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“You are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Do you believe that grace makes you lawless? Such a teaching comes into the church in a time of degradation, when some will pervert “the grace of our God into licentiousness” (Jude 4). When the Scripture says that we are not under law, it is referring to the law given by Moses; it is plain that we are not under that law. Do you conclude from this that God has no law toward His people today? In the new covenant the Lord says, “I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them” (Heb. 10:16). It may have been possible under the old covenant to disregard the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, but with laws that have been written on our hearts we have no way to be rid of them or to neglect them.
Which do you think is more strict — the law of Moses or the law of the New Testament? The law written on our hearts is more binding by far. In James 1:25 and 2:12 this subjective law is called “the law of freedom.” Let us answer a few questions before we consider this law further.
Question: In the past the emphasis in the churches has been on Christ, the spirit, life, and the church. You have said that the aspect of truth has been somewhat neglected. Since Christ is the truth, how is it possible that we have neglected the truth?
Answer: We did have some measure of truth concerning Christ, the spirit, life, and the church. However, we did not stress, for example, the headship of Christ or the constitution of the church. Many truths in the Word have not been adequately covered; the saints were not sufficiently encouraged to study the Bible and to have all these truths infused into them. Now the churches need to help the saints to get into the depths of the Word by studying and pray-reading for the understanding of the truth of all the doctrines.
Question: In my early history with the Lord, I would sense when I sought His presence that He strengthened me and was abiding in me. In these recent years it’s been rare that I have had that sense. Should I seek such a feeling?
Answer: When you want to contact the Lord, it is easier not to wait for some sense within. If you wait, you open the door for distracting thoughts to come in and disturb you. Before you kneel to pray, or before you open the Bible, begin right away to speak. You can just say something simple, like “Lord, I praise You.” After one or two sentences you will be ushered by your speaking into the presence of God.
We Christians must be a speaking people, addressing not only God but also angels, demons, and even the atmosphere. If we come into the meeting and just sit there without speaking, the atmosphere will be full of death. Speaking something from our spirit repels all the distractions and brings us into touch with the Lord.
Question: I am finding it hard to turn to the Word during the day. When I remember what you said about the killing element, I do not want to pick up the Bible for fear of being killed, so I just go off to lunch. I know that if I open to the Word I will also get the nourishment, but I sometimes feel too weak to do so. Maybe it is the legality of it that makes me resistant.
Answer: However busy we are, we always find time to eat. Why is this? It is because we recognize that eating is a necessity of life. We need this same realization regarding our spiritual eating. Pray for the Lord to help you read His Word every day, even two or three times a day. Where there is a will, there is a way. We just need the realization that taking in the Word is a life necessity. If we build up this habit, we will find that our Christian life will be transformed. Coming to the meetings is good; listening to the messages is good; but the reading, studying, and eating of the Bible is a life necessity. Trust the Lord that you may be enabled to do this in a regular way.
Question: Sometimes when I want to share something in the meeting, I am not sure if it is from my spirit or from my soul.
Answer: If you release it in the spirit, it is something in the spirit. If you keep it within you, it may become something in the soul. It is not necessary to analyze that way. It is better to exercise your spirit to release what you want to share than to keep it within.
Question: Is there any way to share the truth without getting into arguments?
Answer: Arguments lead nowhere. Especially with our relatives, we must avoid arguing about doctrine. If they raise a doctrinal point, we can steer away from it and give instead a testimony of our experience of Christ. Let them know how joyful our life is. Our relatives not only need such a verbal testimony from us; they also need to see such a testimony lived before them. This living has the strongest impact. We need much more experience of Christ daily. This will make our testimony brighter and will influence our relatives, as well as others, to take this way.
Question: What should we pray for? Last year in college I prayed nearly every day for fifteen people; it was an exhausting labor. The other brothers and sisters were praying for the same people, but none of them has been added.
Answer: The best way to pray is according to John 15:7: “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” The way to pray is to abide in the Lord, remain in Him, and be one with Him. Then our praying will not be according to our preference but according to His Word. When we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we have His abiding word to pray about. Then, as we open to Him, He moves within us, and we pray whatever we sense within.
It is hard to tell you what to pray. Just contact the Lord and be one with Him. Once you have taken His words into you and are actually one with Him and He with you, there will be a consciousness deep within you. Pray according to that sense.
Many times, as we begin to utter the words of prayer, more of a sense will come. The inner sense becomes our prayer uttered in words. If you still have a burden to pray for many things, do not adjust yourself. Be simple, not bothered by any way. Go to the Lord, contact Him, and, as He leads you, utter the words according to your inner sense. If, at the same time, you still have a burden to pray for certain people, for certain situations, for the church, or for the Lord’s recovery, just utter that burden. Do not analyze whether your burden was initiated by you or by the Lord. Be simple.
