Brethren, the concept of liberty under the law, as revealed through Jesus Christ, is central to our calling. True liberty is living as we should, not as we please, empowered by the Spirit of the Lord to live God's way of give rather than the way of get promoted by our enemy. This liberty, defined in the Greek as "eleutheria," signifies a state of being free from domination or constraint, allowing us to walk in peace within God's commandments. Through Jesus Christ, we are delivered from the spirit of bondage under our enemy and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. This process of liberation begins and ends with Him, as He proclaimed liberty to the captives. We are to live in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life, disciplining ourselves with a circumcised heart through His power. God's law provides a hedge of liberty, enabling us to move freely and peacefully within His commandments. This liberty under law, as seen in the prophecy of Isaiah 61, is connected to freedom and release, a spontaneity of outflow that keeps us pure and sanctified for the return of Christ. Those liberated by Him are preserved pure, set apart by living God's way of life under His law. We must appreciate the incredible privilege He has given us to live both the letter and the spirit of His law of liberty, consciously worshipping our Great God in spirit and in truth. Through Jesus Christ, we have real liberty under God's law and the Spirit of God to abide by it, being sanctified by the pouring out of His Holy Spirit on those who will be His at His coming. As He declared, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him to set us at liberty, and our calling is to do all the words of this law.

Christ made liberation possible with His sacrifice and our justification on Passover. Today, the first day of Unleavened Bread represents the beginning of our liberty from sin and our sanctification. When the Bible speaks of liberty, a prior bondage or incarceration is always implied. Liberty means the happy state of having been released from servitude for a life of enjoyment and satisfaction that was not possible before. The paradigm of liberty in the Bible is the deliverance of the Israelites from their servitude in Egypt. God set Israel free from bondage in Egypt so that the nation could serve Him as His covenant people. He brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, settled them there, and undertook to maintain them in political independence and economic prosperity as long as they avoided idolatry and kept His laws. Israel's freedom was a supernatural blessing, an unmerited gift from God. Disobedience, whether in the form of religious impiety or social injustice, would result in their loss of freedom. Liberty in the Old Testament means deliverance from created forces that would keep men from serving and enjoying their Creator, and the positive happiness of living in fellowship with God under His covenant. It is the opposite of slavery to those things that oppose God, not man's own achievement but a free, unmerited gift imparted by God's action. In its continuance, liberty is a covenant blessing that God has promised to maintain as long as His people are faithful. It does not mean independence from God; precisely in God's service, we find perfect liberty. We enjoy release from bondage to the created only through bondage to our Creator. God sets us free from captors and enemies by making us His own slaves, bringing us to Himself. Christian liberty is from sin and from law simultaneously. Sin is presented as a master whose slaves are unable to escape its control except by dying or becoming the property of another. The elect pass from the control of sin through their death with Christ. Those who have died to sin can no longer live in sin. Having died with Jesus Christ, we now walk in newness of life, living in the service of God and enjoying sanctification and its end, eternal life. The Days of Unleavened Bread memorialize the second major step in salvation—sanctification. Jesus Christ liberates us from sin, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we serve God in obedience to the law of liberty, producing righteous fruit. James 1:23-25 states that he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, will be blessed in what he does. Freedom from the law, sin, and death is conveyed to us by the Spirit that unites us to Christ through faith. Liberation brings adoption, and those set free from guilt become sons of God, receiving the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of adoption. A Christian's response to the divine gift of liberty is a free acceptance of bond service to God, to Christ, to righteousness, and to all men for the sake of the gospel. Christian liberty is neither the abolishing of responsibility nor a sanctioning of license. We are no longer under the penalty of the law for salvation, but we are not without law toward God. The divine law, as interpreted and exemplified by Christ Himself, remains the standard expressing His will for us, the freed bondservants. We are under the law of Christ, which is the law of liberty and the law of love, all the same law, based on voluntary and unstinting self-sacrifice for the good of mankind and the glory of God. Paul warns in I Corinthians 8:9 to beware lest this liberty becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. We must use our liberty responsibly with tender regard for others. The limits that permit and enhance true liberty are those of the covenant between God and man. To serve the Creator God is not servitude but liberty, as serving Him makes us even more free and grants us more liberty. II Corint