I would like to read just one verse from Romans Chapter 8.
Romans Chapter 8, Verse 21:
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
Some time ago, I was reading the book of Romans, and when I came to this particular verse, it seemed that something registered in my heart. It was just that phrase: “the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
In some versions, you will find, “the glorious liberty of the children of God,” or, “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
Here you find a contrast. On the one hand, there is freedom; on the other hand, there is bondage. On the one hand, there is glory; on the other hand, there is vanity. On the one hand, there are the children of God; on the other hand, there is the creation, or the creature.
Now, so far as the creation is concerned, we find in these verses that it is now under bondage. It is now in vanity, under the bondage of corruption.
It is not something that creation is willing to endure, but it is something that is put upon the creation. It is because of the sin of man. The whole creation entered into vanity and into the bondage of corruption.
The creation is very unwilling. Therefore, you find that the creation is groaning. It has been groaning for centuries and centuries. It is looking, expecting, and hoping that someday creation will be liberated, set free from vanity and corruption, and enter into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know this day will come when the sons of God are manifested, and the whole creation will be liberated into glory. So far as creation is concerned, it is something in the future. They are longing, waiting, and groaning for it.
But so far as God’s children are concerned, we today are already in the glorious liberty that Christ has obtained for us. We, as children of God, are already in liberty. Christ has set us free in freedom.
As you find in Galatians 5:1, Christ has set us free in freedom. There is a glorious freedom which is our inheritance. Every child of God should experience this glorious freedom.
Now the question is: Are we God’s children? Thank God, we are. But do we enjoy the freedom, the liberty, that Christ has accomplished for us and given to us? Do we experience the glorious liberty of the children of God?
We remember when our Lord Jesus was on earth. When He started His ministry in Galilee, He went to the synagogue in Nazareth, as recorded in Luke Chapter 4. There He was given the book of Isaiah to read.
He found the place in Isaiah 61:1-2 and read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
He stopped at that place. Then, in Luke 4:18-21, we find:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.
At the very outset of our Lord’s ministry, He made it very clear what His ministry was. He was anointed by God to preach glad tidings to the poor, to set the captives free, to open the eyes of the blind, to liberate those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
The book of Isaiah was written about eight hundred years before Christ. It was a prophecy concerning what the Messiah, Christ, would do. After He read it, He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”
Who are the poor? We are the poor. We are like the prodigal son. We have wasted the talents, the time, the energy, and the life that God has given to us and entrusted to us. We have wasted everything God has given us, and we are reduced to poverty.
Who are the captives? We are the captives. We are captured by sin. We are under the power of sin.
Who are the blind? We are. The god of this world has blinded our eyes. We cannot see clearly.
Who are the crushed? We are the crushed—wounded, hurt, crushed. But Christ has come, and He has set us free. This is the very work of Christ.
Thank God, He has done it. He has proclaimed to us that this is the acceptable year of the Lord. He has accepted us in Him.
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
(by grace have ye been saved),
And raised us up with him,
And made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
This is found in Ephesians Chapter 2. This is what Christ has done for us.
Brothers and sisters, a question that we need to ask ourselves is this: Are we enjoying what Christ has done for us? He has set us free, but do we live a life of glorious liberty as children of God?
You know, the world has its own idea of liberty and freedom. We think that if we can do anything we like, that is liberty, that is freedom. But how very wrong this is. It is a deception, because we are not born free.
We were created free, but we are not born free. When God created Adam and Eve, they were free. God put them in the garden of Eden and told them, “Of all the trees in the garden, you may freely eat,” including the tree of life.
There was only one tree of which they should not eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as they obeyed God, they were free.
But once they disobeyed God, that freedom was gone. They lost their freedom. Sin entered into this world, and man came under the rule of sin, under the bondage of sin.
So, in a very real sense, man today is not free. He is bound. In Ephesians Chapter 2, we find that we were dead in sins and transgressions.
Wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world,
According to the prince of the powers of the air,
Of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;
Among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh,
Doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
And were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
We were dead in sins and transgressions. How did we live? We walked according to the age of this world. We were not free. We simply followed the trend, the fashion, and the current of this world. We were flowing with the world.
We were also under the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. We were not free, because we were under the rule of the evil spirit. He directs the lives of the sons of disobedience. They are under that rule; they are not free.
Holy Father, we do praise and thank Thee, because we know that Thou art on the throne. No matter what happens on earth, Lord, we know that Thou art in full control. Thou dost allow it for a purpose, and we do pray that by Thy grace we may enter into Thy purpose, not being disturbed, but rather stirred towards Thyself.
