“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act … Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty” (Abraham Lincoln).*

This illustration can help us understand the charges of antinomianism hoisted against the doctrine of grace. Also, it assists us in responding to those who try to leverage grace to justify moral license. The tension between grace and moral responsibility has occupied the minds of serious Christian thinkers from the beginning of the Christian movement; it has caused great debates and divisions through the centuries. In popular evangelical groupthink, some live by the idea that the moral code of the Bible, along with the OT legal and sacrificial systems, is to be relegated to the dustbin of Victorian hang-ups that stifle the innate human freedom of thought and behavior. When that code shows up in the NT in the form of sins to be avoided, a plethora of blogs, books, and preaching stretch the bounds of normal hermeneutics by assigning novel interpretations that undermine otherwise clearly stated behavioral issues. Yet, we dare not denude the NT of what occurs throughout the teachings of Jesus and the apostolic writings, which often lines up with the OT moral code.

We see this in today’s movement to be “true to yourself” and define one’s identity. In the past, Christian thought was to find our identity in Christ, but now the overriding mantra is to seek inwardly for our identity. After all, how can anyone live free in the world if they deny who they intrinsically are, and how can we criticize someone who claims the exhilarating “freedom” to live outwardly consistent with who they think they truly are? This way of thinking elevates the self to a level of truth above what the revealed Word of God teaches about finding our identity in Christ. The Bible is subsumed under the authority of self; truth begins with the individual, the fulcrum for determining and embracing freedom.

However, just proclaiming one’s freedom does not make freedom a reality. A relative freedom in lesser things does not trump the loss of freedom in the greater things. The fact is that all freedom is relative for us mere humans. Only God is entirely free; He is the only one who is non-contingent, wholly independent and free from all outside constraints or influences. We might even say that He alone can choose out of a vacuum, in the sense that before He created, there was nothing else. He existed without any constraining context that colored His thinking and His choices. But for us mere humans, we are entirely contextual and contingent; our choices do not take place in a vacuum. The false notion is that our most basic context is our self, and to that we must be true. However, that does not take into consideration the propensity to self-delusion. It is axiomatic that a self-deluded individual does not know he is deluded. Otherwise, he would not be deluded! Relying on one’s sense of self is a deceptive reference point for determining truth. One cannot possibly know if their truth is anchored in reality. It is like throwing a ship’s anchor overboard only to have it land on a lower deck. The sailor may assume a sense of security and freedom from worry, having apparently done his due diligence—but he completely misses his situation’s reality. Simply put, his “truth” was wrong and of little use in the real world.

 Someone can be relatively free with an inferior lack of restraint and giving way to impulses. When we give in to sin, the struggle subsides, the fight is over. That may give us temporary freedom from that which restricted us. But, the greater issue is what kind of slavery that “freedom” brings. It is this that the apostle Paul addresses when He speaks of our freedom in Christ. He does not preach a license to live in any way that gives us a sense of discovery and personal fulfillment. In Christ, our perception of freedom is redirected away from self-fulfillment; our perspective is released from the constraints of needing a law-based righteousness. This also includes being released from the idea that an objective moral code hinders life as God designed it.

Interestingly, the law-based approach is self-centered, just as much as ignoring the Law is self-centered. Both are based on what we do, what we achieve, and how we see ourselves. Both involve a self-centered righteousness, the anchor on a lower deck and not in Christ. In this regard, living by the Law’s constraints or living by self-identity’s supposed freedoms suffer from the same self-delusion—only the façade is different.

The apostle Paul writes about the legalistic façade:

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. (Col. 2:20–23).

We shouldn’t escape one slavery only to embrace a different façade of the same slavery. Instead, as the apostle writes to the Galatian believers, we must stand firm in Christ:

 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1)

Our freedom in Christ releases us from religion, a set of requirements for attaining the right standing before God and eternity. These requirements enslave and do not give freedom. We, as believers, have a righteousness that comes by faith in Christ, not by works of the law.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (Rom. 3:28)

However, freedom from the Law as a means of salvation does not mean we are morally free to live as we want or to reconfigure NT scriptures to fit an anchor-on-the-lower-deck self-defined reality. The problem is that legalistic thinking is ingrained in our fallen way of thinking, and this is not just a Christian or religious hang-up. Central to paganism is the idea that we must fashion a god into our own image, for we cannot live with the idea that our lives don’t live up to a perceived moral code that offends the deity. Modern culture cleverly disguises paganism with the garb of “self-identity” but fails to see that the self has become the idol that controls us. It is pervasive of fallen human thinking.

How, then, does legalism or license, one or the other, become so ingrained in the religious minds that seek truth in the Bible? It can be seen in the difficulty of understanding that human motivation to do good and obey God can be sufficiently catalyzed by the prospect of God’s goodness and love and not by fear of His wrath. Or, to put it more simply, Christians typically embrace one of two lines of thought, both of which are erroneous: 1) Our bottom-line motive for living the right life God wants for us is that if we don’t, He will punish us; or 2) God is love and our only “punishment” is the negative consequence of not living true to ourselves.

We must reject the idea that love is not a greater motive than fear. Yes, there is a place for fear, which the Bible definitely speaks of. However, that fear is only a means to an end, which is not conformity, but to bring a person to a greater understanding of the love of God. It is lip service to say that we believe that love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), but when push comes to shove, we use fear and judgment to bring sinning believers back in line with conformity. That is a denial that God’s love is sufficient. This is not to minimize the consequences of sinful behavior (which we will address below). But using fear like this is unbiblical on two counts. First, Scripture teaches that God’s kindness leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). If that is true for non-believers coming to repentance of salvation, then it follows that it would be true for believers who already have salvation. The adage is true: God saves us to what He saves us with. He saved us to a life of His kindness by saving us with His kindness. That is another way of talking about God’s love.

