In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom is freedom. According to the context of 2 Corinthians 3, this freedom is freedom from the bondage of the letter of the Old Testament law, that is, the written code of the Old Testament. At Paul’s time the Judaizers and those influenced by them were bound by the traditional code of the law. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus came to release His followers from this bondage, in particular from the Judaic fold that was formed according to the code of the law in the Old Testament. All those who followed the Lord Jesus were freed from that bondage. Later the Lord appeared to one of the strongest Judaizers, Saul of Tarsus, called him, and brought him out of the bondage of the law. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul could say that we have been freed from this bondage by the Spirit of the Lord.
We know that we are freed by the Spirit because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now the Spirit of the Lord is with us, and we have full liberty, full freedom, from the bondage of the Old Testament code of the law.
The Lord being the Spirit is to free us from regulations, rituals, religious teachings, and traditional doctrines. At Paul’s time the Jews were under the bondage of circumcision, the bondage of dietary regulations, and the bondage of the Sabbath and other Old Testament regulations. Today, however, is not the age of the law of letters but the age of the Lord Jesus being the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit. Moses, with the letter of the law, put the people under bondage—the bondage of keeping the Sabbath, the bondage of circumcision, the bondage of dietary regulations, the bondage of not contacting Gentiles, as well as many other bondages. But the Lord being the Spirit is freedom to us. With Him there is no bondage, no Sabbath, no circumcision, and no dietary regulations. Rather, with Him there is full freedom. The Lord is the Spirit, and He is our freedom. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v. 16), and then the Lord as the Spirit gives us freedom. Because the Lord is the Spirit who gives freedom, when the heart turns to Him, the heart is freed from the bondage of the letter of the law. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is no bondage, no deadness, no entanglement of letters and regulations. Because Christ as the freeing Spirit is within us, we are free from the law, regulations, and dead letters.
As the liberating Spirit, He liberates us from all things that bind us. Paul tells us that whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away and that wherever the Spirit is, there is freedom (vv. 16-17). To be liberated, according to 2 Corinthians 3, is to have all our veils removed. He delivers us by taking away all the veils so that we can behold and reflect Christ with an unveiled face. When we are veiled, we are bound and imprisoned and do not have freedom. The Lord is the Spirit in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). If we keep ourselves in the spirit, the veil is immediately gone. When the veil is gone, we are released. This freedom comes from the Spirit of the Lord. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that we look unto the Lord with an unveiled face to be transformed into His image from the Lord Spirit. We must turn our heart to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and set our mind on the mingled spirit; then the Spirit will free us that we may enjoy the full freedom in grace.
As the liberating Spirit, Christ liberates us from the letter of the law, from the letter of doctrines, teachings, and knowledge, and from regulations, rituals, religion, and culture. Religion, culture, doctrine, and knowledge confine us. On the one hand, they may restrain us from being wild; on the other hand, they actually bind us and even kill us spiritually. As the liberating Spirit, Christ is within us to liberate us from all bondage. Most Christians think that Christ liberates us from the outside by His power, but Paul indicates that as the liberating Spirit in us, Christ liberates us from within by being our life. The more we take Him as our life and person, the more we are liberated from all bondage.
The Spirit is the liberating Spirit. Where life is, there is always liberation. The more we grow in life, the more we become liberated. The more mature we become in life, the more we are freed from all kinds of bondage. The many habits that we have according to our flesh and our natural constitution are bondages. The liberating Spirit can free us from the bondage of our habits. Many of us are bound by religion and religious practices; hence, we need to experience the liberating Spirit. As we grow in life, we are released from our bondage. To enjoy the liberation of the Spirit to the uttermost, we need the growth in life.