THE LIBERATED SERVANT

All Scripture references are to the

New International Version UK print edition of 1984.

The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does.

– James 1:25 –

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The progress of liberty is both inevitable and problematic, and tests the motives and character of all who fall under its influence.

Personal liberty of the sort preferred by the natural heart is a heady mixture, and in our sinful, fallen condition we may easily get drunk on it.

The fundamental question is not how many restrictions we should rid ourselves of, but rather which ones we ought to keep.

It is, in the final analysis, a spiritual question, one which is increasingly relevant in a society undergoing a seismic shift toward the secular frame of mind.

The loosening of personal and private restrictions presents special difficulties for the Christian man and woman.

For although the Christian, as subject or citizen, enjoys the same rights to civic and political freedoms enjoyed by everyone else, the Christian is tied, voluntarily, to a code of behaviour which is viewed by others with contempt or hostility, making it risky to go against the trend.

The first-century followers of Christ were unshackled from the regulatory restraints of the Mosaic Law (John 8: 36, ʻIf the Son sets you free, you will be free indeedʼ). However, they were cautioned not to abuse their liberties (Rom. 6: 18, ʻyou have become slaves to righteousnessʼ; 1 Cor. 10:23). As twenty-first-century Christians we, too, are saved by Grace, through the exercise of faith (Eph. 2:8-10).

As Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, so should the Christian emulate his attitude of a servant. Indeed, James informs us that the ‘pure and faultless’ religion consists in helping the poor and unfortunate, never forgetting that we must pass on the good news of the Gospel at every reasonable opportunity (James 1: 27).

The flowering of liberty and the progressive trends of the past 150 years, which have brought to mankind the remarkable benefits of industrialisation, national and individual wealth, and the resultant economic and social freedoms, has at the same time taxed the integrity of the human heart. But true freedom demands self-restraint.

A train hurtling along at 170 miles per hour induces a heady thrill, but it is a thrill allowed and secured by the knowledge that maintenance of the machine and the track are top-notch, and that we are in no danger of being ʻliberatedʼ from the rails and into the open air.

To trust is to be tethered. Independence with a caveat. How many of us would be prepared to put trust in Self or in the secular ethics of careless or unrestrained Society? Where better to lodge our trust than in the Son who has guaranteed true spiritual freedom by the sacrifice of himself?

As a philosophical argument, all individuals have rights and are theoretically equal. But looked at from the more restrictive biblical standpoint, freedom is a privilege, not a right. The entire race is in a convict condition dying and has no claim before God to ‘fair’ treatment. It is an important truth that one stands before God only through the merit of Christ.

Without it we are nothing, and have nothing. The Christian’s relationship with God does not require the intercession of man or sect or church. Through the workings of the holy spirit in us we are sanctified day to day. For the duration of life, our mind and heart are adjusted toward Christ-likeness, the pattern which we are to keep before us at all times.

However, we cannot expect complete freedom in this life, for sin is ever present, and will sometimes tie us in knots. We should endeavour to untie our hearts and minds from the strings that bind us to the unhelpful aspects of our natural tendencies: selfishness, prejudice, impatience, covetousness – anything which exalts the noisy Me. In this age of personal esteem, the Christian must put Self last and Christ first.

As servants of Christ we give up the right to do what we choose. Our own preferences are to be subsumed in the will of God. Being ‘free’ in the Christ-like sense implies a heightened regulation of our conscience, by which we habitually adjust not only how we behave, but what we think.

The Christian faith thus operates at such a deep level that it is no surprise that most people cannot grasp more than the surface features of it, and may even regard such a state of mind as radical.

The consecrated woman or man puts Christ first in their aims and calculations. Being thus internally regulated brings a dependable and godly freedom, the security of which comes from knowing that we are his and he is ours and that he is infinite in power. We need not fear anything, for Christ’s love in us hunts down fear, chases it out, and cultivates the peace which the world cannot understand nor obliterate.

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Oct.-Nov. 2016. ukbiblestudents.co.uk

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