What Is Christian Freedom?

The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."

Question

What is Christian freedom?

Answer

That is a really important question. What is Christian freedom? I think there were a couple of people who asked this… First of all, let me go with you to John, chapter 8, and let’s look at the total picture of Christian freedom. You’d have to go to verse 30 to begin with. John 8:30: “And as Jesus was speaking these words”-- and marvelous words they were about who He was -- “many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, ‘If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples really’” or “for real” -- “alethos”, “truly.” “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you,”-- what? “Free.”

Now notice, first of all, that freedom is a result of truth. You take a guy (and this is the way I usually illustrate this) who’s got a very, very complex math problem and he’s got this assignment that he’s got to turn into his professor the next day and he’s in an advanced mathematics class or an advanced something or other that has to do with math… And he’s got to get his problem done.

So, he starts about 8:00 and he keeps this problem going and he’s got a bunch of x’s and y’s and all this kind of stuff, and he’s trying to put the whole thing together. And he struggles and he struggles and and he struggles--you know what happens? The guy is a slave to his problem, isn’t he? And let’s say he comes to the conclusion and he gets an answer and he goes back and checks his answer and it’s wrong. He’s still a slave.

About 3:00 in the morning, he gets an answer and he goes and checks it about five ways and it’s right. He’s free, right? He’s only free when he’s discovered the truth. That’s all. You see, freedom is a result of knowing the truth. There is no freedom apart from knowing the truth because the search goes on. A man is never liberated from the dilemma until he arrives at the solution! So, Jesus said to the Jews, “You guys are still fuddling around with the problem! You’re still playing religious games! If you would listen to me, you would know the truth and the truth would set you free from the tremendous problems you have imposed on yourself by your legalism.”

You see, their legalism--they were satisfying themselves in the fact that they were working out a problem, instead of being satisfied with an answer. And of course, they said, “We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to any man! How sayest thou, ‘We shall be made free’? Why, we’ve never been slaves to anybody.” Oh really? Ho. Have you forgotten that you were slaves to Egypt, slaves to the Babylonians, slaves to the Greeks, slaves now currently to the Romans? “We were never slaves to anybody”? Check again.

And then Jesus said, “Worst of all,” verse 34, “verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the” what? “Slave of sin.” You are slaves to sin. You see, as long as you sin, you sin, you sin, you never get a solution so you never get free from the bondage of sin! When the solution to sin comes, sin’s power is broken, sin is forgiven, you’re free. The problem is solved. Isn’t that really what contributes to Christian peace? I mean, if you stop and think about it, what is the greatest thing to know about as a Christian? It is to know that you’re free from the consequences of what? Sin. You’re free!

So, first of all, Christian freedom has to do with finding the truth in Jesus Christ and being liberated.

But taking it a step further than that, how far does our freedom go as Christians? There’s a lot in the New Testament about Christian liberty and about what Christians are free to do. You know, some people have taken this idea of freedom and just gone crazy with it. “Well, I’m saved and, boy, the Lord’s going to take care of me so I’ll just do what I want to do.” I heard one man who said--I think it was the week before last--he said, “So what if I do wrong? The Lord’s forgiven me in the past; He’ll forgive me again.”

You know what that says to me? That says, one, he doesn’t understand freedom; two, he doesn’t really love the Lord… Because if he loved the Lord, he couldn’t tread on his love like that. You see, if you love somebody, you don’t stomp their grace, do you?

So, you see, what is the boundaries of Christian liberty? Are we free? Listen, I Corinthians says, “All this are lawful.” Did you know that? You say, “Where is it? That’s my life verse; I’ve got to find that one. Where is it?” I’m not going to tell you. Chapter 6. But, all things are lawful, but all things aren’t expedient. Now there’s got to be a boundary. All things are lawful, but I’ll not be brought under the power of any.

Where does Christian liberty fit into this thing? Just how free are we? Well, I want you to know something exciting--Romans 6. In Romans 6:14, it says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you for you’re not under the law, but under grace.” So you’ve been freed from sin… “In what sense? Are you saying that as a Christian I never sin?” Is that true? Some people say, “Well, as Christians, Romans says we’re free from the law. We have been made free from sin. That means that sin doesn’t bother us anymore.” I have actually heard that preached… That we have been made free from sin; sin doesn’t bother--listen, when you become a Christian, sin will bother you a lot more than it did before you were saved.

