When Miss Smiley went to the South to teach, she went to a hotel and found everything covered with dirt. The tables were dirty; the dishes were dirty; the beds were dirty. She called an old woman who was in the house, and said, “Now, you know that you were set at liberty. I don’t like dirt; so I would like you to clean the house.”
The old woman set to work, and it seemed as if she did more work in that half day than she had done in a month before. When Miss Smiley got back the woman came to her and said, “Now, am I free or am I not? When I go to my old master he says I’m not free, and when I go to my own people they say I am, and I don’t know whether I’m free or not. Some people told me Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation, but Master says he didn’t, that he hadn’t any right to.”
So Christian people go along, not knowing whether they are free or not. When they have been born of the Spirit they are as free as air. Christ came for that purpose, to free us from the guilt and power of sin. He didn’t come to set us free and then leave us in servitude. He came to give us liberty now and forever.