Lord, we commit again this time into Thy hands and trust Thee to open Thy word to us. Speak to us and set us free. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We were just considering together that, naturally speaking, we were not free. Nobody is born free. Everyone is born bound—bound by sin and under the ruler of the authority of the air.
But thank God, our Lord Jesus came to set us free. True liberty is something that the world does not know. True freedom is something that only believers can experience.
I would like to read something from a brother whose name is Evan Hopkins. He wrote a book called The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, and there I think he really shows us what true liberty is.
He said, “What is liberty? There is a so-called liberty which is without law. This may be natural man’s ideal of true freedom.”
Natural man’s idea is that there should be no law, so that you can do whatever you want. But lawlessness is, in God’s judgment, the very essence of sin. If it is lawlessness, it is sin, because sin is lawlessness.
There is also a condition which is under law—not lawless, but under law. Yet this is a state of bondage, the condition of the legalist.
A third and blessed relationship in which we may be to the law is that of being in-lawed: having it within us, written by the Spirit of God upon the fleshy tablets of the heart.
Liberty is not being without control. That is the human idea of liberty: no control. Nor is liberty being under coercion. Nor is it, strictly speaking, being in a state of self-control, because self is not liberty.
Liberty is to be within the sphere of divine control, having the Spirit of life within and around us. Now that is true liberty. Liberty really is bound up with God. It is only in Him that we enjoy liberty.
I will quote another person, Archbishop Fénelon. He says:
It seems to me that real liberty consists in obeying God in all things, and following the light which points out our duties and the grace which guides us.
Now that is true liberty: obeying God in all things.
Taking as one’s rule of life the intention to please God in all things—not only always to do what is acceptable to Him, but, if possible, what is most acceptable. Not trifling with petty distinctions between things great and small, imperfections and faults; for although it may be very true that there are such distinctions, they should have no weight with a soul determined to refuse nothing it possesses to God.
It is in this sense that the apostle says, “The law is not made for a righteous man.” A burdensome, threatening law—one might almost say a tyrannical and enslaving law—gives place to a higher law which rises above all this and leads one into the true liberty of sons: the law which makes him always strive to do that which is most pleasing to his heavenly Father.
In the spirit of those beautiful words of St. Augustine: “Love, and then do what you will.”
I think this is a very beautiful explanation of what true liberty is. At the very outset, we should be very clear concerning what liberty really is.
Now that is true liberty.
Concerning this matter of the glorious liberty of the children of God, let us begin from the very beginning. First, we are freed from the consequences of sin.
Brothers and sisters, we were all dead in sins and transgressions. Because we have sinned, there are consequences.
First of all, our sin constitutes a crime in the sight of God, because we have transgressed the law of God. Therefore, we are under judgment and condemnation. There is a case against us before God, and one day we have to face our Judge.
But thank God. You remember John 5:24. The Lord said:
He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life,
And cometh not into judgment,
But hath passed out of death into life.
Christ Jesus has freed us from the judgment and penalty of our sins because He took our sins upon Himself and paid for them. Because of His precious blood, our sins are forgiven.
You remember the story of the children of Israel. That night, when the angel of death was passing through the whole land of Egypt to slay all the firstborn, it made no difference who that firstborn was—whether the firstborn of Pharaoh, the king, or the firstborn of a slave. As a matter of fact, it made no difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
But when the angel of death passed through the land, the firstborn of the children of Israel were passed over. Why? Because of the blood of the lamb—not because of themselves. In themselves, they too would have been slain. But a lamb was slain in their stead, and the blood was placed upon the doorposts and lintels. When the angel saw the blood, he passed over.
That is how the children of Israel were saved from the judgment of death. Brothers and sisters, in a very real sense, this is what has happened to us.
The blood of the Lord Jesus is primarily for God, not for us. It is for God to see. The blood was placed on the outside of the door. Those within the house did not see it; the blood was for the angel to see.
So the blood of our Lord Jesus is primarily for God, to satisfy the righteous requirements of God. Thank God for that. When God sees the blood, He forgives, because it has already been paid.
Sin has another consequence. Because we have sinned, we have a guilty conscience. Our conscience troubles us. I believe we have all experienced that. Even though nobody else knows, our conscience knows. Our conscience accuses us, and we have no peace.