Pray until you have an inner restraint telling you not to pray for a certain matter. If you have no such restraint, feel free to pray according to your burden. Do not pick up something as your burden. Praying is just coming to the Lord and then uttering the prayer according to the sense He gives you.
While the New Testament refers to the law of freedom, the Mosaic law was really a law of bondage. As soon as we are given a law, we find that we cannot keep it (see Rom. 7:7-9). A missionary in China preached to his cook that we are all sinners. When the cook protested that he was a good man and had never sinned, the missionary began to talk to him about a horse. The cook needed a new horse, and the missionary’s description of the horse aroused in the cook longings to have such an excellent one. Thoughts about how he could get the horse for himself began to fill the cook’s mind. On a subsequent occasion the missionary again broached the subject that we are all sinners. Again the cook denied that he had ever done anything sinful. The missionary then asked him what had been occupying his thoughts since their previous conversation. The cook replied, “Well, I have been thinking about that horse. It sounded like such a good one; I have been wondering how I could get it.” The missionary then called to his attention what such thoughts indicated, and the cook was forced to admit that they were signs of covetousness. This, the missionary then pointed out, was a sin (Exo. 20:17). Who can keep the law of Moses? It is impossible; it is a law of bondage.
The New Testament law, written upon our hearts, frees us. “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2). We are not under the law of bondage but the law of freedom.
How does this law free us? Suppose that in the past you loved to go to the movies. Sometimes you would even lie to your mother, telling her that you were going to the library when actually you were sneaking off to the movies. Upon your return home, if she asked you what you had been studying in the library, you would invent a little story for her. Your love for the movies caused you to tell two lies, lies that one day will be judged by God. This may have happened many times. It indicates that you were under the bondage of movies.
How does this law of freedom operate to set you free? Before you were saved, you may have felt proud of yourself for getting away with such deceit. But once you are saved, your feelings are different. There will be something within bothering you; you will feel disturbed both for going to the movies and also for deceiving your mother. Even if you do not heed your new inner feelings, this law is patient. Time after time you will feel troubled when you go to the movies or lie to your mother. Eventually, you will be subdued by this bothering element within you. The law within thus becomes the law of freedom, freeing you from the bondage of movies.
Sometimes we testify to others that we have had peace since we became a Christian. Actually, instead of having peace, many times we are bothered. This bothering One is persistent. He may keep after us for several years until He finally subdues us. We cannot persuade Him to look at things our way. Sooner or later, in His patient, gentle way, He will win.
I know that many of you have been influenced to go to movies or to drink, under the guise of being freed. As your testimonies have shown, you may have seemed outwardly freed, but within there was a protest. Such a feeling shows the functioning of the law written upon your heart. No matter how much you say that you are freed from all bondage, you cannot be freed from the inner law written upon your heart. Whenever you do something against God and this living law within, you will have the sense that you are not right. It is only by regarding this sense that you are brought into freedom.
Before we were saved, we were lawless. But after we are saved, God’s law is written on our hearts and we are “not without law to God but within law to Christ” (1 Cor. 9:21). The new law in the New Testament is called the law of freedom or the law of Christ.
This law is stricter than Moses’. It binds us even in minor points. It requires not only telling the truth but also being accurate. It will condemn us for feeling proud even when no one can see any evidence of pride.
This new law has far more commandments than ten. Let us mention just a few. Repent! Be baptized! Unceasingly pray! Rejoice! Be burning in spirit! Love one another! Be transformed by the renewing of the mind! Flee youthful lusts! If you will turn the pages of your New Testament, you will find commandment after commandment.
We are told, “In nothing be anxious” (Phil. 4:6). How hard it is not to worry! This is especially true of parents in their concern for their children. I recall how my mother worried about her second daughter, my sister, who was teaching in another province, some eight hundred miles away. One morning my mother was nearly weeping. When I asked her what was the matter, she reproached me for not caring for my sister and pointed out that we had not heard from her for four weeks. The previous night she had dreamed that my sister was very ill. Though I tried to encourage her to eat breakfast and not pay any attention to a dream, she kept reproving me that I did not care about my sister. The more I tried to set her mind at rest, the more annoyed she became with me. Finally, she said, “What makes you so dull? Why don’t you go out and send a telegram for me?” Of course, I hurried to do her bidding. The return telegram came later that day, saying all was well.
You can see how prone we are to worry. But the Bible says, “In nothing be anxious.”
Christians are the most lawful people. In eating, drinking, wearing apparel, and lodging, we are lawful. In everything we are under the commandments of the New Testament. The more we keep the new law, the law of freedom, the more we will be truly freed, not unto lawlessness but from the bondage of doing sinful things.
