How We Walk Reflects Whose We Are

Ever since the fall man has had a desire to be God.  The serpent told Eve “hath God said” (Gen 3:1) and then quickly said, with reference to eating the fruit that was forbidden, “ye shall be as gods.”  This was all done to play on Eve’s desire to be as God, a desire we also struggle with. The truth is that to be like God is not in and of itself wrong if our intention is to walk as He walks (1 John 2:6).  The issue comes when we simply want to be God, when we want to walk as we desire and in the process reveal our desire to be God.  That was Eve’s error, as she wanted to not just be like God but wanted to be as God and thus be autonomous.

This error of autonomy has not been diminished by time.  We constantly hear how man has progressed, evolved, and is improving but a look at the world will reveal something much different.  Man still has a desire to be as God and create his own world and man sees no reason to seek after God for His guidance and direction.  This is expected from the world as it walks in darkness, and loves it (John 3:19), but for those professing Christ to seek to live by their own standards and desires is to deny ones profession.  This desire for autonomy is what John deals with in his letter of 1 John and what our flesh fights against.

Far too many professing believers seem to seek after ways to avoid God’s law rather than scour scripture for how we are to follow it.  We need to, instead, dig deeply into the entirety of God’s word to find what God desires, what He commands, so that we may walk by those commands.  John is clear that how we walk does not save us but he is equally clear that how we walk does reflect whose we are.  We must take verses such as those in John 14 seriously when they speak to reflecting our love for God by our affection for His commands:

John 14:15  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:21  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

John 14:23  Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 14:24  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

John 14:31 is for all those that claim to want to walk as Jesus walked but struggle with a call to obey the law;  but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

When these verses are seen in light of 1 John, as if they were not enough on their own, we should not come to any conclusion but that God desires those that are His to walk by His word, and His word alone.  What is so liberating about 1 John is that John ties Christ’s work to our ability to live as most glorifies God.  This is not about God setting before us an impossible command but instead reveals that God’s call is not simply to a place with Him in the future but to a life lived for Him now. A life lived according to His word and by His power.  We must always remember that our call to God is not about us, even though that is the focus of much so-called evangelism, but about Him.  It is about living a life focused on glorifying Him above all things as our worship of Him  This may be difficult and at times unpleasant but it is not burdensome (1 John 5:3) as God empowers us to worship Him with our lives and that is to be our focus.

To some that have been raised on the pablum of the church of today this call may sound like legalism.  But the issue is that the term legalism is often bandied about in such a way to label anything that steps on our autonomy as such.  Many throw out the word legalism anytime they are called to action, called to live in a manner decreed by God’s word.  Often when one calls for a change in the actions of the church they are equated to Pharisees but this misses one of the issues with the Pharisees, their heart.  Jesus in Matt 23:27 spoke of the Pharisees as whitewashed tombs which we need to see does not denigrate what they did but spoke to the heart behind their actions.  We are to live by God’s word empowered by God given affections for his law, affections that move us to live in a manner that glorifies Him and not us.

The issue is that scripture clearly calls us to live by His commands and this, for those that are truly His, should drive us to His word to find out what this living is to look like.  Let us live by His word, and by His word I mean all of it, and thus show our love for God.  John did not say we would achieve perfection but he did call us to desire perfection (1 John 2:1) in how we live.  Should we fail we have an advocate in Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1).  What a joy it is to know that we are not seeking to live according to His word by our power but by His.

Let us seek to glorify God in all we do and in the process our walk will reveal whose we are.

What Law do you Love?

Yes that is the question, “What Law Do You Love?”. Not “Do you love the Law of God”, which is a viable question, but “What Law do You Love” since we all love some law. It is either the Law of God or a law of our own making, but we all love some law. Many try and seek to avoid what they label as legalism by claiming to only be held to those commands explicitly found in the New Testament or those things that Jesus mentions. Others will say we do not need the law since being a “New Testament” believer we have the Holy Sprit and thus any attempt to claim a need for adherence to some form of written law is stifling of the Sprit.

