Spiritual Liberty (5)

By the Spirit of Christ in sanctification we are made kings to rule over our own lusts to some degree. We are not kings to be freed altogether from them, but kings to strive against them. It is a liberty to fight, and in fighting to overcome at last. When the Israelites had a promise that God would give their enemies into their hands, the meaning was not that he would give them without fighting a blow. They would fight, but in fighting they would overcome. The liberty of sanctification, it is not a liberty that ends combat with our corruptions, but a gracious liberty to keep them under, until by subduing them little by little, we have a perfect victory. What greater encouragement can a man have to fight against his enemy, than when he is sure of final victory before he fights!
But this is not all that is in liberty; for the Spirit does not only free us from all that is ill, from sin, but from that which follows it, as fear and terrors of conscience; death and wrath. Where the Spirit is, it frees us from fear; for the same Spirit that tells us in justification that God is appeased, also frees us from the fear of damnation and death and judgment; from the terrors of an evil conscience. Being 'sprinkled with the blood of Christ' (Heb. 10:22), we are freed from fear. And the Spirit not only frees us from the fear of ill things but frees us to do good. Liberty implies two things: a freedom from ill, from a cursed condition, and likewise a liberty to better—a liberty from ill and to good. We must understand the breadth of Christ's benefits, because they are complete, not only to free us from ill, but to confer all good to us. God will leave no part of the soul unfilled, no corner of the soul empty. By little and little he does it.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 39-40 [44-45]
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