DELIVERANCE FROM THE LAW, AND THE Law made nothing perfect. It made righteous demands on those who had "nothing to pay;" it was, consequently, a ministration of "condemnation" and "death." It burdened the conscience, told the worshipper of his distance from God, and gave him no real relief. "By the Law is the knowledge of sin." The Law cried justly and holily for vengeance, and opened no door of deliverance; for it is written, "The Law worketh wrath." "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (See Deut. xxvii. 26; xxviii. 15; James ii. 10.) The giving of the Law was very significant of the direful consequences of God's dealing with men after their works. The "blackness, and darkness, and tempest," and sight so terrible, that "Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake," shewed that it brought no "glad tidings" to sinful man. It was full of alarm and terror, without any consolation, because it could not give life. But the people, "ignorant of God's righteousness," and willing to establish their own righteousness, as we all naturally desire to do, unhesitatingly put themselves under the Law, as if they were competent to meet its righteous demands. The consequences were most disastrous. Moses the Law-giver never entered the land of promise, the people were cut off by the wrath of God, and a remnant only of those who came out of Egypt reached the land flowing with milk and honey. Many, in the present day, forget that they are fallen creatures-without strength-and, like the children of Israel, place themselves under Law, ignorant of God's solemn declaration, "By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight;" with such, therefore, there is no peace of conscience, no nearness of soul to God, no knowledge of the Father, and they experience either a self-condemned unhappy state of mind, or are overcome by self-complacent, soul-deceiving, pharisaic pride. The Apostle Paul tells us that, "As many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse," for being all breakers of the Law, all sinners, the Law can justly make this claim; for "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." (Gal. iii. 10.) From this, Christ hath delivered us, by substitution, on the cross. But the most remarkable thing is, that this spirit of self-righteousness should manifest itself in the Lord's people; that regenerate souls, after having experimentally learned something of their having sinned, and come short of God's standard, of their helplessness, and inability to come before God on the ground of the Law, and of their salvation by Christ, should place themselves again under a law, by turning the precepts and ordinances of the Scriptures into legal statutes, and obeying them, as an endeavour to make their salvation more secure, instead of rejoicing in full salvation by grace only, and as obedient children, in the blessed liberty and obligation of unchanging love, doing their Father's will. This is an old device of the adversary; it robs souls of peace and fellowship with God, and always brings bondage, and leanness of soul, with despondency or pride. Though we have life in Christ, and are united to Him, and He to us, our position is one of entire dependence; for without Christ we can do nothing. We are kept by the power of God, through faith, and can only be happy in an atmosphere where grace reigns. The grace of God (not law), bringeth salvation; we are under grace, we stand in grace-the righteousness of God, by faith-not our own righteousness. "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Christ has borne the full force of the curse of the Law, on the tree, for us; all its claims have been answered, all its power fully spent, all its charges fully met. Hence, we are delivered from the Law, because it is dead to us, and we have died (in Christ) to it. "Ye also, my brethren, are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Rom. vii. 4.) The Spirit of God never brings us into bondage to the Law. He testifies of Christ and all His fulness to our souls. He assures us of our sonship, and everlasting union with Christ, and, through Christ, gives us access to the Father. This is the power of all fruit bearing. Perhaps their is nothing that the Lord's little ones have more to watch against than sliding away from the blessed liberty and freedom we have in Christ, and becoming entangled with a yoke of bondage. "We have not received again the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." May we walk as a chaste virgin espoused to Christ! ONE THING. "One thing is needful" LUKE X. 42. WE see singleness of eye, in perfection, only in the Lord Jesus. He was at all times full of light, having no part dark. He did always those things that pleased the Father. Self-will never had a place in His heart; it was His meat to do the will of Him that sent Him. He knew no sin. Rebellion was very far from His mind. He never " turned away back." He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; He hid not His face from shame and spitting. (Isa. 1.) The one object that pervaded the soul of Jesus was the Father's glory. He was, emphatically, Jehovah's "Righteous Servant," "The Faithful Witness," the "Beloved Son," in whom the Father was well pleased. We never find that Christ was occupied in seeking anything for Himself. When His soul was sorely troubled, His one desire was, "Father, glorify Thy name." (John xii.) And when the bitterest of all sorrows was in immediate prospect, and the cup of unutterable anguish before Him, still it was "Not My will, but Thine, be done;""The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" (Luke xxii. 42; John xviii. 11.) In singleness of heart too, the "one thing" with Jesus was, not seeking His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him; so that even the words that He spake were always for the glory of the Father-"The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me....I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." (John v. 30; xiv. 24; xii. 49.) It is in the same path that the Spirit of God leads us. We are not our own, but bought with a price. Our members must be "instruments of righteousness unto God," for we are His, redeemed by the blood of His beloved Son. We are liable to forget this, and, therefore, to live unto ourselves; but if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Much of our unhappiness and weakness arise from forgetting that we are redeemed, and also the cost of our redemption, hence double-mindedness, instability, seeking our own things, and being careful and troubled about many things, not considering that "one thing is needful." When the children of Israel were secure within the blood-sprinkled lintel and door-posts, there was "one thing" which was to occupy them, before their deliverance from Egypt actually came. They were to "eat" the flesh of the Lamb, "roast with fire," with unleavened bread. Not that this would make their deliverance more certain, but this was the obedient and Godglorifying service they were called to. Their safety was in the sprinkled blood-"When I see the blood I will pass over you;" but they were to obey God in eating the roasted Lamb. There is also " one thing" now set before us, it is to "glorify God"-" to live not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again." Present temporal blessing is remarkably connected in the Scriptures with this spiritual path-" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things |