Bondage to Freedom (1)

The words ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom' imply that we are in bondage before we have the Spirit of the Lord. For outside of Christ we are slaves, the best of us all are slaves. In Christ, the lowest of all is a free man and a king. Out of Christ there is nothing but bondage and slavery. We are under the kingdom of the devil. There is no man who is not a slave until he is in Christ; and the freer a man thinks himself to be, and labours to be, the more enslaved he is.
Take those who labour to have freedom, to do what they choose. They consider it happiness to have their wills over all others, but the more freedom they have in this, the more slavery. Why? The more freedom a man has to lawlessly do what he wills, contrary to justice and equity, the more he sins. The more he sins, the more he is enslaved to sin. The more he is enslaved to sin, the more he is in bondage to the devil and becomes the enemy of God. To pick out the most wretched man in the world, I would pick out the greatest man in the world, if he is wicked, who has the most people under him; he has most freedom and accounts it his happiness. This is the greatest bondage and slavery of all, and it will prove so when he dies and comes to answer for it. If we are not in Christ, we are slaves, as Augustine said in his book The City of God, 'He is a slave though he domineers and rules.'
A man till he is in Christ is a slave, he has as many lords as he has lusts. The Scripture speaks of but two kingdoms, the kingdom of Satan and darkness, and the kingdom of Christ. All that are not in the kingdom of Christ must be in the other kingdom of Satan. I mention this briefly as a provocation to stir us up, to get into Christ, that we may have this spiritual freedom.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 28-29 [32-34]
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.