The New Life

The Freedom of the Christian.
of sin. "We are then free to do what we, as God's
children, would fain do, free to serve God.-
Free expresses a condition in which nothing hinders
me from being what I would be and ought to be.
In other words, free is to be able to do what I would.
The power of sin over us, the power of the law
against us, the power of the law of sin in us, hinder
us. But he that stands in the freedom of the Holy
Spirit, he that is then truly free, nothing can prevent
or hinder him from being what he would be and
ought to be. As it is the nature of a tree to grow
upwards, and it also grows as it is free from all hindrances,
so a child of God then grows to what he
ought to be and shall be. And according as the Holy
Spirit leads him into this freedom, there springs up
the joyful consciousness of his strength for the life
of faith. He joyfully shouts "
: I can do all things
''
in Him that strengtheneth me." Thanks be unto
God which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ."
Son of God, anointed with the Spirit to announce
freedom to the captives, make me also truly free.
Let the Spirit of life in Thee, my Lord, make me
free from the law of sin and of death. I am Thy
ransomed one. O let me live as Thy freed one, who
is hindered by nothing from serving Thee. Amen.
I. The freedom of the Christian extends over his whole life.
He is free in relation to the institutions and teachings of men.
*' Ye were bought with a price: become not bond-ser\'ants of
men." (i Cor. vii. 23 ; Col. ii. 20.) He is free ia relation to the
^ 2 Cor. iii. 17 ; Gal. v. 18,
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