LIBERTY -- HOW PRECIOUS!*by C. R. Stam

LIBERTY -- HOW PRECIOUS!*
* by C. R. Stam*
*

We were interested to read, recently, about the man in California who
ran short of grazing land for his herd of 13 buffalo. To solve this
problem he put them on a barge and took them over to a large island in
Lake Berryessa where there was lots of pasture. But what did the buffalo
do? They jumped back into the lake, swam to shore and began charging
fishermen and chasing automobiles -- so enraged were they at being
imprisoned on an island!

After all, neither man nor beast enjoys bondage, though many of us are
in fact enslaved.

Our Lord said in John 8:32: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free." To this the religious leaders replied: "We be
Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou,
Ye shall be made free?" But our Lord answered: "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (Ver.34). St.
Paul says the same thing in Rom. 6:16:

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness? "

Sad to say, many sincere religious people think that they can free
themselves from sin by putting themselves in bondage to the Law, the Ten
Commandments. This never works, for the Law can only condemn the sinner.
Rom.3:19,20 declares that the Law was given "that every mouth may be
stopped and that all the world may be brought in guilty before God...
for by the law is the knowledge of sin."Again we have to turn to Christ
for salvation and true liberty. He "died for our sins" (I Cor. 15:3) and
has "redeemed us from the curse of the law" (Gal. 3:13).

Having believed this and trusted Christ as Savior, true Christians serve
the Lord, not from fear, or to gain favor, but out of sheer love and
gratitude. This is true liberty and this service is the only kind that
God desires from us. Probably no man ever served the Lord more sincerely
or tirelessly than the Apostle Paul. In II Cor. 5:14 he gives us the
secret: "The love of Christ constraineth us..."