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This thought is echoed in I Pet. 1: 16, "As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke
of maliciousness, but as the slaves of God". In both passages, liberty is but an
opportunity for bondage--but the bondage of love. No finite creature can ever be
allowed to exercise without restraint his own will. The liberty which the gospel brings is
a change of masters.
The sixth chapter of Romans speaks of bondage and freedom.
"Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed that we
may no longer serve sin (as slaves). . . . Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. . . . Sin shall not have dominion over you. .
. . Ye were the slaves of sin. . . . being freed from sin ye became enslaved to
righteousness. . . . enslaved to God" (verses 6, 12, 14, 17, 18, 22).
Here the character of our liberty is clearly set forth. We were slaves. We have been
set free in order that we may enter a new slavery. We have changed masters. Instead of
sin and death, we have righteousness and God. The same thought is carried over into
chapter 7: The wife is free upon the death of her husband, but the thought of being
married to another is prominent. Rom. 8: 2 brings all the teaching to a focus. In
Christ Jesus we are free, FREE, yet, notice well, we were set free by LAW. We are no
longer under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6: 14). Nevertheless, being delivered from
the law does not mean licence; we are still "under Christ's law" (I Cor. 9: 21). This
apostle of grace who said of himself, "not being myself under law" (verse 20),
nevertheless, in the exercise of his liberty, said "I buffet my body, and bring it into
bondage". This holy paradox is vital to true service and to a true understanding of our
position in the Lord. At one breath we say that we have been made free by Christ, and
that we are bondslaves of the Lord.
Paul was a prisoner of the Roman power; he was a prisoner because of Jewish enmity,
but his own description was, "a prisoner of the Lord", and "a prisoner for you Gentiles".
He was Christ's free-man when manacled to his Roman guard, he was Christ's
bond-slave when travelling into regions beyond. Are we not slaves if it is true of us:--
"Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price"?
"Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body"
"Ye are bought with a price, become not the slaves of men"
(I Cor. 6: 19, 20; 7: 23).
We cannot serve God and Mammon; we cannot serve two masters; we cannot glorify
the God who has bought us, and be the bond slaves of any other.
At the close of that epistle of liberty (Galatians), the apostle says, "Finally, let no one
trouble me; for I bear in my body the brand marks of the Lord Jesus". The "marks" are
the stigmata, the brands whereby slaves and soldiers were marked to show to whom they
belonged. He who gave place by subjection "no, not for an hour" when he defended the
cause of our liberty in Christ (Gal. 2: 4, 5); he who drew such a decided line between the
bondage of the child and the freedom of the son (4: 1-11); he who used the allegory of
the free woman (Sarah) and the bond woman (Agar), (4: 22-31); he who raised that