The Doctrine of Liberty, Licentiousness, and Responsibility

Related Articles

FULFILLMENT OF A PROMISE, THEN CONFLICT

April 6, 2023

THE CONCEPT OF ORIGINAL SIN AND THE RESPONSE OF GUILT AND BLAME

April 6, 2023

SYLLABUS for the book of GENESIS

April 5, 2023

Return to Syllabus

COURSE IN ADVANCED BIBLICAL DOCTRINES

Lesson #11

• The Doctrine of Liberty, Licentiousness, and Responsibility
  • The understanding of these three terms and their doctrinal relationship began as a teaching in the Bible in the book of Exodus.
    • The Israelites did not know freedom in Egypt. They lived in slavery.
    • Gradually God taught them how to be free people.
      • God miraculously brought them out of Egypt so that they could be free from slavery to the Egyptians.
      • God gave them the Law through Moses starting with the Ten Commandments.
      • Then in Lev 23 God gave them the Sabbatic System in a calendar of feast days that included the Sabbatic Year. (every 7 years)
        • The people were taught that every seven years all debtors were to be set free from debts.
        • Every seven years land was to be freed and returned to its original owner.
        • Every seven years all slaves were to be set free.
      • In Lev 25:10 the year of Jubilee (every 50 years) was to be a year to proclaim liberty.
        • God is a God of liberty.
        • God wants His people to live in freedom.
    • Together with the concept of liberty, God taught the people responsibility.
      • Freedom without responsibility is anarchy, but God is a God of order. Therefore responsibility is a necessary ingredient.
      • When the people were free from Egypt, they were taught to be obedient to God in the Law of Moses.
      • To maintain their freedom, the Israelites must be obedient to God.
        • Read Deu 28:1,2, 15, 63
        • If they did not maintain their responsibility by obedience, they would lose their liberty.
        • Liberty and responsibility are a double-sided principle that is still in force today.

A nation whose people are disobedient to the moral principles of God will soon discover that they have neither morality nor freedom.

Israel lost the Promised Land, and their freedom, and they became slaves in Babylon.

• • • • Read Exo 21:1-6 The Love Servant
        • The illustration of complete freedom is explained in the story of the love servant.

After six years of slavery, he can gain his freedom in the seventh year.

However, if he decides to remain in his master’s house to serve him freely because of love, he gains a superior quality of freedom.

The love servant freely took personal responsibility to serve his master when he could have freely left his master’s house.

• • • • • You may say, “What kind of freedom is that? He is still a slave to his master. He still does the same menial tasks that he did before.”

Love has transformed the quality of freedom from physical freedom to spiritual freedom.

Spiritual freedom is of a higher quality than physical freedom.

He is now called a free man in his society, even though he still does the same physical tasks for his master.

Out of love he personally takes responsibility to do the tasks that previously he was commanded to do.

The motivation to serve his master is now different.

The joy of serving his master is the result.

He has attained spiritual freedom because physical freedom has less importance.

The resentful slave limited by the restrictions of his servitude becomes the joyful servant spiritually free under the bonds of love.

• • • • The Israelites were supposed to learn the principle of love through the illustration of the love servant in Exo 21.
        • God wanted them to obey His Law because they loved Him.
        • Instead the Law became a curse to them and they rebelled against God.
        • They wanted the freedom but not the responsibility.
        • As a result, without responsibility, they lost their freedom. How does this occur?
  • A wrong concept of liberty destroys true freedom.
    • What is the true Biblical concept of liberty or freedom? We can best understand what true freedom is if we consider what it is not.
      • Humanly speaking man thinks that true freedom is to do whatever he wants to do without any constraint or responsibility, without any consequence, and without any payment.
        • This is the attitude of a rebellious teenager. He wants to be free from the restrictions placed on him by his parents. To the teenager, that is true freedom.

He does not want any accountability (responsibility) to anyone in authority over him.

He does not want any consequences of punishment for his bad decisions.

He does not want to pay for his privileges.

• • • • • This youthful concept of freedom is called libertinism, licentiousness, or lasciviousness.

Licentiousness is to give full reign to man’s sinful nature without restriction and without consequence.

Read 2Cor 3:17-18

• • • • • A lack of accountability (responsibility), a free pass from consequences, and a free ride for privileges is a fantasy at best and a cruel deception of the enemy at worst. It is not freedom in reality.
        • Read Gal 4:28-5:1

Paul uses the example of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate freedom and bondage.

Isaac was the son of Sarah born in the promise of true liberty in Jesus Christ.

Ishmael was the son of Hagar born in bondage to sin. Sin and the law do not bring freedom and liberty.

• • • • For the New Testament Jews, liberty meant political freedom from Rome.
        • This was the attitude Jesus confronted in the gospels.
        • Read Joh 8:31-34

Jesus changed their concept from physical bondage to spiritual bondage.

If a person is a servant to sin, he is in bondage.

Therefore, if he wants freedom, he will serve God instead of sin and Satan.

To follow Jesus Christ is the pathway to freedom.

The truth of the Word of God will make a person free indeed.

• • • The definition: True freedom is the ultimate capacity to serve the living God without hindrance or restraint.
      • The Apostle Paul expands on Jesus’ words.
        • Read Rom 6:15-23
        • Read 2Pet 2:19
        • Read Rom 8:2

In other words, a person who is a slave to sin is free from righteousness.

A person who is a servant to righteousness, he is free from sin.

A person who is under the Law of Moses is under a curse and is not free.

If man serves God because of the Law, he does not experience true freedom because he does not take responsibility for his own acts. He simply follows the outward rules and regulations of the law. There is no love.

Without the inner motivation of love, man is not free, but became a slave to the Law of Moses through legalism.

• • • • Notice that we have returned to the concept of the love servant.
        • A personal responsibility to be obedient with a motive of love brings true freedom.
        • Obedience to God means that man is free from the power of sin, the presence of sin, and the punishment of sin. That is true freedom in Jesus Christ.
        • Read 1Cor 7:22
        • Read Gal 5:13-14
  • Paul’s concept of liberty:
    • From the passages we have already read in the New Testament of Paul’s writings we can already see Paul’s concept of liberty that is illustrated by the love servant.
    • The believer is free in Jesus Christ to live his life in whatever way he wants. However, because of love, he will take the responsibility to restrict his personal freedom.
      • Because he loves God, he will do nothing to damage Christ’s reputation.
      • Because he loves his brother in Christ he will restrict his personal freedom to live as a model of the Christian life.
      • Because he loves Christ, he will be obedient to serve Christ even when it costs him to do so.
      • Because he loves the Holy Spirit, he will restrict his personal freedom to cooperate with the character changes that the Spirit wants to make in his personality.
    • Therefore, true freedom is the restriction of personal liberty to serve the living God with a motive of love for God and for others.
  • Read Rom 8:18-23
    • The finality of freedom is the resurrection of the believer in Jesus Christ to a new body.
    • With a new glorious body, the believer is free indeed to live eternally with Christ.
  • In the end times, the last thing man wants to hear is that he is responsible to God for the decisions he made in his life.
    • The believer in Jesus Christ is not exempt from this responsibility.
    • In reality, the believer in Jesus Christ has a greater responsibility because he has the truth of God.
    • Read Mat 25:14-30
      • God requires of each believer an accounting of his life after receiving Christ.
      • The Bible emphasizes that the greater the privilege requires the greater the responsibility before God.
    • Read Luk 12:48
    • The final accounting for the believer will occur at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
      • Read 2Cor5:10
      • Read 1Cor 3:10-15