But thank God, the blood of our Lord Jesus purifies our hearts from an evil conscience. In Hebrews 9:14, we find that Christ offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, and His blood purifies our conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God.
Thank God, we are free from a guilty conscience. A Christian has no need to remain under a guilty conscience, because the blood of the Lord Jesus has been sprinkled upon our conscience and has purified our heart from an evil conscience.
Furthermore, the blood has done something concerning our enemy. You know, our enemy is an accuser. The devil is an accuser, and he is always trying to accuse us. Sometimes his accusation is true, but many times it is false. Nevertheless, he accuses us before God and before our conscience.
Thank God, the blood of the Lord Jesus stops the mouth of the accuser.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb,
And because of the word of their testimony;
And they loved not their life even unto death.
Revelation 12:11.
You may remember the story of Martin Luther, the Reformer. One day, it is said, the devil appeared to him with a scroll written inside and outside. That scroll contained the sins of Martin Luther. The devil threatened him and said, “There you are, doing the work of reformation, being such a great sinner.”
The story is told that Martin Luther took a pen with red ink and wrote over that scroll, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Then the devil disappeared.
I think this is very true in each of our experiences. Brothers and sisters, we do thank God: Christ has set us free in freedom.
We are free from the judgment of death. We are forgiven. Thank God, we have a clear conscience. We can stand before God and man with a clear conscience. Thank God, the mouth of the enemy is stopped. He cannot accuse us because we have the blood of our Lord Jesus upon us.
We are free from the consequences of sin, and that is great freedom.
If you recall your past life, before you knew the preciousness of the blood of the Lord Jesus, how miserable a life you lived—under the fear of judgment, under a guilty conscience, and always being accused. But thank God, now you are free.
I remember that day when the Lord set me free. It was like a big load fell from me, and I was free. I believe every one of us here has had that experience.
But our Lord Jesus frees us not only from the penalty of sin, or the consequences of sins that we have committed. He has also freed us from the power of sin.
When we are first saved and experience the forgiveness of our sins, brothers and sisters, we are literally living in heaven. We think that now the whole problem is solved.
But unfortunately, gradually we begin to discover that even though the sins we have committed have been forgiven—all the past sins have been forgiven—we continue to sin.
We discover that sin is more than just an act. Sin is a power. It is not merely something that we commit; it is something that dwells within us, even in the flesh. In other words, sin is a nature.
When Adam committed sin, sin entered into his life. Because of that, all who are of Adam inherit that sinful nature. Adam sinned and became a sinner, but we were born sinners. Therefore, we sin.
Within us there is a nature, a sinful nature. Sin is a nature in our soul-life. It dwells in us. It is a power.
It is like a hard master, and we are sold under sin. We are its bondslaves. In other words, we are not free; we are born slaves to sin.
You discover that Paul himself said in Romans Chapter 7:
For the good which I would I do not:
But the evil which I would not, that I practice.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Sooner or later in your Christian life, you will begin to experience the power of sin. You know you are a believer and a Christian. You should not sin.
Formerly, when you sinned, you were happy. But now, when you sin, you are grieved. You do not want to sin. That shows that you are saved.
You have to confess, because the Bible says:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins,
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9.
Again and again, we have to apply that verse. We confess and ask the Lord to forgive us. Thank God, He is faithful and righteous; He will forgive. The blood is always there.
But we come to a point when we feel so disappointed. A Christian should not sin. Of course, he may sin, but he should not sin. He is able not to sin. Why?
Thank God, through Jesus Christ. This is the discovery of the apostle Paul. One day he discovered the secret of deliverance. He discovered that our old man was crucified with Christ.
In Romans 6:6, we read:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,
That the body of sin might be done away,
That so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
Our old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with. The expression “done away with” can be translated “rendered inoperative” or “unemployed,” that we should no longer serve sin.
One day we discover that on the cross our Lord Jesus not only bore our sins in His body and died for our sins. Because of this, our sins are forgiven. But the cross has done something more than that.
Christ was crucified on the cross not only bearing our sins; He was crucified bearing us. To put it another way, He not only died for us, for our sins, as our substitute; He also died on the cross as our representative.
He not only died for our sins; He also died for us.
That is the reason why the Bible uses the phrase “old man.” Who is the old man? Adam. He is the old man.
All who come out of Adam, or are in Adam, are included in this old man. Adam is the federal head of the whole human race, and that includes all those who come out of Adam, including you and me—every one of us.
