Liberty and the Incarnation

[Hanseng]

Christian liberty consists of freedom from legalistic observance of commandments, statutes, and laws of both human and divine origin.

Ga 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Ga 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

1Pe 2:16  As free, and not using [your] liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Ironically, Jesus, in securing our liberty, sacrificed his own. Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy use an illustration from the slave culture of those times.

Normally, a purchased servant would serve for six years and be released in the seventh year.  If his master had given him a wife who had children, they would not be released. The servant could refuse his freedom, if he loved his family and master. In that case, he would be brought to a place of judgment, to the doorpost, and have his ear pierced with an aul. He would then serve his master forever.

Jesus took upon Himself the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of men. He allowed Himself to be pierced at the place of judgment, the doorpost of Calvary. He would forever bear elements of the humanity he died to save. He will, in a sense, be a servant forever, encumbered with a human form. Jesus didn't just die for us.  He sacrificed an element of His divinity, that we might be partakers of the divine nature.