November 4, 2009 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY by Cornelius R. Stam Printer Friendly Version Christian liberty is a priceless possession. It can be abused, of course, but legitimately used it is an overflowing source of spiritual joy and power. God's purpose with regard to the liberty of the believer in Christ is aptly summed up for us in one short verse in the Galatian letter: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Gal. 5:13). As the cause of spiritual decline in Israel was always their departure from God's Word to them through Moses, so the cause of spiritual decline among believers today is always their departure from God's Word to us through Paul, and if anything is made unmistakably clear in the Epistles of Paul, it is the fact that believers in this present dispensation of grace have been delivered from the Law and, as God's full-grown sons in Christ, have been "called unto liberty." The failure of God's people to appropriate and enjoy this liberty today results in spiritual decline as surely as did the failure of the people of Israel to observe the law of Moses in their day. Could anything be plainer than those passages in this same Galatian epistle, where the Apostle says by the Spirit: "CHRIST HATH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13). "But when the fulness of the time was come, GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON, made of a woman, made under the law, "TO REDEEM THEM THAT WERE UNDER THE LAW, THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE THE ADOPTION OF SONS" (Gal. 4:4,5). Thus, to reject our blood-bought liberty and go back to the servitude of the Law is to repudiate not only the Word of God, but the Word of God to us, and this must necessarily result in spiritual decline. To the Reader: Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface: "It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles." We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.