In the sight of God, there is the old man. The old man includes you and me and every one of us here.
You remember that the Bible says Christ is the last Adam. In the sight of God, there are only two men: the first man, Adam, and the second man, Christ. But Christ is also the last Adam.
What does that mean? It means that when Christ died, the Adamic race was finished. When the last Adam died, the Adam generation ended. There is no more Adam.
When Christ died on the cross, He was the last Adam. He included all Adam in Himself, and He died. When He died, Adam was finished, and you and I were finished with him.
Our old man was crucified with Christ. Christ died two thousand years ago. When did we die? Two thousand years ago, before we were born.
In God there is no time factor and no space factor. What Christ did on the cross is eternal in value. It is not restricted by time or space. Even though we had not been born, when Christ died on the cross, He included all of us in Himself, and we were crucified.
In other words, God said Adam must die, and Christ died. Thus, the Adamic race was finished.
He is the last Adam, but He is the second man. Now we are in Christ. Once we were in Adam, and because that sinful nature was there, the only deliverance was that we die. We died in Christ.
Christ was resurrected from the dead as the second man, the new man, and we are quickened and raised up together with Him. In Him, we now serve God in newness of life.
Just as you believe that Christ bore your sins on the cross two thousand years ago—before you were born, before you had committed anything—your sins were already borne by Christ on the cross. You believe that, do you not? You believe it, and your sins are forgiven.
In like manner, why do you not believe that your old man was crucified with Him on the cross two thousand years ago? You died two thousand years ago.
Why do you not believe that? It is done in Christ. You do not feel it. Just as you do not feel that your sins are forgiven, yet you are forgiven because of what Christ has done. The Word of God says it; you believe it.
The same thing is true, brothers and sisters. You may not feel it. Our problem is that we try to feel it. You do not feel it, but do you believe what Christ has done for you? If you do, you will experience deliverance from sin.
Sin is in you like a master. You are the steward, and your body is the bondslave. Sin gives orders to you, and you transmit the order to your body, and you commit sin.
Now, deliverance is not the eradication of sin. The eradication of the root of sin, which in some circles of Christianity is preached, is not scriptural. Sin is not eradicated; sin is isolated.
As long as you are in this physical body, sin is still in you. But you do not need to serve sin, because you have died. When sin gives a command, there is no response. There is no response from a dead person. There is no response, no connection, and the body is unemployed.
Therefore, we need to rededicate our bodies to righteousness and holiness, so that the body may be reemployed under a new Master.
Brothers and sisters, Christ has set us free from the power of sin. We need not sin. But if we do, we have our Advocate, our Comforter, our Paraclete, our Lord Jesus, at the right hand of the Father. He can save us and forgive us.
I think probably you have read Against the Tide, that biography of Watchman Nee. There is a section in which he shares his own experience. In 1920, after he had been serving the Lord for seven years, he came into the experience of deliverance from the power of sin.
He had struggled with it for years and years. He prayed over it, fasted, and read the Scriptures, but there was no deliverance. He knew Romans Chapter 6. People told him, “Reckon yourself dead to sin, and you will be all right.” So he tried to reckon, but he said that the more he reckoned, the more alive he became. So it did not work.
But one day, when he was in his room reading the Word, suddenly it dawned upon him. It was a revelation. The Lord opened his eyes to see that he was in Christ.
Was he in Christ? He was. If he was in Christ, then when Christ died, he died. He did not need to die in a personal experience. He had already died in Christ.
When he saw that, he literally leaped. He ran down from his room, and there was a brother in the kitchen. He laid hold of the brother and said, “Brother, do you know that I have died?” The brother looked at him, thinking something was wrong.
He said he wanted to go through the streets of Shanghai and shout that he had died.
Brothers and sisters, how glorious is that liberty—freedom from the power of sin.
First, know that this is a fact. Christ has done it; you do not do it. Second, reckon it by faith. Third, yield the members of your body afresh to righteousness unto holiness. Then you are free from sin.
To be free from sin means that you become a bondservant of righteousness. That is liberty. It does not mean that you are free from sin so that you can do whatever you want. We are not free for that.
Christ has not only set us free from the penalty and consequences of sin. He has also set us free from the power of sin, that we may live a victorious life. Thirdly, Christ has also set us free from the world.
The world is something organized by the adversary of God into a system to oppose God and His kingdom. That is what the world is. Whether it is political, social, economic, educational, or whatever area it may be, you will find the whole world is a system.