What I find interesting with most claims to not needing the law of God, as laid out in all of His word and correctly applied, is that most in seeking to avoid the law set up their own. They in essence create their own form of legalism that others are to be held to. That is what happens when we avoid and ignore God’s law as revealed in His Holy Word. We have an innate desire to uphold some form of Law. Paul in Romans 2:14-15 speaks of this law that is written on the heart of even the unbeliever. This creates a need in man for some form of law but apart from God we can only create the disaster we see today created by the avoidance of God’s law.

As believers, the elect of God, we have the law written on our hearts (Jer 321:1-34) not as some try to read into the passage such that we do not need God’s word. No, this written law on our hearts speaks to the God given desire to please Him in following His word by the power of the Spirit. This is not about a “Get out of the Law” card when we are called by God to Himself. Quite the opposite; as when God calls us and writes His law on our hearts our desire and affections are changed such that we will seek to follow His commands. 1 John 5:1-2 makes it clear that our changed nature will, by God’s design and power, love Him and obey His commandments.

Our natural desire is to be as God and create our own laws. We are by nature “antinomian” but only as it relates to God’s law or for that matter any law that is put over us but our own, or laws we approve of. We see this desire for being the law maker in the garden with the first Adam and this penchant is only broken by the Second Adam. God changes our desires at the cross in that we become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) not an over hauled creation but a new one. Yes, we still struggle with the flesh such that the desire to still be as God exists in some form. However for the believer, by the power of God, we are not bound to the old desires and affections. That is why John, in 1st John, in speaking to believers can speak as he does and calls them to look at their lives as a testimony to God’s work in them.

I began this by asking “What Law Do You Love? As a Church we need to regain an understanding of God’s Law and its uses and purpose. It is not a means of salvation but a path to walk on due to salvation. The law does not stop working once it drives His people to the cross but once at the cross it is still of use. For too long the evangelism of the church has effectively made Christ’s efficacious work stop at the cross. But it does not. We are called to the cross not for our benefit but for God’s glory. We continue in life after the cross also for His glory and it is by living and walking in and by the light of God’s entire word that we continue to glorify the only one that is worthy of Glory

Whenever I read through the Psalm 119 I repeatedly asked myself how anyone can read the words of the psalmist and still deny our need to love and follow God’s law. The psalmist repeatedly speaks to his love for the law of God. This love is not for what we would term salvation but for its guidance and its glorification of the one who created it. Here are some examples:

Psalm 119:97 ~ Oh how I love your law!, It is my meditation all the day.
Psalm 119:113 ~ I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.
Psalm 119:163 ~ I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.
Psalm 119:165 ~ Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.

Let us turn from our own law and turn to the only perfect law. The only law that leads us to live lives that glorify God, as God desires to be glorified. It is not for us, being imperfect as we are, to decide how we are to live and be the lights we are called to be. It is God in his infinite wisdom and righteousness that dictates our path. Not just in ordaining our steps but in lighting and directing their way by His word.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way with regards to God’s law:

For the Unbeleiver:
“The law is, so to speak, Jesus Christ's dog, to go after his sheep, and bring them to the shepherd; the law is the thunderbolt which affrighteth ungodly men, and maketh them turn from the error of their ways, and seek after God.”

For the Beleiver:
“What is God's law now? It is not above a Christian—it is under a Christian. Some men hold God's law like a rod, in terrorem, over Christians, and say, "If you sin you will be punished with it." It is not so. The law is under a Christian; it is for him to walk on, to be his guide, his rule, his pattern. "We are not under the law, but under grace." Law is the road which guides us, not the rod which drives us, nor the spirit which actuates us. The law is good and excellent, if it keeps its place.”
(Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 2, 1856)

We must realize we are all submitting to some law. Either the law we create, a law another creates or to that of God. We also need to realize that no matter how we may fight against God’s law we are still held to it. God does not set His law aside simply because we do not obey it. He is not like a child who takes his ball and goes home because no one will play. No, God will be glorified and His law will be obeyed. It is just a matter of what God will do to bring this about. We should understand that the world will object to the law of God and resist it. Let not those who profess Christ do the same.

Let us love the only law worthy of being loved and obeyed, God’s law.

