Christian Liberty
Understand the freedom Christ purchases for believers and the liberty of conscience the Confession guards, without confusing either with license.
After the searching demands of the law, the Confession turns to the freedom of the gospel. Christian liberty is not freedom from obedience but freedom for it, and it stands among the most precious benefits Christ has bought for His people.
The freedom Christ purchases
The Confession describes the liberty of believers as freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, and the curse of the moral law. Christ delivers them from this present evil world, from bondage to Satan, and from the dominion of sin, so that they obey God not out of slavish fear but from a willing mind and childlike love.
Under the gospel this liberty is enlarged. Believers are no longer subject to the yoke of the ceremonial law that bound the Old Testament church, and they enjoy freer access to God and fuller communion with Him by the Spirit than the saints under the law ordinarily knew.
Liberty of conscience
The Confession then guards the conscience itself. God alone is Lord of the conscience, which He has set free from the doctrines and commandments of men where these are contrary to His Word, or beside it in matters of faith and worship. To bind the conscience by human inventions is to betray true liberty and the rights of conscience.
Yet this liberty is not a cloak for sin or disorder. Those who use Christian liberty to practise sin, or to oppose the lawful exercise of any power God has ordained, overthrow the very end of liberty, which is that, redeemed from our enemies, we might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness.
Study the full text, Scripture proofs, and commentary on each:
- Read WCF chapter 20 (sections 100-103) and distinguish the things believers are freed from in section 100.
- Trace how the Confession holds liberty of conscience and lawful authority together in sections 102 and 103.
- Examine the proof texts behind section 101 on God alone being Lord of the conscience.
See how this doctrine is stated across the Reformed confessions side by side.
Christian Liberty →