For he Taught them as one having authority. Matt. 7:29.

God comes first, not law. The Creator is free, but not creation. Creation is held in the grasp of Christ. All nature is under the sovereign sway of Him who made it. God created the law of gravitation. This is the way God runs our world and the planets. He never departs from it. We call this consistent operation "law." The sovereignty of Christ is first; then law, then freedom.

In the moral world the same order and supremacy prevail. The moral law is under Christ, our divine lawgiver. These moral and spiritual principles are seen in God, in His character. The authority of His own character comes first. This constitutes what is known as truth. Absolute truth can be known. God has revealed it.

The moral law describes what God is, how He lives, how His creatures are made to live. Only as we live in harmony with God's law are we free. Outside of God's truth and authority we are enslaved.

The law of God does not say, "You may or you may not. What you do makes no difference. Just make up your mind." It invariably says, Thou shalt not kill, steal, bear false witness, and so on. We are commanded to believe the truth and then obey it. If we refuse, sin and transgression follow. We do not have the choice of disbelieving and disobeying the truth and still being free from sin.

We fulfill our lives as God intended, not by desiring to go our own way but by desiring to go God's way. The Christ-controlled man is the truly free man. What would happen to an airplane pilot who refused to follow the laws that involve the compass, or the laws of aerodynamics? Or one who insisted upon his freedom to take off in any way he wanted, or to land contrary to the established patterns and laws?

God is our moral and spiritual Pilot. The Bible is our chart and compass. We must not follow an independent course. We must shape our lives by the unerring needle of truth. The security of all life rests not upon human freedom, but upon divine authority; not upon individual caprice, but upon God's sovereign Person and Law.