hich we are united with
him; the redeeming blood which Peter speaks of in the text. But we
must drink it: otherwise we have no life in us. Now how is it possible
for any one to drink the blood of Christ? I will tell you. Christ's
blood is his life, and he says: "My words are spirit, and they are
life." His blood, then, is his Word in its spirit and life. Now when
we believe what he tells us with our heart, and do what he commands us
because we love him, we are truly _drinking his blood_. When we
forsake our sins by turning unto the Lord from a heart-felt faith in
his Word and belief of the truth he tells us, _we are drinking his
blood_; his blood, which is his gospel truth, becomes our life. "And
because he lives, we shall live also." "I am the way, the truth, and
the life. My word is truth." All this and much more is signified by
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. "Whosoever 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." God's truth is called the law of liberty. Why? Because
it tells men how they may become free. It redeems them when they obey
it.

Peter calls this change from bondage to liberty a new birth. Notice
here in the chapter I read: "Born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever." We are naturally born unto sin, into the love of things that
please our natural sight, our natural appetites and inclinations.
Through these we love ourselves and the world to a degree that holds
us in bondage, a kind of slavery. This is meant by Paul in these
words: "To whomsoever ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness." Peter means about the same by these words: "Of whom a
man is overcome, by the same is he brought into bondage." And in the
book of Hebrews we read of such "who, through fear of death, were all
their lifetime subject to bondage." Being born again spiritually, into
a new state of heart and life, we are set free from our bondage to
sin. In this newborn state we love to do the will of God, and love the
company of good people, and desire to be in the church with the people
of God. The Lord Jesus says: "If the truth shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed." It is by and through the truth that men are
redeemed. "Verily, verily, he that committ