Independence or Pride
True freedom comes from mental independence, humility, and faith in Christ, which liberates us from fear and bondage.
Frederick W. Robertson emphasizes the importance of seeking and embracing truth, which leads to freedom from societal pressures, fear, and mental bondage. He distinguishes between mental independence and pride, highlighting the necessity of humility in the pursuit of truth. Robertson explains that fear enslaves while courage liberates, and through Christ, individuals can be liberated from various fears by focusing on eternal truths and their responsibility before God.
Text
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
There is a tendency in the masses always to think--not what is true, but--what is respectable, correct, orthodox: we ask is that authorized? It comes partly from cowardice, partly from indolence: from habit: from imitation: from the uncertainty and darkness of all moral truths, and the dread of timid minds to plunge into the investigation of them. Now, truth known and believed respecting God and man, frees from this, by warning of individual responsibility. But responsibility is personal. It cannot be delegated to another, and thrown off upon a church. Before God, face to face, each soul must stand, to give account.
Do not, however, confound mental independence with mental pride. It may, it ought to co-exist with the deepest humility. For that mind alone is free which, conscious ever of its own feebleness, feeling hourly its own liability to err, turning thankfully to fight from whatever side it may come, does yet refuse to give up that right, with which God has invested it of judging, or to abrogate its own responsibility, and so humbly, and even awfully, resolves to have an opinion, a judgment, a decision of its own.
Fear enslaves, courage liberates--and that always. Whatever a man intensely dreads, that brings him into bondage, if it be above the fear of God, and the reverence of duty. The apprehension of pain, the fear of death, the dread of the world's laugh, of poverty, or the loss of reputation, enslave alike.
From such fear Christ frees, and through the power of the truths I have spoken of. He who lives in the habitual contemplation of immortality cannot be in bondage to time, or enslaved by transitory temptations. I do not say he will not, "he cannot sin," saith the Scripture, while that faith is living. He who feels his soul's dignity, knowing what he is and who, redeemed by God the Son, and freed by God the Spirit, cannot cringe, nor pollute himself, nor be mean. He who aspires to gaze undazzled on the intolerable brightness of that One before whom Israel veiled their faces, will scarcely quail before any earthly fear.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Tendency to Think Respectably Rather Than Truthfully
- A. Caused by cowardice, indolence, habit, imitation, and uncertainty
- B. Results in a lack of personal responsibility
- II. The Importance of Mental Independence
- A. Requires humility and a willingness to judge and decide for oneself
- B. Involves recognizing one's own feebleness and liability to err
- III. The Liberating Power of Courage
- A. Fear enslaves, while courage liberates
- B. The fear of God and reverence for duty are essential for freedom
- IV. The Freedom from Bondage through Faith in Christ
- A. Living in contemplation of immortality frees from temporal fears
- B. Faith in Christ enables one to live with dignity and resist sin
Key Quotes
“Fear enslaves, courage liberates--and that always.” — Frederick W. Robertson
“He who lives in the habitual contemplation of immortality cannot be in bondage to time, or enslaved by transitory temptations.” — Frederick W. Robertson
“He who feels his soul's dignity, knowing what he is and who, redeemed by God the Son, and freed by God the Spirit, cannot cringe, nor pollute himself, nor be mean.” — Frederick W. Robertson
Application Points
- Recognize your own feebleness and liability to err, and be willing to judge and decide for yourself.
- Live in contemplation of immortality, and you will be free from temporal fears.
- Faith in Christ enables you to live with dignity and resist sin.