Christian Liberty

Definition and Meaning

Christian liberty is the teaching that a person justified through faith in Christ has been set free from three things: first, the dominion of sin; second, condemnation, which is the curse of the law; and third, human ordinances that have no basis in Scripture. Protestantism does not regard this liberty as license to live however one pleases. Rather, it understands it as a freedom that enables the believer to obey God willingly and to serve the neighbor. For this reason, it is often discussed together with justification (God's declaring the sinner righteous) and sanctification (the process of being transformed in holiness).

Biblical and Historical Background

Commonly cited scriptural support includes passages such as "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1) and "If the Son therefore shall make you free" (John 8:36). In Galatians 5:13, Paul instructs believers not to use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve one another. In 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14, he urges consideration for those who are weak in faith in matters concerning food offered to idols, the observance of days, and dietary practices.

In 1520, during the Reformation, Martin Luther wrote On the Freedom of a Christian. In this treatise he summarized the doctrine as a paradox: a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and at the same time a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. John Calvin, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, described this liberty as having three aspects:

• Freedom from the condemnation of the law
• Obedience that is voluntary rather than coerced
• Freedom in adiaphora (things indifferent), matters that Scripture neither commands nor forbids

Chapter 20 of the Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that God alone is Lord of the conscience and connects Christian liberty with liberty of conscience.

Practice in the Korean Church

Korean churches often teach this doctrine alongside warnings against two dangers. One is legalism, which seeks to obtain salvation by works; the other is license, which uses grace as an excuse to treat ethics lightly.

In practice, debate frequently arises over questions that Scripture does not directly address or on which interpretations differ, such as alcohol and tobacco, the manner of Lord's Day observance, and ancestral rites. Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, and Full Gospel churches generally maintain the tradition of abstaining from alcohol and tobacco that dates back to the early missionary period. These churches often explain this tradition not as a condition of salvation but as a matter of holy living and of edifying one's neighbor. Anglican and Lutheran churches are known to leave such matters comparatively more to individual conscience and self-control. In either case, the verse "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient" (1 Corinthians 10:23) is frequently cited.