That the Ajjostles so understood Christ can hardl> be ques- tioned. Throu<rhout the XT liberty (i/j^ww.a, and its even more confident form ics^c-.a;) runs as a golden thread, distin- guishing the New Disjjensation from the Old. There is the same joyous exercise of the power of a new life that Christ foretold. The writers have met one of the deepyest problems of philosophy (man's freedom of will), and have boldly pronounced upon it. St Paul has no hesitation in asserting man's natural liberty in the light of the spiritual liberty now made known through .Jesus Christ. He claims the right (ilsiw/a) of free action in the common affairs of life, in food, in marriage, in the pastor not necessarily labouring manually, but sharing in material provision in return for his spiritual toiling (1 Co 9i-6. 12 f,is\ just as St John will claim for the purified soul the same liberty (iisvc-.a) of approach to the tree of life and entrv* by the portals of the eternal city (Rev 22i-»). Perhaps this par- ticular word is most suggestively used in 1 Co S^ ' Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling- block to the weak,' i.e. lest the ver>- strength and assurance of the new-found liljerty may lead you to flourish it boastfully, i thus courting temptation yourself, and perhaps ruining the i weaker brethren, who, seeing you able to join in certain prac- ] tices unharmed, will be tempted to copy you, to their own i hurt. It is clear that in the first days liberty was fundamental with the Christian. Each man has to ' work out his own salva- , tion'(Ph 21'-), to be 'fully assured in his own mind,' to "give j account of himself to God ' (Ro 14-5- 12). Christians are the free ' citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, children of liberty (Gal 426). I For abiding freedom did Christ set them free (5i), calling them I into liberty (v.i:;). Henceforth no Mosaic veil of past traditions, laws, rites, can bind them. When Moses is read, it shall be with no hindering timidities (2 Co S'Sff -j of the letter, but in the reverent freedom of the spirit (vv.6-S). The disciple feels him- self freed from that yoke ' which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear' (Ac 15i^'). The Law has but led into a larger world, in which is prized ' the liberty which we have in Christ Jesus' (Gal 3^ 2*). The escape has been from the bondage of a religion of fear into the liberty of a faith that discerns in God the Eternal Fatheihood (Ko Si-5). So St. Paul prays that the word may have ' free course,' may run (RV) (rpix^y,), spreading the gospel abroad with a free unhindered spirit (2 Th 3I), and leavimr each worker to develop his own methods (1 Co 9') and rules of conduct — 'Why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience?' (1029). But this do^ not imply licence. That his liberty is Christian implies a limitation. He is to be ' as free, yet not using his liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the bond-senant of God '(IP 2i'>), ha\ing no part with those ivorldly ones so ready in ' promising liberty while they themselves are bond-ser\ants of corruption ' (2 P 219). He knows that he uill be judged in his speech and
* Although no part of the correct text of Jn S, the Pericojye Adulterae probably embodies a true reminiscence of an incident in our Lord's ministr\".
30
LIE, LYING
LIFE
conduct by the law of liberty which has taken the place of the ancient law (Ja 21'-). Being made free from sin he is still a servant, but of righteousness, a ' servant to God ' (Ro &^- '■^'-'- 2-), and from the ' bondage of corruption ' has entered into the 'liberty of the glory of the children of God' (Ro 82i). This liberty" has been the exchange of a hateful for a precious bondage. If you were actually a slave, you are now ' the Lord's freedman,' if you were free, you are now ' Christ's bond-servant ' (1 Co "21. 22)^ and that service is the ministry of the brethren, a bondage into which St. Paul boasts and glories that he had brought himself (1 Co 919). He has found a new law in place of the ancient prohibitory ' law of sin and of death,' and this ' law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus ' has made him free (Eo 8-). The practical comment of the Apostles upon this doctrine of the Gospels indicates also the immeasurable indebtedness of Chris- tianity to that principle of liberty with which Christ inspired His disciples.*
See also artt. Free Will and Necessity.
Edgar Daplyn. LIE, LYING.— See Deceit.
LIFE it^v). — The term applied by Jesus, alike in the Synoptic and the Johannine records of His teaching, to the supreme blessing mediated by Him to men. Certain elements in the conception are common to the two records, but their differences are so marked that it will be necessary to consider them separately.
1. The idea of Life in the Synoptic teaching is substantially that of the OT, unfolded in all its potential wealth of meaning. Hebrew thought, averse to metaphysical speculation, conceived of life as the sum of energies which make up man's actual existence. The soul separated from the body did not cease to be, but it forfeited its portion in the true life. It either departed to the shadowy world of Sheol, or, according to the later vieAv of Ecclesiastes, was reabsorbed (?) into the Divine Being, — 'returned to God who gave it' (Ec 12'^). Thus the highest good was simply ' length of days,' — the continuance of the bodily existence right on to its natural term. Two factors, however, were latent in the OT conception from the beginning, and became more and more prominent in the course of the after-development. (1) The radical element in life is activity. Mere physical being is distinguished from that essential ' life ' which consists in the unrestricted play of all the energies, especially of the higher and more characteristic. In the loftier passages of the Psalms, more particularly, the idea of ' life ' has almost always a pregnant sense. It is associated with joy, peace, prosperity, wisdom, righteousness ; man ' lives ' according as he has free scoi^e for the activities which are distinctive of his spiritual nature. God Himself is emphatically the ' living One,' as contrasted with men in their limitation and helplessness. (2) Since God alone possesses life in the highest sense, fellowship with Him is the one condition on which men can obtain it. 'By every word of God doth man live' (Dt 8^). 'With thee is the fountain of life' (Ps SG^). In tlie higher regions of OT thought, life and com- munion with God are interchangeable ideas. The belief in immortality is never expressly stated, but, as Jesus Himself indicates, it was implicit in this conception of a God who was not the God of the dead but of the living. See art. Living.