Binding or Liberating

[OBW]

I don’t want to clutter the devotional thread that Sons to Glory has created, so I will have some discussion here. This relates to the post on April 25, 2021 (#46 in the thread). He quotes a passage from Hannah W. Smith which is repeated here for reference.

APRIL 25 BINDING OR LIBERATING

There are two kinds of Christian experience: one is an experience of bondage and the other an experience of liberty. In the first case, the soul is controlled by a stern sense of duty and obeys the law of God, either from fear of punishment or from expectation of wages. In the other case, the controlling power is an inward life principle that works out, by the force of its own motions or instincts, the will of the divine Lifegiver, without fear of punishment or hope of reward. In the first, the Christian is a servant and works for hire; in the second, he is a son and works for love.

There ought not to be this contrast in the experience of Christians, but as we have to deal with what is, rather than with what ought to be, we cannot shut our eyes to the bondage in which so many of God's children spend a large part of their Christian lives. The reason for this bondage and the remedy for it are not difficult to find: the reason is legality, and the remedy is Christ.

Nowhere do we find those two forms or stages of Christian life more fully developed and contrasted than in the Epistle to the Galatians. The Galatian Christians had begun in the right attitude; they had entered into the spiritual life by the "hearing of faith" (Gal. 3:5). But when it came to a question of how they were to live in this life, they had changed their ground. They had sought to substitute works for faith. Having "begun in the Spirit," they were now seeking to be "made perfect by the flesh" (Gal. 3:3). They had, in short, descended in their Christian living, from the plane of life to the plane of law. (SEC, 157-58)

Before I start, please note that I am not asserting that Ms. Smith is in any way doing what I will speak concerning.

My observation over many years is that talk about bondage and the law when in reference to Christians is sometimes given from a perspective of inner bondage or liberty, and sometimes from an outward perception based on some expectation of what liberty should look like. And further, the talk about “bondage to the law” is made so broad as to go beyond what Paul was talking about in the passage referenced (Gal. 3).

What are the “works” that Ms/ Smith refers to in her third paragraph? Does she (or even just the average reader) have a definition of what that is that is beyond what Paul meant? Was Paul only talking about becoming hoodwinked by the Judaizers into following the ritual law of the OT (circumcision, dietary laws, etc.), or was he talking about anything that might be argued to be a law that was understood to be obeyed?

I think you can clearly include the ritualistic laws that were brought by the Judaizers. It is probably this very instance that set in motion Paul’s complaint to the apostles in Jerusalem that we call the Jerusalem council in Acts 15.

But was Paul saying that they should not obey so many other things stated in the OT and NT? Especially what Christ commanded? Seems that a lot of it could outwardly be called “works.”

And when I get to Gal 5, it is clear that what Paul is talking about is the ritual law. He never suggested that serving diligently in a soup kitchen was part of the law that was of no value.

My problem is that too much of modern Christian thought — not just from the LC or inner-life teachers, but even major Evangelical teachers — dismisses anything that is not outwardly “liberty.” No ties to forms or works of any kind. Yet Matthew’s gospel ends with Christ commanding his yet-to-be followers to be taught to obey. Not just experience liberty. Paul said we technically have liberty to sin. It is an easy extension then to say that we also have liberty to not obey. But just as Paul asked whether we should then go ahead and sin, he said “By No Means!” I would suggest that it is the same for obedience. Even to those things that are works.

It is only through our works that we bear the image of God to the world. When it comes to obedience, there is no such thing as “just works” or any works that we should consider a burden or bondage to engage in. Instead, we should understand them as the evidence that we actually have faith. (James 2)