This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.
FREEDOM
"If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36
The minds of many are wholly absorbed in politics, but there is a freedom independent of all political changes. Do we know anything of it? Are we free? That leads me to discuss the general excellence of freedom, the best and truest kind of freedom, and the way the best kind of freedom may become your own. If you are not free, I want to guide you into true liberty. If you are free, I want you to know the full value of your freedom.
1. The general excellence of freedom. Two of the worst types of tyranny are the crushing tyranny of a cruel military or political despot, and the intolerant tyranny of an unreasoning mob. Liberty is one of the greatest temporal blessings a person can have this side of the grave. It is an unmatched privilege to live in a land where our bodies are free. So long as we hurt no one's person, property, or character, no one can touch us. When we live where our actions are free, so long as we support ourselves, we are free to choose what we will do, where we will go, and how we will spend our time. When we live where our consciences are free, so long as we hold quietly on our own way and do not interfere with others, we are free to worship God as we believe best, and no one can compel religious faith or practices.
To win and preserve freedom has been the aim of many national struggles that have deluged the earth with blood. Liberty has been the cause in which myriads of Greeks, Romans, Europeans, and Americans especially have laid down their lives. The champions of freedom in every age have been justly esteemed among the greatest benefactors of mankind. Such names as Moses in Jewish history, the Spartan Leonidas, the Roman Horatius, the German Martin Luther, the Swiss William Tell, the Scots Robert Bruce and John Knox, the English King Alfred, and the American George Washington are deservedly honored in history, and will never be forgotten. The enemies of freedom in every age have rightly been regarded as blights on the one ground that they would not let people be free.
Let us beware of undervaluing any liberty we enjoy, but thinking beyond this life, I caution you against overvaluing it. Temporal slavery is not the only slavery, and temporal freedom not the only freedom. What does it ultimately profit you to be a citizen of a free country so long as your soul is not free? What is the lasting advantage of enjoying free thought, speech, action, and conscience if you are, in fact, a slave to sin and a captive to the devil? Yes, there are tyrants no eye can see as real and destructive as Pharaoh or Nero. There are chains no hands can touch as heavy and soul-withering as ever crushed the limbs of an African slave. It is from those tyrants and chains I want you to be free. Look higher and further than any temporal freedom. In the highest sense let us take care that we are indeed free.
2. The best and truest kind of freedom. No power of earth can prevent a man, woman or child from having this freedom if they have the will to receive it, and no one can take it away. The true freedom I speak of is spiritual freedom, freedom of the soul. It is the freedom Christ bestows "without money" (Isaiah 55). If the Son makes you free, "you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, "there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). No other freedom compares to this.
A. Freedom from the guilt of sin. This means that the heavy burden of unforgiven transgressions, which lies so heavy on many consciences, no longer presses them down. Those who come to saving faith in Christ's work on the cross have good reason for believing their guilt has been cleansed away. They rightly feel pardoned, reconciled, justified, and accepted in God's sight. They can look back on black deeds and years of carelessness and worldliness, saying, "You can condemn me no longer!" There is therefore now "no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
B. Freedom from the power of sin. Paul goes on to explain, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of fallen mortal flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.... 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" (Romans 8:2-4, 13). The New Covenant Christ inaugurated is the fulfillment of this promise from God: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Sin no longer rules in believers' lives, carrying them like a flood. Through the power of Christ's Spirit they progressively gain victory over the evil inclinations that remain from living in this fallen world. The flesh will fight, but it will not conquer them. Devils will tempt, but will not overcome them since they are no longer enslaved by their lusts, appetites, passions, and tempers. Over all those things they are "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) through Him who loved them. That is true liberty.
C. Freedom from the fear of man. Listen to what Christ said to His own disciples: "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4-5). Believers are not afraid of eternal punishment and do not have a slavish fear of God, but they rightly fear displeasing Him nonetheless. By being adopted into God's family, they look to God as Father and rejoice in His love as adoring children (Galatians 4:4-7). The "fear of man" was once a snare to them (Proverbs 29:25). They trembled at the thought of what others would say, think, or do, daring not to run counter to the current fashions and ideas of those around them. But the snare is now broken and they are delivered.
