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Freedom

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 30, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 64.

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Freedom

By J. S. WASHBURN

J. S. WASHBURN
“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34. Jesus here states a fact the truthfulness of which every man has proved to his sorrow. Sin is a cruel taskmaster, a merciless slave driver, and pays no wages but pain, sorrow, shame, and finally death.
In ourselves there is no escape, no remedy. “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22.
Haman built a gallows fifty cubits high, on which to hang Mordecai. But God delivered just Mordecai, and the very rope prepared for Mordecai brought proud, cruel Haman to the painful, shameful death he had planned for another.
Thus with remorseless literalness was the wicked taken, destroyed by the cord of his own sin; and not less surely will every unrepentant man find himself some day held in bonds, dying in agony and shame because of his own sin. Do you think you shall escape? “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Num. 32:23. You cannot hide so deep but it will hunt you to your death. For, listen! sin is within you, a part of yourself. You cannot run away, you cannot escape, from it. While you live, it will abide with you, poisoning and destroying you.
You cannot cover yourself with falsehood, with denials. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13. Others may be deceived, but God knows, and you cannot forget. The sting of conscience may be deadened by resisting the Spirit; but when in trouble or danger, there will face you, taunt you, mock you, crush you, like a hissing venomous serpent, this selfsame sin you thought forgotten by yourself and all others.
O helpless, wretched one! is there deliverance from this loathsome, clinging serpent with its deadly poison fang?—Yes, thank God. Christ can and will deliver. He who can raise the dead, can forgive sin; but there is one condition. It is this—confession.
Confession and forgiveness are married. God has joined them. No man can put them asunder. Read Prov. 28:13 again, also Ps. 32:3-5. While David concealed his sin, he knew only a terrible unrest that was consuming his very life. He confessed his sin, and then found peace and rest. “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. . . . I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. All sin is against God; therefore, all sin must be confessed to him. But if we have wronged any on earth, we are also to make confession to them.
The blessed proclamation of “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,” is an actual experience. “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” Ps. 124:7. We are free. There is then no condemnation. Sin has then no dominion over us. Christ is our master, and his rule means liberty, life, and peace.
Thank God for the “glorious liberty of the children of God.” Even while still in this body, there is liberty from sin and sinning. Peace with God, perfect love which casts out all fear, gives us boldness and power with God and with men. And when he comes and changes this body of humiliation, and fashions it like unto the body of his glory, he gives us the actual, literal freedom of the universe. O, shake off the bands! Go free in the Lord now in time, and eternally in his glory.
“God’s almighty arms are round me. Peace, peace, is mine; Judgment scenes need not confound me, Peace, peace, is mine. Jesus came himself and sought me, Sold to death; he found and bought me, Then my blessed freedom taught me: Peace, peace, is mine.”