Evidence of Liberty in the Spirit (5)

(5) Where this Spirit of liberty is, there is a freedom from the prevailing errors and the slavish courses of the times. There are two sorts of wicked persons in the world: one sort counts it their heaven and happiness to domineer over others, so they will sell all to please them. The other sort will sell their liberty, their reason and everything so that they may get anything that they value in the world. Between those two, some domineering and others servile, are a few that live upon the terms of Christianity and are of sound judgment.
Now where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty, that is, a freedom not to enslave our judgments, much less conscience, to any man. Where the Spirit of Christ is, there is a liberty of independence. A man is not dependent upon any other man, beyond what agrees with the rules of religion. He is dependent only upon God and upon divine principles and grounds. So far as a man is 'led by the Spirit' (Rom. 8:14), he discerns things in the light of the Spirit. The apostle does not say there is license to shake off all regulation, for by too much license all liberty is lost. A true Christian is the greatest servant and the greatest freeman in the world. He has a spirit that will yield to none. Yet in the outward life he is a servant to all, to do them good. Love makes him a servant.
The moment a man is in Christ, he has another law in his soul to rule him contrary to that which there was before. Before he was ruled by the law of his lusts, which carried him where it would. But now in Christ he has a new Lord and a new law, and that rules him according to the government of the Spirit. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has freed me from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2).

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 61-64 [67-71]
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