| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 13 |
Page 5 |
There is a story of man to whom the devil came, ordering a chain of a certain length. Coming for the chain at the appointed time, he ordered it made longer, and went away. When at last it was finished, he came again, and with it bound the poor man who had fashioned its links at his bidding. So sinners are everywhere building their own prison walls and with their own hands fashioning chains to bind them forever. There is only One in all the world who can set men free from the bondage of sin — Christ Himself. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” There is not other one who can do this for us. He breaks the chains of personal enslavement on all who follow Him, putting His grace into their hearts and enabling them to overcome evil habits and conquer their evil nature. Sin begins with threads, and weaves ropes and cables about it slaves until they are bound hand and foot in bonds they have no power to break. But even those who are thus bound, Christ can set free. We all need Christ as liberator, emancipator, for we all have chains of some kind forming about us, chains of habit, of desire, of passion, of disposition, which will bind us and drag us down as slaves, unless we come to Christ and have Him free us from our bondage and make us free indeed.
Jesus told the people further that day that, while they were genealogically Abraham’s seed, yet they were continually doing inappropriate things, things which the children of Abraham should not do. They were seeking to kill Him, because His word was not allowed to have free course in them. This was not the work of free men. Love is the law of freedom, and love was not in their hearts while they were so bitter against Him. He told them that if they were really Abraham’s children they would do the works of Abraham. Their doing the works of the devil proved that they were the devil’s children, and not God’s. It was not complimentary to these rulers, church dignitaries, to be called children of the devil, but Jesus read their hearts and saw murder and falsehood there under all their fair-seeming and back of their boasted godly ancestry. Wherever these feeling and intentions are found they indicate the devil’s work. As the fruit of the Spirit in the heart is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness, gentleness and kindness, so the fruit of the devil’s indwelling are hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, and bitterness. If our lives have only the devil’s characteristics, we cannot make claim to being God’s children.
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