The Sufficiency of Scripture, ALL of Scripture

I wonder how many preach that they hold to sola scripture then in essence throw out over half the scriptures. They may give lip service to the OT but do not seek to apply those laws proclaimed in its pages. Often one hears that since we are in the New Covenant we are to only do as Christ proclaims in the New Testament. Well, if one is Trinitarian one needs to be careful about that mindset since Christ is God and thus the author of the OT as well as NT. Many by their actions or in some cases inaction are effectively Marcionites as he too discarded the OT. But if one does not seek to live by “all” of scripture and seeks only the NT for guidance for how to live one discounts Jesus teachings as well. In Mat 5:17, a much misused verse to say that the law is no longer applicable, Jesus proclaims He did not come to abolish the law and then in V18-19, seemingly to answer those who would misuse His words, He adds that “until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

I also wonder how many pastors who are paid for their work, certainly a biblical principle, rely on verses such as 1 Tim 5:17-18 for their wages. But this verse is using the OT ( Deut 25:4 ) as a proof that elders can be compensated. Obviously Paul saw that a correct use of the OT law was applicable to the NT believer.

How often do people use 2 Tim 3:16-17 to speak of the inspiration of scripture and then in effect discard the OT law. This passage in context speaks to the OT and while it obviously applies to the NT as well the original audience would have heard that the OT “was breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” If we are to follow the words of God, through Paul, we are then to use the OT law as it was intended.

In saying this there is work to be done to understand the principles of the OT law as we do not blindly and woodenly follow them and go and build a parapet on our roof (Deut 22:8). I am also not saying that the ceremonial law is still in effect as it has been fulfilled by Christ who it pointed to. I would also say that while most tend to see the other laws as either moral or civil, in truth they are both moral as the civil laws are an outworking of the ten commandments, the moral law. So I would say we are still left with the moral law as seen in the 10 commandments and the civil codes. Of course we are to discern the biblical principles so as to apply them to all of life. An example is the parapet law found in Deut 22:8 where the principle is a call to responsibility for ones property and not necessarily for building a railing on ones roof, that is unless one has a roof people meet on. Some laws may be easier to discern then others but in the end that does not negate our call to follow them as worship of God.

I realize that for some to hear that we are to follow all of God’s laws, both OT and NT, is legalism. I would say that if one does not seek to follow God’s plan for all of life as seen in “ALL” of His word then you are left with devising your own laws and that is truly legalism. Keep in mind that Jesus did not need to repeat all the OT commands in the NT as they are assumed as valid unless He explicitly negates them, as with the ceremonial laws. Even in Mat 22:36-40 Jesus affirms the OT law as when He is asked about the greatest commandment He does not pick one but summarizes them into those that deal with our relationship with God (Commandments 1-4) and our relationship with man (Commandments 5-10) and in V40 makes sure we do not miss the connection with the OT by reminding us that these two undergird the OT law.

We as a people of God that proclaim to believe in the inerrancy of scripture and the sufficiency of scripture need to live as such. We need to seek to truly live as if God’s word is sufficient and if one does not use the OT and only seeks out the NT for guidance then scripture will not be sufficient. We need all of His word for it to be sufficient and we need to regain this understanding of scripture as sufficient for all of life.

All We Need is Love?

Repost From American Covenanter

All We Need is Love?

Dead men speaking from the grave on modern heresies

By Horatius Bonar, 1809-1889

Some speak as if the servant were greater than the Master, and the disciple above his Lord; as if the Lord Jesus honoured the Law, and His people were to set it aside; as if He fulfilled it for us, that we might not need to fulfill it; as if He kept it, not that we might keep it, but that we might not keep it, but something else in its stead, they know not what.

The plain truth is, we must either keep it or break it. Which of these men ought to do, let those answer who speak of a believer having nothing more to do with Law. There is no middle way. If it be not a saint's duty to keep the Law, he may break it at pleasure, and go on sinning because grace abounds.

The word duty is objected to as inconsistent with the liberty of forgiveness and sonship. Foolish and idle cavil! What is duty? It is the thing which is due by me to God, that line of conduct which I owe to God. And do these objectors mean to say that, because God has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, therefore we owe Him nothing, we have no duty now to Him? Has not redemption rather made us doubly debtors? We owe Him more than ever; we owe His holy Law more than ever; more honour, more obedience. Duty has been doubled, not cancelled, by our being delivered from the Law; and he who says that duty has ceased, because deliverance has come, knows nothing of duty, or the Law, or deliverance. The greatest of all debtors in the universe is the redeemed man, the man who can say, 'The life that I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' What a strange sense of gratitude these men must have, who suppose that because love has cancelled the penalties of the Law, and turned away its wrath, therefore reverence and obedience to that Law are no longer due! Is terror, in their estimation, the only foundation of duty, and when love comes in and terror ceases, does duty become a bondage?

