberty in Christ has brought forth in this land a great nation that was conceived in this selfsame liberty vouchsafed in the providence of His Name. These liberties are not and cannot be mutually exclusive of each other for they are authored by the same sovereign Lord! Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I would say that as a whole, the Body of Christ is doing nothing with great zeal and makes no headway against evil because liberty has turned to license! We have and are rebelling against the very "Spirit of Truth" that sealed our salvation and instead we follow the ministrations of our own fallen will not seeing that we have become the enemy and will soon be brought "hither, and slay them before me."
"The evidence which he presents makes it unmistakably clear that early American citizens and statesmen knew what Romans 13 and the Bible as a whole make so clear: that civil government is not neutral among religions and philosophies of men but instead is a ministry of the sovereign God who created and rules His universe and world, and works out His eternal plan and holy will in history. Our forefathers in the faith did not retreat from involvement in society and politics. They did not turn civil government, the making, enforcement, and adjudication of laws, over to Satan and those who serve him. They did not surrender the ministry of civil government to those who are in rebellion against God. Instead, they sought to base civil government and law upon the truth. They understood that God is the Lord of history who rules the lives of nations by His divine providence, and that He is in authority over our nation as well over all others. They knew that our nation’s civil government and law must be based upon God’s laws and principles of justice if we are to enjoy His blessings upon our land and people. They comprehended that all men are sinners, and that man’s sinful nature has particularly destructive consequences when it is allowed to vent itself through the power of civil government. They understood that true religion (Christianity), virtue, and liberty are inseparably united, and that liberty cannot long be preserved in the absence of virtue among the people and their representatives." (The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, Benjamin F. Morris)
True Spiritual Liberty by William Penn
True spiritual Liberty is one of the most glorious things in the World, but it is little under stood and frequently abused by many. I beseech Almighty God to preserve you, His people, in the right knowledge and use of the liberty, which Jesus Christ is redeeming us into.
Christ's liberty is obtained through Christ's cross. They that would be his freemen must be his bondsmen and wear his yoke. His liberty is from sin, not to sin; to do his will and not our own. This is the freedom that comes by Jesus Christ, to as many as receive him in the way which God hath given him, to wit, to save us from our corruptions, and guide us in the narrow way of his holy cross, and through the straight gate of self denial. As many as have entered at this door are come to have unity with God and with one another. "The church that dwells in God, if she dwells in God, then in love." Consequently her members are of one mind in church matters since she has but one head to rule her.
True spiritual liberty is deliverance from sin. "If the truth makes you free then are you free indeed," saith Christ. The liberty of God's people stands in the Truth, and their communion in it, in the perfect spiritual law of Jesus Christ, which delivers and preserves them from every evil thing.
False spiritual liberty is departing from this blessed spirit of truth, and rebelling against the perfect law of liberty in the heart, and being at liberty to do our own wills.