i am a libetarian

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

I am a libertarian. Someone asked me the other day, just what a libertarian is. I tried to explain, and in some ways it is hard to do.

I was raised in a very conservative lifestyle. We were Church of Christ, and, as such did not do a lot of things.

We didn’t dance, or drink, or used instrumental instruments in worship. We were not really encouraged to hang around with people who did, either. We, like some other denominations, unfortunately, were known for what we didn’t do more than what we did.

I stayed in that denomination for 44 years altogether, including 20 years in the ministry. When I left that group, I came into another that was similar, except without the prohibition against instruments in worship. I felt that I come into complete freedom. I soon found out that they too had their absolute views. Although less than the one I grew up in, they were still pretty strong.

When I was baptized in the Spirit, I felt that I had come into complete freedom. I soon found out, however, that the structured views were as strong in their own ways than any other.

I cannot seem to find a group that agrees with me in my libertarian views.

It feels sometimes that I am a wacko.

But I am not. I am a libertarian. I am not a libertarian, though, in the sense that many see it as being. I do not believe in doing anything I want.

In that, I am a conservative libertarian. What I believe in is freedom. Absolute, unfettered freedom in the grace of God.

The grace of God presupposes something that the libertarianism that so many want doesn’t.

That libertarianism is a false one, one that says, I am King and whatever I want goes. That is not God’s view of libertarianism. God’s view is that he is King and, as long as you walk in the light as he is in the light, you have both fellowship and sinlessness.

In his kingdom, you are part of a community and you have continual regeneration. That is because you are not saved by what you do, but by who you are.

If you are a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus, you are free. Life in him does not consist of prohibitions but of freedom.

Whether or not you drink, or dance or go to movies doesn’t matter.. It is how you are in your relationship to God through Jesus and his grace that does.

Christians spend entirely too much time in telling others what they can or cannot do. That is not grace. Romans 6:14 says For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

That means that the Christian is free.

And I am free.

That is why I am a libertarian.