If God does everything in the matter of my obeying the law, what is my
part? To do nothing. The human side of this New Covenant is to see that
self is kept from doing anything, so that Grace may work. It is the
effort of the self life, the human struggle described in Romans 7:7-24,
which prevents the victory of Grace.
But surely Grace on God’s part needs something on man’s side if it is
to be brought into touch with man. Yes, it needs to be told to man so
that he may hear it as a message of good tidings. “Belief cometh of
hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The word of
good tidings to law-breaking Christians is that God has put his law in
our hearts so that we shall obey him.
What are we to do with the word of good tidings? Believe it. If we do
not believe that the law of the Spirit hath made us free from the law
of sin, our unbelief does not affect the truth of God’s word, but we
ourselves lose the benefit of those good tidings. “For indeed we have
had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of
hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with
them that heard” (Heb. 4:2).
“Obey” Becomes “Believe”
The “obey” of the Old Covenant has become in the New Covenant
“believe.” The responsibility for obedience has been taken entirely by
Christ, and man’s part is to believe that astounding fact. Christians
are still urged to obey, but always the spelling of that word is
“believe.”
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth
... having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, through the word of God.... But the word of the
Lord abideth for ever. And this is the word of good tidings which
was preached unto you.... For you therefore that believe is the
preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, ... A stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient.”
These scattered verses in the first and second chapters of First Peter
present the new spelling of the old “obey.” Obedience to the truth is
simply believing the word of good tidings, and they who stumbled at
the word were disobedient because they did not believe the word of
good tidings. It is a striking commentary that the King James Version
uses “disobedient” in 1 Peter 2:7, where the Revised Version reads
“disbelieve.”
If this change from law to Grace is simply a different putting of the
matter, leaving man’s responsibility the same, then indeed there is no
good tidings for the Christian in the matter of freedom from sin, and
the Victorious Life teaching is a myth. If telling us to believe is
just another way of asking us to obey, then are we no better off than
before, and we must await our resurrection bodies in order to enjoy
freedom from the law of sin against which we have been struggling. For
with all our mind and heart we may want to obey, but there is that
“different law in our members” preventing us from doing the things that
we would. What is the new factor in Grace that changes everything?
Is it something real, or something that I must produce by my own
understanding, just a new _attitude_ to the law?
Is Your Name in This Will?
It is something as real as the inheritance that a millionaire father
wills to his son. God gives us a will in the third chapter of
Galatians, and he speaks in it of an inheritance, and in words as
carefully chosen and as accurate as in a perfect human will he explains
who are the heirs in that will. The promise was given to Abraham and
to his seed, not “seeds” as of many; “but as of one, and to thy seed,
which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). The closing verse of that will reveals
the importance of that distinction the Holy Spirit makes between the
singular and plural of the word seed. This distinction has puzzled
scholars and some have called it an example of Paul’s juggling with
words, but it need not puzzle any of the heirs whose names are in
this will. “And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs
according to promise.”
There is but one seed, Christ, and all that I am to get through this
will, I get because I am in him. What is the inheritance promised in
the will? If an earthly father knows how to will good gifts to his
children, what shall be said of the heavenly Father’s gift? The will
says that it is “the promise of the Spirit” and that it is through
faith (Gal. 3:14). The promise includes complete freedom from the law.
But does not the law also come from God? “Is the law then against the
promises of God?” is a most natural question, and it is asked in this
legal document which tells us of our inheritance. The answer to that
question contains one of the most significant statements in the whole
Word of God on the relation of law and grace: “God forbid: for if there
had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would
have been of the law” (Gal. 3:21).