Spiritual Liberty (4)

In a wicked man there is nothing but flesh, and so there is no resistance. We must understand the nature of this spiritual liberty in sanctification. It is not a liberty freeing us altogether from conflict, and deadness, and dullness. It is a liberty not freeing us from combat but enabling us to fight the battles of the Lord against our own corruptions. Freedom from fighting is the liberty of glory in heaven when there will be no enemy within or without.
Therefore, Christians must not be discouraged with the stubbornness and unwillingness of the flesh to good duties. If we have a principle in us to fight against our corruptions, and to get good duties out of ourselves in spite of them, it is an argument for a new nature. God will perfect his own beginnings, and subdue the flesh more and more, by the power of his Spirit. We see what a sweet excuse our blessed Saviour made for his disciples when they were dead-hearted and drowsy, when they should have comforted him in the garden: 'Oh,’ said he, 'the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak' (Matt. 26:41). Sometimes after labour and expenditure of energy, deadness creeps in invincibly, and a man cannot overcome those necessities of nature, so that the spirit may be willing, and the flesh is weak. God knows our necessities. When we are dull, let us strive. Christ is ready to make excuse for us, if our hearts are right: 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' I speak this for the comfort of the best sort of Christians, that think they are not set at liberty by the Spirit, because they find some heaviness and dullness in good duties. While we live here there is sin in us, but it does not reign. After a man has the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ maintains a perpetual combat and conflict against sin. It could subdue sin all at once if God saw it good; but God chooses to humble us while we live here and exercise us with spiritual conflicts.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 37-39 [42-43]
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.