Chapter 21
Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of
Conscience
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The liberty which Christ hath
purchased for believers under the
gospel, consists in their freedom
from the guilt of sin, the condemning
wrath of God, and rigour and curse of
the law,1 and in
their being delivered from this
present evil world,2 bondage to
Satan,3 and
dominion of sin,4
from the evil of afflictions,5 the fear and sting of
death, the victory of the
grave,6 and
everlasting damnation;7 as also in their free
access to God, and their yielding
obedience unto Him, not out of
slavish fear,8 but
a child-like love, and willing
mind.9 All which
were common also to believers under
the law for the substance of
them;10 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.11
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God alone is Lord of the
conscience,12 and
hath left it free from the doctrines
and commandments of men which are in
any thing contrary to His Word, or
not contained in it.13 So that to believe
such doctrines, or obey such commands
out of conscience, it to betray true
liberty of conscience;14 and the requiring of
an implicit faith, and absolute and
blind obedience, is to destroy
liberty of conscience and reason
also.15
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They who upon pretence of Christian
liberty, do practice any sin, or
cherish any sinful lust, as they do
thereby pervert the main design of
the grace of the gospel to their own
destruction,16 so
they wholly destroy the end of
Christian liberty, which is that,
being delivered out of the hands of
all our enemies, we might serve the
Lord without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before Him, all the
days of our lives.17
Footnotes:
1. Gal
3:13.
2. Gal
1:4.
3. Ac
26:18.
4. Ro
8:3.
5. Ro
8:28.
6. 1Co
15:54-57.
7. 2Th
1:10.
8. Ro
8:15.
9. Lk
1:73-75; 1Jn 4:18.
10.
Gal 3:9,14.
11.
Jn 7:38-39; Heb 10:19-21.
12.
Jas 4:12; Ro 14:4.
13.
Ac 4:19,29; 1Co 7:23; Mt 15:9.
14.
Col 2:20,22-23.
15.
1Co 3:5; 2Co 1:24.
16.
Ro 6:1-2.
17.
Gal 5:13; 2Pe 2:18,21.
©1998 Limerick Free
Baptist Church
|
Free Baptist Church of Limerick