"The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God," the Apostle Paul declared (Rom. 8:21). Could he not have meant that humanity would be delivered from the bondage of materiality and find true identity in Spirit? It is inherent in the nature of mankind to desire to be delivered from material evils and to gain the joy and freedom of health, happiness, and success. Paul implied that this liberty is attained through the power of the Christ, Truth, illumining the understanding. He speaks of this freedom in his letter to the Galatians (5:1) as "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."
It is obvious from Paul's two statements that it is ignorance of the Christ, Truth, which binds humanity. Therefore it must be the understanding of Truth which frees. In reality freedom is man's divine heritage by virtue of his sonship with God. However, the human consciousness, oblivious of man's divine rights, must be awakened from the mortal dream of existence in matter. It must be aroused to the truth that Life is God.
Christ Jesus, in declaring that knowing the truth would make us free, prefaced this statement with the condition necessarily precedent to this knowledge. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8: 31, 32). In other words, we must accept and live the Master's teaching. We must do all that the word "continue" implies. We must persistently abide in Jesus' teaching, denying the reality of evil and declaring the reality of good. We must consistently live the truth as well as declare it. There must be found in our consciousness no place for allegiance to matter in any form.
