R. A. Huebner
“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2:12).
A law, in Scripture, is a fixed principle of operation. For example, an apple falls from a tree and stays there. It does not defy gravity to re-attach itself to the tree from which it fell. The object acts in a fixed and uniform way according to the law of gravity. With the law, there are no exceptions, and if there were, it would not be a true law.
What is the law of liberty in Scripture?
Let us take an illustration by thinking of a train on its track. In this case, there is the law of liberty of train engines. It was designed that way and the engine and the tracks form a thing together, and while the train is on the tracks, it just rolls and moves ahead.
If the train says, “you know, this is not liberty, and since I want liberty, I am going to jump off the track.” What happens if the train gets off the track? It will get bogged down right away, and there is no more progress for the train. It is not moving according to the law of liberty of train engines, which means that in order for the train to properly make any progress it must be on the tracks.
Spiritually speaking, this is how progress is made. The Lord has given us a new nature and a new life. When that new nature and life expresses itself and follows the directions of the mind of God, the soul is moving forward at liberty. It says of the Lord Jesus that he “pleased not Himself” (Romans 15:3). As soon as we do this, it is like the train engine jumping off the tracks, and we get bogged down into the mud.
The Law of Liberty is something that the Lord has brought us into.
“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only…but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:22, 25).