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Furthermore, the slave and the hireling have a law,
not from the Lord, but of their own contriving; the
one does not love God, the other loves something
else more than God. They have a law of their own,
not of God, I say; yet it is subject to the law of
the Lord. For though they can make laws for
themselves, they cannot supplant the changeless
order of the eternal law.
Each man is a law unto himself, when he sets up
his will against the universal law, perversely
striving to rival his Creator, to be wholly
independent, making his will his only law. What a
heavy and burdensome yoke upon all the sons of Adam,
bowing down our necks, so that our life draweth nigh
unto hell. 'O wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom.
7.24). I am weighed down, I am almost overwhelmed,
so that 'If the Lord had not helped me, it had not
failed but my soul had been put to silence' (Ps.
94.17). Job was groaning under this load when he
lamented: 'Why hast Thou set me as a mark against
Thee, so that I am a burden to myself?' (Job 7.20).
He was a burden to himself through the law which was
of his own devising: yet he could not escape God's
law, for he was set as a mark against God.
The eternal law of righteousness ordains that he
who will not submit to God's sweet rule shall suffer
the bitter tyranny of self: but he who wears the
easy yoke and light burden of love (Matt. 11.30)
will escape the intolerable weight of his own
self-will. Wondrously and justly does that eternal
law retain rebels in subjection, so that they are
unable to escape. They are subject to God's power,
yet deprived of happiness with Him, unable to dwell
with God in light and rest and glory everlasting. O
Lord my God, 'why dost Thou not pardon my
transgression and take away mine iniquity?' (Job
7.21). Then freed from the weight of my own will, I
can breathe easily under the light burden of love. I
shall not be coerced by fear, nor allured by
mercenary desires; for I shall be led by the Spirit
of God, that free Spirit whereby Thy sons are led,
which beareth witness with my spirit that I am among
the children of God (Rom. 8.16).
So shall I be under that law which is Thine; and
as Thou art, so shall I be in the world. Whosoever
do what the apostle bids, 'Owe no man anything, but
to love one another' (Rom. 13.8), are doubtless even
in this life conformed to God's likeness: they are
neither slaves nor hirelings but sons. |