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| by Erik Wait |
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Throughout the history of the church it seems that ethical norms promoted within her midst have run the gamete from legalistic forms of asceticism to antinomian promotions of licentiousness. Moralists have sought to hedge the law in order to keep anyone from remotely coming anywhere close to breaking it by fencing God’s word with human standards and traditions and promoters of cheap grace have taught that the believer is so free from the law that there are no boundaries as to what is and is not permissible so long as the action is conducted under a vague banner notion of “love.” Legalism and licentiousness come in various forms, all of which are contrary to the true freedom and liberty provided by Jesus Christ.
In this chapter we will go through the Westminster Confession Chapter 20 - “Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience.” The first section of this chapter states:
“I. The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, and condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law; and, in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin; from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grace, and everlasting damnation; as also, in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind. All which were common also to believers under the law. But, under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected; and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.”
There is a lot packed into this section of this chapter of the Confession. The first line discusses the freedoms accomplished by Christ in His death, burial and resurrection in regards to sin such as freedom from guilt, condemnation, and the wrath of God. Some relevant passages for this include the following:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)
“We know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him, in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater that our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” (1 John 3:19-21)
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)
and then the Confession states that we are free from the CURSE of the law. This is what Paul states:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” (Galatians 3:13)
The Apostle Paul and the Westminster Confession does not state that we are free to disobey the law of God or that we are no longer required to obey the moral commands of God in both the Old and New Testaments. The law of God remains an objective moral standard for Christians, it continues to show us our need for Christ and to continue to progress in our sanctification. But the law can no longer condemn us for Christ has suffered on our behalf the full penal sanction for our sin and has been raised again from the dead for our justification. However, John says that our confidence before God and that we are no longer condemned is because there is evidence that we have been changed, born again, made a new person by Jesus Christ which is evidenced by our seeking to keep the moral law of God:
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (1 John 3:21-24)
The next section of the confession addresses legalism:
“II. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in any thing, contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.”
First, legalism may be a doctrine and practice that teaches that Christians are required to merit their salvation by doing good works contrary to the teaching of the Apostle Paul:
“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity...” (2 Timothy 1:8-9)
Second, it may be a Pharisaical requirement to keep the types and shadows of the Old Testament (particularly circumcision and the feast days) in the New Covenant era in order to be saved (Acts 15:1, 5) or to be accepted within the covenant community to which Paul said:
“...let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which were a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:16)
Third, legalism may be an imposition of the opinions and doctrines of men that seek to bind the conscience of believers with rules, laws and regulations that have never been required by God. Although legalism may be perceived by some to be an overly scrupulous observance of the law it is actually another form of antinomianism for it disregards the law of God in favor of the law of man. This is why Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)
The moral law of God actually frees us from the laws and tradition of men. Because sin is defined entirely by the law of God (1 John 3:4) we can know exactly what God’s will is concerning how we are to live. When anyone (including the Pope) attempts to require us to obey new laws, new commandments, that are not either explicitly found in Scripture or may by good and necessary consequence be derived from the Bible we can justly refuse to obey the traditions of men. The church cannot tell us that we cannot eat meat on Fridays. Rome sins when it forbids priests to marry for Paul said that they were free to take a wife and Peter himself was married. (1 Corinthians 9:5; Mark 1:30) Likewise, the fundamentalist cannot tell you that it is a sin to drink wine or have a beer when Jesus himself turned water into wine (John chapter 2) and Paul had to stipulate the requirement that elders not be addicted to “much wine.” (1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7) Paul is not concerned with elders in the church drinking too much unfermented grape juice. But, it is also true that everything we are free to do is not necessarily wise to do. Not everything we are free to do is beneficial, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable and we ought not to allow anything to become our master, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12) We are free to drink wine, coffee, and Pepsi but we are not free to become controlled by them.
The third section of this chapter of the Westminster Confession addresses antinomianism and licentiousness under the guise of Christian freedom:
“III. They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.”
Jesus came to free us from the curse of the law and bondage to sin. He has freed us from sin, not to sin. If you think that you are now free to violate the moral law of God then you have a very distorted understanding of “freedom.” To return to a life of sin is bondage and slavery, not liberty and freedom. One of the clearest passages on this is the sixth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Church at Rome:
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 1:1-23)
You are either free as a servant (slave) of Jesus Christ or you are in bondage as a servant (slave) to sin and the devil. The sad thing is the devil is such a clever liar that he can convince people that good is bad, that evil is holy and that bondage is freedom. Satan can take a dirty diaper, put it between two slices of bread and convince the fool that it is a tasty sandwich and for a while the sinner will think he is enjoying his meal until he suffers the consequence. For a Christian to return to his life of sin is to live like the Jews who wanted to return to Egypt. Peter puts it this way:
“For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who line in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.’” (2 Peter 2:18-22)
There is one other aspect to exercising one’s Christian liberty that must be addressed, which is in regards to areas not explicitly stated in Scripture. Many Christians will insist that they are free to listen to certain types of music such as secular rock bands or watch certain types of movies under the license of Christian liberty. The Apostle Paul gives us a sort of “catch all” requirement for the exercise of Christian liberty:
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)
Is the music we are listening to, the movies we are watching or the video games we are playing honorable? Are they pure? Are they lovely? Are they of good repute? Are they worthy of praise? So many Christians lie to themselves and to others and insist that the foul lyrics, sexually explicit images or blasphemous content doesn’t affect them, that they don’t pay attention to it and that they only like the special affects, the action or the instrumental portions of the music. The fact is the are taking part in the sin of the music, television program or movie when they participate by viewing or listening to it. The images and lyrics are being fed into your mind whether actively or passively whether you are aware of it or not. So rather than your mind be renewed and transformed it is being conformed to this world which is a direct violation of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:-12:
“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Perhaps there is no text of Scripture which says, “Thou shalt not watch a PG-13 or R rated movie” or “Thou shalt not listen to secular rock music” but by good and necessary consequence these two passages are fairly clear as to what our minds should be doing and dwelling on. Does the Christian have the liberty to fill his mind with such worldly garbage? I wouldn’t call that “freedom” or “liberty” but a subtle bondage to sin.
