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Sermons
P. G. Mathew, M.A., M.Div., Th.M. | Sunday, October 17, 1999
Acts 21:17-26
Copyright © 1999 by P.G. Mathew
Acts 21:17–26 speaks about Christian liberty. The Christian life is a life of maximum freedom. Christians enjoy freedom from sin, freedom from Satan, freedom from the law, freedom from death, freedom from the wrath of God, and freedom from all the evil forces that are opposed to us in this world. The Christian life is liberty from slavery to powers that oppose God and the freedom to love and serve both God and men. It is the liberty to fulfill God’s law.
This freedom is not something achieved by man; it is a free gift of God’s grace. It was to bestow this freedom that the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, came into this world. To this purpose God the Father anointed him to proclaim liberty to captives, to preach the gospel to the poor, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
There are Christian preachers and theologians who use this portion of Scripture to find fault with Paul. They say that in this passage, the apostle is acting like a chameleon, changing his mind and perhaps questioning the sufficiency of Christ and abandoning the message that he preached that salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing. This is a false judgment of Paul. In this chapter we will demonstrate that Paul was a man who understood and enjoyed maximum Christian freedom.
To understand Christian liberty we must first understand what we are liberated from. The Bible tells us that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a slave to sin. There is a Latin phrase to describe your state—non posse non peccare—meaning it is not possible for you not to sin. Yes, you have freedom, but it is freedom only to sin—freedom to sin in the morning, freedom to sin at noon, and freedom to sin at night, all the days of your life. You are not free to do anything outside of the realm of sin.
But if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36)! The Bible tells us that Christ came to overthrow the prince of this world, to bind the strong man, and to set the prisoners free, that we may enjoy maximum freedom. The moment we trust in Jesus Christ alone, we are characterized by a different freedom—posse non peccare—which means it is now possible for us not to sin. Now we are free to love and serve God. That freedom will only increase throughout our Christian life, and when we go to heaven, we will be characterized by non posse peccare, which means it will not be possible for us to sin. That is true happiness, both for now and for eternity. That is the freedom Jesus Christ calls us to.
The apostle Paul preached the gospel of maximum freedom and enjoyed it himself. As Saul of Tarsus, he first experienced this freedom when, as a slave to sin, he was arrested by the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. Instantly he was justified by faith; his sins were all forgiven; and he was delivered out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom and authority of God’s Son—the kingdom of life, peace, righteousness, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Paul was gloriously converted and instantly became a new creation. He could no longer be described as Jew or Gentile, but as a new creation in Christ: the old was gone; behold, the new had come! Paul was saved by grace through faith plus nothing and received eternal life. The Holy Spirit began to dwell in him and empower him mightily so that he could proclaim the gospel with total boldness.
Paul had an iron will to do the will of God. Directed by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, even though there were repeated warnings that bonds and afflictions awaited him there, Paul traveled there without fear and with great resolve to suffer and even to die, if needs be, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
When he arrived in Jerusalem, Paul was ceremonially unclean according to Jewish law because he had just come from the Gentile world. Thus, James and the elders counseled him to go to the temple and purify himself to show that he was not opposing the law. Additionally, these leaders asked Paul to pay for the expenses involved in the sacrifices of four poor Jewish Christians relating to vows they had taken as Nazarites.
Numbers 6 speaks about Nazarite vows, which were voluntary vows that people would take for a period of time in thanksgiving to God for blessings received or for mercies anticipated in the future. During that period, people would not drink wine or touch anything unclean, and they would let their hair grow. At the end of the allotted time, those who had made the vows would come to the temple, shave their heads, and burn that hair, together with certain sacrifices, as an offering. This was still part of the Jewish cultural life during Paul’s time.
So the leaders of the Jerusalem church told Paul, in essence, “We have four poor Jewish Christians who are ending the period of their vows. It takes a lot of money for the sacrifices they need to offer, and they don’t have enough. You have just returned from the Gentile countries, so why don’t you go ahead and purify yourself now. You can also take these people with you to the temple, meet with the priests, and tell them that you will pay for their sacrifices, which will be a pious act. Let everyone know when the sacrifices are going to be offered. Then the Jewish church will know that, contrary to reports, you are not going against Jewish culture.”
