John
8:31-32 Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching,
you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will
set you free.”
In the Gospel, Christ has
purchased for believers freedom from the guilt of sin, from the condemning
wrath of God, and from the curse of the moral law. He has also freed them from the
evil world we live in, from enslavement to Satan, from the dominion of sin, the
evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and from
everlasting damnation. In Christ believers have free access to God and can obey
him, not out of slavish fear, but with a childlike love and a willing mind.
God alone is Lord of the
conscience and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men
which are in any way contrary to or different from his Word in matters of faith
or worship. And so, believing any such teachings or obeying such commandments
of men for conscience’s sake actually betrays true freedom of conscience. Requiring
implicit or absolute, blind obedience also destroys freedom of conscience as
well as the free use of reason.
Those who practice any sin
or nourish any sinful desire on the pretext of Christian freedom destroy the
whole purpose of Christian freedom, which is, that, having been rescued out of
the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear and in holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of our lives.
God intends that the
authorities he has ordained on earth and the freedom Christ has purchased should
not destroy but mutually uphold and preserve each other. And so, those who
oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of power, whether civil or
ecclesiastical, on the pretext of Christian freedom, are actually resisting
God.
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith
