THE LAW OF GOD
[p. 181] THE LAW OF GOD
Deuteronomy 10:1-15; Deuteronomy 10:21,22; Romans 12
I have referred to these scriptures as giving the two poles in regard to the will of God — the principle in each passage is the same. In Deuteronomy it is the expression of that will, in Romans 12 it is our proving of it — but a great deal comes in between. I want to take up both thoughts and to shew how we prove the will of God. It is extremely important to recognise that we are here for the will of God — grace has wrought in us in that direction.
The first chapters in Deuteronomy are a recapitulation of what had taken place in the wilderness. The Spirit of God by Moses moralises on the wilderness and the dealings of God with the people there. Chapter 10 speaks of the tables of stone being put in the ark, and we get the divine principle underlying the commandments. Moses brings that out here to Israel. The declaration of God’s will was a most important point in the history of the world. There was not the declaration of God’s will to Adam save in that he was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but that was not exactly a moral law, it was in a sense arbitrary. Then God gave promises to Abraham, but that was not the declaration of His will in regard to man. When He had delivered a people out of Egypt we get a distinct declaration of God’s will. God saw fit to give such a declaration, and that must stand; the writing was there, though it was put in the ark, but what God wrote must stand, because it is the declaration of His will. The law consisted in ten commandments for the most part prohibitory. You want to get under the letter of them, and then you find that love underlies them — love does no ill to one’s neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Man should love God with all his heart, and his [p. 182] neighbour as himself. Those are the two principles of law, and underneath that there lay the love of God; the law of God is love. The Lord had loved their fathers, and this had been brought out in His ways with the people. God’s law is to rule here on earth, The two tables written by God were put into the ark, but the will of God had been declared, man was himself to be ruled by the love of God, and, in response, to love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself. You cannot understand the wisdom in the dealings of God unless you take into account the principle underneath them, and that was love. Love was to govern on the earth.
In Psalm 40: 6 - 10 there are two great ideas — one is the ministry of Christ on earth, and the other the work of Christ. He declared God’s righteousness in the great congregation, but He also said, “Thy law is within my heart;” there was the doing of God’s will in love, that which was to govern in the universe was hid in the heart of Christ. He suffered in order that the righteousness of God might be declared. In the death of Christ man was removed, all that man was morally. But the cross was the revelation of the love of God. It would not have been possible for the love of God to be revealed except in the removal of that which was offensive to God; this was removed in order that God’s law might be declared. The law was the ruling principle of love, which came out in the sacrifice of Christ. In the doing of God’s will Christ revealed what was in God’s heart.
The cover of the ark was the mercy-seat. God speaks to man in Christ. God is to be all in all, for He has been vindicated in regard to all that is contrary to His will.
In the reference to Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10: 1 - 10, we are told of the removal of a first thing to establish the second. The old man was removed, and with him the whole system of offerings that applied to him. The man offensive to God has been removed in the death of the righteous One, and Christ has presented in place of [p. 183] that man the love of God. The Son of man must be lifted up because God so loved the world. Now by the will of God we are sanctified. The first thing that reaches us is the testimony of God’s grace. God presents Himself to us, not imputing sins. God has set to work to save man, He has established His kingdom in the heart of man; the kingdom is established to this end, that man may be placed in security from the god and prince of this world. God’s kingdom is opposed to the authority of darkness (”Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”), it subsists that man may be practically delivered from the power of the enemy. God has His own end in that, and that is to bring the soul under divine teaching. When God has given the sense of security in the power of the Holy Spirit to the believer, He begins to instruct that soul, to impart the teaching of the new covenant. God makes that heart conscious of His love; it is a great thing for the heart to know that. That love is in increasing activity down here, and will never rest until it has us in God’s glory and according to His glory. Your heart is brought under divine teaching in order that you may be sanctified. The knowledge of divine love is the practical power of sanctification down here — no one is sanctified except in the knowledge of divine love. The knowledge of divine love makes you a son of God. We are thus set apart to God, and understand what the will of God is — all that is contrary to Him has been removed in the death of Christ, and what has been commended in the death of Christ sets man apart to God for priestly service. We are sanctified to God while down here.
The two tables of the covenant were put into the ark for the time being. Christ comes out, in due time, and declares the law of God. We are sanctified by what has been declared in the death of Christ, set apart by the knowledge of His love. There are two classes of people in the world — one acquainted with the love of God, and the other not knowing it, but walking in the line of their [p. 184] own wicked will.
When we come to Romans 12: 19, 21, we have the proving of God’s will. The first thing is that you are transformed, you have got practical deliverance from the great world system, and your mind is conversant with the love of God. Love is now the ruling power of our life down here. The one who proves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is not conformed to the world. The next thing is that in the presence of divine love we get a true estimate of ourselves. No one ever gets a right measure of himself except in the presence of the love of God. We learn there our nothingness:
‘O Keep us love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know,
And ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below’.
Then we come to be here for God’s will, we become capable for it. That path has been introduced by Christ.
Effective service for Christ down here is as we learn our nothingness in the presence of love divine. The next thing is that you recognise the existence of one body in Christ, and that we are members one of another. Each member is to wait on his particular obligation to the body. Everything is new, we are put into that in which we had no place before. When I understand that, I begin to wait on my business — that is, in regard to the body of Christ down here. The love of God regards the body of Christ, the eye of God rests on that, it is that which God has formed to His glory, and each of us has a place in that body. If you are a teacher you are to wait on your teaching. You will do a thing in the very best way, even if it be shewing mercy. You are to carry out in the best way the function which God has given you in the body of Christ down here, because you are governed by divine love. A teacher commands the love of the saints because he is governed himself by divine love.
[p. 185] Shewing mercy with cheerfulness is a great thing, you do everything in the best way in the light of divine love.
Christ could denounce the Pharisees, because He was the perfect expression of divine love and wisdom down here. I could not.
In verse 9 we have the admonition, “Let love be without dissimulation”. While each one has to wait on his particular function in the body, we have here a general exhortation; love can be without dissimulation in the christian circle because everything there is governed by divine love. Love could not have come out in the death of Christ had not righteousness been vindicated, and now in the power of good we are to overcome evil. If we have to meet evil we are enabled to overcome it in the power of good, and not to meet evil by evil. It has been the divine principle all the way through, God overcomes evil with good.
I trust you will ponder what I have been saying and apprehend the course of God’s will in the world, and how we come out here, transformed by the renewing of our mind, to prove that will. The work of the gospel is making men acquainted with the love of God so that they may be liberated from everything here to be here for the will of God.