What is Freedom According to the Bible?

Have you ever noticed how often we sing about freedom? “I’m so glad, Jesus set me free.” “My chains fell off, my heart was free…” “Would you be free from the burden of sin?”

We sing freedom songs all the time, but what is freedom? And how is it that so many Christian’s don’t feel free? They may sing about it, but they don’t live it.

Obviously, they won’t feel free if they are living under the law or heeding the lies of manmade religion. But you can be under grace and still feel trapped or enslaved.

Which is kind of weird, don’t you think? To be set free but not live free doesn’t make sense. It means something is wrong.

Part of the problem is that some have said that freedom is licentiousness (“I can do what I want no matter what anyone says”) or freedom is independence (“no one tells me what to do”). But licentiousness leads to bondage while independence diminishes our humanity.

If you have heard that freedom means living for yourself, take care that you don’t end up in bondage to your appetites. Biblical freedom isn’t doing whatever you want; it’s being released from sin’s power so you can live as God intended.

What is a Biblical definition of freedom?

True freedom has two aspects. We have been set free from something so that we might be free to do something. Here’s the first part:

For he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:7)

Those who are in Christ have been freed from sin. You were not freed because you kept the law, made sacrifices, or did the right things. You were set free the moment you came to Christ in faith. You remain free by reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).

But what does it mean to be freed from sin?

To be freed from sin means you no longer have to listen to your old master. In Christ, you are free from guilt, condemnation and judgment. You are free from the demands of the law and from the bondage of others’ expectations. You are free from the fear of failure and the unholy need to prove yourself. You are free from end-times anxiety and eternal insecurity.

What a blessed relief to be free!

That’s just the first part. Just as we are free from, we are free to. And this second part is the best part.

What does it mean to be free?

It was for freedom that Christ set us free… (Galatians 5:1a)

In Christ, we are free to rest, to trust, and to live in the love of God. We are free to approach God without fear and to bear his fruit. We are free to walk with the Lord in daily fellowship. We are free to live righteously and enjoy the wholeness of a holy life. We are free to choose, to connect, and to create. We are free to dream, to live large and to live generously.

In short, we are free to be who God made us to be.

But you will never experience these freedoms unless you are fully trusting the Lord. A choice must be made. In Christ, you are free indeed. But if you choose to walk in the old ways of the flesh, you’ll be like a liberated prisoner who returns to the jail that once held him.

The freedom to choose

The freedom to choose is one of the greatest blessings of the new creation, and we don’t talk about it as much as we might. In your old life, you walked after the desires of the flesh because they were the only desires you had. But having been placed into Christ, you have become a partaker of his divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

In other words, you can choose to be led by the flesh (right back into bondage) or by the spirit (in the liberty of the new life). It’s a whole new way to live as Paul describes in Romans 8.

The gospel of grace is transformational because it sets us free. But there are three ways we can get this wrong. We can:

1. Confuse freedom with license
2. Use our freedom to rebel against others or put them down
3. Fail to exercise our freedom to choose and remain captive to the flesh

If we use our freedom to indulge the flesh and criticize those who think differently, look differently, or vote differently, we’ve missed the point of grace. Jesus did not call us out of darkness so that we might win arguments or parade our superiority. “I’m walking in grace better than you are.” Jesus set us free so that we might experience God’s love and draw others into the Father’s embrace.

Grace doesn’t just free us from guilt, fear, and condemnation—it frees us to rest, love, and live fully alive.

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