Verse By Verse Devotional On 2 Corinthians By Pastor Jack #80

Sweet Liberty! (3:17)

3:12-18 "Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

What a blessing it is, my Christian friends, to have been set free in Christ!

If you took a survey and asked people what kind of freedom they long for, you would probably hear things like:
- Freedom from having to work.
- Freedom f rom my tyrannical parents.
- Freedom f rom an over-bearing boss.
- Freedom from sickness.
- Freedom from the effects of aging.

But Christ has given us a freedom that is so much greater than these that one can have full and joyful freedom even while experiencing toilsome work, tyrannical authority, sickness, the effects of aging and even slavery (1Cor.7:22 “For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman...”).

Even if you asked believers what was meant by true liberty, you would probably hear about:
- political freedom
- freedom of the will
- freedom to sin
- freedom from God’s moral law

But we can’t define true liberty by using our own imaginations. We have to go to the context of the passage and to the rest of the New Testament to understand what freedom means. And when we do, we find there the teaching about a deeper freedom, a freedom that makes our notions of freedom, as much as they are blessings of God, look almost trivial.

Here in v.17 Paul is talking about freedom from the old way of looking at things, and in particular, freedom from being blind to the glory of God as a result of sin. But the fact that Paul says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" implies a broader liberty not confined to this one particular issue. So we must survey the rest of the NT to find out the full view of what Paul means by liberty.

We could never survey all that the Bible says about freedom in a devotional such as this. However, did you know that once upon a time, a large group of the godliest and most Scripturally knowledgeable men in the world gathered together and painstakingly summarized the Bible’s teaching on freedom? So, in lieu of an examination of the Bible verses on the liberty of Christ, I quote here what they masterfully recorded:

"The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law; and, in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin; from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation; as also, in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a child–like love and willing mind. All which were common also to believers under the law. But, under the new testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected; and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of." ( The Westminster Confession of Faith , Chapter XX:1)

And now let me include some of the Bible’s most precious statements about freedom:

* "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
* "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."(John 8:36)
* "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18)
* "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Rom.8:2)
* “...the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal.1:3-4)

Now we begin to see what Jesus meant when He said in Luke 4:18-19 “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me , ...He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives , ...To set free those who are oppressed , To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. ”

Understanding freedom rightly means first understanding slavery rightly. The Scriptures teach us what we are really enslaved to, what we really need to be freed from.

The tyrants in our lives are not difficult job situations, they are not the tedious grind of working long hours at a frantic pace, they are not parents or bosses or corrupt politicians or diseases or unhappy marriages or housefuls of kids. Man’s real tyrants are not poverty and prisons and dictators and famines and epidemics and natural disasters. Man’s real tyrants are sin and death and the grave and hell and Satan. The real tyrant is a law that must be obeyed perfectly in order to achieve favor with God.

And in Christ we have been set free from all of this! This is real freedom!

"Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." (Charles Wesley)

Lord, there was never a tyrant like sin. There were never more cruel dominators than lust, greed, pride, hate, and anger. There was never an evil master like Satan. There was never an oppressor like despair and gloom and hopelessness. There was never a debt like the guilt of sin. But You have set me free from all these things through the Lord Jesus Christ! I praise You from the bottom of my heart. Establish me firmly in the liberty of Christ. Help me never to turn back to the yoke of slavery.