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The Desire of Ages
These words offended the Pharisees. The nation’s long subjection
to a foreign yoke, they disregarded, and angrily exclaimed, “We be
Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest
Thou, Ye shall be made free?” Jesus looked upon these men, the
slaves of malice, whose thoughts were bent upon revenge, and sadly
answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin
is the servant of sin.” They were in the worst kind of bondage,—ruled
by the spirit of evil.
Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control
of another power. He is not his own. He may talk of freedom, but he is
in the most abject slavery. He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth,
for his mind is under the control of Satan. While he flatters himself
that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the
will of the prince of darkness. Christ came to break the shackles of
sin-slavery from the soul. “If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed.” “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”
sets us “free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:2
.
In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external
force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left
free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when
the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.
The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no
power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to
be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of
and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine
energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in
fulfilling the will of God.
The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is
that of becoming one with Christ. “The truth shall make you free;”
and Christ is the truth. Sin can triumph only by enfeebling the mind,
and destroying the liberty of the soul. Subjection to God is restoration
to one’s self,—to the true glory and dignity of man. The divine law,
to which we are brought into subjection, is “the law of liberty.”
James
2:12
.
The Pharisees had declared themselves the children of Abraham.
Jesus told them that this claim could be established only by doing
the works of Abraham. The true children of Abraham would live, as
he did, a life of obedience to God. They would not try to kill One