This counsel, designed to deal with the false reports about Paul, was also aimed at maintaining the unity of the church by causing the Jewish church in Jerusalem to be at peace with Paul. Paul agreed to this idea and went to the temple to participate in the temple ceremonies.
Some theologians say that Paul should not have gone to Jerusalem in the first place. They say that Paul disobeyed the Holy Spirit by going, and that this agreement to purify himself and pay for the sacrifices of these four poor Jewish Christians was a further compromise by Paul of the central truth of the gospel, which is the sufficiency of Christ for our full salvation. I say such a view is not correct, in view of the maximum freedom we have and which Paul clearly enjoyed in Christ.
Paul’s understanding of the gospel and his own experience of the glorious liberty of the children of God was in no way contradicted by his actions in Jerusalem. Throughout his life after his conversion, Paul always preached that salvation was by grace through faith plus nothing. We read this especially in his epistles to the Romans and the Galatians.
Paul taught this truth wherever he went. Yet when he was ministering to the Jews, he conformed to the Old Testament ceremonial regulations. He did so, even though he knew these matters—diet and dates and festivals and washings and ablutions—were not essential to salvation.
Paul was free from the ceremonial law, yet he did not consider it a sin to observe it, provided it was not done to acquire righteousness. Paul worked in two distinct cultures—Jewish and Gentile. In order to speak to those in both cultures, he adapted himself to the Jews, who were under the law of Moses, and to the Gentiles, who were not. When he was among the Jews, he lived as a Jew and conformed to the cultural expressions of Judaism. When he was among the Gentiles, he lived as a Gentile believer.
Was Paul a chameleon or a compromiser? Was he unstable as an apostle? Was he a person who lacked conviction and resolve? Not at all! Paul understood his total freedom in Christ and enjoyed this freedom to the full. But he had a task to do, given to him by the Lord Jesus himself. Paul was commissioned to preach the gospel of God’s grace to the Jews and also to the Gentiles. To fulfill this task, and to preserve the unity of God’s church, Paul determined to live among the Jews as a Jew and among the Gentiles as a Gentile, all the time remaining under the law of Christ.
There is a saying: “In essentials, unity; in things indifferent, liberty; in all things, charity.” There are things that are indifferent—the word is adiaphora—which don’t matter in regard to salvation, and there are things that are essential. When we examine the principles by which Paul lived, we will see that what he did in Jerusalem was not a contradiction of the gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-20 Paul writes, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (although I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.” Paul understood what God had done in Jesus Christ and that salvation does not come by keeping the law as a system of salvation. He continues, “To those not having the law,” meaning the Gentiles, “I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law” (v. 21). Paul’s purpose was to win Jews and Gentiles for Christ through the preaching of the gospel, and he employed all means to that end.
Paul continues, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak” (v. 22). Weak people were those who thought that Christians should only eat vegetables. They were those whose consciences bothered them when they ate meat that was offered to the idols. What did Paul do about these people? He became like them. He said he would eat what they ate because, in God’s eyes, these matters of food and drink are adiaphora.
Then he concludes, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (vv. 22–23). Did this position make Paul a chameleon, a compromiser, unstable in all his ways? No! As a man of total conviction, Paul understood the gospel and wanted to proclaim it to whomever he could.
In the same epistle Paul gives us further information about his position: “Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.” In other words, if you are called as a Gentile, don’t try to be a Jew; and if you are called as a Jew, don’t try to be a Gentile. He continues, “This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.” Now, this is the principle Paul was teaching: “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts” (1 Cor. 1:17–19). We can do that only after God has done his work of making us new creations in Christ.
After he became a Christian, Paul continued to participate in the Jewish festivals. Every time he went to Jerusalem he purified himself, and he even took certain Nazarite vows. But in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 we see that Paul had a profound understanding of the entire Jewish sacrificial system. Paul instructs his readers, “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul clearly understood that once Christ died, there was no need for any further sacrifices. To the true believers of the Old Testament, the sacrificial system pointed forward to the Messiah. They knew that the blood of bulls and goats would not save them; rather, it pointed to the Messiah. As for Paul, as long as the Jewish sacrificial system survived in Jerusalem, he would go to the festivals and worship at the temple. But when he looked upon these sacrifices, he was looking backward to Christ. He understood that Christ’s blood fully satisfied the requirements of the law. He understood that Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Thus, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. This is the key to understanding Paul’s actions in Jerusalem.
