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 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.