Self-made
standards must be continually
changed and adjusted to meet the
outcroppings of new weakness in
our fallen state. It is easy to
understand why there are so many
mixed-up people in the world. God
does not leave us to ourselves to
decide what is right and wrong.
We are not to be lawmakers but
law keepers. “The Lord is
our lawgiver, the Lord is our
King.” Isaiah 33:22. He has
given us a moral code of
behavior, short, authoritative,
and comprehensive-the Ten
Commandments. This is the
standard of the judgment. We
shall be judged by this law as
lived out in the life of Jesus.
There can be no judgment without
a law or standard. Paul said,
“Where no law is, there is
no transgression.” Sin is
not imputed when there is no
law.” Romans 4:15; 5:13.
John said, “Sin is the
transgression of the law.” 1
John 3:4. Without law, there
could be no government, and
without government, there would
be no ruler; the universe would
be chaos, not a cosmos.
Earthly
legislative bodies have enacted
“bad laws” because
these groups have favored one
segment of society above another.
Any law that fails to protect the
rights of minority groups is
tyrannical, whether that law is
enacted by a one-man dictatorship
or by a majority dictatorship.
However, ‘the law of the
Lord is perfect.” (Psalm
19:7.) “The law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just,
and good,” and “we know
that the law is spiritual.”
(Romans 7:12,14.) “Thy law
is truth,” and “all his
commandments are sure. They stand
fast for ever and ever.”
(Psalms 119:142; 111:7,8.)
God has given to
us a spiritual law, a revelation
of His character. All that God
is, His law is. The law reflects
His love, mercy, goodness,
justice, creative power. Some,
ignorantly, have called
God’s law a “yoke of
bondage,” but the Bible
speaks of it as “the perfect
law of liberty.” (James
1:25.)
Man needs more
than a written code. He needs a
demonstration of what it means to
keep the law through the
indwelling power of the Spirit.
Christ’s life provides such
an example of perfect obedience.
He came to our planet, as Isaiah
said, to “magnify the law,
and make it honorable.”
(Isaiah 42:21.)
In the Sermon on
the Mount, Christ said,
“Think not that I am come to
destroy the law.” Matthew
5:17. Jesus lived out the Ten
Commandments through the Spirit.
The law of God was in His heart.
He could honestly say, “I
delight to do thy will, O my
God” yea, thy law is written
within my heart.” Psalm
40:8. As His earthy life drew to
a close, He declared, “I
have kept my Father’s
commandments, and abide in his
love.” John 15:10.
The Holy Spirit,
who enabled Christ to keep the
law, will write the law upon the
tablets of our hearts. The
Apostle Paul says, “ye are
manifestly declared to be the
epistle of Christ, … written
not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God; not in tablets
of stone, but in fleshy tablets
of the heart.” 2 Corinthians
3:3.
Mere obedience to
the form or letter of the law
results in death, “but the
spirit giveth life.” When
the Holy Spirit directs our
actions, He fills the letter with
life. (Verse 6.) The
Spirit-filled obey as a matter of
privilege rather than obligation.
Oh, that we might have the more
glorious “ministration of
the spirit”! (Verse 8.) God
describes those who
“know” or experience
righteousness as people in whose
heart is my law.” (Isaiah
51:7.)
No one can truly
accept Christ and not accept His
Spirit. Both the Holy Man and the
Holy Spirit magnify the law of
God. What the Spirit did in
Christ He is to do in every
believer who accepts Christ.
Many fail here.
They want the benefits of
Christ’s death, but they do
not accept the Spirit by which He
lived. They want forgiveness for,
but not victory over, sin.
Everyone needs to understand two
terms: (1) “The Spirit in
Christ” refers to what the
Spirit did in our Lord during His
life on earth. (2) “Christ
in us” refers to what the
Spirit does in us so that we
might duplicate His life. Paul
clearly stated this: “The
law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and
death.” “That the
righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” Romans 8:2,4.
God “hath
appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness
by that man.” (Acts 17:31.)
God will judge us according to
the law as lived out “by
that man.” The standard of
the judgment is that Man. Christ
obeyed by the Spirit, and so it
may be with us.