We find several examples of Paul’s “becoming like a Jew” when he was among the Jews in the book of Acts. In Acts 18:18 we read, “Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken.” Paul apparently had taken a Nazarite vow while he was in Corinth for the blessings he received from God. Having completed the period of the vow, he shaved his hair and was going to Jerusalem.
In Acts 20:6 we read, “But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread,” meaning the Passover. Paul was not in Jerusalem for Passover, but I am sure he celebrated it, with the knowledge that Christ was the final Passover Lamb who had been crucified. He was not trusting in the festival of Passover but in Jesus Christ alone.
In Acts 20:16 we read, “Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem if possible, by the day of Pentecost.” Paul’s desire was to go to Jerusalem in time to celebrate the Festival of Pentecost. Again, his focus was not on the festival but on Christ.
When James and the elders suggested Paul go to the temple and participate in the ceremonies there, as we read in Acts 21:23-24, what was Paul’s reaction? I am sure he agreed because Paul knew he could go to the temple and perform all the ceremonies without denying the gospel. His faith was in Christ, not in the ceremonial law.
In Acts 24:18 Paul made this statement in his defense before Felix: “I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this.” In other words, he had purified himself in accordance with Jewish custom. Such ceremonial purification was no problem to Paul, but he did not believe such actions brought about purification of his conscience. Paul clearly understood that his conscience could be purified only by the shed blood of Christ, as he preached many times. But he conformed to these adiaphoral matters for the sake of preaching the gospel.
Finally, in Acts 27:9 Luke notes, “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast.” The Fast was the festival of Yom Kippur, another festival which Paul would have observed.
My point is this: Paul behaved as Jew and expressed his cultural heritage when he was among the Jews, but he did so without ever denying that salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing.
When we read the Pauline epistles, we notice how ferociously Paul attacked the Pharisees’ idea that salvation is achieved by keeping the law. “No!” Paul would say. “It is absolutely impossible to achieve salvation by keeping the law because no one can be justified by observing the law. The purpose of law is not to impart life but to make us aware of our sin so that we might repent and trust in Jesus Christ.” This thought was intrinsic to Paul’s preaching.
In the book of Galatians Paul attacked the Judaizers, Jewish Christians who believed that salvation is by grace through faith plus something else. They were telling the Galatians, who were Gentile converts, that they had to be circumcised to be saved.
What was Paul’s response to this? In Galatians 5:2 he told the Galatians in no uncertain terms what he thought: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.” Paul opposed this type of Pharisaism vehemently. He boldly stood against the Judaizers’ idea that salvation is by grace through faith plus circumcision.
Yet in Acts 16 we find Paul circumcising Timothy, a disciple from Lystra whose father was a Gentile and whose mother was a Jewess. Was Paul contradicting his words to the Galatians? No. When he decided to take Timothy along with him on his travels, Paul circumcised Timothy, not so that Timothy might be saved, but to conform to Jewish custom so that Timothy, whose Jewish heritage was not hidden, could also preach the gospel wherever he went. Paul had Timothy circumcised so that he would be more readily accepted by the Jews when they went to preach in synagogues. But Paul did not consider circumcision as a necessary part of salvation. In fact, in Galatians 2:3 we discover that when Paul took Titus to Jerusalem, he did not allow Titus to be circumcised, even though there may have been pressure on him to do it. Why? As a Gentile convert, Titus did not need to be circumcised to be saved, and Paul knew that.
To Paul, cultural expression of ceremonial laws of diet and festival days, as well as the eating of meat offered to idols, belonged to the category of adiaphora. These were non-essential and do not make a difference in one’s salvation.
So Paul did not go to the temple, purify himself, and offer sacrifices so that he could be saved. To him such things were indifferent. But he knew they had value in evangelizing the Jewish people and maintaining the unity of the church. (PGM) And regarding the vital question of justification of Jews and Gentiles, Paul preached the truth. We read about this in Romans 3:20-26, that justification is apart from keeping the law. In verses 21-22 Paul wrote, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known… . This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ,” and then he said, “to all who believe”—to the Jew and also to the Greek.