The final section of Chapter 20 of the Westminster Confession of Faith goes on to address the purpose of Christian liberty and the lawfulness of the church or the state to discipline those who are in rebellion against lawful orders:
“IV. And because the powers which God has ordained, and the liberty which Christ has purchased are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another, they who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, shall oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, resist the ordinance of God. And, for their publishing of such opinions, or maintaining of such practices, as are contrary to the light of nature, or to the known principles of Christianity (whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation), or to the power of godliness; or, such erroneous opinions or practices, as either in their own nature, or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ has established in the Church, they may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against, by the censures of the Church and by the power of the civil magistrate.”
It is extremely important for Christians to keep in mind that they ought not top use their freedom in Christ at the expense of the unity of the church or the destruction of the conscience of fellow Christians. If the exercise of a certain “freedom” disrupts the unity of the church or causes a break in fellowship or causes a weaker brother to stumble, then for the sake of peace, unity, mutual edification and love that Christian should also use his freedom NOT to exercise the liberty to do such and such for the sake of others.
The clearest example of this withholding the exercise of one’s freedom for the sake of others in the New Testament is found in Paul’s epistle to the Corinthian church:
“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, are we exist through Him. However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.”
There is a very unique phenomenon that takes place between odors, tastes and food. The smell or taste of a certain type of food can have strong associations with other things, other memories both good and bad. The smell of cinnamon can invoke a memory of our mother baking apple pie. The smell of pipe tobacco can bring back memories of seeing our father reading a book in his den. When I was a child we use to go to a local corner store to buy candy. One of my favorite candies was a root beer flavored candy in the shape of a barrel that we could buy for a penny. Today the smell of root beer for me is closely tied to that childhood memory.
In a similar fashion there were many Christians in Corinth who had come out of pagan idol worship that involved sacrificing meat to idols which was then sold on the open market. Paul makes it clear that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with eating this meat sold on the open market. There is only one true God and all false gods are nothing and the use of meat to sacrifice to these nonexistent gods does not defile the meat in and of itself. But, not every Gentile convert has such confidence. For him the food still provokes memories from his past and a devotion to satanic idols. The new theology doesn’t necessarily immediately change how we feel about everything. However, it would be very easy Christians who are more theologically astute and have such “knowledge” and confidence to eat the meat to then become a social stumbling block to the weaker Christian whose conscience still needs to be reformed, sanctified, with the Word of God. Paul makes it clear that while the legalist is not to be allowed to impose regulations concerning food and drink on the Christian (Colossians 2:16), neither is the Christian to use his freedom to stumble the weaker brother. Paul would rather eat vegetables than exercise his freedom to eat meat from the market if it would be a cause for a disruption in the fellowship between brothers. His love for a brother edifies the brother whereas the flaunting of knowledge and the unnecessary exercise of one’s liberty would tear him down. This is what Paul explicitly teaches in his Epistle to the Romans chapter 14:
“Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let him who does not eat him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands of falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we dies, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard you brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this - not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Or if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:1-23)
The self-imposed restrictions of an individual that are not from Scripture ought not to impinge on the freedom of another Christian, or the Church. But neither should the individual freedoms and exercise of liberties of a Christian be a cause for disruption in fellowship. Nor should the peculiar restrictions of the leadership be allowed to be imposed on the body of Christ.
One of the most common debated issues today is that of the consumption of alcoholic beverages. There are some with weak or misinformed consciences that feel that it is wrong to drink wine or they feel that they are not strong enough to exercise self-control in keeping themselves from getting drunk. Sometimes such people want to impose their weakness on the church by demanding that the elders not use real wine in the administration of the Lord Supper. At times weak willed elders have allowed such people to distort the sacrament for the sake of a prohibitionist. On the other hand, sometimes there are Christians who are so insistent on the exercise of their freedom that no only do they demand that the elders use wine but that they serve ONLY fermented wine and not allow the use of unfermented grape juice in the sacrament. These same people will also insist on flaunting their freedom in drinking a beer or having wine at all church social functions.
Neither of these attitudes is an expression of love. Both are a violation of the very essence of the purpose of the sacrament which is to bring unity and edification to the body of Christ. Both are demonstrating the same divisive spirit that was present in the Corinthian church which Paul had to rebuke and confront, calling them to repent and examine themselves when coming to the Lord’s Table.
Study Questions for Applying This Lesson
(1) When you look around at the activities of non-Christians seemingly enjoying their sin (fornicating, accumulating wealth for themselves) are you tempted to be envious of them? Does this bondage to sin sometimes really seem like liberty?
(2) Do you have particular convictions or manners of self-discipline (fasting once a week, abstaining from less than healthy food or beverages, reading a certain amount of Scripture and Christian literature each day, etc.) that you think everyone ought to follow? Do you ever feel like imposing such good and noble practices on others?
(3) Are there areas of your life or things that you so which you tend to rationalize as a Christian liberty, which in reality have no spiritual benefit and are less than edifying?
(4) Do you hide the law of God in your mind and heart so that you may have an informed conscience and may make Biblical decisions in the choices you make?
(5) Is there any thing that you are free to do, but that thing takes too high a priority in your life or it has become your master?
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