THE PRINCIPLE OF LAW OR RULE IN CHRISTIANITY
[p. 230] THE PRINCIPLE OF LAW OR RULE IN CHRISTIANITY
Leviticus 6: 8 - 13; John 3: 16 - 21; 1 John 2: 29; 3: 1 - 14
It is very important to apprehend that there is such a principle in Christianity as law. It may seem paradoxical, but I think it has been too much lost sight of. It is a thought not very difficult to substantiate; a charge of the apostle Paul to the Galatians was, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”. So James speaks of the perfect law of liberty. The Lord Himself speaks about a yoke: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me”. The passages I have quoted are amply sufficient to substantiate the thought that in Christianity we have the principle of law. I do not mean law in a technical or formal sense, but the principle of law; and it seems to me that it is extremely important to maintain this, because it greatly helps us to understand the first great moral element in Christianity, and that is righteousness. I should be thankful if the Lord enabled me to bring it out in some little way.
I have thought much of late that it is very important to apprehend Christianity in its moral characteristics; not simply as a system of faith, which really means very often a system of dogmatism — a creed: that is not Christianity. Christianity is made up of a great many moral elements, which all blend like the colours of the rainbow, and when they are perfectly blended, there is no colour. The moral elements are there: they are blended in perfection, but we apprehend them in detail, for if we do not apprehend them in detail we cannot apprehend them at all. We have not yet come to that which is perfect in point of knowledge. I never feel much troubled at being accused of imperfection in the way of stating things; my answer is,
[p. 231] We know in part and we prophesy in part, and that must be the case until the perfect is come.
My subject, then, is law; that is, law in Christianity. And when I speak of law I do not mean law, as I said, in the technical sense, as it was in the case of Israel; but I mean the principle of rule in a moral sense. I do not believe God ever turns aside from this for a moment. I see even in the new heavens and the new earth the principle of rule: righteousness resides there. Righteousness is the expression of the principle of rule. I do not know any other term at all which would suffice to take its place: it is the great principle of rule morally. Righteousness is the law of the moral universe.
If we go back to the beginning, in the order of things established in regard to the earth, we see the principle of rule. When God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that was not rule, but on the fourth day God set lights in the heavens, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and, as I have before pointed out, life is developed in the presence of light. You do not get life until the lights were set in the heavens to bear rule upon the earth.
Now the effect of sin was that man got morally outside of rule. Adam did his own will in defiance of the commandment of God. The commandment of God involved abiding in the rule of God. When Adam acted outside the commandment of God, he got away from rule, and into lawlessness. That is what the transgression of Adam meant. It comes out a little more distinctly in the case of Cain and Abel. Abel was righteous, abiding within rule morally — he was not lawless; but his brother’s works were evil — Cain was lawless. Then in Cain’s posterity the world became utterly lawless. They had departed from rule, and the lawlessness of the world brought in the flood. If you pay attention to Scripture, you will find that [p. 232] lawlessness brings in the judgement of God. The judgement of God came in at the flood because man had become lawless — outside of rule in any moral sense. We see the same thing in Sodom and Gomorrah. Men had completely turned aside from rule: they were failing to observe and respect the relationships that God had established down here; they were lawless, and that brought in the judgement of God. The same thing was true in regard to Israel: they became lawless, and that brought in the judgement of God upon them. Lawlessness brings in the righteous judgement of God, but not until it has been completely proved. I might have said the same thing in regard to the Canaanites and the people who inhabited the land of promise; lawlessness had to come to a climax before God interfered to cast out the inhabitants of the land.
I think the rule of righteousness is very simple; it is the maintenance of the relations in which it has pleased God in His wisdom to place man. No principle could be more simple. It has pleased God to set man upon earth in certain relationships, and righteousness is the maintenance of those relationships as God has established them. If men fail to observe these relationships, it makes manifest the principle of lawlessness: man has got outside of rule in any moral sense.
