Evidence of Liberty in the Spirit (2)
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.—Luke 6:35
(2) Where this liberty from the Spirit is, there is a blessed freedom to do all duties with a full heart. Those under grace are anointed by the Spirit (Psa. 89:20), and that spiritual anointing makes them active. Now he that is truly anointed by the Spirit is in some degree quick and active in what is good.
One result of anointing is to give agility and strength. Finding cheerfulness and strength to perform holy services, to hear the word, to pray to God, and to perform holy duties—this comes from the Spirit of God. The Spirit sets people at this liberty, because otherwise spiritual duties are as opposite to flesh and blood as fire is to water. When we are drawn to duties out of wrong motives or fear or custom, and not from a new nature, this is not from the Spirit, and their performance is not from the true liberty of the Spirit. For under the liberty of the Spirit, actions come off naturally, not forced by fear or hope or any extra motives. A child does not need other motives to please his father. When he knows he is the child of a loving father, it is natural. There is a new nature in those who have the Spirit of God to stir them up to duty, though God's motives of sweet encouragements and rewards may help. But the principal is to do things naturally, not out of fear or to appease other people.
Artificial things move from a principle outside themselves. Clocks and such things have weights that move all the wheels they go by. So it is with an artificial Christian who sets himself to a course of religion. He moves by weights outside himself and does not have an inward principle of the Spirit to make things natural to him, to excite him and make him do things naturally and sweetly. 'Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom'—that is, a kind of natural freedom, not forced, not moved by any alien motive.
One result of anointing is to give agility and strength. Finding cheerfulness and strength to perform holy services, to hear the word, to pray to God, and to perform holy duties—this comes from the Spirit of God. The Spirit sets people at this liberty, because otherwise spiritual duties are as opposite to flesh and blood as fire is to water. When we are drawn to duties out of wrong motives or fear or custom, and not from a new nature, this is not from the Spirit, and their performance is not from the true liberty of the Spirit. For under the liberty of the Spirit, actions come off naturally, not forced by fear or hope or any extra motives. A child does not need other motives to please his father. When he knows he is the child of a loving father, it is natural. There is a new nature in those who have the Spirit of God to stir them up to duty, though God's motives of sweet encouragements and rewards may help. But the principal is to do things naturally, not out of fear or to appease other people.
Artificial things move from a principle outside themselves. Clocks and such things have weights that move all the wheels they go by. So it is with an artificial Christian who sets himself to a course of religion. He moves by weights outside himself and does not have an inward principle of the Spirit to make things natural to him, to excite him and make him do things naturally and sweetly. 'Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom'—that is, a kind of natural freedom, not forced, not moved by any alien motive.
Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 55-56 [61-62]
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.
Glorious Freedom, pp. 55-56 [61-62]
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.
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