II. CORINTHIANS 3, 17. 15

in the Bible recognized as the source of all life, truth, power, holiness, blessedness and glory. The apostle, however, had in the context sjDoken of Christ as the source of life, as deliver- ing from the death and bondage of the law. He is and does this because he and the Spirit are one ; and therefor^ wher- ' ever Christ is, or in other word^wherever the Spirit of Christ -.a^" is, or in other words still, wherever the Spirit is, there is liber- ty/. By turning unto Christ we become partakers of the Holy Spirit, the living and hfe-giving, because he and the Spirit are one, and Christ dwells in his people, redeeming them from the law and making them the children of God, by his SpiritTj The /Spirit of the Lord^ as a designation of the Holy Ghost,'shows that the Spirit stands in the same relation to the Son that he does to the Father. Therefore he is called the "Spirit of Christ," Rom. 8, 10, and " Spirit of His Son," Gal. 4, 6. And, therefore, also the Son is said to send and give the Spirit. John 16, 7. All this of course supposes the supreme divinity of our Lord. ^iTJie liberty of which the apostle here speaks, must be that liberty which is consequent on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that is, which flows from the application to us of the redemption purchased by Christ. . We have not re- ceived, says the apostle, the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption. Rom. 8, 15. The Hberty here in- tended is the glorious hberty of the children of God. Rom. 8, 21. It is the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Gal. 5, 1. This includes, 1. Freedom from the law in all its forms. Mosaic and moral, Rom. 6, 14. 7, 4, i. e. freedom from the obligation to fulfil the law as the condition of our justifica- tion before God ; which involves freedom from condemnation and from a legal, slavish spirit. 2. Freedom from the dominion of sin, Rom. 7, 6, and from the power of Satan. Heb. 2, 14. 15. 3. Freedom from the bondage of corruption, not only as to the soul, but as to the body. Rom. 8, 21-23. This liberty, therefore, includes all that is involved in being the sons of God. Incidental to this liberty is freedom from all ignorance and error, and all subjection to the authority of men, except so far as it represents the authority of Christ, and therefore Hberty of conscience or freedom from all authority in matters of religion other than that of the Spirit of God. There is not only no reason for restricting the idea of the liberty of which the apostle speaks to any one of these forms, but the context requires that it should include all that liberty of which the presence of the Spiiit is the source and the assurance. As no