What is Christian liberty?

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Salvation in Christ is liberation, and the Christian life is one of liberty-Christ has set us free (Gal. 5: 1; ct. John 8:32, 36). Christ's liberating action is not basically social, political, or economic improvement, as is sometimes suggested today; it is liberation from the law as a means to salvation, from the power of sin, and from superstition.

First, Christians have been set free from the law as a system of salvation. Being justified by faith in Christ, they are no longer under God's law, but under His grace (Rom. 3:19; 6:14, 15; Gal. 3:23-25). Their standing with God (the "peace" and "access" of Rom. 5: 1, 2) is assured because they have been accepted and adopted in Christ. It does not, nor ever will, depend on what they do, nor will it ever be imperiled by what they fail to do. They live, not by being perfect, but by being forgiven.

Although they are fallen, human beings think they can gain a right relationship with God through disciplines of obedience, ritual, and asceticism. Without God's righteousness, they go about "seeking to establish their own" righteousness-as Paul describes the Jews (Rom. 10:3). Paul knew that this is a hopeless enterprise. 

No human performance is ever good enough, and there are always wrong desires in the heart, no matter how correct the outward actions are (Rom. 7: 7-11; ct. Phil. 3:6). God looks at the heart first. Far from opening the way of life, the law's work is to arouse, expose, and condemn the sin that permeates our moral lives, making us aware of its reality and consequences (Rom. 3:19; 1 Cor. 15:56; Gal. 3:10). The futility of treating the law as a system of salvation, and seeking righteousness by it, is plain (Gal. 3:10-12; 4:21-31 ). This futility is the bondage to the law from which Christ sets us free.

Second, Christians have been set free from sin's dominion (John 8:34-36; Rom. 6:14-23). They have been supernaturally regenerated and made alive to God through union with Christ in His death and risen life (Rom. 6:3-11 ). The desire of their heart now is to serve God in righteousness (Rom. 6:18, 22). Sin's dominion involves not only constant acts of disobedience but also a constant disregard for God's moral law, rising sometimes to resentment or even hatred towards the law. Now, however, being changed in heart, motivated by thankfulness for the gift of grace, and energized by the Holy Spirit, Christians are "in the way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code" (Rom. 7:6).

Third, Christians have been set free from superstitions, including the idea that matter and physical pleasure are intrinsically evil. Against this idea, Paul insists that Christians are free to enjoy as God's good gifts all created things (1 Tim. 4:1-5), provided we do not influence the weaker brother.

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