'No,' they may say, 'but there is something higher than duty, there is privilege; it is that for which we contend.'

I answer, the privilege of what? Of obeying the Law? That they cannot away with; for they say they are no longer under Law, but under grace. What privilege, then? Of imitating Christ? Be it so. But how can we imitate Him whose life was one great Law fulfilling, without keeping the Law? What privilege, again we ask? Of doing the will of God? Be it so. And what is the Law but the revealed will of God? And has our free forgiveness released us from the privilege of conformity to the revealed will of God?

But what do they mean by thus rejecting the word 'duty', and contending for that of 'privilege'? Privilege is not something distinct from duty, nor at variance with duty, but it is duty and something more; it is duty influenced by higher motives, duty uncompelled by terror or suspense. In privilege the duty is all there; but there is something superadded, in shape of motive and relationship, which exalts and ennobles duty. It is my duty to obey government; it is my privilege to obey my parent. But in the latter case is duty gone, because privilege has come in? Or has not the loving relationship between parent and child only intensified the duty, by superadding the privilege, and sweetening the obedience by the mutual love? 'The love of Christ constraineth.' That is something more than both duty and privilege added.

Let men who look but at one side of a subject say what they will, this is the truth of God, that we are liberated from the Law just in order that we may keep the Law. We get the 'no condemnation', in order that 'the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us' (Rom. 8:4). We are delivered from 'the mind of the flesh', which is enmity to God, and not subject to His Law, on purpose that we may be subject to His Law (Rom. 8:7), that we may 'delight in the Law of God after the inward man' (Rom. 9:22), nay, that we may 'with the mind serve the Law of God' (Rom. 7:25),that we may be 'doers of the Law' (James 4:11). These objectors may speak of obedience to the Law as bondage, or of the Law itself being abolished to believers; here are the words of the Holy Ghost. The Law of God is just the Law of God, that very Law which David loved, and in which David's Son delighted; and it would be well for such men meekly and lovingly to learn what delighting in it, serving it, doing it are.

'Do we make void the Law by faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law' (Rom. 3:31), that is, we set it on a firmer basis than ever. That Law, 'holy, and just, and good,' thus doubly established, is now for us, not against us. Its aspect towards us is that of friendship and love, and so we have become 'the servants of righteousness' (Rom. 6:18), yielding our members servants to righteousness (Rom. 6:19). We are not men delivered from service, but delivered from one kind of service, and by that deliverance introduced into another, 'that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter' (Rom. 7:6), as 'the Lord's freemen' (1 Cor. 7:22), yet Christ's servants (1 Cor. 7:22). Thus obligation, duty, service, obedience still remain to the believing man though no longer associated with bondage and terror, but with freedom, gladness and love. The Law's former bearing on us is altered and, with that, the nature and spirit of the service are altered, but the service itself remains, and the Law which regulates that service is confirmed, not annulled.

Some will tell us here that it is not service they object to, but service regulated by law. But will they tell us what is to regulate service, if not law? Love, they say. This is a pure fallacy. Love is not a rule but a motive. Love does not tell me what to do; it tells me how to do it. Love constrains me to do the will of the beloved one; but to know what that will is I must go elsewhere. The Law of our God is the will of the beloved One, and were that expression of His will withdrawn, love would be utterly in the dark; it would not know what to do. It might say, 'I love my Master, and I love His service, and I want to do His bidding, but I must know the rules of His house, that I may know how to serve Him.' Love without law to guide its impulses would be the parent of will-worship and confusion, as surely as terror and self-righteousness, unless upon the supposition of an inward miraculous illumination, as an equivalent for law. Love goes to the Law to learn the divine will, and love delights in the Law, as the exponent of that will; and he who says that a believing man has nothing more to do with Law, save to shun it as an old enemy, might as well say that he has nothing to do with the will of God. For the divine Law and the divine will are substantially one, the former the outward manifestation of the latter. And it is 'the will of our Father which is in heaven' that we are to do (Matt. 7:2), or proving by loving obedience what is that 'good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God' (Rom. 12:2). Yes, it is 'he that doeth the will of God that abideth for ever' (1 John 2:17). It is to 'the will of God' that we are to live (1 Peter 4:2), 'made perfect in every good work to do His will' (Heb. 13:21), and 'fruitfulness in every good work' springs from being 'filled with the knowledge of His will' (Col. 1:9,10).