Now I take up for a moment the dealings of God in regard to Israel. The position was peculiar. Israel, when brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, was entirely unlike the rest of the world: it was a little world of its own, completely separated from all the rest of the world. I daresay most will remember the prophecies of Balaam. The first was, the people were to dwell alone, and not to be numbered among the nations. Then they were justified in the eye of God. There is a description then of their beauty as seen dwelling in their tents, and the last prophecy is of their [p. 233] ultimate glory: that is in connection with Christ. I refer to that in proof of the point which I mentioned, that when God brought Israel into the wilderness, it was a little world of its own with God as its centre. They were a kind of choice people, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God was in their midst. Almost the first proposition, when they were brought into the wilderness, was that God would set up His dwelling-place among them, and consequently He took from them what was needful for a dwelling-place.
Now I would like everyone to seize the importance of that: there was a world having its own peculiar character. All the great world was going on outside them — the Canaanites on one side and Egypt on the other — Israel was in the wilderness, shut off from any other nation; but the dwelling-place of God was there in their midst. They never dared to move without the tabernacle; and whenever they rested, they did so with the tabernacle in their midst. They might rest for a day, or a month, or a year; but whenever they rested, the tabernacle was in their midst. There never was anything on the face of the earth like it: a world of which God was the centre. When God brought them into the wilderness, He brought them to mount Sinai and gave them a law, because they must be under rule. I am not now speaking of what might be called the ceremonial law; but a people with God in their midst must be within rule, and therefore God propounded rule to them. It was the only principle on which it was possible for God to be among them. How could God be in the midst of a lawless people? In the very nature of things, if God proposed to dwell among them, He must propose law to them. God gave them a law, and they were to abide in that law. They were tested by it, and the continuance of God among them was dependent on the people continuing in the law. If they did not, God would not continue among them.
[p. 234] Well, things went on: the people came into the land. They did not continue in God’s covenant, and God says, “I regarded them not”. God sent many prophets to recall them to the covenant; but the people would not be recalled, and eventually they were cast off because they had broken the covenant. The effect of God’s dealings with Israel was to make manifest the lawlessness of man. It had come out before the flood; but it never came out in such a way as it did with Israel. The people before the flood never had the opportunities and privileges which Israel enjoyed. They never had a law proposed to them; and when lawlessness came out in Israel, it came out worse than in Sodom or Gomorrah. They would not have God: that is what was proved through the law; they became idolaters, worse than the heathen, and were carried away captive to Babylon because they did not continue in God’s covenant. The law made manifest the lawlessness of man: it may be that God intended it should.
Christianity is in contrast to law-giving in this respect: Christianity is not intended to make manifest the lawlessness of man, but the work of God. In the case of Israel, the question was not of the work of God, because God was testing man after the flesh. There were individuals in the midst of Israel in whom there was a work of God; but speaking in general, God was testing a people after the flesh, and it was a question of man and his state. The law was added for the sake of transgressions, that is, to make evident the lawlessness of man.
Now Christianity is morally Christ; and Christ did not come here to make manifest man’s lawlessness, but the work of God. There is, then, a great contrast between the law and Christianity. In connection with the work of God, you get a race, a company down here upon earth, who are within rule, and that never could be apart from the work of God: man could never [p. 235] come morally within the application and operation of rule except by the work of God. “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him”. Man never could come within rule except as being born of God, and the light of Christ has come in to make manifest the work of God down here.
Now look at John 3. It says in verse 21, “his deeds are wrought in God”; the work of God is in such an one. How could a man’s deeds be wrought in God if there were not the work of God? We see in verse 19 that the coming of the Lord made manifest that man’s deeds were evil, the light confirmed the law; what the law had proved, the light proved.
