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© 1988
Cecil Hook.
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Free As Sons
by Cecil Hook
In the times when men enslaved their fellowmen, a person might have had
two men serving him with entirely different attitudes and relationships.
One of these men, being a slave, served out of compulsion and fear. When
he failed to please his master, there were fearful consequences that had to be
faced. Born out of his slavish fear, however, was one security. When the
master specified in detail all of his duties and the slave fulfilled them, he
could feel some security and acceptance. It was a security through
accomplishment and perfectionism, but the sense of security was always
overshadowed by his fears of inadequacy. The slave could perform his
service with no love, admiration, or oneness of purpose with his master.
That is a spirit of bondage.
The other of these two men was a son of the master. He served his father out
of a sense of belonging, acceptance, love, and unity of purpose with the
father. This son knew that his security and acceptance were dependent upon
his relationship rather than his ability and diligence to achieve. His
confidence was in the unconditional love of his father. His service was in
gratitude for the father's love and sustenance rather than to meet demands of
specifics and quotas set by the father. This young man was free from the
fears of inadequacy in performance and he was free to exercise himself
creatively in a loving relationship expressive of love and joy. This is the
spirit of freedom that sons may enjoy.
The slave pictures the disciple whose fears are at least partially relieved by his law-keeping through which he seeks to perform to specified standards
and quotas. It is a spirit of bondage to law. The son represents the disciple
who serves out of loving response to God's love and continual acceptance of
him as his son while the disciple knows that he can be nothing more than an
undeserving sinner at his best. The spirit of the sons of God is a loving
response to the grace of God rather than keeping laws to obtain grace.
Jesus has assured us, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed"
(John 8:36). Although Jesus is the one who sets us free, some disciples are
apprehensive of the freedom. The spirit of bondage may make the yoke of
law seem desirable and freedom seem fearful. A woman who had spent a
number of years in a monastery as a nun renounced her vows and entered
into secular life again. When asked concerning her greatest problem of
readjustment, she readily responded that it was in making so many
decisions. As a nun, her regimented life was prescribed for her as to her
residence, schedule, dress, meals, and social activities. Her freedom brought
responsibility, and responsibility demands choices. This responsibility may
be frightening to a person conditioned by bondage to legal righteousness.
A License to Sin
The anxieties felt by those of the spirit of slavery lead them to suspect that
freedom from legal justification is a license to do as they pleased a license
to sin. These children of Hagar interpret according to the flesh. The children
of the free woman live by the Spirit, being ruled by a higher nature. Paul
explains, "So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but
if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of
sonship" (Romans 8:12ff). The sons of God have a higher motivation than law
and a nobler relationship than that of a slave. In our crying, "Abba, Father,"
we are not exercising a legal right but we are recognizing our acceptance as
children of God.
Jesus made us free. Paul is the great champion of our freedom, sounding a
call for freedom, defending it, and giving a challenge to all who are free.
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as
an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another"
(Galatians 5:13). Paul would have us to follow the Spirit rather than a code of
laws so we will respond to an internal control instead of an external one.
The Spirit works through our intelligence and understanding in guiding us.
Freedom of Sons
Religion can satisfy neither man nor God unless it satisfies the intelligence.
Intelligence, motivated by its conclusion of faith, leads one to hunger and
thirst for right emotionally. The desire to do what is right is a fundamental
virtue without which one cannot be acceptable to God. Bondage to a system
of law may constrain a person into conformity out of fear of the
consequence of non-conformity while there is still resistance both
intellectually and emotionally. Man is not free if he is driven by what he
does not value or choose, and he cannot value and choose except to the
degree that he comprehends. Service to God through imposed laws which
one neither understands nor values is a spiritual slavery not fitting the sons
of God. Such might even be more carnal than spiritual. For the spirit to be
free, one must find satisfaction and happiness in following his own higher
motivation to do what is good and right. He gives himself willingly and
happily, but to give himself he must first own himself. He cannot properly
dedicate himself if he is not free. Jesus gives us this kind of enabling
freedom.
The spirit of bondage, rather than freeing one of his carnal nature, may
cause him to test the law, strain at its limitations, and seek loopholes to
justify exploits of the flesh. Thus we may find ourselves to be modern
scribes and Pharisees defining with hair-splitting detail the limits of what
we interpret as the divine code. Carnal deeds done in the name of religion
and for the sake of it are among the darkest of history, appalling for their
extravagance of hatred, vengeance, cruelty, greed, and lust. The carnal
person may observe "Thou shalt not kill" while cursing, hating, and
oppressing his brother.
The other extreme is true also. A person may claim his freedom as a son of
God to use as a license to live according to the flesh. So it is not too
shocking to learn of persons on whom we have looked as spiritual leaders
being involved in all sorts of licentious immoralities and greedy and
aggrandizing schemes. Neither of these extremes is inherent in the freedom
which Christ gives, but they are the ditches on either side of the road of
highest intention.
An Inner Control
In the new covenant relationship, the change in the nature of control was
prophesied by Joel, "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on
their hearts" (Hebrews 8:10). By this God was not pointing to a time of the
memorization of laws, formulas, systems, or codes, but to a time when his
people would have an inner control. This would not be laws written on
tables of stone or parchment but it would be principles written on the
conscience. No longer being yoked by a law which brought death, the
disciple's heart would be attuned to the Spirit of life.
While I was in college, some of the students managed to get the questions
for the test to be taken the next day. We knew that this was not the most
upright thing to do, but rationalizing that grades were a contest between the
student and the teacher, we were able to justify our improper actions.
At another time, my brother, George, and I missed an examination in the
class of Homer Hailey. When we asked him to let us take a makeup
examination, Brother Hailey handed us the questions, saying, "Here are the
questions; you and George may take them home with you and answer them.
