Duty Into Choice

I've been able to do quite a bit of study on freedom and what freedom looks like in the Christian life because of my next couple of sermons. I'm excited to preach some of my findings at Community of Faith Lutheran Church this Sunday as well as work some of it out for the youth next Wednesday night.

In studying, I have read and re-read a lot of work on freedom and I ended up actually finding a beautiful hymn I have never heard sung or read, but found its words to be so accurate of what freedom in Christ looks like.

The hymn is "Love Constrained to Obedience," by William Cowper and is rich with meaning. The opening stanzas read like this:

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toll'd the precept to obey,
But toil'd without success.

And he closes like this…

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

For all of the freedom found in the gospel, Cowper hones in on the reality: We find freedom when we see that we are actually serving a master who served us first with his whole life and death. This must change the way in which you see Him and His ways. Because of what He has done, our heart's desire shifts.