August 31

Christ's Yoke True Freedom

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. — John 8:32

Self-confidence is the peril even of the truest piety. We are in danger of forgetting that we are nothing, and that Jesus Christ is our all in all. This very day children of godly parents need to be on their guard against the sin of these ancient Jews. By what species of mental hoodwinking they fancied themselves “free,” when at that very time Roman soldiers stood guard about their city, we cannot understand.

Both these errors are common enough. Many people boast more of their “blood” than of anything else. It truly is a great privilege to have good ancestry; it is good capital with which to start in life; but beyond a certain point it does not count. The first question may be, “Who is your father?” Parents may lead a child to Christ in infancy, but when the child is old enough for moral accountability it must accept Christ by a personal faith. Nothing else really avails for salvation. We must enter Christ’s kingdom as individuals. Abraham had some descendants who were far enough away from his virtue, and whom he would scarcely wish to recognise as his children; and many a godly father nowadays has worthless sons.

Then the illusion of freedom, while one is really in chains, is not altogether rare. A great many people living in sin imagine they are the only free people there are. They have thrown off the restraints of religion and of law, and they think they are free, while they regard those who follow Christ as slaves. Sin plays strange tricks with men. Insane people sometimes deck themselves out in tinsel, and imagine that they are some great personages. The devil often puts similar notions into the heads of his deluded followers. None are free but those who wear Christ’s yoke.