2 Corinthians 3:17

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’

2 Corinthians 3:17

If we allow our thoughts to dwell on the subject of ‘liberty,’ we find it to be indeed a subject worthy of contemplation.

I. It attracts the mind with a special fascination.

(a) There is, first, the picturesque and poetical side. We think of the boundless firmament above, and of the wonderful freedom of the smallest bird. We recall the inspiration of the mountain height, free from the sound of strife, free from the narrowness of men, where the eye roams over vast tracts of free and open country, unbroken by hedge or wall or belt of trees. We think of the wide ocean, where the winds sweep their courses as they will and each sunlit ship seems an emblem of liberty. And there is the sense of treading regions untrodden before, of seeing sights unseen by mortal eye, and of being in a land where there is no law save that of the brute creation.

(b) And then, too, there is the historical side. We go back to the childhood of the world, where it is weak and ignorant of the ways and possibilities of the future; we note the rude beginnings of primitive life, like a stream restrained by high banks and ignorant of its power to be, when it may sweep where it will on to the ocean of liberty.

(c) And there are also the political and social aspects of the subject; and we call to mind how man after man, class after class, race after race, nation after nation, have risen up to battle for liberty—‘the passion and prayer of all men’s souls’—for that which a Divine instinct tells us should be ours.

(d) And then there is the moral and spiritual freedom of which we read in the Bible—the freedom of the individual soul from the curse of the moral law, from the servitude of the ceremonial law, freedom from ignorance and spiritual blindness; freedom from the curse and slavery and misery of sin.

II. True freedom is the freedom conferred by the Christian’s God on those who obey His laws—a freedom from the slavery of sin, from wrong desires, from strife and passion, from an evil conscience, from vanity and discontent, from ambition and jealousy, from the fear of man, and from the fear of the valley of death. This is the freedom that is worth possessing—a heart at one with its Maker, set free to love the good and strengthened to resist the evil. And when once we have made clear the difference between true and spurious freedom, then may we not appeal to the sense of honour which exists somewhere in every breast? Will the son try to injure the father? Will the soldier fight against his King? Shall we neglect His orders and obey the enemy? We are placed in the garden of life; shall we trample on its purest flowers? We are royal messengers to all around; shall we neglect our message and be false?

III. And do we not need also to insist upon the dignity of life?—We are in a position of trust. We might have been treated as servants only. We are treated as friends and even heirs. It is true we have the power, the free opportunity, to neglect our duty and to do wrong. We can, if we wish, spend our time, our money, our strength, our talents exclusively on ourselves; we can neglect Divine ordinances, Sundays, sacraments, prayer, praise; we can be ungrateful, unthoughtful, untrusting, and untrue; but we will not. Reward or no reward, God is our Lord and Master; Christ is our Saviour and Friend; the Holy Spirit is our Guide and Comforter; and in that service we will live, and in that service we will work, and in that service, obedient, we will be free. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’

Rev. F. B. F Campbell.

Illustration

‘If we find national misconceptions regarding the principles of liberty, we may be sure that they start with the private individual—that is, among ourselves. Why is it that so many look askance at religion who are not really opposed to it? Why is it that it enters so little into their lives, when in reality they are longing for it? Let us try and discern at least one reason—among many—the fact that they regard religion in the wrong light in reference to the subject of liberty. And it must be confessed that the traditional up-bringing of the young conduces to this end. For is it not true that we educate our children with the idea that religion is their task-master and the world the parent of liberty? Whereas, conversely, liberty is the child of religion and the world is the real despot. In the eyes of the young religion is too much associated with the principle of aimless restraint rather than that of reasonable guidance. They are accustomed from childhood to a long series of injunctions: “You must not do this”; “You must not do that”; “You must not go there”; “You cannot have permission”; “It is not allowed”; “It is not right”; “It is wrong.” Need we wonder if, with the negative side of religion kept ever before them, our youth grows up imbued with the belief that religion is associated with a kind of dull slavery, and pleasure only with freedom—or, rather, with independence?’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY

Christian liberty does not mean the right to do as we like. It is strictly limited. Bishop Westcott wrote, ‘True freedom is not license to do what you like, but power to do what you ought.’

