Apart from Him, God, if recognized at all, is for the most part thought of as austere, reaping where He did not sow,' and His commandments as grievous. Men may sullenly recognize that they cannot resist, but they do not submit. They may obey in act, but there is no obedience in their wills, nor any cheerfulness in their hearts. The elder brother in the parable could say, Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment,' but his service had been joyless, and he never remembered having received gifts that made him merry with his friends.'
But from all such slavish, and therefore worthless, obedience, and all such reluctant, and therefore unreal, submission, Jesus liberates those who believe on Him and abide in His word. He declares God as our loving Father, and through Him we have authority to become sons of God. He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,' and that makes us to be no more slaves but sons. Sullen obedience becomes glad choice, and it is the inmost desire, and the deepest delight, of the loving child to do always the things that please the loving Father. I ought' and I will' coalesce, and so there is no slavery, but perfect freedom, in recognizing and bowing to the great I must' which sweetly rules the life.
