From an article by Edward B. Dennett,
But, you reply, we are not under law.
The Jews were, but can this be said of Gentile believers?
Certainly not in the same sense; but the principle of law is as native to us as to the Jew.
For example,
if after I am converted
I feel that I ought to love the Lord Jesus more, and try to do so,
or that I ought to pray better,
and am cast down or depressed
because I have not discharged this duty, as I think, more perfectly,
I am in principle as much under law as were the Jews.
The essence of the law lies in its "Thou shalts," and hence, if I turn even the precepts of our blessed Lord into, Thou shalt do this or that,
I put my neck under the yoke of the law.
And the moment I do so, I am on the sure road to failure, distress, and a bad conscience.
What, then, we have all to learn is that through association, in the grace of God, with the death of Christ,
we are delivered both from law and from the principle of law.
We are married to Another, even to Him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit (not works, but fruit,) unto God.
Christianity has no "thou shalts,"
but it substitutes for the works of the law and the works of the flesh, the blessed fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5);
and these are produced, not as the works are, by human effort, but by divine power.
The difference between these two things is as great as possible.
Knowing now that fruit for God cannot be obtained by any effort or labor of our own,
we are delivered from all expectation from self;
and learning, at the same time,
that the power which can bring forth fruit is in another (who works, indeed, by the Spirit that dwells in His people),
our eye is upward to Him,
in the confidence that He will use us for His glory according to His own will.
Instead, therefore, of working, we trust;
Instead of seeking fruit within, we desire that Christ may work in us according to the energy of His own divine power.
** Closing words =
"My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, 0 LORD;
in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee,
and will look up."
Psalm 5:3.
Then He'll lead the way before you,
Mountains laying low;
Making desert places blossom,
Sweetening Marah's flow.
Would you know this life of triumph,
Victory all the way?
Then put God in the beginning Of each coming day.
** Full transcript ( 46 pages long, but full of teaching and exhortation for the believer on the subject of successful Christian walk, but letting God work in and through you ),
Saved by Grace,
Andrew Cross
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,
but exhorting one another,
and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:23-25
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