LEGALITY AND SPIRITUALITY

LEGALITY AND SPIRITUALITY

The law addresses a man in the flesh. The life of Christ by the Spirit orders and directs the man in Christ. The former seeks to produce something from the man, subjecting him to this and that exercise in order to produce a given result. The latter, the Spirit of God in me, controls me according to the mind of Christ, and uses this body as a vessel. In the case of the one under the law, there is an effort to obtain from the flesh that which is not in it. In the other case, the Spirit is only expressing the desires of the new man, and then demonstrating the qualities of Christ in spite of the flesh, which has not only no sympathy with the Spirit, but on the contrary, has unceasing opposition to it. When I am legal I am trying to answer to the law in my flesh, which at best is weak, even when not opposed; for when I am legal I am only occupied with an attempt to extract something from the flesh, and so long as I do this, it is in a way pleasing to the flesh, even though there be many and great penances, because the flesh is acknowledged all the time, and the attempt of the legal is really to produce something good from the flesh.

Now the spiritual man is quite different - he has ^[p. 146] the taste and the power too to accomplish what he aims at, and he in the Spirit resists and silences the flesh which interferes with him, and there is actual compensation and success at the same time. There is the sense of acting in the Spirit, and the joy and strength which the Spirit imparts, and though there be mortification to the flesh, there is a sense of positive gain, not in the mortification itself but in the life of Christ, while the flesh is more sensibly set aside, and the body used as a servant. If there be suffering in the flesh, there is known joy in the Spirit. There is not, as in the legalist, depression and excitement alternating according as there is hope or no hope from the process of training, or rather exaction. The spiritual man doubts not the power and good quality of that which he depends on, and he is happy in acting according to the mind of Christ, no matter what waves and currents he may be exposed to. Trying to row a great boat is legality; there may be some progress where there is no opposition, but then all the tugging though very arduous and self-exacting is of no use. Now the spiritual is like a boat worked by steam, and hence it goes everywhere according to the captain’s orders. Tides, currents or winds are not taken into account. Where the legalist is baffled and exercised to no purpose, the spiritual moves on with dignity and purpose, not attempting what is not in him, but answering by the great power in him to the mind of Christ. The legalist is ever thinking of his oar. Everything depends on his stroke. The spiritual attends only to the word of the Master, and by the simple movement of the helm turns to the exact point to which he has been directed. The legalist is ever thinking of his conduct. The spiritual is thinking of Christ and His word, and seeks strength to walk according to it, and is judged by it, if he does not. You can always distinguish the legalist from the spiritual by the way each moves about or does any act. The former is thinking of how he is doing it, the latter of the intention ^[p. 147] of it. The former is thinking of his own manner, the latter of his company, and of how he can serve them. There is moroseness and severity about the former, but a glow of life and victory about the latter.