Nov 10
29
Consider Jesus–(extract from) in Obedience to Divine Law – Octavius Winslow
But consider the obedience of Jesus. It was SUBSTITUTIONARY obedience. Although consenting to come under a law which He had never broken, no obedience, therefore, to that law was required for Himself. Made under the law as man, He was bound to obey it, but it was the obligation of a Surety. He honored to the utmost every precept, but it was on behalf of those for whom in the covenant of grace He had entered into engagement. It was strictly substitutionary. “By THE OBEDIENCE of one shall many be made righteous.” My soul! contemplate this blessed truth. Your covenant Surety Head has answered in your stead all the requirements of the law you had broken, and under whose great condemnation you did lay, thus paying all your great debt and delivering you from a terrible and eternal condemnation.
It was DIVINE obedience. It was the obedience of GOD in our nature, and therefore the righteousness which springs from it is termed the “Righteousness of God.” God, intent upon accomplishing His eternal purpose of saving a portion of the race, provided a divine righteousness for our justification in the obedience of His co-equal and co-eternal Son, and so we are “made the righteousness of God in Him.” Glorious truth! “In your righteousness shall they be exalted.” It exalts us above angels, above ourselves, above sin, above condemnation. And because it is divine, it places us before God in the condition of a present and complete justification.
“And lest the shadow of a spot
Should on my soul be found,
He took the robe the Savior wrought,
And cast it all around.”
The obedience of Christ is IMPUTED to us by the Spirit. In the same manner by which He became sin for us, we become righteous in Him–by imputation. Glorious truth! It is the marrow and fatness of the gospel to those who feel the plague of sin, and who have long starved their souls with the husks and chaff of their own worthless doings. “Unto whom God imputes righteousness without works.”
It follows that the obedience of Jesus is ours FREELY, because ours by faith. Are you, O my soul, bankrupt of all merit and worthiness? Have you nothing to pay? Then, listen to the divine declaration–sweeter than angels’ chimes–“By GRACE are you saved through FAITH, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” –My soul! It is not yours by your own doings, nor your deservings, nor your sufferings. “It is by FAITH, that it might be by grace.” “Lord, I believe! help my unbelief.”
“Jesus, Your blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
“When from the dust of death I rise,
To take my mansion in the skies,
Even then shall this be all my plea–
Jesus has lived and died for me.”
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TEACHERS OF LAW PROMISE LIBERTY WHILE THEY ARE SERVANTS OF CORRUPTION
And who set these men to keep to themselves teachers is also as great a mystery. I know Paul bids Timothy commit his doctrine to faithful men, that they might be able to teach others; but to turn infidels into faithful men and divines is another thing. Paul speaks of some in his days that acted as the Hebrew masters did by their servants, who proclaimed liberty to them, and subjected them to servitude again; and calls them “false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage to whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel, (or the freedom that Christ has promised to them that receive the truth (Jn. 8:32); might continue with you.” (Gal. 2:4, 5). And what was the bondage that these spies, who came in privily, brought in unexpectedly, wanted to bring in? Why they wanted to subject them to the command of the law, which genders to bondage, by telling them that they were under the law as a rule of life. “There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was needful to circumcise them, (the believing Gentiles), and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” (Act.15:15)
Here is the command to the believers, they were to keep the law of Moses; to which Peter answers, “God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” The liberty which Peter here alludes to is the liberty of the Holy Ghost, which God had given them, which Paul calls the law of the Spirit of life, which made him free from the law of sin and death; and “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” 2 Cor. 3:17, for, as David says, the Spirit of God is a free Spirit, Psa. 51:12. The rule that Peter gives them is faith, which purifies the heart.
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The unbearable yoke that they were going to tempt God with, by galling the neck of the disciples, was first, the needfullness of circumcision: Secondly, a command to keep the law of Moses; and it is called tempting God, because it was a reflection cast upon His work who had purified their hearts by faith, and sent His spirit to govern and lead them into all truth, as if the Holy Ghost was not sufficient to make them obedient, nor God’s purifying their hearts a sufficient purification, nor faith a sufficient rule, without yoking them with the killing letter as the only rule of life. And as it was then, so it is now; every man that refuses to tempt God, and that will not bring forth this yoke, and that does not affirm that the killing letter is the living man’s only rule of life, is an Antinomian, a licentious person, a man in errors, one that makes void the law; and is cried down by every blind watchman, though they cannot bring one text to prove that the believer is under the law as a rule of life nor one text that calls Moses’ law the believer’s rule of life; nor one text from God’s book to overthrow this doctrine, this everlasting gospel: Paul says, they know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
If it be urged that the command, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, is still a yoke upon the believer’s neck; it is answered, the believer is not under the law, but under grace; not an heir of wrath, nor of the commandments, but an heir of promise and he is to take the commandment to the promise, which belongs to the better covenant; and he will find that God has promised to circumcise his heart, and that he shall love the Lord that he may live. Paul makes a difference between the commandment and Christ, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee,” is in a promise, and is better than a command: they shall love me is safer and better than do love me; it comes from the better covenant, established upon better promises than conditional ones, and is sure to all the chosen seed.
