That Word of the King of kings is the word that needs to be thundered
to-day, or, what is more effective, whispered to-day into the souls of
men. There is no bondslavery comparable to this. A man may be on the
side of righteousness so far as the conflict of nations is concerned
to-day, but what avails that for the solving of his individual problem
if he is the bondservant of sin?
If, then, the question of law and grace is a question of sin, it is the
most vital matter that can concern men to-day. Always alongside of sin
is another word beginning with S――“Salvation,”――that is, this word is
always alongside of sin in _this age of Grace_. When our Lord told the
Jews of this bondslavery, he did not leave them there, but added that
wondrous word: “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed.”
There is needed to-day a great challenge to be thrown at an unbelieving
world, a testimony that cannot be answered,――_Christians walking at
liberty_, men and women living in the midst of these awful days of
stress with the “freedom indeed” which belongs only to sons of God. But
instead of that an unbelieving world is constantly face to face with
the puzzling spectacle of professing Christians who are bondservants of
sin, who do not know the meaning of liberty.
For let us remember the word of the Master, and not nullify it with
theological explanations to make it fit into the experiences of
Christians: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth
sin is the bondservant of sin.” And Christians are bondservants of sin
because they are living under law and not under grace. They are not
using, not enjoying, the freedom that Jesus Christ purchased for us.
Have We Nothing to Do with Law?
So fundamental is the correct understanding of the Christian’s relation
to the law, that if Satan is not able to beguile Christians into
staying in bondage under the law he will seek to drive them into an
opposite error that is just as deadly to true liberty. This is the
notion that a Christian has nothing to do with the law, and is under no
obligation to have his life conform to it. Young Christians who have
seen something of the wonder of their deliverance from the law have
jumped to the conclusion that the Old Testament books that deal with
the dispensation of law have such an indirect bearing upon their lives
that they can neglect them. Portions of the New Testament are also
divided in this fashion from the rest of the Word, and even Christians
with a deep spiritual vision have argued that the Sermon on the Mount
had little in it for them because it was on legal ground, and we are
under grace. Their teachers may not have intended this application of
their instruction about freedom from the law, but it illustrates the
danger, and shows the need of clear light from the Word to avoid the
pitfalls on each side.
So the Word of God urges on the one hand, “For freedom did Christ set
us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of
bondage” (Gal. 5:1), and cautions on the other, “For so is the will
of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance
of foolish men: as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of
wickedness, but as bondservants of God” (1 Peter 2:16).
And Paul puts the two messages together in Galatians 5:13 and 14: “For
ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an
occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For
the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself.”