The enemy of God has organized the world into a system, and everyone born into this world is under that system. The Bible calls him the prince of this world, and he uses this world to control people.
On the one hand, he uses darkness to put people under a kind of blindness. The god of this world has blinded the eyes of men. That is what is happening. The whole world, all the people in the world, are in blindness. We think we see, but we see wrongly. We do not really see what God sees.
On the other hand, he uses the things of this world to attract people. In 1 John 2:15-17, we find:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world,
The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life,
Is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Brothers and sisters, this world is a system under which we are all in bondage. As Ephesians 2 says, we walked according to the age of this world. You have to go with the current. It is hard to run against the current, you know.
It is our fleshly desire to be popular and to be within the crowd. That is natural. People are not free.
We are just like the children of Israel. They were in Egypt, under Pharaoh, and they were put into hard labor. Even their male children were born to die, because every male child was to be drowned. This is what the world has done to us, and yet we do not realize it.
We are attracted by the glory, the riches, the fascinations, and the majesty of this world. But brothers and sisters, actually, you will find that the world is ugly. It is deadly, and we are under it, yet we do not know it.
But thank God, our Lord Jesus came, and He delivered us out of this world.
You remember that in John Chapter 12, the Lord said:
Now is the judgment of this world:
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
When our Lord Jesus died on the cross, the world was crucified, and He delivered us out of this world.
It is just like the children of Israel. Not only did the angel of death pass over on the Passover day because of the blood, but they did not remain in Egypt. They were commanded to march out of Egypt. When they crossed the Red Sea, Egypt was behind them. They were delivered from the world.
Brothers and sisters, this is exactly what has happened to us today. Why is it that we need to be baptized? You believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved, but why do you need to be baptized?
Because in baptism we are delivered from the world. We are separated from the world. Once we belonged to Pharaoh; now we belong to Christ. That is what baptism means. Baptism is baptism unto Christ, and the world is left behind.
What is now our relationship to this world? If you read John Chapter 17, in the prayer of our Lord Jesus, He speaks of our relationship with the world.
First, in Verse 6:
I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.
We are a people whom God has called out of this world.
Second, in Verse 14:
I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
First, we are called out of the world. Second, we are not of the world.
Third, in Verse 11:
And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world.
We are not of the world, and yet we are still in the world. We are still here.
Fourth, in Verse 18:
As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.
We are out of the world, not of the world, in the world, and sent into the world—sent into the world to witness for the Lord.
That is our only duty so far as the world is concerned: that we may be witnesses of Christ to the world. That is our relationship.
Paul said in Galatians 6:14:
But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
The cross stands between me and the world. The cross has divided us from this world.
Brothers and sisters, that is what Christ has done for us. Are we in this glorious liberty in relation to the world? The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” What is our condition today? Do we still love the world and the things of the world?
The children of Israel were out of Egypt. They crossed the Red Sea and left the world behind. But during their wilderness journey, you find that the world was still in them. They longed for the garlic, the onions, the fish, and all those smelly things. They forgot all the hard labor and the sentence of death, but remembered all those things.
The world was still in them. Because the world was still in them, they were not able to enter into the promise.
Brothers and sisters, is this true with us today? We are supposed to be in the world and not of the world. We know what the world is: it crucified our Lord. Can we love the world, be part of it, and love the things of this world as though this were our life and our treasure?
Love not the world:
For if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 6, “Be not anxious about what you shall eat, what you shall drink, and what you shall wear.” These are the things for which the nations seek.
But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness;
And all these things shall be added unto you.
Your heavenly Father knows your need.
Brothers and sisters, how many of us are still anxious about this life? “What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall I wear?” We are so occupied with seeking these things that we have no time to seek the kingdom and His righteousness.
May the Lord deliver us.
Yes, we are in this world, and we still need to use the things of this world. But we use them as though we did not use them. Are we delivered? Christ has delivered us. He has freed us from the world. Let us enjoy His glorious freedom.
In connection with this, there is one aspect of the world in which sometimes we do not realize how bound we are: the religious world.
The religious world is just as much of the world as the political world or the economic world. What bondage the religious world can be—or, to put it another way, what bondage the tradition of the fathers can be.
Think of Judaism. In the beginning, it was living revelation. The law was given to them by God in a living way. But gradually, you find that it became a tradition.
Judaism, we are told in history, began during the time of the Babylonian captivity and reduced living revelation into a system of creeds, rules, and regulations. How much this bound the people.
