The just shall live by faith.
The keeping of the commandments of God is summed up in one word, namely, love. But love is of God, “For God is love.” Notice that the text does not say that God has love, but that God is love. Love is the nature of God; it is His very life. Therefore it is plain that keeping the commandments of God is partaking of God’s nature. This is a point that cannot be too often repeated.
When the young man came to Christ, saying, “Good Master,” the Savior said to him, “Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God.” In this, Christ was not rebuking him for calling Him good, because He was good. He “Knew no sin.” To the Jews He said, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” John 8:46. And again He said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John 14:30. He knew that He was good, and He could not deny that without denying Himself, and He would not do that. But in asking that question and making that statement to the young man, He showed that He Himself was God. He and the Father are one, and God alone is good.
In contrast with God, you are only evil. “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Rom. 3:10-12. “Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21-23.
As your heart is, so are you. “An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil.” Luke 6:45. So since your heart is evil then you can only do evil when left to yourself. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Gal. 5:17. This is spoken especially of you when you desire to do what is right.
This evil in your heart is opposed to the law of God. We read, “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Rom. 8:6-8.
But God tells you to keep His commandments. And since it is impossible for your nature to keep them, and goodness resides in God alone, it follows that in order for you to keep the commandments you must have the nature of God. Christ is the revelation of God. No man knoweth “the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matt. 11:27. In Christ’s life there was perfect goodness, because His life was the life of God. God is good. His life is goodness itself. Goodness constitutes His life. Goodness is not an abstract thing, but it must always be manifested in action. But action is life. Therefore since there is none good but God, it follows that if you would keep the commandments of God you must do so by having His life in you.
This is the only way that the righteousness of the law can occur in your life. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Gal. 2:20, 21. Righteousness comes only by the life of God in Christ. So it is that “by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19. In all the host of the redeemed in the kingdom of heaven, there will be the manifestation of the righteousness of Christ, and of His righteousness alone. It is not simply that Christ obeyed the law two thousand years ago, when He was on earth. But that He obeys the law now, the same as He did then; for He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So when He comes to dwell in your heart by faith, He lives the same life of obedience in you that He did when He came here to die for you. When you know this in practice you are acknowledging that Christ is come in the flesh.
It is because the law of God is the life of God, and the law is love, that the Savior gave this instruction: “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?” Matt. 5:44-47.
The greatest manifestation of merely human love is to do good to those who do you good. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. You love your friends, sometimes; but God loves His enemies. That is love itself, because it does not grow out of what He has received from the one He loves. The Savior knew that this kind of love is not possible for your human nature, and so He added these words, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:48. That is, you are to have the perfection of God. Not that you are to become a god, but that you are to allow His life to be manifested in you, and so you will have His perfection. The goodness will all be of God, but will be counted as yours, because you yielded yourself to it, that He might live it in you.
This thought lifts the law of God above the level of mere force, and glorifies it. We “know that His commandment is life everlasting.” John 12:50. The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary rules laid down by the Almighty, for the government of people. They are not precepts that exist merely in writing, which you are to read, and then do your best to keep. They are not like the laws of earthly governments, where the lawgivers don’t offer the people any help in keeping the laws. God has not given you a law as hard as the stone on which it was traced at Sinai, and then left you to do the best that you can with it, His only concern being to punish you if you come short. It is far different. The law written on tables of stone is but the statement in words of the living righteousness of the living God, which He in love gives to all who will receive it. It is the condition of life, simply because all life comes from God; and since all who will live forever must have His life, it is necessary that they must have His righteousness.
But God has not left you to secure this righteousness by yourself. He well knows that it would be impossible. So He gave Himself, pouring out His own life on the cross, in order that you might have it. So the law of God is the life of God gracious, loving, and merciful.
One more thought needs to be noted here, and that is, that nothing less than the life of God will meet the demands of the law. Whoever comes short of the glory of God, which is His goodness, is a sinner a transgressor of the law. The righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, is the only thing that the law will witness as perfect. Anything less than that will be condemned by the law; for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Rom. 14:23. There is no injustice in God’s maintaining this high standard for you, since He gives Himself, with all the righteousness of His life, to everyone who will take it. He gives His life freely. All you have to do is to submit yourself to the righteousness of God.
A mere form of godliness will avail nothing. No amount of mere outward conformity to the law will be accepted as the keeping of the law. There is but one God, and so there is but one life of God. He will not acknowledge any rival gods, and He cannot be deceived by a righteousness which is only a counterfeit of His life. Any amount of professed conformity to the law of God, which does not come from the life of God ir your soul, is nothing but sin. Don’t forget, your righteousness-the keeping of the commandments of God-is only by the fait of Jesus Christ, and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Living By Faith- E.J.W., and A.T.J.
Be not deceived.
Maranatha