William Huntington extract from the believers rule of life.
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Believers Have Kept The Law – Todd Nibert
I love the Ten Commandments – God’s holy law. And I do not try to keep them. I have kept them perfectly! When the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed God’s holy law perfectly – I did too! Trying to keep them always comes up short, and in reality stirs up the passions of sin (Rom.7:7-8). No, I do not try to keep them. I have kept them! In the Person of my representative, I have kept them! “Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Rom 3:31).
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“But if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18
If we are led of the Spirit by walking in him; if he be our Guide and Teacher; if he be continually operating upon our heart, and bringing near the influences of his grace; if he be in us and with us, guiding us into all truth, making and keeping us believing, loving, prayerful, tender, watchful, humble, contrite, and sincere; if we are thus led by the Spirit, we are not then under the law. Now while the conflict is going on in your bosom, you are often in your feelings under the law. The law’s curse is ringing in your ears, the law’s condemnation piercing your conscience. The flesh in some unguarded moment, it may be, prevails–you are entangled in some evil; you slip and fall into something which brings guilt upon your conscience. Now the law thunders; inward condemnation re-echoes its peals; and the soul falls into bondage, doubt, and fear.
But if you are led by the Spirit–if that blessed Guide is pleased to lead you out of yourself into Christ’s blood and righteousness; if you are experimentally favored with his blessed teachings and sweet influences, bringing with them light, life, liberty, and love, the law has no more curse for you; it cannot condemn you to hell, nor send your soul to lie forever under the curse of God. For being led by the Spirit you are delivered from the curse of the law into the blessing of the gospel; from the bondage of the law into the liberty of truth; from law charges into gospel mercies; from the accusations of a guilty conscience into the witness of a good conscience, because a purged and sprinkled conscience, and to sum it all up in one sentence, are thus translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Oh the blessedness of walking in the Spirit, and being led by the Spirit! J. C. Philpot –
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A Mixture of Law and Grace – Clay Curtis
Acts 11: 1: And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. 2: And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, 3: Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Here the apostle Peter stands before his own brethren who contended with him because he ate meat forbidden by God in the law with Gentiles. They did not rejoice in God’s grace or in the fact that Christ was exalted; they did not rejoice in the fact that sinners were saved. Their minds were fixed in the opposite direction, on Peter and the letter of the law. That is the result of turning from Christ to the law.
Wherever the law is mixed with grace, men focus on the law; men focus on their imaginary obedience to the law; the congregation examines one another, but no one looks to Christ alone. That is why when Paul was confronted by men who insisted that just one law was yet necessary for believer’s salvation he refused. Pay attention to the reason he gave, “that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” (Galatians 2: 5)
When men are turned to the law as a means of sanctification or as a means for righteousness or justification or as way to gain rewards in heaven then the truth of the gospel ceases. If the law is used as motivation to make men obedient or moral then the truth of the gospel ceases. If the observance of a day or abstinence from certain meats is preached as a requirement by God the truth of the gospel ceases. There are many other reasons men give to constrain sinners with the law but the truth of the gospel ceases because that is simply not the truth of the gospel.
Look up the following scriptures in the book of Galatians. This is why the gospel of grace ceases when even just one law is made a must.
Gal. 2: 18: It makes men transgressors against God.
Gal. 2: 21: It counts the death of Christ vanity.
Gal. 3: 3: It makes men think they are made perfect by the work of their flesh.
Gal. 3: 10: It binds men under the curse of the law.
Gal. 3: 18: It claims God’s salvation to be by law instead of by promise.
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Gal. 3: 24: It claims justification to be by law instead of faith.
Gal. 3: 27-29: It divides men against men so that they can never be one with the brethren in Christ and heirs of God’s salvation.
Gal. 4: 9, 10: It turns men back to the weak and soul-distressing elements of bondage.
Gal. 4: 11: It counts the work of God’s true messenger’s vanity.
