1 Peter 2:13-16 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;… Liberty is the essence of Christianity. No one knows what it is to be quite "free" till he is a real Christian. 1. A converted man, by the fact, at once is "free" from his past. It is "cast into the depths of the sea." It is gone "away into a land not inhabited," to be mentioned no more! That is "liberty!" O how large, and how sweet. To know that the entail of the past is all cut off. Therefore the converted man is "free," too, from thousands of chains which bind other men. He is "free" from death. To him death is only a liberator. All it can do is to unshackle his spirit from the thraldom of his body. The grave cannot hold him. Satan himself — the great captivator — is a captive. 2. He is in freedom from his present self. Sin does not rule in him any more; the world no longer fascinates, the flesh no longer drags him down. He has gone up far above those things. He walks his higher path, a path where the whole man can expand itself; a path worthy of his immortality, at large, satisfying, infinite! And beyond all this, that "man in Christ" has now "free" access to God. He can go up any moment, under any circumstances of life, and he can tell his Father. All this must go to make freedom. Who, then, is the "free" man, but he whom the Lord makes free? (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; |
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