What is the law of liberty?

The LAW OF LIBERTY, James 1:25; James 2:12, implies that, the nature being congruous, the things enjoined, instead of being a burden, are a pleasure. Doing the commandments of the Lord is the fruit of the divine nature: they are therefore both law and liberty.

Verse 25. "The perfect law of liberty." In James, the divine nature in us is always seen to be in perfect conformity to the law of God. That nature loves what God enjoins. When it so happens that the person to whom a command is made desires to do the thing commanded, he is pleasing himself whilst obeying the command. Such is the law of liberty. We see it exemplified in Christ; in order to attempt the hindrance of His liberty, it would have been necessary to impede His obedience. So it is with the divine nature in the Christian, it is always free, that is to say, ready to do the will of God. The conflict of the Christian does not destroy this truth, the principle in such case being "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

118 The sanctifying word is ingrafted in him; the graft is introduced there by God, the new man which brings forth the desired fruit. But this life must be expressed in practice. A man must be a doer of the word, not a hearer only; otherwise, there is no longer reality, but he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass; he goes away and all disappears, all is forgotten. "But he that looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein - he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word - this man is blessed in his deed."

We find here an important expression - "The law of liberty." If I tell my child to remain in the house when he wishes to go out, he may obey; but it is not a law of liberty to him; he restrains his will. But if I afterwards say, Now go where you wish to go; he obeys, and it is a law of liberty, because his will and the command are the same; they run together.

(Vv. 22-24). We have been exhorted to be swift to hear what God has to say to us in His word; now we are exhorted to put into practice what we hear. We are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” What is this but a re-echo of the Lord's own words, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17). It has been said that this “sentence may seem a truism in statement; in practice none is more needed. So apt are we to rest on approval or admiration of an act or habit as if it thus became our own. We want these simple words forever in our ears” (Bernard). The one who prides himself that he knows the word, and yet does not himself obey it, will only deceive himself as to his true condition before God. He is using the word merely as a mirror to see himself for a moment, and think no more about it. His ways are not governed by the word.

(V. 25). The one, however, with the new nature and governed by the word, will find that the word is “the perfect law of liberty”. The law of Sinai was written on tables of stone; it wrote nothing upon the heart. It told men what to do but gave them no desire or power to obey it. To be commanded to do what I have no desire to do is bondage, even if I obey. Now, by the word of God we have not only a perfect revelation of the will of God, but also, by the same word, a new nature has been begotten in us that delights to act according to the word. To be commanded to do what I desire to do is liberty. Thus the word of God becomes a law of liberty and the one governed by the law of liberty will be blessed in all his acts.

"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed indeed." What is the law of liberty? It is not the law of Moses as some have imagined. The perfect law of liberty is explained in the context. It is the Word of God by which the believer is begotten again, it is the implanted Word, which teaches, instructs, guides and directs; it is the life which flows from the new nature, subject to the Word of God. It has often been 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 gratified to visit. Such is the law of liberty; as if one said to the child: 'Now, my child, you must go and do such and such a thing,' all the while knowing you cannot confer a greater favor on the child. It has not at all the character of resisting the will of the child, but rather of directing his affection 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 His Word, that hates and revolts from evil, and is pained most of all by falling through unwatchfulness into sin, if it seemed ever so little. The law of liberty therefore consists not so much in a restraint of 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; the Word of 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" (Wm. Kelly).

Verse 12 then exhorts that, whether in speaking or in acting, we should do so as expecting to be judged by the law of liberty. Ch.1:25 has used this expression, which is in contrast to the law of Moses, which was a law of bondage. The law of liberty is rather the ruling principle of a new nature as begotten by the word of God. Indeed, Christ Himself is the perfect exemplification of this nature, and thus its standard is of that a spontaneous, wholehearted, willing obedience.

Mercy toward others was a precious characteristic of this life in the Person of Christ: His spirit was far from that of legality; but one who shows no mercy can only expect judgment without mercy. This is true even in men's judgments one of another. "And mercy glories over judgment." (New Trans.) Mercy has a precious nobility about it that, when possible to be shown, is superior to judgment. Even God does not judge before He has exhausted every avenue by which He may righteously show mercy. If this is so, what of ourselves, who are not only given no position whatever of judges, but have been the recipients of the infinitely marvelous mercy of God, though totally unworthy of any such thing?