Being free from sin doesn’t mean you’re free from the actuality of it; it means you’re free from the penalty of it! You’re free from the wages of it. Why? Because you died with Christ. How many times can a person die? Once. And when sin comes to me and says, “MacArthur, I’m going to kill you for your sin,” I say, “Sorry, I already died.”

“When did you die?”

“I died the day I received Jesus Christ: I was crucified with him, nevertheless I live. I died in Jesus Christ on the cross. It’s your tough luck I also rose from the dead.”
You see, that is the death! I died in Christ when I gave him my life! I was buried, right? That’s Romans 6. And I rose and I walk in newness of life! I have paid the penalty in Jesus Christ by my union with Him. Sin has no claims on me. Sin can’t touch me. I still sin; it just has no ultimate penalty. I’ll tell you something else: I don’t sin that grace may abound. God forbid.

So we are free from the power of sin, we’re free from the wages of sin, free from the penalty of sin. Now, I want to take this freedom to Romans 14 and 15. Because here, you see, you run into another area: how free are Christians? You know, some people say, “Well, we’re Christians. Man, we’ve got liberty, we can do what we want to do,” you see. And these are the same people who are always saying that you shouldn’t feel guilty for anything. You just do what you want to do! And you know, you’ve even got people who claim to be Christians and claim so much freedom that they can have sexual relationships outside of marriage and they can just about do anything they want without any theological problem. Believe me, they don’t escape guilt, they don’t escape chastisement, but they at least have fit their theology to rationalize along with their behavior.

But in Romans 14, you have this idea of freedom and how does it work together with the Christian’s commitment. Now, let me just say this to begin with: there are several principles here regarding freedom. The first few verses of the chapter--in fact, I guess we’d have to consider the first thirteen verses probably as one unit of chapter 14--really tell us that we’re free in Christ. But there are some other things that go along with it.

It says, for example, in one, “Him that is weak in the faith receive even not to doubtful disputations, for one believes that he may eat all things; another who is weak eats only herbs.” You’ve got some people who eat meat and others who are vegetarians. “Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; let not him who eats not judge him that eats, for God has received them.” In other words, the big issue isn’t what you eat or what you don’t eat--and those were issues in those days. That’s right.

Listen, a Jew became a Christian, he went over to a Gentile’s house and they had roast pork. Well, he got apoplexy; he couldn’t handle that! And oftentimes the Gentile would just sticking it in and turning it, you know, saying, “Hey, we’re free, fella,” you know… “Have a little pork!” See? I mean, he couldn’t handle that. You see, too many years, too many years had gone by when he had been circumscribed to the law. Well, in Acts, chapter 10, when the Lord came to Peter and spoke to him in the sheet and said, “See all those animals there? They’re all clean. Go ahead. Rise, Peter, kill and eat,” Peter says, “I have never in my life eaten anything unclean!” The Lord said to him, “Don’t you dare call unclean what I’ve cleansed!”

That was tough for Peter. I imagine the first ham sandwich he ever ate went down hard. Boy. So you see, there was a freedom there, there was a liberty there, there was no more dietary laws, there was no more the clothing law of the wool, and so forth and so on… There was no more kitchen cooking laws… All of that stuff had been set aside, all the peculiarities of Israel had been set aside in the institution of the church.

So those outward laws were gone. And yet the Jews couldn’t handle those things and when they saw some people doing certain things, it grieved their spirit.

He goes further and He says in verse 4, “Who are you that judges another man’s servant? To his own master, he stands or falls. Let every man be judged by God. One man esteems one day above another; another man esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

When I was a little kid growing up in Philadelphia, I could not read the funny paper on Sunday! You know that’s true in some cases now? Do you know there was a choir that came to a church back there where I went to church as a little boy and they sang on a Sunday morning and in the afternoon, some of them went into the drugstore to make a phone call, and nobody in the church came back that night to hear them. They had violated the Lord’s Day. Well, there’s no law you can’t make a phone call on Sunday! But you see, they had this little box in which they had to fit everything.

And so, some people regard a day above another. What happened here? Well, some of the Jews were still upholding the Sabbath and some of the Gentiles were saying, “Oh, you legalists! We’re free of the Sabbath; we’re going to go out and go fishing.” Some of the more liberated Jews even, who had matured in the faith, were exercising their liberties. But He says, “Look, if he the regards the day, he regards it to the Lord, and he that regards not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eats, eats to the Lord for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord, eateth not and giveth God thanks.” In other words, it doesn’t matter! These aren’t even consequential gray-area things!

