The Cross and the Eternal Glory # 30

The Urgency and the Way of Spiritual Reality (continued)

We Are Called Into Liberty

And then another great privilege for us who are God's children, do try and get this, is liberty, is freedom. We are not under law; we are not a people just bound hand and foot by rules. We are a people who have a glorious liberty in Christ. "Ye were called unto liberty" (Galatians 5:1, 13). Yes, you can get the wrong idea about liberty. You can think it is doing what you like. No, real liberty is a freedom in the law, but also a captivity in Christ. It is a strange paradox, servants, slaves, bondservants of Jesus Christ; under the Law of Christ: yes, but freedom from all bondage, external bondage.

Now that liberty can only be really known as the Holy Spirit strengthens and governs our lives. "If ye be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." You see that? "If ye be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." If we want to be free people, we shall be free people as we are Spirit-governed people. Now that does not mean license in doing what you feel led to do, we get hold of the wrong end of this matter, but it means a life really God-governed, and that will need getting very close to Him to know what that means, but once the Spirit is governing our lives, we are brought into an ever greater freedom, enlargement, emancipation: an emancipated people.

He Called You ... to the Obtaining of the Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ

And finally, that wonderful word in Thessalonians, "Whereunto He called you through our gospel,to the obtaining of the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:14) - the obtaining the Glory! How can we obtain that which is the actual, excellence, beauty, wonder of what Christ is? How can we obtain it? The Glory of our Lord Jesus, what a thing beyond our puny grasp that seems, the Glory of Our Lord Jesus: His moral quality! His purity! His meekness! His love! Everything that Christ is, we have been called to obtain it, to become partakers of it; for that Glory to become real in our makeup, so that we are like that: we are meek and lowly, we are pure in heart, we are as He is. You say,what a hopelessly high standard, but dear friends, that is exactly what we are here for: that we "should show forth the excellence of Him, Who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9)

Now, the Lord is not satisfied if we do not obtain, if we do not enter into something of what Christ is.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 31)