I know that you won't cheat."
Would we cheat on that test? Certainly not! Not even a little peek at my
notes. Why not? He had put me on my honor causing me to determine what
kind of person I was going to be. My inner nature was called upon and my
response had to come from within.
In similar manner, God has put us in his honor system to see what kind of
persons we will be. Rather than trying to evade the "All-seeing Eye
watching you," we serve conscientiously because we hunger and thirst for
that which is right. He calls us not to be robots stiffly doing his bidding, but
as his friends and sons who have his aims and goals in our hearts. The
internal rule gives us conviction and courage to travel God's road even
though none go with us.
We might prefer to have everything defined in plain and simple terms so
that we would have no hard decisions to make about our conduct as
disciples. It might seem preferable to have an explicit code of law like the
Law of Moses recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. God's
claim of the tithe and firstborn was spelled out. One's lawful food could be a
sheep or goat but not a pig or mule, and he could eat bass or perch fish but
not catfish or oysters. One needed not to be concerned about being a priest
unless he was a Levite. The sacrifices expected were specified in detail. The
rules were about as "black and white" as words could make them.
Those of us who cannot accept the reality of freedom would like to know
the percentage of giving expected, and if it is on a sliding scale determined
by the number of dependents, as in figuring our income tax. They would
like to have a description of the clothing permitted so decisions would not
have to be made and interpretations would not be necessary in each
generation and society. Since modesty in clothing relates to the expense of
it, how much may one spend on clothes, jewelry, hairdos, and cosmetics?
How much of the body must be covered and what areas may be exposed?
How form-fitting, transparent, clinging, and revealing may it be and still be
decent? And where is the chart or code that defines the amount of permitted
consumption, or prohibition, of alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and various
kinds of drugs? If these things were all spelled out, we would not have to
make decisions. It would be an external control like that over a slave.
Rightness would be in keeping within all the legal limits. But as sons, we
are free to make daily decisions, difficult as they may be, based on the
highest of principles and the noblest of motivations.
Be Free Men
Paul says that we have been freed from the Mosaic kind of law; however, he
is not saying that Christ has no law or that we are without law, but that his
law is of a different nature a guiding by principles of action. When we
might yearn for subjection to a code like Israel yearned to return to the
slavery of Egypt, Paul would recall us with, "Christ set us free, to be free
men. Stand firm, then, and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slavery again"
(Galatians 5:1).
It seems that at some time those who seek to make Christ's law into a legal
code would have gone through the New Testament scriptures and listed all
of his laws. The Law of Moses was a code, and the Jews could list 613 laws
in it. In some generation it seems that someone would have cataloged Jesus'
laws. Have you ever tried that? You will become totally frustrated in such an effort because the law written on the heart
involves principles. Commands, instructions, teachings, and exhortations
only expedite the fulfilling of the law of the heart.
In thinking of freedom, one might visualize a ship in the vast Pacific Ocean
with no engine, sail, or rudder. Although, in one sense, the ship is free of
controls, it is driven by the external forces of wind and current and can
reach no harbor or goal. That is not the kind of freedom we are looking for
in Christ, but it is the very thing that Paul is warning about in our Galatians
passage: "You, my friends, were called to be free; only do not turn your
freedom into license for your lower nature." Freedom is not being free from
guidance but in being led by the Spirit, who bears witness with our spirits
that we are sons of God.
Working for someone else, a person may feel entrapped and enslaved by
time clocks, schedules, and quotas to meet constantly. The desire to be free
from all of that is strong. That employee may buy out the business and
become free. Now, instead of an eight hour schedule, he may work ten or
fifteen hours each day. He is no longer meeting schedules and quotas to
fulfill requirements, but his interest now is in making a success of the
business. He has something different in his heart. His freedom from a boss
is not a license to loaf, indulge himself, or take the easiest path.
Our liberty is not permissive living. The lower nature fights against the
spiritual nature. "I mean this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will not
fulfill the desires of your lower nature. That nature sets its desires against
the Spirit, while the Spirit fights against it. They are in conflict with one
another so that what you will to do you cannot do. But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under law" (Galatians 5:16ff NEB).
Paul continues: "Anyone can see the kind of behavior that belongs to the
lower nature: fornication, impurity, and indecency; idolatry and sorcery;
quarrels, a contentious temper, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, party intrigues, and jealousies; drinking bouts, orgies, and the
like." Although one may be free to do these things, the gates of heaven are
doubly locked against him.
We must reap of the Spirit of the law written on the heart. "But the harvest
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity,
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law dealing with such things as
these." The harvest of the Spirit begins with love and ends with self-control,
and that's what the law written in our heart is all about. Love is higher than
any code, needs no law to regulate it, and requires no specified ritual for its
expression. The just man has the hunger and thirst for righteousness, and
"The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient,
etc." (I Timothy 1:9).
We always have to get back to love, don't we? Back in the beginning
sentence, Paul urges, "But be servants to one another in love. For the whole
law can be summed up in a single commandment: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself."' The harvest of the Spirit comes from keeping the whole law
which is summed up in one commandment and is written on the heart of the
son of God. This is his guarantee of freedom from bondage to a code of law.
How obvious all of this is. The spiritual service of the son begins with love
and ends in self-control. He needs no code of law to control his conduct for
he has an inner control. He is loved, accepted, and forgiven because he is a
son rather than in reward for flawless conduct and meritorious works. Being
filled with and guided by the Spirit, he stands in the strength of the Lord and
the power of his might. The son is free from bondage to a code of law
intended to control his carnal nature and free from the fears resulting from
the ineffectiveness of such controls. His inner control of love casts out his
fears.
This page Copyright © 2003 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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