In the first epistle to Timothy, speaking of law teachers, the apostle shows that what was condemned by the law was condemned by sound doctrine according to the gospel. The light condemned what the law condemned; the light made manifest that men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The necessary effect of God coming into the world was to make manifest that there were those who continued in darkness; but at the same time it had another and a much more important effect — it brought to light the work of God. That was the purpose of the light coming into the world — to bring to light the work of God. In John 3 the first great point that comes out is the new birth; that is the work of God. Then the second great truth is the testimony of God. Then in the fourth chapter you get the gift of living water; that is the Spirit. That must always be the order: there is the work of God, which ever has been, and is now going on where the testimony is. The testimony comes in to make the work of God manifest; then there comes in the gift of the Spirit, which is the water that Christ gives, in the believer a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
[p. 236] I will say a word or two now in connection with the light. There are two things which are manifest in connection with Christ: one is that He is light, and the other that He is a gathering point. The Lord Jesus said in John 12, “and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”. He is the centre of the universe of God and the gathering point for man. But He is also the light: He has brought into the presence of man the light of God’s testimony. We get that very distinctly in John 3: 16. The cross of Christ brought into the presence of man the testimony of God’s love, and the love of God never can be learnt except in the cross. The only begotten Son of God is no longer here upon the earth; when He was here He was the light and the witness of God. He is here no longer; but what is here is the light of the cross, and the cross is the declaration of the love of God. The death of Christ was sacrificial as on behalf of man, but it was declaratory on the part of God. The love of God was declared there and the love of God cannot be learned apart from the death of Christ. I do not think anyone would dispute this for a moment. Christ is the testimony of God, and that testimony is brought close to man, into his presence, in the death of Christ. The One who suffered on the cross was a Man for men, but that Man was God’s only begotten Son. There divine love is brought into the presence of man, and close to man.
The effect of the light is, as we have seen, to make manifest the work of God. What, then, can be more important than the maintenance of God’s testimony in the world? That is the light in the world. As long as Christ was in the world He was the light of the world; He showed forth the light of God down here, brought it into the midst of a dark world. So the testimony of the cross at the present time is the light of God in the world, witnessing to man what is [p. 237] in its bearing universal, that is, the love of God toward man. Undoubtedly it has two effects: on the one hand, making manifest the darkness of man who will not come to the light, but, on the other hand, making equally manifest the work of God; 1 John 3: 10.
The proper effect of the light is to lead men to God’s gathering point. Christ is now the test; the light has come out in Christ. The testimony of God to man is set forth in Christ; in His Name repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached; all that God has to say to man is in Christ, and what lies behind all that God has to say to man is divine love. All has come forth from divine love through the death of Christ. I cannot conceive anything more important to present; divine love is the source of all, and divine love has expressed itself to man in the death of Christ, and whatever is announced of divine love to man is announced in the righteous One. The object of the light is to make manifest the work of God, and to draw to God’s gathering point. Whenever the light acts on a person, and the soul is brought into the light, the effect must be to draw to God’s gathering point, to Christ. The result of that is that there is a company of which Christ is the Head and Centre; 1 John 3: 1. To be the children of God is to have come to the gathering point. God’s light acting upon the soul of man is to draw it to the righteous One, away from the world. Souls come to Christ to get from Him living water; but they come to the righteous One, the One who is the centre of God’s universe. They are drawn by the working of God. The Lord said, “No one can come unto me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him”; that is the work of God drawing man to God’s centre and gathering point.
The effect is that you apprehend that Christ is the righteous One. There is then the generation of the children of God here who have been brought to light [p. 238] by the testimony, and what marks them is that they have come within rule; they are no longer lawless. You will have noticed the passage I read in Leviticus; the principle of that passage is this: Aaron and his sons had to observe particularly the law of the burnt-offering — the fire was always to be kept burning on the altar. If you have come to Christ you have come to the place of God’s holy judgement. The testimony of Christ is sealed by the Spirit, and you are thus brought to the place of God’s holy judgement: you have an altar, and you must observe the law of the altar. The law of the altar was that the fire was always to be burning in it, from morning till night and from night till morning. God never relaxes His holy judgement in regard to His people; they must walk within rule.
Now, in regard to Christ Himself; you may read Psalm 40: 7 - 10 in illustration of the expression “the righteous One” in the epistle of John. The “righteous One”, in regard to Christ, implied that, as Man, He was ever within rule. On the one hand, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt there, and He was expressing the light of God; on the other, He was man here upon earth, but ever within rule. “I come to do thy will”. “Thy law is within my heart”. Then follows, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation”. I can hardly conceive anything more wonderful than the Son of God displaying and expressing the light of God here, and Himself as Man, the righteous One, abiding within rule. I think you will understand from this scripture the force of Christ being the righteous One. Righteousness was maintained here upon earth in a man to the glory of God.
