Lesson 58 October 20, 2002

Part 2 - Newness of our Position in Christ

Third, Christian freedom is based on the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is the Spirit of Truth who guides us into all Christ centered truth (John 16:13).

Yet Christian freedom is neither unstructured nor free from all restraints and limitations. God lays out the parameters for freedom, for our life lived day by day. There are parameters established and they are called the will of God.

The implication of this freedom brought by Christ that we've seen Paul emphasize is that this freedom is not legalism. In fact are antithetical to one another.

Legalism as an Addition to the Gospel

The first definition of legalism that can be gleaned from the New Testament, especially Paul, is that it is any addition to the gospel that is either a requirement for becoming a Christian or staying a Christian, or anything that promotes a sense of pride and self-righteousness before God.

At the heart of legalism is the human viewpoint delusion that human beings are good, and that their works can be the basis for becoming acceptable before God, salvation.

Paul's response to these legalists was that any additions to the gospel in effect nullifies the gospel. Thus Paul wrote in Galatians 2:21 that if righteousness was through the law, then Christ died needlessly.

Freedom Is Not License

License is the removal of all limitations and living without any parameters or controls.

Freedom should not lead to an expression of the "flesh," that is, the sin nature which is still retained by Christians even though we have been transferred from being "in Adam" to "in Christ" and are separated from it's ruling power.

Freedom in Christ does not include license to give expression to the works of the flesh, that is, to allow the sin nature to express itself in all its ugliness and alienation from God's will.

The Spirit of life in Christ has freed us from the law of sin and death so that we might fulfill the will of God (Rom. 8:1-4).

Freedom is not an open invitation to do anything one wants to do. There are consequences for failure to live the Christian life, that is to walk by the Spirit.