Paul taught that no one would ever be declared righteous by observing the law. The law was not given to impart life, but to give us knowledge of our own rottenness and sin so that we may repent and run to Christ for justification.
There are two philosophies in the Christian church that oppose this maximum freedom gospel. The first is legalism, which is a form of Pharisaism.
Legalism is the religion of formalism and externalism. It is the religion of washing hands, feet, and bodies. It is the religion of mechanically keeping rules and maintaining that evil is found outside the body—in food, coffee, meat, and so on.
Jesus opposed this philosophy. “No,” he would say. “You have it all wrong. The problem is not in the coffee you drink or the meat you eat. The problem is inside you. Don’t you know that in God’s eyes your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? Sin comes out of your depraved heart in your words and actions.”
In Matthew 23 we find a list of woes pronounced on the Pharisees. When we read that list, we notice that these people majored in minors. In Matthew 19 we meet the rich young ruler, who was also a Pharisee and legalist. “What must I do to be saved?” he asked Jesus, and the answer was given: “Keep the law.” “I have kept it all,” the man said. Then Jesus told him, “All right, then. Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor and come and follow me.” All of a sudden, his god was revealed. This man was a worshiper of money.
The Pharisees failed to acknowledge that evil comes from man’s heart, not from external factors. I was brought up in a church with these rules: “Don’t play. Don’t participate in any sports. Don’t take medicine. Don’t go to medical college. Don’t go into business to make a profit. Don’t celebrate birthdays or holidays. Don’t wear a wedding ring. Don’t wear any jewelry or cosmetics. There is evil in all of these things and you must abstain from them to be considered righteous.”
Legalism is a distortion of the gospel. It is a religion of rules that say that as long as we don’t do certain things, we are all right. It has nothing to do with making our old, hard, cold hearts alive to God. It is a religion of formalism, externalism, and negativity. Externally, we may look good, but the heart is the same. There is no warmth toward God and others at all.
Paul discusses legalism in Romans 14. He writes, “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters” (v. 1). This is speaking about adiaphora.
Note, this problem was found in a church—the church of Rome. Within that church there was a minority of people who were called “weak in the faith.” If we continue reading, we discover that these people said real spirituality meant eating only vegetables. This became their religion, and they thought that they were more pious than those who ate meat.
Legalism was causing problems in the Roman church. So Paul was telling the church, “Go ahead and accept those who are weak in faith without criticizing them about disputable matters.” “Weak in the faith” means they were weak in their understanding of the gospel. Their lack of growth in the knowledge of the gospel was causing problems in the church.
These people were Christians, but they were weak in the faith. Paul put himself among the strong in the faith, among those who understood the gospel, grew up, and matured in the Lord. He put himself with those who understand that Christian freedom comes to us through Christ, and so Christians can eat anything they want.
In Romans 14:14 Paul writes, “As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself.” The weak people thought that evil is found in food, specifically meat. But Paul was saying that all food is clean. This was not a new idea. Paul knew that since the first coming of Christ, the Jewish ceremonial and dietary laws were abrogated. Jesus himself taught this in Mark 7, and Peter received a reinforcement of this idea in the vision God gave him in Acts 10. So the idea that all food is clean was given by revelation of Jesus Christ and recorded in the Scriptures. However, if a person thinks something is unclean, it is unclean for him, and he shouldn’t eat it. The strong shouldn’t force him to eat it, because if he does something that is not of faith, it is sin. We should never violate our consciences.
What should those who are strong do? We should show consideration for the weak. We should patiently teach them so that they will not remain weak in the gospel. We should bring them up through education so that their consciences may be adjusted by the Scriptures. We should instruct them that a Christian’s conscience must obey the word of God, not the word of man.
The strong should show consideration for the weak. At the same time, those who are weak should not legislate rules for the strong. So if you are weak, we will counsel you, put up with you, and eat vegetables with you. We will not eat meat with you until you are built up in the most holy faith through your understanding of the gospel. But you must also study the Scriptures and seek to grow in the Lord on your own.
