Day 4

Living Responsibly:

Liability vs. Liberty

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

The church is often focused on Christian responsibility. This is part of the problem with the church. It has largely become just another humanistic religion focused on all that we should do, and shouldn’t do to be good enough — by either human or divine standards!

Today I want to show you a much greater way to live!

It is in knowing that you are free from liability,

so you can live life being a more responsible person!

We have been seeing that gospel life is not about our ability to live it. Instead, it is about God’s process in us. He is planting his good seed that we receive, and allow to grow in us. God’s process is automatic, if we will enter into it, and allow it to work in us. The world of religion that is often preached in the church is NOT automatic. It takes a whole lot of work. If we choose to live a religious, non-gospel life, by definition we must try to live in response to what we hear preached!

The gospel we have been given is liberty. Galatians 5:1 says we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Divine liberty is a gift of the finished work of the cross of Jesus. Liberty is the gospel life we have been called to live.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #7

You cannot live in divine liberty imparted by the gospel, and in human religious responsibility at the same time. Liberty and liability are opposites. Liberty and responsibility are not opposites.

Most instructors present human responsibility without presenting freedom from divine liability. If we live life under instructors in Christ who preach all the DO’s and the DONT’s, what they are talking about is human responsibility. It is born in the worldly, human wisdom. It does not begin in God, but in us. The message is, “Here is the principle for the week — now you go apply it the best you can.” Hopefully they tack on we should at least pray for help, if you have trouble.

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According to instructors, if we do good and are successful, we are accepted. If we do bad and are unsuccessful, we are not accepted. This is what God said to Cain in Genesis 4:7: If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” ALL of us fail at ruling over sin to some extent.

Let’s look at three time periods of divine history. Because of the fall, Cain’s lot in life was to deal with his sin, as defined by The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This situation existed for 2,000 years. Romans 5:13 describes this: “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.” Don’t miss this! There was sin — but no liability for sin!

Cain had RESPONSIBILITY to deal with his sin,
but he was not held LIABLE for his failure to do so!

Why? It is because there was no law, to serve as his accuser, and thus judge him. In fact, God even somehow marked him we’re told, to protect him. In law this is called ‘aiding and abetting a criminal.’ But this is what God did with Cain. Legally we would say that God became an accomplice to Cain’s murder of Abel. Wow!

This situation changed when the law was introduced by Moses, 2,000 years after the Garden. The law accuses us. Everyone is declared guilty (Rom 3:19). Earlier in Romans Paul says, “There is none righteous, no not one!” This is totally inclusive. NO one is left out. We are ALL guilty. The judgment for guilt is death and hell. The words in the game of Monopoly are fitting: “Go to jail, go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.” Our guilt buys us a one-way ticket to hell!

In the Old Covenant, the law was the plumb line for righteousness. If people kept the law, they were righteous. If they did not keep the law, they were not righteous. The law declared us all guilty. Because everyone is guilty, and no one is righteous. Everyone was LIABLE under the law! This is why everyone was anxiously awaiting a Savior.

At the cross things changed. All things became new. Jesus became sin for us. He took our sin upon himself on the cross. Hebrews says he became the sacrifice for sin once for all. He also took the law on himself and had it nailed to his cross (Col 2:14). Both the law, and sin, died on the cross of Christ. This reality is what allows John to say, “Whoever has been born of God does NOT sin, for God’s seed remains in him; and he CANNOT sin because he is born of God” (I John 3:9). Only the KJV states this accurately. Modern translations mutilate it.

Instructors in Christ are correct in pointing us to the law,

But the reason they point us to it is incorrect.

Instructors point us to the law to hold us liable to it.

We should be responsible to the law, but like Cain,
we are not liable to it if we fail to abide by it!

Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. We should ALL live by the law of God as much as we possibly can. The law helps us and is good for us. It teaches us the fear of God. Deuteronomy 6:24 says this, as well as other verses. God is not just a dictator who wants us to submit to him and obey him. He lovingly knows how we will get the most out of life, and enjoy all the stops and the scenery along the way.

Paul says the law is good… but then he quickly adds, “IF one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is NOT made for a righteous person” (I Tim 1:8-9). By the cross of Christ we are made righteous. Therefore, the law is not made for us — to condemn us and create liability.

