WCF 20: Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience

 By William Boekestein - Posted at Place for Truth:

No church may impose, even in an unwritten way, a dress code for worship, besides demanding the modesty that God requires (1 Tim. 2:9). The church may not declare it a sin to drink alcohol. The church should not speak with authority on the necessity or evils of vaccinations. The church should teach believers the principles of voting well but may not endorse a candidate.

It is a sad fact: liberated Christians aren’t always good at practicing Christian liberty. We struggle to break free from the hold of besetting sins. Sometimes we even justify sin on the basis of our freedom in Christ. And we are tempted to hold others to the same standards as us even on matters in which they are not bound by Scripture. This has always been so. But the last several years have made this weakness painfully obvious. Perhaps we don’t even consider Christian liberty to be very important. If you were writing a thirty-three point summary of the faith would you devote a chapter to the topic?

Our failure to practice Christian liberty is a tragic irony since in Scripture freedom is nearly synonymous with salvation—“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1). Believers have been delivered from sin in order to freely obey God. So we may not allow ourselves to become enslaved again. We need to treasure our freedom in Christ and respect his sovereignty over the conscience.

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