In Romans 15:1 Paul writes, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” Paul included himself in the company of those who are strong in the faith. “Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” The Bible does not glory in the weakness of one’s faith. Paul was strong, but he would not put up with legalists who pretended that eating vegetables is the way of greater spirituality. So in Romans 14 as well as 1 Corinthians 8, 9 and 10, Paul makes it clear that nothing is unclean of itself. The weak should not legislate a standard of morality for the rest of the people, and the strong must exercise all due forbearance toward the weak. However, if we are strong, we must understand that others are weak, and we cannot force our freedom upon them. We have to bear with them, build them up, and teach them until their consciences adjust themselves to the gospel.
Legalistic Pharisaism, negative religion, and rule-keeping has nothing to do with the gospel. May God help us to forsake legalism! May he touch us in our hearts so that they may glow with warmth and love for Christ. And may we enjoy his gifts, knowing that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights. May we eat and drink with thanksgiving to the glory of God, knowing that nothing is unclean of itself.
The other philosophy in the church that opposes the gospel of maximum freedom is antinomianism. Pharisaism is legalism—an overly zealous keeping of the law. But antinomianism means to go against the law. It is also called libertinism or autonomy.
Antinomianism is the most prevalent philosophy in today’s evangelical world, especially in the United States. We will discuss several of the ways in which it manifests itself in the church.1
Dualistic antinomianism. What is dualism? Here it means the theory that human beings are made of two elements, matter and spirit. Matter is considered to be evil while spirit is considered to be good. Dualistic antinomianism teaches that it doesn’t make any difference what you do with your body—salvation is only for your soul. In other words, sin all you want! This Greek dualistic philosophy can creep into the church, as we read in Jude and 2 Peter 2. Indeed, we have seen manifestations of this philosophy in many modern churches. This “wonderful” doctrine says that we can sin all we want while calling ourselves Christians because our souls are all that matters.
There is only one problem with this view: The Bible does not teach matter is evil and spirit alone is good. This type of dualism is found both in Greek and Hindu literature, but it has nothing to do with the Scripture. God created the universe and called it good, and what we do with our bodies matters for eternity.
Charismatic (Spirit-centered) antinomianism. Proponents of this second kind of antinomianism say, “I am led only by the Spirit of God,” meaning “I am led by my own subjectivity, not by the word of God.” I call this charismatic antinomianism. This type of thinking has nothing to do with the Spirit of the living God. Such people will say, “I feel goose bumps and warmth. Thus, I am led by the Spirit.” They trust in this type of goose-bump, warm feeling guidance rather than in Scriptural principles. Some people may even go so far as to say, “I rely on the guidance of the Spirit, not on what the Bible says. Don’t you think the Spirit’s guidance of today is superior to the Scriptures, which were written down so long ago?”
To such people, the idea that we are not saved by keeping the law means they have freedom from the law in their moral behavior. This type of thinking results in sin. Such people despise the word of God. They refuse to study it, exegete it, and obey it. They use the Bible atomistically to promote their own ideas. The essence of their teaching is, “Go ahead and sin.”
Christocentric (Christ-centered) antinomianism. This type of antinomianism says that God does not see any sin in us because we are in Christ, who kept the law perfectly. This sounds theologically sound. But what such people are really saying is that it does not matter what we do, as long as we have believed in Jesus. This is just another attempt to give license to sin.
Dispensational antinomianism. This type of antinomianism states that our obligation to keep the moral law (i.e., the Ten Commandments) is not necessary in our Christian life. In Reformed theology, moral law is called the third use of the law. The first use of the law is to reveal who God is and who man is, especially that man is a sinner and needs to repent. The second use of the law is for civil purposes, to restrain human sin through punishment as we live in society. The third use of the law is for moral purposes, to act as a guide to conduct. Dispensational antinomianism, however, is saying that Christians do not need to keep the moral law. The slogan of those who adhere to this view is, “We are no longer under law, but under grace.”
There are many scriptures that refute this view, but I will just list a few. In Romans 3:31 we read, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, we read, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” And in 1 Corinthians 9:21 Paul writes, “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so as to win those not having the law.”
