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TRUE LIBERTY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 29, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 13.

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TRUE LIBERTY.

By G.

THE importance of liberty is accentuated in the fact that no one can be a perfect representative of truth who is not himself free from error. Liberty is the medium of spiritual life; the nearer one comes to being free from sin, the more nearly will he exemplify the life of the perfect One. Therefore, of necessity, Christ would first set free those whom He would send out to proclaim liberty. To this end He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
When Christ calls His disciples “a peculiar people,” He does not mean that they are to be oddities, conspicuous for their long hair, or slovenly dress, or manners that render them essentially obnoxious to people of ordinary refinement. No, they are to be peculiar in their freedom from iniquity. And this purification becomes the medium through which the missionary spirit operates, for it causes them to be “zealous of good works.”
It is for this reason that only those who are made free by Christ are “free indeed” (John 8:36); for the only emancipation that makes us “free indeed” is that which sets us free from sin. The recognized human master of human beings may be the most abject slave to the lusts of the flesh, while the bondservant of such a master may be “the Lord’s freeman.”
Christ’s mission to earth was to “proclaim liberty to the captives,” but in all His ministry we do not read of a single instance of His personally setting servants free from their masters, or directing masters to free their servants. But He did loose multitudes afflicted with disease, forgave the sins of many, and confirmed the covenant by which all who will believe on Him may be likewise set at liberty. And His work of “proclaiming liberty to the captives,” through the agency of those who are His by the obedience of faith, is still going on in the earth.
But the really effectual work must be done through those who, being themselves liberated from sin, are enabled to “walk even as He walked;” to walk with God as did Enoch; to “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Being baptized into Christ, they walk with Him “in newness of life.” Hence they are prepared to obey the Master’s commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Only such as themselves enjoy liberty can successfully proclaim liberty; for they only can truly appreciate the “glorious liberty of the children of God.” Nor will they ignore the record of what it is that Christ has commanded. They will remember that it was the truth that set them free (John 8:32), and that God’s Word is the “truth” by which all must be “sanctified”—set free, and set to work (chapter 17:17). They will remember, also, that the Spirit of truth is the interpreter of the Word of truth (chapter 16:13), and that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”