Freedom From A Self-Centered Life

FREEDOM FROM A SELF-CENTERED LIFE
Dying to Self
Selections From
The Writings Of William Law
EDITED BY ANDREW MURRAY


William Law lived from 1686-1761. When we are fortunate enough to be able to go back in time and gain a fresh perspective on the Gospel message, it can be a real eye-opener. We begin to see not only how far we have fallen, but how we can change direction and actually become the ‘living epistles’ we are called to be in these last days. Initially I linked to an easy to read PDF file of the titled book, Freedom From A Self-Centered Life. Below is a brief description of what it contains:

“In the first, he points out to his friends the immense difference between intellectual and spiritual apprehension, between the delightful impression that can be made by an insight into a truth and its actual possession.

Anyone in a hurry to come to Law’s teaching about dying to self might pass over this portion and think that he missed nothing of the real argument. That would be perfectly true. And yet he might miss what is of far more importance than the argument—the right spirit in which to
approach, and in which alone to profit by it, so as to obtain an entrance into the blessed life he speaks of. Because the dying to self and the living to God is the exchange of one life for another, the losing the one to gain the other, he makes plain in the second part how the difference between light and darkness is the image of the intense, irreconcilable, and eternal difference between the life of God and the life of self.

It is only when this is fully believed that there can be even the beginning of the capacity to understand what dying to self is. After having thus prepared his reader, the third part unfolds the simple but wonderful secret of dying to self as the one infallible way to what constitutes true salvation— the life of God restored in man. The fourth part treats of the actual enjoyment of this blessing.”

One doesn’t have to read far to recognize that this is not going to appeal to everyone. If however, you want to learn more, here are some additional links to some of William Law’s other writings:

An introduction to William Law

The Works of William Law (on-line)