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The Liberty of Christ

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1872

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 39, No. 25.

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The Liberty of Christ.

By David Downer

“STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”
The above language is recorded in Gal. 5: 1. It is claimed by not a few that this language gives us an undisputed right to break the holy law of God. This position we are often called upon to meet. The gospel of Christ, while it exhibits him as Saviour, does so by showing how he magnified and made honorable the law of Heaven by suffering its penalty and obeying its precepts. His salvation consists in bringing the redeemed to be of one mind with himself; and since the law was written in his heart, it also must be written in theirs.
Believers are said to be free from the law when they are delivered from the condemning sentence of the unchangeable law of righteousness, which is obtained through forgiveness; but for this very reason they are under increased obligation to obey its precepts. It is vain to deny the obligation of the law of God by representing the gospel as the rule of obedience; for the gospel is not a rule of conduct, but a message of peace and of reconciliation. It calls for a new degree of love. Let it be remembered that the divine law must ever require that Jehovah be loved according to the revelation given of his character at the time; so that perfect conformity to his law consists now in loving him as he is revealed in Christ.
It is vain to say that the Spirit, and not the law, is our rule; for that which excites to obedience, as does the influence of the Spirit, is quite a distinct thing from a rule of obedience. The promise is that the law of God shall be written in the hearts of the subjects of the covenant of peace, and this is effected by the Spirit of God. 2 Cor. 3: 3. But this supposes a previous existence and constant obligation of that law.
It has been said that Christians are ruled by love and not by law; and, it is true, they do not obey from slavish fear; but they are not so ruled by love as to exclude the idea of obligation on their part, and of authority on the part of God. What, indeed, is conformity to the law, but the exercise of love? For there is not an act of obedience that is not comprehended in the general precept of love. The precept that requires it is denominated, The first and great commandment of the law.
If it be said that the prevalence of love renders a law unnecessary, it is sufficient to say in reply, that the Scriptures expressly declare that it is the love of God that we keep his commandments. 1 John 5: 3. Love is indeed the great principle of Christian obedience; but it cannot be the regulator. Love in creatures such as we are, is often like a ship with full sails, but without a pilot at the helm. The love that is required, is love to God with all our heart and understanding. And with reverence be it said, when the Saviour appeared in the form of a servant, his love to the Father was, in certain respects, regulated in its exercise by divine commandment.
But why speak as if love was, in itself, incompatible with subjection to rule, when Jesus himself was made under the law. He was so, indeed, that he might redeem them that are under the law. He was so that he might redeem from its curse. But he could not be so to free us from the claims of obedience; for in keeping God’s commandments lies the happiness of man.
But though love, in connection with the judgment, will, to a certain extent, decide what is right to be done, it cannot do so in every case. There are many circumstances and dispensations in which the path of duty cannot be ascertained without an explicit revelation. Love, in a word, will prompt us to do whatever is the will of God, yet we must, by some means, know what is pleasing to him, before we can properly show our affection. 1 Thess. 4: 1.
No matter in what way the will of God may be made known, in whatever way it is revealed, its obligation is the same, so far as the revelation extends; and the appeals which are made to love, are made to it as the exciting principle to action, rather than its rule. Nothing can be more plain than that the particular laws given by God for the regulation of his creatures must correspond with their circumstances.
The question, then, must be, Are the precepts of the law of God suitable or unsuitable to the present circumstances of the believers in Christ? It merits our attention, too, that when certain duties are enforced, there is an express recognition of the authority of the law; as, for instance, the duties of children to their parents, which are enforced by an express repetition of the fifth commandment. Eph. 6: 1–3. And when certain evils are condemned, the very form of the commandments are employed, as in James 2: 8, 13: “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill,” &c. Then such expressions as the following: “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” John says that whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is a transgression of the law. Now, if there be no sin that is not a transgression of the law, it follows that there can be no rule that is not comprehended in the law of God.
In a word, let the law be considered, and the conscience of every Christian will say that there is not one of those commandments which he can break without blame, or obedience to which is not connected with his happiness. Christ declared that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. And having said this, he proceeds to explain the moral precepts of the law in their spirituality and extent as reaching the intents and desires of the heart, and to enforce them on the consciences of his disciples. Matt. 5: 17, 22.
He taught that the law and the prophets hang on the two great commandments of love to God and love to our neighbor; thereby declaring that the moral injunctions of the law and the prophets continue to be binding. Matt. 22: 37. And after enjoining the universal law of equity, that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, he enforces it by saying, “For this is the law and the prophets.”
It is the whole of the divine precepts collectively which constitutes the law of God. And though the fundamental principles of his law must ever be the same, yet those principles are applied according to the nature of the special dispensation under which his creatures are placed. Attention to this is of importance. To closely understand the distinction, connection, and harmony, between the law and the gospel, and their mutual subserviency to each other, is a happy means of preserving the Christianfrom being entangled in errors on every hand.
Finally, the law of God, though it be language of authority, is also the voice of friendship; and the man who, in the faith of the gospel, walks humbly and in obedience to God’s holy law, finds the truest liberty, and the greatest happiness attainable in this life. He is serving his gracious Father and his faithful sovereign; and he feels that to be free from law, does not make us free to break it at pleasure.
DAVID DOWNER.