This in no way relieves us of RESPONSIBILITY to the law. The law of God is good. It reflects his divine character. It shows us God’s desire for us during our life on earth. I live by all of it I possibly can. I know it is good for me. But the law in no way declares me guilty, or holds me liable for judgment before God! Jesus came to nail the law to his cross, as the means by which we are held LIABLE.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #8

Liberty is being free from liability. When the gospel is revealed to your heart, you see that what this means is the same thing as saying we are ‘tax exempt.’ If we are tax exempt, NO tax can be imposed on us. We have NO duty to pay any tax.

Similarly, in the gospel, it might be said we are ‘sin exempt.’ We are free from accusation, judgment, and any legal liability for sin at all. Jesus says he won’t accuse us before the Father (John 5:45).

Lawyers know if we are not accused, we cannot be liable. Judgment can’t be imposed against us. This is the meaning of ‘righteousness.’ When this reality hits your heart, the result is total grace, peace and joy! Thus Paul calls it, the gospel of peace, and the gospel of grace.

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Liberty does not mean we are free to do anything we want to do. There are consequences to life. It’s part of the horizontal sowing and reaping truth we saw. If you steal, you will go to prison. If you commit adultery you will get AIDS, get divorced, or harm your marriage. What you sow is what you reap. This basic law still works in our natural life.

Liberty means we have been redeemed from something. This means we have been rescued from something and it has no hold on us. Any obligation we had toward it, or any right it had toward us has been erased, cancelled and expunged. We’re at liberty from Satan. He has no authority over us, but conversely we have all authority over him. But we can only have all authority if we understand this difference between liability and responsibility.

The gospel talks about so many things we are set free from: sin, death, darkness, offenses, tradition, the priesthood, the law, enemies, fear, guilt, the curse, and the world. We should definitely stand firm in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. We’re told one purpose for which Jesus came, was to give testimony to the truth. The gospel is the truth and the power of God. As long as we live in the gospel, we have total liberty.

The gospel of Christ is why we have freedom and liberty! It is what gives us our spiritual authority, our liberty, our freedom from sin, from the law and from everything else. The gospel is like an onion with hundreds of layers. It would take more than one life to peel it totally.

The issue is one of liability vs. liberty. Most of us live in liability, not in liberty. The gospel absolves us of liability, so we be more responsible. Liability has a way of inhibiting us. If our thoughts are on good vs. bad, because we’ve been eating fruit from the forbidden tree, we are in bondage to a system that keeps us from being free. Paul talks about the gospel as being a life of liberty (Gal 5:1). The Tree of Life sets us free to live as God leads and directs.

If you live under liability, all you can do is try to avoid that liability. Your total concentration is on the judgment you may experience. If there is no liability, and you are set free from the horror of that possibility, this allows you to live as a more responsible person.

Look at the word responsibility in regard to the gospel:

RESPONSE-ABILITY.

This is how we are meant to live in the gospel. We are meant to respond to it, submit to it, and receive the seed that it plants into us. This is what produces God’s ABILITY in us. Paul says this: “The love of God constrains us” (II Cor 5:14). It is not liability that produces responsibility. It is love that produces responsibility. See the contrast of this clearly. Paul says it is love that constrains us (II Cor 5:14).

When we live in the gospel, we live in the love and grace of God, which produces the fruit of the Kingdom of God in us: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17). This is what makes us live as responsible people. Threats of hell don’t cause us to live responsibly.

Love is the greatest force this world has ever known. However, love can’t exist under a law that creates liability. It is only the gospel that saturates us in the love of God, causing us to live responsibly.

God’s love must be received unconditionally. If we put conditions on it, we cannot receive it, and we are not empowered. Our RESPONSE should be the same as Mary’s when the angel told her of her pregnancy with the Messiah: “Be it done unto me according to your word.” This is what releases the ABILITY of God into us — our faith and his power.

Do you live your life in liberty or under liability? Ask God to show you. Do you believe in God’s unconditional love for you that is not based on your performance? This is walking The Gospel Road. Living life based on your performance is walking The Dirt Road. You’ll see this come to light on Day 6.