Now there is to be a universe of bliss, and the centre and gathering point is the righteous One, and what is going to fill that universe is righteousness; and we have come now to the beginning of it. Christ is the beginning, as the righteous One. You have the company of God’s children who have been made [p. 239] manifest by the light. They are companions of His, and what marks them is that they are righteous, even as He is righteous; they walk down here within rule, even as Christ has taken that place Himself. He is the righteous One, never ceases to occupy the place of man, in whose heart is God’s law; and those that do righteousness are righteous, even as He is righteous. We could not be practically righteous if we were not accounted righteous, if our liabilities had not been met in the death of Christ; but because we have submitted to the righteousness of God it comes to pass that we can be practically righteous, that is, we put on the breastplate of righteousness. Things with man are all out of course; with Christ nothing was out of course. Everything was according to God — “thy law is within my heart”. With man everything is abnormal, and the first application of righteousness to us is in this way, that we walk in self-judgement, and self-judgement refers to every movement of the human will. You have to observe the law of the altar. Self-judgement had no reference to Christ; it has a great deal of reference to us, for the reason that there is the flesh in us, which is prone to be rebellious and to wander from the rule of God, and therefore every movement of the flesh has to be judged in the Christian, and that is the first principle of doing righteousness. If you do not carry out self-judgement you have not the first principle of practical righteousness.
The light has gathered us to God’s gathering point. We are of the company of God’s children, we practise righteousness; this becomes manifest in us in our walking here in the spirit of self-judgement. The world cannot understand a man that walks in self-judgement. I think the world can understand and appreciate a man of great strength of will or force of character; such a man makes progress. But the world does not appreciate a man who refuses and disallows every movement of his own will. No man is entitled to a [p. 240] will. If a man loves God with all his heart, that man will not allow his own will to work; and hence you can understand that the first principle of righteousness must be to judge anything and everything that interferes with the rights of God.
The next point is that you love your brother. God has asserted His righteousness, and we admit it in judging what interferes with His rights, and in the admission of God’s rights we love Him. The right of God is to be loved by His creatures, and the source of His rights is that He loved His creatures. His love has become effective in the death of Christ. We admit His rights, and answer to them. But then there are our brethren, and we have to love them; and, after all, that is only the proof that we love God. My brother has a right to be loved by me, and I have a right to be loved by him. We are placed in righteous relation to one another, and it is only righteousness to love one another, just as it is to judge one’s self and all that conflicts with the rights of God. If I admit the right of God to the supreme place in my affections, I submit to the righteousness of God. The effect is that the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. What marks the children of the devil is lawlessness and hatred. They are outside of all rule, like a star outside of its orbit. If a planet could get outside of the influence of the sun it would get into lawlessness. That is where man has got to — outside of the influence of rule; and this brings in the judgement of God in due time. Righteousness is that you abide in the appointed orbit, in the maintenance of every relationship in which God has placed you — to love God, to love your brother, and to be faithful in every subordinate relationship here upon earth. The secret is, that the light of God has come in by the death of Christ, and God has purposed, by the righteous One, to fill the universe with righteousness. Man can desolate this world by works of destruction, but God [p. 241] builds up, and the centre of all God’s work is the righteous One. All begins with the righteous One, who is the blessed gathering point. The children of God are those who have been drawn to the gathering point, who see that the prince of this world is judged. They have been attracted to the righteous One, and it is impossible to be companions of the righteous One without ourselves practising righteousness.
All that is intensely moral, and it commends itself to me because it is such. No one upon earth could have conceived these things. Men may have had ideas, but there is no approach in their thoughts to what God has proposed. What holds me to the truth of Christianity is the deep conviction that all is of God. The proof that all is of God is the moral perfection of all that which God has been pleased to present.
I think we ought all to be very jealous for the maintenance of righteousness, that we keep within rule; that we walk down here in self-judgement in regard to every movement of the human will, so that God may have His rights and place in our hearts, and that we may love those who are of God.
May God give us understanding in these things, that His will may be fulfilled in us, and that we may see how separate we are from the lawless world around, in which things are ripening for the judgement of God.