James, that is really, God, comes in and meets us, and with an appropriate moral energy which is mighty in the conscience, shews that the real power of faith connects it with life. Its reality is shewn — that is the testing word — by its fruits. And no one speaks of this as more of sovereign grace than he, in all its Pauline excellency, so as to show the connection. "Of his own will begat he us, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." James 1:18. He too connects it with the law of liberty — that is, when the nature, the new man, and the prescribed will, go together. If I command my child to go where he longs to go, and tell him the way, it is obedience, but it is the law of liberty. He speaks of three laws, or law in three ways. First, the law as such — here, if guilty in one point, guilty of all. The authority of the law given has been despised in the point in which lust was active. We are wholly guilty. Secondly, the royal law of subjective perfection: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. That is doing well. Thirdly, the perfect law of liberty into which I look; that is, the revelation of the path of the divine nature, of which I am made partaker. Revelation shews me the perfection of it, the divine nature gives me the delight in it. I am as a present thing blessed in the doing it.

But, as a matter of fact, the case that the apostle is putting is not hypothetical. He has to urge upon those he is addressing that they have "despised" the poor. One would judge that this state of things must already have been becoming common, or he would hardly speak of it in this way to the many whom he was addressing: "But ye have despised the poor," he says. And this was all the worse in view of the notorious oppression on the part of the rich, for whom that which was the blessed grace of Christianity was but a mere "strait gate." "How hardly," asks the Lord Himself, "shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" But thus the edge that it had for their consciences only roused them to violence. "Do not the rich oppress you and drag you before the judgment-seats? Do they not blaspheme that excellent name by which ye are called?" "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" was the royal law according to Scripture. In the second table it is plain that it was, in fact, supreme, that which gave the spirit of all the rest. This respect of persons, therefore, was a sin against the law also, for it was the neighbor as the neighbor that it required one to love; and here, it is plain, no earthly distinctions could be of force. If, then, they had respect of persons, they committed sin, and were convicted by the law itself as transgressors. And it was in vain to plead the keeping of other points; they were but questions of detail. If a man were to yield true obedience, it would have to be entire obedience, and a man was a transgressor, therefore, if he violated any one point. It would not do to say, "I am no adulterer," if a man killed his neighbor; and the law was, in fact, now, according to the new covenant which had come in for Christians, if not for the nation, a law of liberty. "I will write my laws," says the Lord, "upon their hearts." A law written upon the heart becomes the nature of the man in whom this takes place, so that there is no slavery in obedience, but delight. And by this law of liberty, plainly, Christians then were to be judged; that is to say, it was to be expected from them that they would answer to the character implied in it; and the lack of mercy shown would necessarily bring down judgment upon the one who showed no mercy; but "mercy glorieth over judgment;" yet they were, in fact, judging the poor man for his poverty.

If that be so then must we all plead guilty, and we might begin to enquire if then after all we are to stand before God and be judged by Him on the basis of the law of Moses? To this question James replies in verse 12. We stand before God and shall be judged on the basis of the "law of liberty" — an expression which means the revelation of God's will which has reached us in Christ, as we saw when considering verse 25 of the previous chapter. We shall have to answer as being in the much fuller light which Christianity brings. Being in the light of the supreme manifestation of God's mercy in Christ we are responsible to show mercy ourselves. This thought brings us back to the matter with which the paragraph started. Their treatment of "the poor man in vile raiment" had not been according to the mercy displayed in the Gospel. They set themselves up as "judges of evil thoughts," but, lo! they would find themselves under judgment.

The Pharisees and the Judaizers would put burdens on other people, but they themselves would not touch them (Matt.23:4). This is also a very practical admonition, it is Christian liberty. Christian liberty is used to help other Christians, and that is the point here. If there is one who has been affected by a catastrophe, if, for example, he has lost his house or wife, or something else very serious has happened, then that is a tremendous burden. In such a case others are there to help carry that burden. What is so remarkable is that it then says, “and so fulfill the law of Christ.”This is again a tremendous subject in itself. We are not under the law of Moses, this is what the Galatian Epistle is all about. The law of Moses cannot justify us, cannot save us, cannot help us to live holy lives, instead we are under the law of Christ and by fulfilling these admonitions, by putting them into practice, we fulfill the law of Christ. The Lord makes this clear in John 13, for example, when He gave an example by washing the feet of His disciples. This is the law of Christ and we find other expressions in the New Testament that summarize the same law of Christ. In the Gospels the expression ‘the law of Christ’is not mentioned but we see the principles. The Lord said we should love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12), that we should love one another even to the point that we would give our life for a brother or sister (1 John 3, 4, Eph.5). This law of Christ is called in James’Epistle ‘the law of liberty.’It is called the perfect law of liberty (1:25) and the royal law (2:8). We are under the law of Christ, not the Mosaic law. The law of liberty does not mean that we are lawless; Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 9, that he is lawfully subject to Christ, but being under the law of Christ implies we have true liberty, it is to do exactly what He desires us to do. The law of Christ is what Christ has in mind for us and it is our desire also because the new nature desires to do exactly what the law of Christ wants it to do. This is the topic here in verse 2 and it is a large topic in the New Testament. It is another of those subjects for you to study privately.