(False Liberty)

Many people in these days profess that they are so utterly dead that all self-life is a thing of the past. They say that they have gone past the cross and have nothing more to do with it now. However, everyone who has to deal with them, who sees and hears them and who reads what they write, can see many things in their life as evidence that they are definitely not as dead as they claim to be. Moreover, to save their position, they have invented something which they call “imperfections,” “weaknesses,” “lacks,” and “rough edges.” Tell me then: Do all these things belong to the old self-life or to the new life? Or is it a “phantom” of the old life? Those who have been deceived say these things are only rough edges that have to be polished. Nevertheless, is it the rough edges of the new life that have to be polished, or is it the old life that has to be polished? Does the new life need to be polished? They teach that the old life is indisputably dead! But I wonder if, in spite of everything, it isn’t the old life that they are polishing. But then they are actually attempting to improve the old life, at the same time convincing themselves and others that they are altogether finished with it. What a satanic deception this is! But when they, in spite of their liberty, improve the old by polishing it, is this not bondage? The enemies of the cross of Christ do their utmost to avoid having to take up their cross daily. The Scriptures testify that the death of Christ must work in us, and a sound Christian affirms its truth. He doesn’t grind down rough edges or blame weaknesses; he does not want to be in the rows of the “proud saints”; but he acknowledges and says that these things come from his self-life, dying to them by faith. By faith he enters increasingly into the work that was finished on the cross. This work did not consist of grinding down rough edges or excusing weaknesses; it was a perfect death.