Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Sunday, June 08, 2008 9:11:34 PM
‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ [John 8:36]
From these words we can draw four conclusions:
1. That every man by nature, and in the state of nature, is in bondage
2. That some are set free from this bondage
3. That those who are set free are set free by Christ
4. That such as Christ sets free are free indeed
Much can be learned from contraries. Just as something of heaven is to be known from the consideration of hell, so something of the excellency of spiritual freedom may be known from the consideration of man’s natural bondage; the bondage to sin, to Satan, and to the law of God. All which is a universal bondage of the soul, a cruel bondage, a willing bondage, a bondage out of which we are not able to redeem ourselves by ransom, or to deliver ourselves by our own power. But Christ here tells us that there is a true and real freedom that He has purchased, and into which He has brought all those who are true believers.
The nature of this freedom is a spiritual and heavenly freedom revealed in the Gospel and conveyed to the saints of God as the great dowry of Christ to His Church and Spouse. Two great things Christ has entrusted to His Church are faith and liberty. Just as we are to contend earnestly for the maintenance of the faith [Jude 3], so also for the maintenance of Christian liberty, and that against all who would oppose and undermine it: ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free’ [Galatians 5:1]. And again, ‘Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men’ [1 Corinthians 7:23].
The freedom into which Christ brings believers is a spiritual freedom contrasted with their former bondage. Wherever the Lord’s jubilee is proclaimed and pronounced in a man’s soul, he will never hear again of a return to bondage. He will never again come under bondage to Satan, the law or anything else. This is implied by Christ in the words, ‘The servant abides not in the house for ever; but the Son abides ever’ [John 8:35].
The apostle expresses the same truth under the figure of an allegory when he says, ‘Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman’ [Galatians 4:22]. Here he distinguishes between those who are under the law, and those who are under the Gospel, the children of the bondwoman and those of the free, the heirs of promise and the servants of the law. The one must be cast out, says Paul. Likewise Christ speaks here, ‘The servant abides not in the house for ever’ (they shall not inherit) ‘but the Son abides in the house for ever.’ The sons shall inherit, shall enjoy a perpetual freedom, and shall never again return to bondage. In Christ they are free indeed!
[The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton 1645]