Liberty in Christ

Liberty in Christ (Intimacy with Christ by Jeanne Guyon)

"If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." When the old man of sin is destroyed and the new man is established within you, you experience a new and perfect freedom. As a bird let loose from its cage, you go out, totally free, to dwell in the immeasurable height and depth and breadth of God. The old self life binds you in every way so that even God is not able to abide there and is deprived of what is really His.

When Paul asked, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" he added, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." When, by God's grace, Jesus is given His rightful place in your heart, you will be delivered. When such a great deliverance came, Paul cried out in wonder, "I live, and yet not I. Christ lives in me!" He was no longer interested in himself, but in this New Man, Jesus Christ, who had come to live and act in him. He was steered by Christ, just as you steer the course of your body. If someone else sat at the controls of your body, the body would obey this new conductor. This conductor would engineer the body's operations.

Likewise, Jesus Christ is the life your new man lives by. And who is more free and more expansive than Jesus? His nature is divine, eternal, and without bounds. So you can see how tragically you will be imprisoned if you cling to the old self. When you look at the freedom and spaciousness that come from living in Jesus, you then want to let that serpent of self be crushed underfoot by Christ. Then the life of God may (as in the first creation) bring you to life.

This freedom to be carried about on eagle's wings brings you into the heart of God. The dove that rested on Jesus was s symbol, not only of innocence, but also of freedom. Jesus gives your spirit the freedom to soar and dwell in God. May it please God to let you experience this wonderful freedom. Give your old self up and you will find unspeakable freedom in the One who is All in All.