Romans 6:16-18 Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death… The liberty of the subject could never be preserved in a lawless state of society, but violence and tyranny would reduce to a slavish obedience the weak and the timid. The palladium of civil liberty is law; law well defined, excluding the fluctuations of caprice on one side, and of aggression on the other; law rigorously executed also, for the best code is a dead letter if it be not accompanied by a living and firm executive. So the liberty of the believer is secured by the law of God, when brought under its guidance and government. While living under the misrule of his fallen nature, he is the sport of every capricious imagination, and successively the slave of his predominant passions (ver. 16.) But let Christ's government be set up, and he becomes Christ's freeman; "sin has no more dominion over him"; he is no longer its wretched captive, but is under gracious law, for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (G. H. Salter.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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? |
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