The Perfect Law of Liberty
Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18.
Before
faith came we were confined under the law, "shut up" unto the
faith which should afterward be revealed. We know that whatsoever is not of
faith is sin (Romans 14:23); therefore, to be "under the law" is
identical with being under sin. The grace of God brings salvation from
sin so that when we believe God's grace we are no longer under the law,
because we are freed from sin. Those who are under the law therefore
are the transgressors of the law. The righteous are not under it,
but are walking in it.
Christ
says, "I am the door," John 10:9. He is also the sheepfold and the
Shepherd. Men fancy that when they are outside the fold they are free, and
that to come into the fold would mean a curtailing of their liberty; but
exactly the reverse is true. The fold of Christ is "a large
place," while unbelief makes a narrow prison. Outside of Christ is
bondage. In Him alone there is freedom. Outside of Christ, the man is in
prison, "caught in the toils of his sin." Proverbs 5:22.
It is
the law that declares a man to be a sinner and makes him conscious of his
condition. The law really forms the sinner's prison walls. They close in on
him, making him feel uncomfortable, oppressing him with a sense of sin, as
though they would press his life out. While in vain he makes frantic efforts
to escape, those commandments stand as firm prison walls. Whichever way he
turns he finds a commandment which says to him, "You can find no
freedom by me, for you have sinned."
If he
seeks to make friends with the law and promises to keep it, he is no better
off, for his sin still remains. It goads him and drives him to the only way
of escape. In Christ he is made "free indeed," for in Christ he is
made the righteousness of God. In Christ is "the perfect law of
liberty."
The
Glad Tidings, pp. 80, 81 |
