STUDY GUIDE ON CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
STUDY GUIDE ON CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
Virgil Warren, PhD
Elements essential to an understanding of Christian freedom are diagrammed here in three sets of logical relationships: (1) subjective refers to our feelings about the matter; objective refers to what is there regardless of our feelings about it. (2) Plus (+) and minus (-) mean the presence or absence of the category at the left for those who are in Christ. (3) Jurisdiction of law is divine regulation of human behavior. Penalty of broken law is the guilt consequence we have for breaking God’s law. Reality means the barriers, boundaries, limitations—personal and external—in the reality where we live and what we are a part of.
Freedom is involved in passages like Matthew 11:30; 16:24; 17:24-27; John 8:31-59; Romans 6:1-8:39; 1 Corinthians 7:21-22, 39; 9:1, 19; 10:29 (cp. all passages dealing with responsible relationships to the weaker brother); 12:13; 2 Corinthians 3; Galatians 2:4, 11-5:1, 13-15ff.; Ephesians 6:8; Philippians 4:10-13 (cp. Luke 3:14; 1 Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5); Hebrews 10:1-4; James 1:20-25; 2:12; 1 Peter 2:13-17; 2 Peter 2; 1 John 5:3; Revelation 6:15; 13:16; 19:18.
From these and scriptures of similar import, determine the nature of Christian freedom in terms of the variables in the schematic. Fit the scriptures into the squares of the analysis if you can. Lengthy texts may move through more than one category. Work out the answers to the questions below.
1. What are we free from that we were not free from before?
2. What is the same about freedom regardless of our commitment to Christ?
3. What is the difference between the kind of freedom we have and the kind of
freedom the world is looking for?
4. How do freedom and responsibility relate?
5. How do freedom and law relate?
6. How is our freedom limited?
7. How is a non-Christian’s freedom limited?
8. What other questions do the answers above raise? christir.org