Gal. 4: 17: It zealously affects men in a wrong way causing them to exclude men who teach salvation by God’s free grace in Christ.
Gal. 4: 22-25: It makes men count themselves sons of the bondwoman, born of the flesh, servants of Mt. Sinai, bound by law.
Gal. 4: 29: It makes men persecutors against believers who are born of the Holy Spirit.
Gal. 5: 2-4: It makes Christ of no effect unto men.
Gal. 5: 11: It makes the offense of the cross to cease.
Gal. 5: 15: It makes men bite and devour one another.
Gal. 5: 18: It leaves men under the law, led by their flesh, instead of the Holy Spirit.
Gal. 5: 24-25: It makes men unable to crucify the flesh, leaving them vain, combative, and envious.
Gal. 6: 3: It puffs men up in self-righteousness when in reality they are nothing and self-deceived.
Gal 6: 7, 8: It makes men mockers of God.
Gal 6: 13: It causes men to force others to walk after the law so that they can glory in what they constrain other men to do in the flesh.
Gal. 6: 14: It makes men to glory in their work instead of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Gal 6: 15: It makes men believe that even just one act of law-obedience will profit them something before God.
The truth is that Christ is the believers All–all Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption (I Cor. 1: 30-31.) Believers are complete in Christ—perfected forever (Col 2:10; Heb 10: 14.) God remembers their sins no more so there is nothing else for the believer to offer. (Heb 10: 17, 18.) It is King Jesus who gave the law that leads the believer, not by sinful carnal rules and reprimands, but by the Holy Spirit of grace and love.
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Broken and Smoking – Charles Spurgeon A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. (Isaiah 42:3)
Then I may reckon upon tender treatment from my Lord. Indeed, I feel myself to be at best as weak, as pliant, as worthless as a reed. Someone said, “I don’t care a rush for you”; and the speech, though unkind, was not untrue. Alas! I am worse than a reed when it grows by the river, for that at least can hold up its head. I am bruised — sorely, sadly bruised. There is no music in me now; there is a rift which lets out all the melody. Ah, me! Yet Jesus will not break me; and if He will not, then I mind little what others try to do. O sweet and compassionate Lord, I nestle down beneath Thy protection and forget my bruises!
Truly I am also fit to be likened to “the smoking flax,” whose light is gone, and only its smoke remains. I fear I am rather a nuisance than a benefit. My fears tell me that the devil has blown out my light and left me an obnoxious smoke, and that my Lord will soon put an extinguisher upon one. Yet I perceive that though there were snuffers under the law, there were no extinguishers, and Jesus will not quench me; therefore, I am hopeful. Lord, kindle me anew and cause me to shine forth to Thy glory and to the extolling of Thy tenderness.
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What does it mean to be “of the works of the law?” Todd Nibert.
So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:9-10)
What does it mean to be “of the works of the law?” The word “of” refers to origin. If I am of the works of the law I trace the origin of my salvation to something I have done. Just what that something is varies according to who you are talking to. Some would say it is obedience to the law. Others would say it is your sincerity. Still, others would say it is your will that decides whether to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. Whatever form it takes, it is still something you must do before you can be saved. Salvation is the end, the pay back, for the works that you perform. But those who are “of truth” (Gal 3:9), trace the origin of their salvation to God himself. What we do does not end in salvation. We begin in salvation. Our works find their origin in God himself (Eph. 2:8-10). Al who are of the works of the law are under God’s curse! All who are “of faith” are “blessed with faithful Abraham.”
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“The Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is not a thing to be proved, but truth to be believed. It is not submitted to our reasoning powers as a subject for critical examination. The gospel is a MESSAGE FROM GOD, addressed to the conscience, feelings, and affections. For this reason, men fond of argument and proving everything by strictly logical deduction generally make very poor preachers. In the Scriptures, God does not argue, He proclaims!”
J.C. Philpot
Seven elements which distinguish the real gospel, the new covenant, from imitations:
the free grace of God as the cause of salvation;
peace with God as the result of salvation;
Christ as the heart of salvation;
Christ’s death and resurrection as the means of salvation;
deliverance as the hallmark of salvation;
the will of God as the source of salvation
the glory of God as the purpose of salvation.”
“The gospel is of divine origin, made known to Paul ‘through the revelation of Jesus Christ’. It is revealed, unique, Christ-centred, perfect, complete and eternal in its conception, validity and effects. This revealed gospel differs from all ‘gospels’ of human origin in that its purpose is to glorify God, rather than to please man.”
Edgar Andrews
Extracts from the book “Free in Christ”.