Response:

Thanks for writing. I appreciate your prayers.

It is pretty obvious from the Scriptures that when Christ said that He would make us free, he was NOT saying that we were free to do whatever we pleased, or free to ignore His Word, or free from the natural consequences of our sin. The drunk that gets saved is not suddenly made free from his liver disease, and the promiscuous man is not suddenly made free from his venereal disease or AIDS. The prisoner is not made free from his jail sentence. The child molester is not free to work in the day-care. And nobody is free to ignore the clear teachings of Scripture.

I Timothy 3:2 states that a pastor is to be the husband of one wife. I Timothy 3:12 states that the deacon must be the husband of one wife. There are only two positions of leadership defined for us in the Bible, and both of them demand that the individual not be divorced and remarried. Perhaps someone could argue that, since other leadership positons are not mentioned (Sunday School teacher, youth worker, etc.), that the standards do not apply to them; but it is equally valid to state that, since this is the standard applied to all leadership in the Bible, then this must be what God expects from all in leadership. Clearly there were people in the local church that were remarried, for leaders were chosen out of the churches, and, if there were no remarried members, then this requirement would be unnecessary. But, for whatever reason God chose, they were forbidden to be put in positions of leadership.

If a man gets saved after his kids become rebels, is he allowed to be a leader even though his kids, living under his roof, are not in subjection (I Tim 3:5,12)? If a man gets saved, is he no longer a novice, so he can immediately pastor (vs 6)? I mean, he could have gotten saved earlier in life, and by now he would no longer be a novice, so therefore is he freed from that requirement? A man gets saved, but his wife, whom he married before salvation, doesn't meet the requirements for a deacon's wife set down in vs. 11. Does his salvation free him to be a deacon anyway, in spite of the fact that it violates Biblical doctrine? I think the answers are obvious.

In John 8, which is the passage from which you quote, the Jews asked Christ what He meant when he said that they would be made free. He responded by saying this: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin...If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Christ was not saying that salvation gives you the freedom TO sin, but rather that salvation will give us freedom FROM sin. No longer will a man be enslaved to sin because of his sin nature, but he will be able to overcome sin through his new-found relationship with God. To use Christian liberty as "an occasion to the flesh" (Gal 5:12) or a "cloke of maliciousness" (I Peter 2:16) is to violate the principles of the Word of God, and to do disservice to the One Who saved us, and called us to holiness (I Thes 4:7).

By Dr Mark Montgomery Ambassador Baptist Church 1926 Babcock Blvd Pittsburgh, PA 15209 (412)477-3210