March 9

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. - 2 Corinthians 3:17.

LIBERTY has always been highly prized, and can never be prized too highly. Well, we have civil liberty as Britons and spiritual liberty as Christians,-a liberty “unsung by poets, and by senators unpraised.” Let us endeavour to exemplify our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. It will be found to include five things: First, Our freedom from the exactions and impositions of men in religion. Now, observe, we say in religion, because we do not here refer to civil things. We are willing to abide always by our Saviour’s distinction:-“Render unto Cæsar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Where religion is concerned, “The Lord is our King, the Lord is our lawgiver; and, if any require us to believe or do what he has not enjoined us to believe or do, we are to obey God rather than man. The Saviour says, “Call no man master upon earth; for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” When will men distinguish between civil governments and Christianity? The one regards us as citizens, the other as Christians.

Secondly, This liberty includes a freedom from the tyranny of Sin and Satan. As saith the apostle, “What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

Thirdly, It includes a freedom from the condemnation of the law. “The soul that sinneth shall die;” and, saith the apostle, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” And “who has ever done this?” Who has ever continued, from the first hour of reason, in avoiding every thing the law forbids and in doing every thing the law commands? But whose curse is it? The curse of Almighty God: and who knoweth the power of his anger? And the execution of this power is certain, unless-unless what? unless a surety be found; and such a Surety has been found, who has come forward and said, “Deliver them from going down to the pit;” I will give myself a ransom; I will bear their sins in my own body on the tree; I will suffer, “the just for the unjust, to bring them to God.” “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” No; he has “redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them.” Now, “therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Fourthly, It includes freedom of access unto God. “He is the greatest and best of Beings.” The effect of sin is to separate between us and God. When the angels sinned in heaven, they were immediately banished thence; when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, they were driven out of it; and for sinning, the Jews were expelled from the land flowing with milk and honey. So many instances of actual fact show us-every one of them-what is the effect of sin:-that it is to separate between us and God, and to keep us from God. But now, through Christ Jesus, who is the Mediator between us and God, “we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” The believer has the liberty of approach unto God at all times, in every place, under all circumstances; they have full liberty to hold communion with him in the fields, by the way, in their ordinary business; they have full liberty to enter his house, to come to his table, to hang upon his arm, to recline upon his bosom, to call him their Lord and their God,-the strength of their heart and their portion forever.

Fifthly, It includes freedom to partake of and enjoy the good things or nature and providence. Unscriptural self-denial and self-imposed severity, with regard to abstinence from the blessings of providence, have never promoted the mortification of sin or sanctification of heart. Here is our charter: the Scripture hath said, “Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”