(James 1:23-25)
"If any be a hearer of the
Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a
glass." He may have ever so clear a view of himself; he sees clearly what
he is like for a moment; but he as soon forgets all. "He beholds himself
and goes his way." The image is faded and gone. He "straightway forgets
what manner of man he was." Oh, how true this is! It is that glimpse of
conviction by the truth that comes before souls when they are forced to discern
what the spring of their thoughts is, what their feelings are when the light of
God flashes over and through a man; but how soon it passes away, instead of
entering in and abiding within the soul! It is the power of the Spirit of God
alone that can engrave these things on the heart. Here the apostle is exposing
the absence of an internal work where intelligence is severed from conscience.
On the other hand, there is power and permanence with him who fixes his view on
"the perfect law of liberty."
What is "the law of
liberty"? It is the Word of God which directs a man begotten by the Word
of truth, urging and cheering and strengthening him in the very things that the
new life delights in. Consequently it has an action exactly the opposite of
that exercised by the law of Moses on the Israelites. This is evident from the
bare terms:"You shall not" do this, "You shall not"
do that. Why? Because they wanted to do what God prohibited. The natural desire
of man is after evil, but the law put a veto on the indulgence of the will. It
was necessarily negative, not positive, in character. The law forbade the very
things to which man’s own impulses and desires would have prompted him, and is
the solemn means of detecting rebellious fallen nature. But this is not the law
of liberty in any way, but the law of bondage, condemnation, and death.
The law of liberty brings in the
positive for those who love it—not the negation of what the will and lust of
man desires so much as the exercise of the new life—in what is according to its
own nature. Thus it has been often and very aptly described as a loving parent
who tells his child that he must go here or there; that is, the very places
which he knows perfectly the child would be most gratified to visit. Such is
the law of liberty. It is as if one said to the child, "Now, my child, you
must go and do such and such a thing," all the while knowing that you can
confer no greater favor on the child. It has not at all the character of
resisting the will of the child, but rather the directing of his affections in
the will of the object dearest to him. The child is regarded and led according
to the love of the parent who knows what the desire of the child is—a desire
that has been in virtue of a new nature implanted by God Himself in the child.
He has given Him a life that loves His ways and Word, that hates and revolts
from evil, and is pained most of all by falling through unwatchfulness under
sin, if it seemed ever so little. The law of liberty therefore consists not so
much in a restraint on gratifying the old man as in guiding and guarding the
new; for the heart’s delight is in what is good and holy and true, and the word
of our God on the one hand exercises us in cleaving to that which is the joy of
the Christian’s heart, and strengthens us in our detestation of all that we
know to be offensive to the Lord.
Such is the law of liberty.
Accordingly, "Whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man
shall be blessed in his deed [or rather, doing]."