Chapter 21: Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience
1. 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 rigour and curse of the law, and in their being
delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion
of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the
victory of the grave, and ever- lasting 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 for the
substance of them; but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians
is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of a 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.
(
Galatians 3:13;
Galatians 1:4;
Acts 26:18;
Romans 8:3;
Romans 8:28;
1 Corinthians 15:54-57;
2 Thessalonians 1:10;
Romans 8:15;
Luke 1:73-75;
1 John 4:18;
Galatians 3:9, 14;
John 7:38, 39;
Hebrews 10:19-21
)
2. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free
from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing
contrary to his word, or not contained in it. So that to believe
such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray
true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith,
an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience
and reason also.
(
James 4:12;
Romans 14:4;
Acts 4:19, 29;
1 Corinthians 7:23;
Matthew 15:9;
Colossians 2:20, 22, 23;
1 Corinthians 3:5;
2 Corinthians 1:24
)
3. They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practice any sin,
or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design
of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction, so they wholly destroy
the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands
of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and
righeousness before Him, all the days of our lives.
(
Romans 6:1, 2;
Galatians 5:13;
2 Peter 2:18, 21
)
Back to the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith
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