Do you know that the word “LIBERTY” is a Bible word? The word liberty is referenced 25 times throughout scripture. The Psalmist talks about the liberty of walking in the light of God’s word, “So I will keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts” (Psalms 119: 44-45). Jesus used the word liberty to tell us the purpose of His coming into this world, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). The apostle Paul was a LIBERTY CHAMPION. Of the 25 references in scripture about liberty, 13 of them are from the writings of Paul. He says, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). He is talking about the liberty we have from sin and the penalty of the law through our faith in Jesus Christ.
The word “LIBERTY” in Paul’s writings is used of a slave who goes to the temple of a cultic god and pays a price to the officials for his freedom. The slave then becomes the property of the temple god to whom the price of freedom was paid. He is no longer the property of any person on earth. He belongs to the god from whom his freedom was purchased. The question is, how many slaves could afford to buy their own freedom and pay the price to the temple treasury? In our case, we could never pay the price for our freedom from sin’s penalty. It was Christ himself who paid the price of His own blood to set us free. That is real “LIBERTY.” That’s what Paul had in mind when he said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5;1).
A minister was one day moving his library up stairs. As the minister was going up stairs with his load of books his little boy came in and was very anxious to help his father. So his father just told him to go and get an armful and take them up stairs. When the father came back he met the little fellow about half way up the stairs tugging away with the biggest book in the library. He couldn't manage to carry it up. The book was too big. So he sat down and cried. His father found him, and just took him in his arms, book and all, and carried him up stairs.
That is what Christ did to set us free from the burden and penalty of sin. He picked us up and he carried our load to Calvary. Thank God today for the “LIBERTY” you have in Jesus Christ.
The word “LIBERTY” in Paul’s writings is used of a slave who goes to the temple of a cultic god and pays a price to the officials for his freedom. The slave then becomes the property of the temple god to whom the price of freedom was paid. He is no longer the property of any person on earth. He belongs to the god from whom his freedom was purchased. The question is, how many slaves could afford to buy their own freedom and pay the price to the temple treasury? In our case, we could never pay the price for our freedom from sin’s penalty. It was Christ himself who paid the price of His own blood to set us free. That is real “LIBERTY.” That’s what Paul had in mind when he said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5;1).
A minister was one day moving his library up stairs. As the minister was going up stairs with his load of books his little boy came in and was very anxious to help his father. So his father just told him to go and get an armful and take them up stairs. When the father came back he met the little fellow about half way up the stairs tugging away with the biggest book in the library. He couldn't manage to carry it up. The book was too big. So he sat down and cried. His father found him, and just took him in his arms, book and all, and carried him up stairs.
That is what Christ did to set us free from the burden and penalty of sin. He picked us up and he carried our load to Calvary. Thank God today for the “LIBERTY” you have in Jesus Christ.
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