Monthly Archives: July 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLXXIX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For 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. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:1-13).

Vincent tells us something about the Epistle to the Romans in the introduction to his volumes on the Apostle Paul’s writings that can serve to give us a better understanding of what it is that we are studying here as in the recent past as we have been rather stuck on this eighth chapter. Vincent says that: the epistle must be grasped entire. No portion of the New Testament lends itself to more dangerous distortions of truth through fragmentary use. No none of Paul’s epistles is so dependent for its just effect upon the perception of the relation of its parts to the whole. Its logic and its feeling are inseparable. It answers the highest test of eloquence in stimulating emotion with profound thought, and in fusing thought with feeling⁴. For us, we have recently discussed the segment of the Eighth Chapter of Romans as it deals with, in our understanding, the very fabric of our existence here on Earth and the hope, or rather expectation, of our completion of this experience. And, we are currently taking on the first part of that chapter as it sets the stage for the latter; we have said that had we not looked at the middle part first that there would be no stage to set, that the middle verses would not have stood out for us as they do. We began this with the saying in verse fourteen that says “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14) and this was for us a rather profound statement which we considered worthy of additional exploration. Looking back then from our discovery of the realities presented in the middle part, we began to take on this first part which is where we currently are and where we find the apostle giving us his understanding of the state of man under the law and the subsequent advent of the Christ. This begins as we have begun with the last verse of the prior chapter. As to Vincent’s understanding above we should note some Truth as the whole of our segment worked as a single thought and these additional verses as another single thought that helps to clarify what follows. On the other side we see his point; by example, many have taken that one single and isolated verse from the tenth chapter that has become in parts of the church as the equivalent of being born again but which, when reading the entire segment, means something very different.

Paul says there that: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). Now it is not our intention to get into these verses here except to say that in its context this saying takes on a different tone as though speaking to the religious Jew who found righteousness in the letter of the law and convincing him that the word of the Christ in the heart and the following of His precepts is the way to salvation. In this we can see Vincent’s caution and in this we can see what we consider the apparent errors of doctrine which serve to keep a man back from the Truth rather than lead him to it. Returning to our text from yesterday where we were discussing the points made by Paul in the third verse which says: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit“.

We have discussed the idea of the law’s limited success in the Jewish Dispensation because of the inability of the man to take control of the flesh in a way that would allow that spiritual part to flow through. This seems the same as the current situation in this world of flesh but there is a difference; and this is that the law was given against the promise of a good life here on this Earth and the threat of calamity, the blessings and cursing of Deuteronomy, while the Master brings to us the reality of the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament says very little about this idea of the Kingdom of God or of eternal Life in the terms that we can recognize and this should tell us something as these things do play some part in the Jewish beliefs. We should see here then that the law did not work to bring the nation and most men to righteousness except that he might perform the tenets of the law because they were the law and for the blessings or to prevent the cursing that was promised in this Life on Earth. The idea of doing the tenets of the law because they are the RIGHT THINGS TO DO did not occur to many and it is this new sense of God that the Master brings for us. While these are difficult things to express in a paragraph, we should be able to see the difference; the man of God was and continued to be the man of God, it is the average man that the Master is trying to move from the rote of performing the tenets of the law for the sake of the law, to that greater place where a man will do the RIGHT thing because it is the RIGHT THING TO DO. We should understand that this average man was the religious Jew as in those times the law of God and the law of the land were mostly merged into one and this in a way that can be seen in our understanding of the Sharia Law that is railed against today or even the fundamentalist attempts to put their spin of Christian scripture into American law. This latter is a better depiction of the ways of the Jewish state at the time of Christ in that they had changed the law by their interpretation into the rites and the rituals of the post-captivity Jews. The Master reflects on this in repeating the words of the Prophet Esaias saying: “Howbeit in vain do they worshipme, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). Our comparison to the fundamentalist mentality in America is found in their ideas on certain issues where scripture is silent but which have become for them egregious sins on the part of even non-Christian people.

Back to our point, the law was weak as it relied on the flesh for enforcement and the promise of blessings and cursings had little effect on the people as a whole although there are likely many who did live righteous lives and who did progress. Then comes the Christ, “God sending his own Son“, in a form that is the same as that of everyman; a body of flesh and appetites with its attendant emotional and mental nature. The difference between the Christ and everyman is found in His unique ability to bring to bear on His carnal nature “the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). In this reality we understand that the Master IS sinless in every interpretation of this word and especially in its reality of focus upon the things of the world; His focus was totally on God and on His mission. We began looking next at the two words “for sin” as they are translated above and we noted how the translation and interpretation of these words varies according to the doctrine of the translating groups and we noted how these two words have become a doctrinal foundation for the varied doctrines of vicarious atonement. For the purposes of understanding this passage it serves us just as well to leave these words out as they do not affect the verse or the subject at all as the ending statement does say it ALL. That is that God “condemned sin in the flesh“. Now condemned here is another misunderstood word that does not imply anything that is Truly evil, much as the idea of sin does not. Sin here is the wrong focus, focus on the things of the flesh instead of the things of God, and there are many degrees of sin to be counted, much depth to this idea. It is this depth that takes a man further and further from his goal of communion with his own Soul. So God condemns this type of living in the flesh and this simply says that He judges it as the wrong focus of a man’s Life. In our understanding this sin is that this focus is on the ways and the things of the world and, as we go along in this chapter we shall find the relationship to kindred idea that we are “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) which can give us the proper perspective; that we are in sin by way of incarnation and that this sin is not the way of the Soul.

The next part of this is the explanation of it all; Paul tells us that the purpose of the coming of Christ is “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit“. This is the message that the apostle builds us up to; he tells us of the failure of the law and the reason for it and that this is the cause of the Christ coming among us, so as to tell and to show us that the way of sin, the way of the world, is wrong. Then, this being said, Paul tells us the same thing that had always been, that the “righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” whose focus is on the things of God. Can we see the simplicity in this message and can we see that this was always the way except that now Christ is the center point and not the law itself? Of great importance in this is the drama of the Christ; His birth, His Life and teachings, His death at the hands of the unjust Jews and Romans and finally His resurrection; if a man can see these things and understand the Hand of God in the Life of the Christ then He has changed us to be able to and to desire to walk “after the Spirit“. We must remember that Paul is here writing to believers, to followers, aspirants if you will, and he is speaking to the masses of men who pick up his writings today; this must be understood to get the right understanding of some of what he says. As we KNOW there are but few who Truly get this message from Paul although many may believe that they do understand based on the doctrines which explain these things to them. The reality of the  “righteousness of the law” is the reality of the teachings of the Master which are that we focus upon God, and the God Within and not upon the world of things. We spoke yesterday about the predicted outcome that brought Christ to us 2000 years ago, we should understand how it was prophesied and written that the people would not follow the Lord and how the Christ would come and also be rejected. In this era of Christ we have Jesus Himself making a similar prediction in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, a parable that we just recently discussed. Here the Master makes the point by way of the story in an exchange between the rich man and Abraham: “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said , Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rosefrom the dead” (Luke 16:27-31). History and the world today show us the Truth of this; that the combinations of the teachings and the miracles and the prophesies fulfilled have not had an effect and neither has the Resurrection of the Master and these things are as true of ‘believers’ as they are of the rest. None of this has been able to overcome the illusion and the glamour of Life in form; nothing has greatly diminished the vanity.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day