D. Freedom from the fear of death. Through Christ, believers can look this last enemy calmly in the face and say, as the Heidelberg Catechism so eloquently summarizes biblical truth on hope in life and death: "I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him."
Christians will experience the fulfillment of these promises: "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall arise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!" (Isaiah 26:19). The Lord "will swallow up death forever. He will wipe away tears from their faces. The reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, 'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him!'" (Isaiah 25:8-9). God Himself says, "I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Hell, where is your sting?" (Hosea 13:14). Then shall come to pass the sayings that are written: "Death is swallowed up in victory.... O Death, where is your sting?... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). In the meantime we say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalm 23:4). This is true freedom.
E. Freedom that lasts forever. The highest privileges of this world's freedom can endure only for a lifetime. The freest citizen on earth must at last submit to death and lose his franchise forever, but the franchise of Christ's people is eternal. They carry it to the grave and it lives still. Once enrolled in the list of heavenly citizens, their names shall never be struck off. Paul explains, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:20-21). This is everlasting freedom.
3. The way the best kind of freedom may become your own. The freedom of Christ's people has been procured, like all other freedoms, at a mighty cost and by a mighty sacrifice. Great was the bondage in which they were naturally held, and great was the price necessary to be paid to set them free. The price that Christ paid for His people was nothing less than His own lifeblood. He became their Substitute, suffering for their sins on the cross: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53; Psalm 22). He satisfied every possible demand of God's Law against us by fulfilling its righteous requirements to the uttermost. I therefore join Paul and his mighty companions by saying this to you: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). This is the freedom above all others. We can never value it too highly; there is no danger of overvaluing it.
How does this spiritual freedom become your own? First you must realize that no one is born spiritually free. We are all born slaves and servants of sin. We are by nature "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:1-3) and destitute of any title to heaven. Second, realize no one becomes spiritually free by baptism or church membership. Those are important acts of obedience after simple faith in Christ as the only Savior and Redeemer.
Paul succinctly explains salvation like this: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus Himself says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.... He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 3:3; 5:23-24). This truth is of priceless importance, accessible to all regardless of educational, social, ethnic, or physical status.
Therefore I conclude by asking if you are free. Do not let political struggles, party strife, or anything else make you forget your precious soul. Never forget there is a liberty far higher and more lasting than any politics can give you. Do not rest until that liberty is your own and your soul is free. Seek Christ, repent, believe, and be free. Christ has a glorious liberty to bestow on all who humbly cry to Him for freedom. Know that "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed!" (John 8:36).
Freedom like this is the secret of true happiness. None go through the world with such ease and contentment as those who are citizens of a heavenly country. Earth's burdens press lightly upon their shoulders; earth's disappointments do not crush them down as they do others; earth's duties do not shrivel their spirits. In their darkest hours they have this sustaining thought to fall back on: I have something that makes me independent of this world: I am spiritually free.
Are you free? Then in faith and hope look toward good things yet to come. Our redemption has begun, but is not yet complete. We have redemption now in the root, but not in the flower. Paul gives us important parting words on our spiritual freedom: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). He explains throughout the chapter that it can be tempting to focus on religious externals, but what really matters is "faith working through love."
Our great Redeemer has gone before us to prepare a place for His people (John 14:1-3), and when He returns, our redemption will be complete. Then, and not until then, we shall be completely free. The liberty we enjoyed by faith shall be changed into the liberty of sight (2 Corinthians 4:16—5:9), and the freedom of hope into the freedom of certainty (Hebrews 11:1, 6). Let us therefore resolve to wait and watch, hope and pray, living like men and women who have something laid up for them in heaven. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand (Romans 13:11-14). Our King is not far off; our full salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The signs of the times are strange, demanding every Christian's serious attention. The powers of this world, both secular and religious, are everywhere reeling and shaking to their foundations (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36). How happy are the citizens of Christ's eternal Kingdom, ready for anything that may come, knowing they are free!
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