That was the final count of the two most-recurring nouns in President Bush’s 13-minute second inaugural address last Thursday. Freedom and liberty are terms that can mean different things to different people. One hundred forty-four years ago, when the people of our land took up arms against one another, if you had asked a soldier from either side what he was fighting for, you would have been likely to get the same answer: freedom and liberty. With his latest speech, President Bush certainly gave indications of his administration’s concept of freedom and liberty. But as I ponder the use and application of these words, I wonder what they should mean to those of us who are citizens of the Kingdom of Christ?

    For the Christian, liberty is not just the freedom to do whatever we want to do. It isn’t even simply the matter of having the ability to choose. Rather, Christian liberty is the freedom to do the right thing. A measure of this liberty was given in the Law of Moses (Psalm 119:45), but complete freedom was only to be found in the coming of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets. “…The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1). Reading in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus found this passage and declared, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus had come to set the Jewish nation and the world free. Jesus declared, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).

    When Jesus declared this liberty, His audience’s reaction was confused and indignant: “What makes you think we need freeing? We aren’t enslaved to anyone!” But Jesus knew better. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (v.34). The very thing that so many define as the essence of liberty—doing whatever I want to do—is actually a deluded state of enslavement to sin, to self, to Satan. Sin offers the false promise of freedom, but actually makes men slaves to corruption. “For by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19).

    To someone bound up in the slavery of sin, the concept of liberty that Christ brought is hard to understand. But shown in the eternal scope of things, Christ’s freedom is shown to be true freedom because it lasts forever (John 8:35). “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death” (v.51). The apostle John put it this way: “And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

    Jesus the Messiah paid the price for the world’s freedom (1 John 2:2), but our manumission is not automatic. The means by which we may claim our freedom is “the truth,” what James calls “the perfect law of liberty” (1:25). In obedience to Christ’s truth—when with faith in Christ we are buried with Him in baptism (Romans 6:4)—we are overcome by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:5). Having been overcome by it, we are committed for service to Him who gave it (1 Corinthians 7:22). Liberty in Christ is the freedom to do the right thing—we are liberated from sin! Everything we do, we do as a service to something. Servants of Christ are free because their reward will last forever. We must not neglect that freedom.

    “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery . . . . do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:1, 13). ?  - MDS