what freedom is. The Apostle says, Á-°Being then made free from sin, ye became servants of
righteousness.Á-? Then he says, Á-°I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.Á-? He
is speaking of an exalted topic that only can be understood with spiritual knowledge, and the only way to
obtain this knowledge is by spiritual struggle. Our weak will, desiring to do works of righteousness, being
joined to the Powerful Will, to the Everlasting Will of God to make us capable of doing those things
which are righteous.
because it is a very useful device. He says, Á-°as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and
iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants unto righteousness, unto holiness.Á-? In
other words, just as before you were enslaved to various sins, now consider yourself a slave to
righteousness. Just as before Á-? or even, God forgive us, even now perhaps Á-? you have been a slave to a
particular way of thinking or doing something, think of yourself now as being required to do works of
righteousness, just as if you had a taskmaster behind you ordering you to do your work.
Then you will understand how sweet the Lord is, how beautiful His doctrines are, and how there is
nothing more perfect, and more holy, and more fulfilling than to follow GodÁ-?s law.
do righteousness, you did sin, and you couldnÁ-?t stop yourself. But what Jesus Christ offers us is the power
to become holy! Now He offers us that we would become, willingly, His servants. Now, at the end of the
age, those who have been good servants He will call friends, no longer servants. But we, in the here and
now with all of our sins and all of our forgetfulness and our intransigence, should consider ourselves to be
servants Á-? servants of a Benevolent Master, not having a choice whether we should do righteousness or
not. Our Lord commands it so we do it.
that were unrighteous only gave us pleasure for a season, and then we were unhappy. The end of these
things is death. He is giving us another idea here, something we should call to mind often. He is saying,
Á-°The end of these things is death.Á-?
to see our actions not in the moment, but after the moment, perhaps even far after the moment. If we
think of how unhappy we will be if we commit a sin, we will not commit many sins.
unhappiness about such a thing before you sin, and then you wonÁ-?t sin. The end of such things is death.
We know this!
to be setting our eyes upon the heavenly Jerusalem? IsnÁ-?t that supposed to be our goal, our purpose: to