So you’re free. You’re free to do whatever you want. “Ahhh,” you say, “I like that. Free to do whatever I want, yeah… All things are lawful.” Hmm.

There’s a second principle. The first principle is you’re free. The second principle is don’t offend. Now that really ties it down, doesn’t it? That’s right, verse 13, “Let us therefore not judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” Hey, maybe I think I am free to do all those things, but maybe if I didn’t do them, I might be more loving toward my weaker brother who doesn’t yet understand his liberties. You see?

There are some gray areas where these things apply. “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus,” Paul says, “that there is nothing unclean of itself.” Boy, that is a very interesting statement. Now watch: things are not evil of themselves. Is money evil? No, no. Is the fruit that comes from the tree, from the vine, from the grape evil? No, it’s just fruit that comes from the grape. You say, “But it gets alcoholic!” Who gave it the property that causes it to get that way? You say, “Well, that was somehow in the creation.” Well, maybe it was in the fall, but it’s here… But it isn’t evil.

You see, it isn’t the fruit of the grape that creates the problem; it’s the guy who imbibes the fruit of the grape that is the problem. The thing of itself is not the problem. You see, things are not unclean! Things are neutral things! One man could touch the thing and make it into an evil thing; another man could touch the thing and it could become a holy thing. The difference in wine is the difference between the wino and the communion service. You see?

This summer when we went to Israel and they didn’t have any grape juice, we had to have real live wine at the tomb of our Lord! I know that there were people in other groups who were going, “Oh, Martha, oh see…” you know. Can we, can we dare? Do we? See, the thing of itself is nothing! It is the communion we were celebrating of our blessed Lord. I mean, if you happen to be in a land where there’s no Welchs, you make do, right? I mean, it really isn’t that big of a deal. You see, it isn’t the thing itself; it is the man who had the thing in his hand that is the problem!

“There’s nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth it to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” In other words, if he’s determined it in his mind, the best thing for him to do is avoid it. There’s no sense in violating your conscience, and if you haven’t matured to the place where you understand that freedom, don’t violate your conscience.

Ah, but verse 15, “If your brother is grieved with your food, you’re not walking in love. Destroy not him with your food for whom Christ died. Let not your good be evil spoken of for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Sprit. And then he says in verse 19, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things with which one may edify another. For food, destroy not the work of God.” In other words, just so that you can have something to eat or something to drink, verse 21, “It is good neither to eat meat nor to drink wine nor anything by which thy brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak!”

Listen, he doesn’t say it’s evil to drink wine. No, he doesn’t. I know there are some people who think it is a cardinal sin to drink wine! It doesn’t say that in the Bible. It doesn’t say that. Now, I hope I didn’t shoot you down too bad… But it doesn’t say that! What it does say is, “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or anything that will make your brother stumble, be offended, or be made weak.” The reason the Bible doesn’t say it’s evil to drink wine is because wine of itself isn’t evil; it’s just wine, it’s just there. You say, “But don’t you think it’s a sin to drink wine?” Listen, friends: the sin is to violate the conscience of a weaker brother. The sin is to depreciate your testimony. That’s the sin. And if any of those things make my brother stumble, then I will not do those things.

The thing in itself is nothing, but the thing becomes a forbidden thing if it wounds or grieves another brother. That’s all he’s saying! You know, some people can say, “Well, I’m free in Christ, I can do as I want. I can carry on like I want. I can drink as much as I want whenever I want in front of whomever I want,” and you know what they do? They offend somebody! If you love your brother, Paul says, you won’t do anything to make him stumble. This is the whole point.

In verse 1 of chapter 15: “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.” In other words, you know, even if you have the liberty to do some things, don’t do them… Just to take care of the weaker brother. You know who the weaker brother is? Not a new Christian; a legalist. A legalist. “And let every one of us please his neighbor.” Who’s the example? I love this, verse 3, “For Christ pleased not himself.” Christ didn’t do the things that He wanted to do always, but the things that He knew would be good for man.

So, what are the principles? You’re free; don’t give an offense; maintain a clear conscience before God--this is God’s standard. Yes, as a Christian, you’re free… That’s true. But your freedom should never get to place where you exercise it to the wounding of another person. Peter says in his epistle, “Never use your freedom as a cloak of maliciousness.” Don’t use your freedom to hurt other people.