The Blood of Christ has liberated us from slavery to the world. This liberation implies living within a new Kingdom and under a new Law.
An enduring characteristic of the writings of St. John Henry Newman is their application to our contemporary culture. He wrote in a Victorian English stye that had its own flourish. Yet the topics he addressed were perennial in their nature, and continue to strike the hearts of believers long after his voice ceased to preach from the pulpits of Birmingham and London. One such topic is the necessity of following Christ in the midst of temptations of following the ways of the world.
In his first sermon from his Plain and Parochial Sermons, delivered in 1825, Newman called his congregation to strive for the quest of holiness. He reminded them of the words from Hebrews 12, in which without holiness no one will see the Lord. The pursuit of such holiness means moving according to the designs and will of God, and those who pursue their own plans apart from the Lord will not enjoy His company. For the voices of heaven blend in a harmonious sound of unity, and are not a strident clashing of opinions set apart from what God intends for His glory and our glory. Learning to move in obedience through repeated acts of holiness now molds us into a heavenly character that will be worthy of eternal life.
Additionally, in a later sermon called, The Strictness of the Law of Christ, Newman refers to St. Paul’s teaching that we have become slaves of Christ. Such language sounds offensive to our contemporary sensibilities as we know the moral tragedy of human slavery. As Newman rightly notes, slaves are traditionally bought and sold and are not their own masters. Yet when we consider this reality on a spiritual level, we recognize that we have been enslaved to sin but have still been purchased by the Blood of Christ. In this act of redemption, Christ does not treat us with cruelty and leave us in a miserable state of suffering, as is often the case with earthly slaves who are treated like the property of human masters. Instead, Christ takes us into communion with Himself and seeks to share His divine life with us, desiring that our will is united to His.
To participate in the gift of eternal life that Christ has offered, we cannot be lax in our effort to live according to His law. For the gift of divine life came about through Christ’s all-encompassing sacrifice, and our union with Him must come by an all-encompassing adherence to His commands. As Newman notes, men of public society seek not to offend neighbors, and strive to be “pleasant, good-tempered, and companionable.” Yet living according to these principles does not provide freedom. Instead, it leads one to focus on staying in the good graces of powerful and influential people, with no compunction for our offenses against God’s majesty.
To live by the strictness of Christ means not conforming to the standards of this world in order to live according to a new law. Christ’s followers are called to be cast into a new mold, to change according to the standards of heaven. Only through this journey does true freedom emerge, a freedom that keeps its eyes fixed on eternity and escapes the narrow and short-sighted measures of this world.