God's Way Of Holiness. Horatius Bonar. Evangelical Press 1979, 12 Wooler Street, Darlington, Co. Durham, DL1 1RQ, England. First Published 1864. Pages 68-88.

The Saint and the Law. Horatius Bonar.
http://www.gospelpedlar.com/articles/Christian%20Life/saintlaw.html

The Law and Us

Often when speaking on the law I think there is a misunderstanding with regards to the law and the believer today. This misunderstanding comes from seeing the law monolithically, that is as only relating to the unbeliever but that misses God’s full intent for the law. We need to see that the law is eternal and is applicable to all people at all times but it’s relationship is different for the unbeliever than the believer.

First let me say that I agree that we are not under the law, as it relates to salvation. We are saved by grace alone and not by our works thus the law does not save us by following it. When we see the law spoken of as a school master (Gal 3:24) or in other such terms it is in relation to us before we become a child of God. It is the law that reveals our great need for the atonement provided by Christ on the cross. So, again as the law relates to us before we believe we are under it but that relationship does change once we believe.

After salvation God’s law is our guide to the life that most glorifies God and is empowered by His spirit. Paul in 2 Tim 3:16-17 speaks of the whole council of scripture being useful, not just some of it, and this would first relate to the Old Testament that Paul would have taught from. Of course it also applies to the New Testament but all too often the relevance of the Old Testament to the New Covenant believer is overlooked. This comes, I believe, from a wrong understanding of our relation to the law after salvation. God has given us His law word as a guide for the path we are to follow, a path that most glorifies Him. We follow the law not for ourselves, primarily, but to worship Him magnify His name in all the earth as we realize the sanctification God works in our lives.

Matthew 28:19-20 an oft quoted section of scripture says:

(19) Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (20) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The call here is to teach the nations God’s commands that at the time of the writing of this passage would have been contained in the Old Testament and would also, necessarily, include what is in the New Testament as it came about. But, the call is not to simply teach about the commands but to teach to observe or follow them. The great glory in this is that as believers we are empowered by God to do just that. We may fail and struggle but by studying His word and by the power of His Spirit we are enabled to follow all God calls us to do in all His word, again, for His glory and His purposes.

It would be rightly called legalism to try and follow God’s law by our power. But to do so by His power is not legalism but is obedience to our Lord and Savior. We need to recognize this distinction with regards to position with the law if we are to correctly understand how we are to relate to it as believers today. The struggle should not be about what laws we are to follow but how can we follow all of God’s law, of course not the ceremonial law that pointed to Christ, for His glory

Charles Spurgeon in his sermon on The Allegories of Sarah and Hagar (Sermon 69) speaks on this distinction in how the law relates to us both before salvation and after and I think his words are helpful.

On the Law prior to Salvation
“The law is, so to speak, Jesus Christ's dog, to go after his sheep, and bring them to the shepherd; the law is the thunderbolt which affrighteth ungodly men, and maketh them turn from the error of their ways, and seek after God. “

On the Law after Salvation:
“What is God's law now? It is not above a Christian—it is under a Christian. Some men hold God's law like a rod, in terrorem, over Christians, and say, "If you sin you will be punished with it." It is not so. The law is under a Christian; it is for him to walk on, to be his guide, his rule, his pattern. "We are not under the law, but under grace." Law is the road which guides us, not the rod which drives us, nor the spirit which actuates us. The law is good and excellent, if it keeps its place.”

The law does not disappear once one is a believer but is simply in a different relationship to us. It is for the believer a path unto our feet and a path that we need to seek to follow diligently since it is a path set out by God first for His glory and secondly for our good.