True Liberty Is Impossible without Government

Yesterday, we saw how wrong and unscriptural it is for Spirit-baptised believers to say concerning any spiritual manifestation: “I couldn’t help it! The Holy Spirit made me do it.” To speak like this is to represent the indwelling Spirit of God as some kind of despot and the believer as a slave in bondage. Believers who speak like this have not yet come to understand their privileges and responsibilities as sons of God.

“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage [slavery] again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom. 8:15-16)

We are thus brought face-to-face with an important principle which holds good in all human affairs whether political or spiritual: True liberty is impossible without good government. The kind of liberty which seeks to set aside all government or control of any kind ends only in anarchy and confusion. The final result is a new form of slavery, far more severe than the previous form of government which was set aside.

We have seen this happen time after time in the political history of the human race, and the same principle applies equally in the spiritual life of the Christian Church. True spiritual liberty is possible only where there is spiritual government. The government which God has appointed for the Church is that of the Holy Spirit.

We come back then to the statement of Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:17:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

If we desire to enjoy the Spirit’s liberty, we must first voluntarily acknowledge the Spirit’s lordship. These two operations of the Holy Spirit can never be separated from each other.