Monday, March 1, 2010

The Worst Thing To Call A Sinner

"There is no greater mockery
 than to call a sinner a free man."


Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834-1892)



Show me a convict toiling in the  chain gang, and call him a free man if you will; point out to me the galley slave chained to the oar, and smarting under the taskmaster’s lash whenever he pauses to draw breath, and call him a free man if you will; but never call a sinner a free man, even in his will, so long as he is the slave of his own corruptions.

In our natural state, we wore chains, not upon our limbs, but upon our hearts, fetters that bound us, and kept us from God, from rest, from peace, from holiness, from anything like freedom of heart and conscience and will.

The iron entered into our soul; and there is no slavery as terrible as that. As there is no freedom like the freedom of the spirit, so is there no slavery that is at all comparable to the bondage of the heart.




6 comments:

Eddie Eddings said...

GREAT QUOTE!

Lisa said...

Amen! And yes, I did read it! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow!! Loved reading this! Got me to thinking. God bless you and have a wonderful week!

IanH said...

Take a look at the person who is wholly materialistic. He is not free. He is bound to his possessions; bound to his payments and hence is a slave to his wants.

Look at the person who through out his life has worked to own his own place. He is not free, as he is bound to the tax man. Stop paying them, and see who owns what!

Look at North America " The land of the Free" (sorry but I'm including Canada into this). Are we free? We all have commitments to various things that say we can never be free on this world.

This comes down to what Charles Spurgeon is getting at. We can only be free in the Spirit.

Brian Ray Todd said...

One of my favorite passages is john 8:31-32 "Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” NLT
the first lines gave me a clear direction,and the last line gave me the reality of trust and freedom from the bondage of sin. Verse 34 makes it clear;"Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." Praise the Lord, who sets us free! Brian

Persis said...

Very powerful quote from the Prince of Preachers!