Following the R.V. we read 'made me free,' not 'hath made me.' The
reference is obviously, as the Greek more clearly shows, to a single
historical event, which some would take to be the Apostle's baptism,
but which is more properly supposed to be his conversion. His strong
bold language here does not mean that he claims to be sinless. The
emancipation is effected, although it is but begun. He holds that at
that moment when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and
he yielded to Him as Lord, his deliverance was real, though not
complete. He was conscious of a real change of position in reference
to that law of sin and of death. Paul distinguishes between the true
self and the accumulation of selfish and sensual habits which make up
so much of ourselves. The deeper and purer self may be vitalised in
will and heart, and set free even while the emancipation is not
worked out in the life. The parable of the leaven applies in the
individual renewal; and there is no fanaticism, and no harm, in
Paul's point of view, if only it be remembered that sins by which
passion and externals overbear my better self are mine in
responsibility and in consequences. Thus guarded, we may be wholly
right in thinking of all the evils which still cleave to the
renewed Christian soul as not being part of it, but destined to drop
away.
And this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic
confidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power
which works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian.
Paul, too, calls 'things that are not as though they were.' If my
spirit of life is the 'Spirit of life in Christ,' it will go on to
perfection. It is Spirit, therefore it is informing and conquering
the material; it is a divine Spirit, therefore it is omnipotent; it
is the Spirit of life, leading in and imparting life like itself,
which is kindred with it and is its source; it is the Spirit of life
in Christ, therefore leading to life like His, bringing us to
conformity with Him because the same causes produce the same effects;
it is a life in Christ having a law and regular orderly course of
development. So, just as if we have the germ we may hope for fruit,
and can see the infantile oak in the tightly-shut acorn, or in the
egg the creature which shall afterwards grow there, we have in this
gift of the Spirit, the victory. If we have the cause, we have the
effects implicitly folded in it; and we have but to wait further
development.
The Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, to
unfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that his
emancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphant
expression of confidence that he wrote, 'Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect.' The first stage is the gift
of power, the appropriation and development of that power is the work
of a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked series and
cycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by constant
application to the source of all freedom, the life-giving Spirit, and
by constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There is no such
thing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. We must
mortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the Spirit. The
Christian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. It is to be
effort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in the joy of
His Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. Homely
moralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to
spiritual communion.
We are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by
'waiting for the Redemption,' which is not merely passive waiting,
but active expectation, as of one who stretches out a welcoming hand
to an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this accomplished
deliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. 'The body is dead
because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.' But
there may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance. The
metaphors in Scripture under which Christian progress is described,
whether drawn from a conflict or a race, or from a building, or from
the growth of a tree, all suggest the idea of constant advance
against hindrances, which yet, constant though it is, does not reach
the goal here. And this is our noblest earthly condition--not to be
pure, but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity. Hence
our tempers should be those of humility, strenuous effort, firm hope.
We are as slaves who have escaped, but are still in the wilderness,
with the enemies' dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to the
land of freedom, on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread.