“Ye shall know the truth,” the Lord says, “and the truth shall make you free. I am the truth, and you shall be free as I am free. To be free, you must be sons like me. To be free, you must be that which you have to be, that which you are created to be. To be free, you must give the answer of sons to the Father who calls you, fear nothing but evil, care for nothing but the will of the Father, hold to him in absolute confidence and infinite expectation. He alone is to be trusted.” He has shown us the Father, not only by doing what the Father does, not only by loving his Father’s children even as the Father loves them, but by his perfect satisfaction with him, his joy in him, his utter obedience to him. He has shown us the Father by the absolute devotion of a perfect son. He is the Son of God because the Father and he are one, have one thought, one mind, one heart. Upon this truth hangs the universe; and upon the recognition of this truth—that is, upon their becoming this true—hangs the freedom of the children, the redemption of their whole world. “I and the Father are one,” is the center-truth of the Universe; and the circumfering truth is, “That they also may be one in us.” The only free man, then, is he who is a child of the Father. He is a servant of all, but can be made the slave of none: he is a son of the lord of the universe. He is in himself, in virtue of his truth, free. His is in himself a king. For the Son rests his claim to royalty on this, that he was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth. 

Commentary

  The Kingdom in our Hearts  
by Leah Morency  

Freedom, as we have been learning thus far, is an embrace of one and a turning away from the other, an embrace of the Father, and a turning away from the flesh in its battle for our heart's first love, loyalty, and attention. The heart where we come to life, or where death reigns, is the treasure God seeks for his kingdom to light upon. Oh what treasure is in each of us, the ground work for the kingdom Christ came to usher in, the kingship he is vitally arraying!

Freedom for sons and daughters of the King of the universe, freedom for our minds, hearts, souls and our entire beings, is embracing the Father King, and living as his children, that the Kingdom Christ came to usher in, may come first in each of us his children and brothers, that our oneness with the Father would be harmonious with His. 

In this coming of the Kingdom of God, of Christ into our hearts, that we may inherit this freedom and reign, death comes before life. The crucifying of the flesh just as Christ gave his flesh up. Death followed by Glory and transcendence, that is what God wants for each of us, transcendence. Transcendence over our flesh and its strength to lead us to death, transcendence over the law, under which we are condemned to death. 

The King of this transcendence, has one command, follow Christ in his freedom, against which there is no law.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control. This is the kingdom of our hearts, Christ in our hearts, of our life source, of freedom.