Freedom consists in power to follow unhindered the law of our being. So
sin is slavery because it is contrary to that law.
When Jesus promised freedom through the truth, the Jews indignantly
spurned the offer with the proud boast, which the presence of a Roman
garrison in Jerusalem should have made to stick in their throats: 'We
were never in bondage to any man.' A like hardy shutting of eyes to
plain facts characterises the attitude of multitudes to the Christian
view of man's condition. Jesus answered the Jews by the deep saying:
'He that committeth sin is the servant of sin.' A man fancies himself
showing off his freedom by throwing off the restraints of morality or
law, and by 'doing as he likes,' but he is really showing his
servitude. Self-will looks like liberty, but it is serfdom. The
libertine is a slave. That slavery under sin takes two forms. The man
who sins is a slave to the power of sin. Will and conscience are meant
to guide and impel us, and we never sin without first coercing or
silencing them and subjecting them to the upstart tyranny of desires
and senses which should obey and not command. The 'beggars' are on
horseback, and the 'princes' walking. There is a servile revolt, and we
know what horrors accompany that.
But that slavery under sin is shown also by the terrible force with
which any sin, if once committed, appeals to the doer to repeat it. It
is not only in regard to sensual sins that the awful insistence of
habit grips the doer, and makes it the rarest thing that evil once done
is done only once.
But he who sins is also a slave to the guilt of sin. True, that sense
of guilt is for the most part and in most men dormant, but the snake is
but hibernating, and often wakes and stings at most unexpected moments.
'The deceitfulness of sin' lies to the sinner, so that for the most
part he 'wipes his mouth, saying I have done no harm,' but some chance
incident may at any time, and certainly something will at some time,
dissipate the illusion, as a stray sunbeam might scatter a wisp of mist
and show startled eyes the grim fact that had always been there. And
even while not consciously felt, guilt hampers the soul's insight into
divine realities, clips its wings so that it cannot soar, paralyses its
efforts after noble aims, and inclines it to ignoble grovelling as far
away from thoughts of God and goodness as may be.
Christ makes the man bound and tied by the cords of his sins lift
himself up and stand erect. By His death He brings forgiveness which
removes guilt and the consciousness of it. By His inbreathed life He
gives a new nature akin to His own, and brings into force a new motive,
even transforming love, which is stronger than the death with which sin
has cursed its doers. 'The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of sin and death.'