...the strength of sin is the law.
1 Corinthians 15:56B
You can have Christian law just as much as much as
you can have Mosaic Law; you can be in bondage in
Christianity just as much as men were in Judaism.
Christianity can be made into an imposed system just
as much as Mosaic law was, and there are many Christ-
ians today who live under fear of the "Thou shalt" and
the "Thou shalt not" of a legalistic conception of the
Christian life.
You can take the Bible as God's standard for your life
and try to fulfill it and yet be burdened with a sense
of constant failure. It is God's standard, and it is a very
exhaustive one which leaves no part of the practical
life untouched, but those who make the effort to try to
live up to it only end in disillusion.
No, it is not just a matter of a Book, but of a Person,
the Person who did live up to that standard, absolutely
fulfilling every least demand and with the most perfect
success, so satisfying God to the full. By His death He
has delivered us from the bondage of legal demands.
This same Person now lives in us by His Holy Spirit,
seeking to work out that perfect will of God not on the
basis of some binding instructions from without but as
a living force within. We have the law written in our
hearts.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes...Ezekiel 36:26, 27
To be in Christ is a matter of life and not of legalism.
T. Austin Sparks 1888-1971
Reader, I was so far into legalism that whatever I was
doing was not quite right and there was no freedom in
my relationship with God. About 13 years ago, God
began to lead me into the scriptures which painted a
picture of all that is IN CHRIST including that big word
"sanctification." It is His Life in me that brings Life to
all I am doing. What freedom! What joy!
T. Austin Sparks life:
http://reformedperspectives.org/search.asp/au/ta_sparks/scat//kw//st//
1 Corinthians 15:56B
You can have Christian law just as much as much as
you can have Mosaic Law; you can be in bondage in
Christianity just as much as men were in Judaism.
Christianity can be made into an imposed system just
as much as Mosaic law was, and there are many Christ-
ians today who live under fear of the "Thou shalt" and
the "Thou shalt not" of a legalistic conception of the
Christian life.
You can take the Bible as God's standard for your life
and try to fulfill it and yet be burdened with a sense
of constant failure. It is God's standard, and it is a very
exhaustive one which leaves no part of the practical
life untouched, but those who make the effort to try to
live up to it only end in disillusion.
No, it is not just a matter of a Book, but of a Person,
the Person who did live up to that standard, absolutely
fulfilling every least demand and with the most perfect
success, so satisfying God to the full. By His death He
has delivered us from the bondage of legal demands.
This same Person now lives in us by His Holy Spirit,
seeking to work out that perfect will of God not on the
basis of some binding instructions from without but as
a living force within. We have the law written in our
hearts.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes...Ezekiel 36:26, 27
To be in Christ is a matter of life and not of legalism.
T. Austin Sparks 1888-1971
Reader, I was so far into legalism that whatever I was
doing was not quite right and there was no freedom in
my relationship with God. About 13 years ago, God
began to lead me into the scriptures which painted a
picture of all that is IN CHRIST including that big word
"sanctification." It is His Life in me that brings Life to
all I am doing. What freedom! What joy!
T. Austin Sparks life:
http://reformedperspectives.org/search.asp/au/ta_sparks/scat//kw//st//
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