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The
Spirit Presents the Standard of the Judgment
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 Gods 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. Christs 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
Fathers 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 Christs 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.
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