The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. By Samuel Bolton. Carlisle: Banner of Truth. Reprint, 2001.

Another edition from the “Puritan Paperbacks,” True Bounds is a well-balanced, biblical approach to the questions concerning the relation of the law with the Gospel. What are the purposes of the Law both before and after conversion? What does it mean to be set free from the Law? What role does obedience play in the life of a believer? Puritan Samuel Bolton provides true biblical counsel for these and other questions in True Bounds.

Bolton states his thesis as “I have endeavored to uphold the law so as to show that it does not take from the liberties of grace, and to establish grace so that the law is not made void, and so that believers are not set free from any duty they owe to God or man” (p. 10). His work is a much needed correction to the errors that can arise from either unnecessary bondage to the law or excessive disregard of the law. We would all do well to work through these issues carefully and prayerfully.

Bolton is working to answer six questions: (1) Whether our being made free by Christ frees us from the law, (2) Whether our being made free by Christ delivers us from all punishments for sin, (3) Whether it is consistent with Christian freedom to be under obligation to perform duties because God has commanded them, (4) Whether Christ’s freemen may come into bondage again through sin, (5) Whether it is consistent with Christian freedom to perform duties out of respect for the recompense of the reward, and (6) Whether the freedom of a Christian frees him from all obedience to men (p. 14). The reader will readily find one or more of these areas interesting, helpful, and probably has wondered about the answer.

Here are a few quotes that I found particularly helpful and encouraging.

“We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified” (p. 71).

“The law may chain up the wolf, but it is the Gospel that changes the wolfish nature” (p. 84).

“We can do that for which God may damn us, but we cannot do that for which He may save us” (p. 175).

“And so all is of grace, which can no way be grace, if it be not every way truly grace” (p. 183).

“God brings heaven into the soul before he brings the soul into heaven” (p. 191).

“God Himself fills heaven with glory and makes it infinitely glorious. God in heaven is the glory of heaven” (p. 196).

“Sanctification is glory in the bud; glory is sanctification in the flower” (p. 201).