The children of Israel, the Jews, were in the bondage of Judaism. They were so bound and so blinded that when the Messiah came, they could not see Him. They rejected Him.
It needed a revelation from above to set them free. Paul—remember the story of Saul—was a Pharisee of Pharisees, trained under Judaism by the best teacher. He persecuted Christians because he thought he was serving God.
But on the road to Damascus, when light came from heaven, he was smitten by the light. He saw the Righteous One, heard His voice, and was delivered from the traditions of the fathers. He entered into the liberty of the children of God.
Brothers and sisters, that is what we need: to be delivered from the traditions of the fathers into the liberty of the children of God.
For this afternoon, I will mention one more matter: freedom from the law.
In Romans 7:1-4, Paul says:
Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law),
That the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth?
For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth;
But if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress:
But if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ;
That ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead,
That we might bring forth fruit unto God.
Sin is like a master, and we are like bondslaves to sin. But Christ has set us free.
Law is like a husband, and we are wedded to the law. As long as we are wedded and our husband is alive, we are bound by the law of the husband. If we marry another, we become adulterers.
But if the husband dies, then we are free from the law of the husband and able to marry a new husband. We are free from the law of the former husband. This is the parable given to us.
In a sense, we are all wedded to the law—not only the children of Israel. God gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. It was a covenant, and they were wedded to their husband. They had to keep the law. If they did not keep the law, they could not live.
But unfortunately, they could not keep it.
Now, we were Gentiles. We were not under that written law. Yet the Bible says the law is written in our hearts. In other words, the very nature of law is in every one of us.
What is law? It is the righteous demand of God. God is righteous. God is holy. Therefore, He demands that we be righteous and holy, whether the law is written or unwritten.
Whether you are Jew or Gentile, we are all wedded to that husband. Our husband is really a very difficult one. His demand is so exacting. We can never please him. We try our best, but we cannot please him.
Because we are in the flesh, the law is weak through the flesh. There is nothing wrong with the law. The law is holy, righteous, and spiritual. But we are carnal. We are sold under sin. We are weak. We do not have the strength to obey the law and please our husband.
The mind of the flesh is enmity against God;
For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
We are under condemnation and under judgment. We are not free. We may expect the law to die, but our husband lives forever. The law never dies.
Therefore, the only way out is this: if the law does not die, then it is better that you die.
How do you die to the law? Through the body of Christ.
Thank God, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son into this world, born of a woman, born under law, that He might deliver us from the curse of the law, that we might receive sonship.
Brothers and sisters, that is our redemption. Do you want to remain under the law? You can never please it. You can never satisfy the law. You will always be under condemnation.
Are you tired? Are you still trying to keep the law? Keep on trying until you come to the point where you see that you can never satisfy the law.
Christ died to deliver us from the curse of the law. What is the curse of the law? If you break one article of the law, you break the whole law. That is the curse of the law.
But Christ fulfilled all the requirements of the law in Himself. He also paid all the righteous demands arising from the breaking of the law by His own death. How wonderful.
By the body of Christ, we are made dead to the law. Brothers and sisters, you are no longer under the law.
Does that mean you are now lawless? No. You are under grace. You are still under a husband, but you are under a new Husband—a Husband full of grace.
He is a Husband who not only demands, but supplies. He never demands anything that He does not first supply. He does it for you and in you.
His life is in you. His resurrection life is in you. His holy life is in you. His righteous life is in you. His Spirit is in you. Because of that, you are under grace.
Grace lifts your heart above law unto God. You may even find that grace is more demanding, but it is different. It is liberating. It is not binding; it is liberty. Now you can serve in newness of life, in newness of the Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, are we free from the law? Are we still under the bondage of “Do this; do not do that”? Are we living by the resurrection life of the Lord?
What kind of life are you living? Is the glorious liberty of the children of God there?
Lately, I have been reading Galatians again and again. The more I read Galatians, the more I realize what liberty Christ has given us from the law.
If you are under the law, you are always under condemnation. You are bound. But if you are under grace, you are free—not free to do whatever you like, but under divine control.
There is a higher law in you: the law of the Spirit of life, the law of love, the royal law of liberty. The law of love is there, because love is the sum of all commandments.
May the Lord free us from the law into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Christ has set us free in freedom. Oh, that we may hold fast and not go back into bondage.
Thou hast set us free. We are free indeed. We pray that by Thy Spirit Thou wilt lead us into the liberty of the Spirit.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.