Bound To Be Free

by P.J. Brennan, Buxton, England | Category: General | Feb 1996

The word 'liberty' has an attraction all its own. It has the pure air of the mountains about it; the expanse of the ocean, the soaring flight of the eagle. It resounds with a clarion sound that lifts bowed heads, stiffens the backbone and exhilarates the spirit. And yet it is vastly misunderstood. Man chases liberty to find it an elusive butterfly, and should he 'capture' what he too often regards to be liberty, the joy of possessing it is short-lived.

When Edmund Burke, two hundred years ago, wrote 'Liberty, too, must be limited, in order to be possessed', he touched on a truth found in Scripture.

Liberty is never presented in the Scriptures as unrestrained behaviour or as simply a lack of control.

What then is the scriptural presentation of liberty? 2 Corinthians 3:17, asserting not only the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit, but also His sovereignty, says emphatically:

'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty'. Consider then the sovereign Spirit's association with three momentous events in the work the Lord Jesus undertook for our salvation. First, His birth, second, His baptism in Jordan and third, His sacrificial death on the Cross.

Matthew 1:18,20 and Luke 1:35 leave us in no doubt as to the sovereign Spirit's association with the incarnation. But where, we might reverently ask, was the liberty? The Son of God, who held the wind in His fists, is here seen with tiny baby hands just able to grasp Mary's fingers! The One who 'shut up the sea... made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it' (Job 38:8,9), is now found 'a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger'! At His birth the Son of God was bound and yet the Lord the Spirit was there!

Hold the wonder of that thought a moment and come forward thirty years to the time of the Lord's baptism in Jordan at Bethabara. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all record the presence of the Holy Spirit on this momentous occasion, but again we ask, where was the liberty so unequivocally spoken of in 2 Corinthians 3:17? Stand on Jordan's bank and wonder at the grace of Jesus Christ, voluntarily bowing to the divine will. As that noble head is plunged beneath the waters, as we see Him go away into the wilderness to face deprivation and temptation, was He not bound? Surely, by matchless devotion He was bound to do the Father's will - but where was the liberty?

Bethlehem, Bethabara - trace His footsteps now to the Cross at Golgotha. Was the Lord the Spirit active here too? Surely - for Hebrews 9:14 says so. Gaze wonderingly upon Him, the crucified; bound by a love immeasurably stronger than the cords they used to bind His hands in Gethsemene; now nailed to the Cross -where, oh where was the liberty?

The liberty is ours! He who had come to set the captives free must Himself be bound - bound in human frame, in swaddling bands, in subjection to Mary and Joseph; bound by the law and by endless compassion; bound on the Cross and in the grave; bound by the will of God.

But what is the liberty of those who have been freed from their sins and whose bodies have been made temples of the sovereign Spirit of God? Is it found in those excesses that some of the charismatics would attribute to the liberating Spirit? Could it really be that this liberty so dearly bought for us is that freedom from control or restriction that is seen in unrestrained exhibition? The answer of course is an emphatic No! for how then could we reconcile the description in Galatians 5 of the fruit of the Spirit, including as it does, self-control? No, true liberty as brought by the Holy Spirit, is freedom to serve; freedom to be bound as bondservants to Jesus Christ; freedom to be obedient to all that He has commanded.

Away then with the false notion that liberty has to be with unrestrained freedom to do what we like, how we like, when we like. True liberty is of nobler stuff. Ahead of each one of us lie unsealed heights of divine glory, the breadth of divine promises. The Son of God Himself has set us free from being slaves to sin that we might be enabled to he obedient from the heart to that form of teaching where-unto we were delivered (see Rom.6:17).

By the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit has come to indwell those who are Christ's. And now the Lord the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to disciples of Christ, guiding them into all the truth. In a day when loose theology of many kinds abounds, when men play fast and loose with the Word of God, choosing the precepts of men rather than holy doctrine, we must ask ourselves - am I really bound by the word of the One who set me free?

Does this sound too hard a thing? too restrictive? too narrow? Stand again at Bethlehem, at Bethabara, at Golgotha and see if there is anything you would not do for Him. Then let Him mark you out as His bondservant, as you say with the man of Exodus 21, 'I love my Master... I will not go out free'.

Against the doorposts of eternity,

The high and holy place of Thine abode,

Pierce through my ear the sign of slavery

And point me any service, any road.

A slave! I would not question, would not choose.

Man's praise or blame no more can trouble me;

Even my right to self to Thee I lose,

And in that bondage find that I am free.

F.C.B.

Herein lies true liberty.

P.J. Brennan, Buxton, England | Feb 1996
General