GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 1. Freedom from Bondage.—1. Every man by nature is a bondslave, being under the bondage of sin. The Jews were under bondage to the ceremonial law, involving great trouble, pain in the flesh, and great expense. 2. Jesus Christ by His obedience and death has purchased freedom and liberty to His Church—liberty not to do evil, nor from the yoke of new obedience, nor from the cross, nor from that obedience and reverence which inferiors owe to superiors; but from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, the curse and irritating power of the law, and from subjecting our consciences to the rites, doctrines, ceremonies, and laws of men in the matter of worship. 3. Though civil liberty be much desired, so ignorant are we of the worth of freedom from spiritual bondage that we can hardly be excited to seek after it, or made to stand to it when attained, but are in daily hazard of preferring our former bondage to our present liberty.—Fergusson.
Bondage and Liberty.
I. We are in bondage under sin.
II. We are subject to punishment.—Implying: 1. Bondage under Satan, who keeps unrepentant sinners in his snare. 2. Bondage under an evil conscience, which sits in the heart as accuser and judge, and lies like a wild beast at a man’s door ready to pluck out his throat. 3. Bondage under the wrath of God and fear of eternal death.
III. We are in bondage to the ceremonial law.—To feel this bondage is a step out of it; not to feel it is to be plunged into it.
IV. We have spiritual liberty by the grace of God.—1. Christian liberty is a deliverance from misery. (1) From the curse of the law for the breach thereof. (2) From the obligation of the law whereby it binds us to perfect righteousness in our own persons. (3) From the observance of the ceremonial law of Moses. (4) From the tyranny and dominion of sin. 2. Christian liberty is freedom in good things. (1) In the voluntary service of God. (2) In the free use of all the creatures of God. (3) Liberty to come to God and in prayer to be heard. (4) To enter heaven.
V. Christ is the great Liberator.—He procured this liberty: 1. By the merit of His death. The price paid—His precious blood—shows the excellence of the blessing, and that it should be esteemed. 2. By the efficacy of His Spirit—assuring us of our adoption and abating the strength and power of sin.
VI. We are to hold fast our liberty in the day of trial.—1. We must labour that religion be not only in mind and memory but rooted in the heart. 2. We must join with our religion the soundness of a good conscience. 3. We must pray for all things needful.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 2–6.