[September 16th, 1867.]
The ideas of liberty and slavery are antithetical. They therefore explain each other. We cannot understand the liberty spoken of until we understand the bondage. The reverse is true. We cannot understand the nature of the bondage without understanding the nature of the liberty.
Liberty is not freedom from restraint or authority. This cannot be predicated of any creature. All rational beings are under the authority of reason and right. And as these are in infinite perfection in God, all creatures are under absolute subjection to him. And this subjection is the highest liberty. In renouncing subjection to God, man lost his liberty. He became:
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The slave of sin. This Christ declares. This subjection to sin is true bondage. a. Because it has no right to rule. It does not belong to our normal state, and is inconsistent with the end of our being. b. Because it is independent of the will. We cannot throw it off. This is a matter of consciousness and experience.
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The slave of the law. He is under the obligation of satisfying its demands or of bearing its penalty. a. This obligation is inexorable. b. It reveals itself in the conscience. c. It produces the most intolerable bondage. d. It produces a slavish spirit. e. Fear and anxious looking for of judgment.
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This subjection to sin and the law involves subjection to Satan. We are in his kingdom. We are in his power. We are under his control.
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This subjection to sin and the law leads to subjection to men in various ways.
a. It destroys the balance and power of the soul. Not being subject to God and being unable to guide itself, it submits to the world, to public opinion, to authority in some form. And especially does it lead to subjection to the priesthood and to the church.
Now, as Christ is a Redeemer, as he came to preach deliverance to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year, i.e., the year of jubilee; as he is the author of our liberty; as they only are truly free whom the Son makes free, he must deliver his people from all the forms of bondage above referred to. This he does in the following way and order: 1. He frees us from condemnation. Until this is done nothing is done. A man in prison under sentence must be freed from death or he cannot be delivered from other evils. How Christ frees us from condemnation we know.
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He frees from the law or the obligation of fulfilling its demands. How this is done we know.
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He frees us from the authority and power of Satan. How we know. Heb. 2:14, 15.
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From the reigning power of sin.
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From a slavish spirit.
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From all undue subjection to men. a. By bringing the reason under subjection to his truth, we are freed from their authority as to doctrine. b. As we are subject to him alone, as to the conscience, we cannot be subject to any other authority in deciding what is morally right or wrong. c. As we have through Christ deliverance from condemnation and acceptance with God, we are free from the priesthood. d. As all we do is done in obedience to him, subjection to men is part of our liberty.
So a slave may be truly and perfectly free. He is the Lord’s freeman. And this is the reason why Paul exhorts slaves to regard their bonds as of little account.
No tongue can tell our obligations to Christ, as our Redeemer, from the awful bondage into which we were brought by our apostacy from God.
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