There Is Liberty in 2 Corinthians 3:17

Question 4145

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This much loved verse is sometimes lifted from its place and made to mean almost anything, so it repays careful reading. When Paul says there is liberty, he is speaking of a particular freedom that belongs to the new covenant, the freedom of those whose veil has been removed and who behold the glory of the Lord.

The liberty Paul has in mind is not a vague licence to do as we please. It is the glorious freedom of people brought out from under condemnation into open fellowship with God by the Spirit.

The flow of the chapter

To understand the verse we must follow the argument that leads to it. Paul has been contrasting the old covenant, engraved on stone and attended by a fading glory, with the new covenant ministry of the Spirit that gives life. He has spoken of Moses veiling his face, and of a veil that lies over the hearts of those who will not turn to Jesus.

It is at this point that Paul says when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, and then comes the verse in question. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The freedom is bound up with the removing of the veil and the new covenant work of the Spirit.

What freedom Paul means

The liberty of which Paul speaks is first of all freedom from the veil, freedom to see and understand the glory of God in the face of Jesus. The person under the old order read the Scriptures with a covering over the heart and could not perceive the One to whom they pointed. When the Spirit removes that veil, the believer is set free to behold what was hidden.

It is also freedom from the condemnation of the law. The old covenant Paul has called the ministry of death and condemnation, because the law exposes sin and pronounces sentence. Under the ministry of the Spirit, the believer is released from that sentence and from the futile attempt to earn standing with God by law-keeping. Where the Spirit reigns, there is liberty from both blindness and bondage.

The Lord is the Spirit

Paul preface to the promise, the Lord is the Spirit, has sometimes troubled readers who fear it blurs the distinction between the Son and the Spirit. It does no such thing. Paul is not collapsing the Persons of the Trinity into one but identifying the Lord of the passage, to whom a person turns, with the Spirit who does the unveiling work. The Spirit is fully God, of one being with the Father and the Son, and He applies to the believer all that is found in the Lord.

Read this way, the verse is a strong testimony to the deity of the Spirit and to His unity of purpose with the Son. The freedom that comes when a person turns to the Lord is the very freedom the Spirit brings, because the Spirit is Lord. This is why there is liberty wherever He is present and at work.

Liberty is not licence

Because the word freedom can be misheard, Paul guards it elsewhere with great care. The same apostle who rejoices in liberty also warns the Galatians not to use their freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another. The liberty the Spirit gives is never a permit to sin. It is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.

When Paul says there is liberty, he means the believer is free to become what they were made to be, no longer driven by the law from without but led by the Spirit from within. This is the very opposite of lawlessness. The Spirit writes God will on the heart and gives the desire and the power to do it, so that obedience becomes the glad expression of freedom rather than a grudging duty.

Freedom to be transformed

The liberty of verse 17 leads straight into the transformation of verse 18. We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. The freedom the Spirit gives is freedom to gaze upon Jesus without a veil, and through that gazing to be made like Him.

So the liberty is not an end in itself but the doorway to becoming like Jesus. Released from blindness and condemnation, the believer is free to behold the glory of the Lord and to be reshaped by it. Where there is liberty, there is also transformation, the steady work of the Spirit conforming us to the image we contemplate. We trace this work further in our article on the ministry of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3 and on what it means to walk by the Spirit.

The shape of Spirit-given liberty

It helps to picture the kind of person this liberty produces. They are free from the dread of a God they could never satisfy, free from the endless ledger of law-keeping, and free from the veil that once hid the glory of Jesus from them. In place of those bondages they have an open access to God and a heart inclined to please Him.

This freedom does not make the believer casual about holiness; it makes holiness possible and even sweet. The one in whom the Spirit dwells is free to obey from the heart, free to draw near, and free to grow. That is the liberty Paul celebrates, and it is the birthright of everyone in whom the Spirit of the Lord lives. Our article on why justification brings freedom from shame sits closely alongside this theme.

Where the Spirit reigns there is liberty

It is worth dwelling on the breadth of this promise. Paul does not say liberty is found in a particular place, a special experience, or a higher tier of Christian living. He says that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Since the Spirit indwells every believer, the freedom He brings belongs to every believer, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is at work, there is liberty.

This means the humblest Christian may know this freedom. Wherever the Spirit dwells there is liberty from condemnation, there is liberty from the veil that hides the glory of Jesus, and there is liberty to draw near to God as a child rather than a slave. None of this is earned, for it is simply the atmosphere created by the presence of the Spirit of the Lord.

Such liberty should mark the gathered church as well as the individual heart. Where the Spirit is honoured and the gospel is central, there is liberty of a healthy kind, an open access to God and a release from the heavy yoke of religion as mere performance. Where the Spirit moves among His people there is liberty and not bondage, the ordered freedom of those led by the Spirit rather than the false freedom of disorder.

Knowing where this freedom comes from also keeps us from seeking it in the wrong places. We do not manufacture liberty by stirring up feelings or by chasing novel experiences. There is liberty wherever the Spirit of the Lord is at work, and because the Spirit indwells you, there is liberty already within reach for everyone who will walk closely with Him.

It remains only to say that this freedom is meant to be enjoyed and not merely admired from a distance. Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty to be entered into, day by day, as we turn from sin and yield to His gentle rule. The believer who lives close to the Spirit tastes more and more of the freedom that is already theirs in Jesus, and finds that there is liberty not only in word but in the settled experience of the heart.

So, now what?

If the Spirit of the Lord lives in you, then this liberty is yours. You are free from the veil that hides the glory of Jesus and free from the condemnation of a law you could never keep. Live as a free person, drawing near to God without the old dread and beholding the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face.

Guard that freedom from being twisted. The liberty the Spirit gives is never a cover for sin but a release from it, so use your freedom to serve in love and to pursue the holiness your heart now desires. Where the Spirit reigns, there is liberty to obey from the heart, and that is the truest freedom of all.

Above all, use your liberty to gaze upon Jesus. The veil is gone, and you are free to behold His glory in the gospel and the word. Spend time there, and trust the Spirit to change you from one degree of glory to another into the likeness of the One you behold.

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