Dispensational antinomianism is false. It is total nonsense, yet it is the most popular teaching in the evangelical circles today. How many people say that we can accept Jesus as Savior but not necessarily as Lord, and that the only thing we must do is believe? I would remind those who say such things that James says even the devil believes in God and trembles (Jas. 2:19). We must surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Dialectical antinomianism. This type of antinomianism is practiced more by theological liberals than evangelicals. It denies the authority of the Bible and, therefore, denies the authority of moral law. But the result is the same: it gives license to sin.
Situationist antinomianism. This type of antinomianism was made popular by Joseph Fletcher and others in the mid-twentieth century. Situationist antinomianism says that as long as our motive and intention is “love,” we can disregard any moral rules when deciding on a course of action. So we can commit adultery or anything else we want, as long as we are motivated by “love.”
All of these are distortions of the true gospel. If we are saved by the true gospel, we enjoy maximum freedom, but that freedom is not given to us so that we can sin. We are saved from sin, from Satan, from the wrath of God, and from hell for one purpose—to love and obey God.
“If you love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus told us. When we have been transformed in our hearts, we will naturally love God and want to keep his law. When God makes us into new creations and gives us new hearts upon which his law is written, keeping the law of the Lord will be a delight, not a burden. This is true of anyone, old or young. Parents, if your children are not obeying God out of love, pray that they would be born of God.
We are saved by Christ alone through faith alone from our slavery to sin, Satan, law and death. But we are saved to a new slavery. Our eleutheria (our freedom) comes from a douleia (a slavery) to God. We are set free to serve God.
Through this new slavery to God, we glorify him and enjoy him forever. We are freed by Christ to a new obedience—the obedience of love. Christian obedience is never meant to achieve salvation; it is the evidence that we are God’s people. We read about this in Galatians 5:13 where Paul says our freedom in Christ is not a license to sin—antinomianism—or legalism, but a license to serve God. Our freedom is expressed in keeping the moral law of God out of love for God. “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).
Those who are justified are also being sanctified. We must obey God. We can never divorce justification from sanctification. Jesus said the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Then he said, “Upon these two hang the whole moral law” (see Matt. 22:37–40).
If we are saved, we can do what God wants us to do, which is to demonstrate our love to him by obeying his commandments. Now we have a new motivation and a new nature. We are new creations in Christ, created for a purpose—“unto good works” (Eph. 2:10), which is obedience to God’s law. In 1 Timothy 6 we read that we must be rich in good works. In Titus 2 we read that we must be zealous, eager, burning for good works.
Such is the nature of a child of God, of one who is born of God and indwelt by the Spirit of God. He glories in God, abides in his word, and ever seeks the will of God, not to achieve salvation but to express his love for God.
Every person is a slave. The question is, whose slave are you? You can be a slave of sin and Satan, or you can be a slave of Jesus Christ. If you are a slave of Christ, you will enjoy the maximum freedom offered to you by Christ. You will have real maximum freedom.
May God help us to understand the gospel so that we can enjoy our freedom by delighting in the law of the Lord. May our children also experience this freedom. When your child comes to you and asks, “Dad, is there something else you want me to do?” and you see on his face that there is no burden or anguish, but a real desire to serve, you can rejoice. You will say what God said about Jesus Christ, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”
If we are experiencing maximum Christian freedom, we have a perfect standard given to us by God, which is God’s law; we have a perfect motivation, which is love; and we have a perfect purpose, to please God in our whole life and obey his commands. If we are experiencing maximum Christian freedom, pleasing God will not be a burden; not watching pornography will not be a burden; not committing adultery will not be a burden; and not being envious and greedy will not be a burden. We will enjoy the glorious freedom given to us by Jesus Christ to serve God, not to sin. If God has set you free and made you a slave of Jesus Christ, you will rejoice in your slavery. Never envy the condition of unbelieving slaves. They are slaves of sin, slaves of Satan, slaves of death, slaves of hell, slaves of misery, slaves of hopelessness. We have been set free to worship and love God.
May God help us not to believe in the distortions of the true gospel. May he deliver us from Pharisaism, legalism, rule-keeping, externalism, formalism, antinomianism, libertinism, and autonomy. May the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Scriptures, guide us in the way of Christ and his moral law. This is true freedom. This is kingdom of God—righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
1 These categories are adapted and expanded from J.I. Packer’s treatment of antinomianism in Concise Theology (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1993), 178–180.
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