The second reason why motivating Christians with fear is unbiblical is that it betrays the profound depth of God’s love for sinners. And this holds true for both legalists and those who reject God’s moral code. When one realizes the cost to God in procuring our salvation through the death of His son, how can one not be eager to obey Him out of immense gratitude to order our lives by His ways? We often don’t do this precisely because we diminish in our minds the need for the kind of sacrificial love that our sin required on the cross. In other words, God’s love for me is proven greater by the depth of my sin. As it is written, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…” (Rom. 5:20). Our sin is a showcase for God’s loving grace! We don’t deny our guilt and shame, but we trade it for the wondrous love of Christ!

If I don’t believe my sin is all that bad, then I don’t think God’s love is all that great. It is good, to be sure, but not great! It is as though going through life is a striving to need less and less of God’s love and grace. Our goal in life, however, is not to need less from God; our solution to the sin problem is not to get to where we don’t need His cross anymore. Understanding and embracing the profound, comprehensive depth of our sinning against a holy and righteous God is not an exercise in self-defeat or of resigning to eternal shame. It is a catalyst to breaking out into the sunshine of God that is far greater than we ever realized. The legalistic Christian and the Christian who ignores the law of God have forgotten that they have been forgiven by God’s unfailing love for all of their sins, even the ones they have yet to discover in themselves!

This is why the apostle Paul shared this prayer with the Ephesian believers:

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17–19)

But, if fear is not the primary motivator in our lives and we are called to boldly rest in God’s love, what then is our motivation for doing right in the world? Are we free to live “our own truth,” based on our self-assessment or identity? It is to this the Scripture addresses in the words of the apostle Paul: the question is not whether God will punish erring believers. No, He loves us and wants to prevent us from throwing our anchor on a false security or self-fulfillment. God does not want us to think in terms of what is lawful (i.e., living by or breaking the moral code) but in terms of what is edifying or profitable for us. We read Paul’s teaching by way of personal example (repeated by him for emphasis):

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12) … All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify” (1 Cor. 10:23).

… for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. (Rom. 4:15)

“[T]here is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)

As believers in Christ, there are no laws that will keep us from our eternal life in Him, for we already have Christ’s righteousness apart from any legal or moral rules. In that sense, all things are lawful; nothing can lawfully separate us from Christ.

But, and this is an enormous “but”—claiming that something is lawful does not mean that it is good for us to do. As redeemed believers with the righteousness of Christ, it makes no sense to live a wasted life animated by our own (or our culture’s) creation. Our motivation is not to secure salvation—that is already a done deal. No, our motivation is to live life well according to God’s expectations and design–that comes from a relationship with God as our loving Father, not as our Judge. The judgment has already been taken care of on the cross.

But if we remove the threat of eternal punishment, are we then not free to “eat, drink, and be merry,” as Jesus spoke about in Luke 12:19? Why not just live for the pleasures of life since we are eternally secure? Jesus was not using a threat to motivate conformity but was warning about the consequences of irresponsible behavior that did not take into account the limits of their own existence. In other words, self-referential truth is anything but edifying or profitable.

So, the apostle Paul says we are freed from the Law as it relates to righteousness before God for eternity, but we are not freed from the consequences of disobeying God in this life. We must get away from the notion that our eternal destiny is always in question. Instead, we must understand that living by the motivating truth of God’s love is greatly more profitable and edifying for a life in harmony with God. It is to our peril if we do or think anything else.

To live with eternity as a back-pocket certainty is good and foundational, but to waste a life that was created for God’s good pleasure and purposes makes no sense at all. Scripture teaches that we are “His workmanship created to do good works” (Eph. 2:10). He didn’t bring us into this world to be justified by good works but to do good works. To ignore this is to live an empty, inferior life. To say, “Oh well, at least I am going to heaven,” is to waste a life, missing God’s purpose for us. To think that is good is a tragedy. The only fear is that of squandering the life God has given us.

Is it OK to contravene God’s teachings about life decisions, behaviors, and thinking and to live freely as we choose? If freedom is our goal, then we are the most free when we live the way God created us to live, in line with His purposes. We live well when we live in His good pleasure. That is the starting point, not our self-identity. We must begin with God, as He revealed and continuously reveals Himself. We must take Him at His word and be influenced by the mantras of our present-day culture. We do not have to fall prey to what the world proclaims is “self-evident.” That is like the sailor adamantly asserting, “It is self-evident that I threw the anchor overboard. I am safe.”

We, as believers, are freed from a vastly inferior definition of freedom that limits us to the impulse of our self-centered desires (whether we call that self-identity or otherwise). We have been launched into a superior understanding of freedom, a release from domination by our very own selves. We can escape the blinding pseudo-reality of self-deception when we see God’s truth that cuts the heart out of self-delusion. The truth is that the world’s delusion disguises the real slavery, which comes at an enormous cost and forfeiture of a true and greater freedom. We can’t afford to live our lives only to discover it was all based on a lie. That is no freedom.

There is no greater and more excellent life of freedom than living for God. To do otherwise, is to enslave ourselves to inferior “freedoms,” which deprive us of living in and for the pleasure of God. As Abraham Lincoln wryly intoned, it is all about how we define freedom!

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*Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1865, the 16th President of the United States, in The Wit and Wisdom of the American Presidents: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions: Speeches/Quotations).