I. Limited by want of power.—Our freedom is limited by want of power. Whether it be in physical or temporal or spiritual power, the extent of our freedom is limited by the extent of our power. There is no such thing as real freedom without power. There is no such thing as absolute freedom without almighty power. What is the use of my being free to do anything, if I have power to do nothing? Would it not be well for us to seek power rather than search fruitlessly for a false freedom? The power we need most is the power over our corrupt, sinful nature. ‘I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members,’ is not the experience of one man only. Where are we to seek for power? ‘Ye shall receive power from on high.’ We need the power of the Holy Ghost within us. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,’ and nowhere else in the world is there true liberty.

II. By the extent of our knowledge.—But our freedom is also limited by the extent of our knowledge. No one can be absolutely free without perfect knowledge. What is the use of having the liberty to do what you like if you do not know whether you will like it when you have done it, and have scarcely any means of knowing what to choose to do? Where are we to get this knowledge? ‘When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth … and He will show you things to come.’ You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ When a man or woman is endowed with power from on high, when a man or woman is filled with the Spirit of Truth, He will guide him or her into all truth. Then you have something like real liberty. ‘Not license to do what you like, but power to do what you ought.’

III. By the strength of our will.—There is another limitation—the strength and stability of our will. Even the powerful and the wise are limited in freedom by their wills. How many a man, for instance, has the power and the means of providing a happy home for himself, and knows full well the immense benefit of a happy home-life, and yet he does not have it because he has not control over his will. He has not the will to carry out what he has otherwise the power to do, and what he knows he would be the happier for doing. Under the same heading I may include the limitations of our desires. And a further limitation I will just mention is the limitation of our capacity for enjoyment. I have little hesitation in saying that the man or woman who is living an unspiritual life has an extremely limited capacity for enjoyment. There is no joy like his whose joy is in the Holy Ghost. As for greater stability of will and greater wisdom in desire, there again it is the Spirit which can make us free, which can give us the power to will as well as to do. ‘Not license to do what we like, but power to do what we ought,’ that is true freedom, spiritual power, knowledge of what to do, will to carry it out.

The man who has utterly consecrated his body, mind, and will to the service of God, he is the man, and the only man, who is really free. In order to do true service we need the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit; and ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’

—Rev. E. J. Watson-Williams.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

‘PERFECT FREEDOM’

‘Whose service is perfect freedom.’ The words are beautifully familiar to us all. At every Matins we repeat them in the Collect, but do we always sufficiently realise the strength and depth of their meaning? They represent the Christian position; and it is this glorious privilege of ‘perfect freedom’ which the Apostle in this chapter is seeking to bring home to the mind of the Church at Corinth. He does so by way of contrast, a contrast of man’s position under the law and under the Gospel. The law found man in bondage, and left him so, only sealing the cords of his captivity; but when the Gospel came it snapped all fetters and led man at once into perfect freedom, for where the Spirit of the Lord is—there is liberty. Freedom follows the footsteps of the Gospel.

I. Freedom in conscience.—Until we obtain freedom in conscience it is useless to think of liberty in any other respect. It is for this liberty or freedom in conscience that we pray when we say, ‘O God, Whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive, receive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of Thy great mercy loose us.’ We need freedom from the thraldom of sin; and when we have obtained pardon through the Precious Blood our consciences are at liberty, and we learn the great truth that there is ‘now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’

II. Liberty in life.—The next step after liberty in conscience is liberty in life. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you’ is the promise to the Christian; and, if we will, our Christian walk, day by day, and hour by hour, may be pursued in the perfect sunshine of God’s love, without a cloud to mar its brightness and its joy. Temptations will come, but they may be bravely faced, not, however, in our own strength, but in the strength of Another, even of Him who has conquered sin and Satan. This is what we mean by liberty in life—not liberty to follow our own way, but to follow just where the Lord shall lead.

III. Liberty in service.—What is a man saved for? He is ‘saved to serve’; yet there can be no liberty, no freedom in our service until we have liberty in conscience and liberty in life and walk. The service to which Christ calls us is a service of love; love is its inspiration; love is its sustaining power. There is no bondage in Christ’s service; it is perfect freedom. And this liberty, whence comes it? It comes through perfect trust and rest in Christ Himself. ‘Your life,’ says the Apostle, ‘is hid with Christ in God.’ Oh happy they who thus trust, for surely shall they obtain rest, peace, freedom. It is impossible to truly serve God until we experience this sense of liberty and freedom; and the only way to appreciate it is by making a full surrender of ourselves unto Him. The Spirit of the Lord alone can enable us; and where He reigns there is liberty.