The Way Of God (Iii)

by J. Miller, Ayr | Category: General | Sept 1966

We come now to consider the Law of God which He intended should be the manner of life of His people Israel. The writer of Psalm 119 sums up this view of the law being "a way" in verse I of this psalm,

"Blessed are they that are perfect in the way,

Who walk in the law of the LORD."

The law was never intended to be a means of life. Paul makes this plain when he says, "If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law" (Galatians 3.21). Again he says, "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3.20). And yet again he says, "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6.23). Under the law and also in this dispensation of grace provision is made for sinners in the substitution of a sin offering. When an Israelite realized that he had sinned, he was responsible to come to the altar of God with his animal as a sin offering, and slay that sin offering on the north side of the altar. Then the priest took the blood and the fat, and he put some of the blood on the horns of the altar and poured out the remainder at the base of the altar; the fat he burned upon the altar. That provision of God was temporary and not eternal. We live in the dispensation of grace, and can know through faith that our sins are atoned for and forgiven by the sacrifice of Christ which is for ever; for, "Once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9.26). In consequence of the sacrifice of Christ a new law is now in operation. This law is "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", and thereby the believer is made free from the law of sin and of death. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8.1,2).

The ten commandments do not deal with the ceremonial and sacrificial side of the law. These are correctly called the moral law. The first three commandments deal with man's obligation to God. Man is not to be an idolator, he is not to take God's name in vain, nor to be an image-maker. The other seven commandments have to do with man's responsibility to his fellow-man. First, he should observe the Sabbath as a day of rest; this would be good for man and for his servant, and for his beasts. Then he was to honour his father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. He was to commit no murder, and not to commit adultery. He was not to steal, nor was he to bear false witness, and he was not to covet. These ten commandments can be summed up in two; this the Lord showed when He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets" (Matthew 22.37-40). And so far as man's obligation to his fellow is concerned, the Lord summed this up with the words, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7. 12). Who, but the Lord Himself, could have summed up man's responsibility to his fellow in so few words and say that this is the meaning of all the Old Testament as to man's behaviour to man?

When the writer of Psalm 119 uses the word "perfect", he does not mean sinless, he means a man of integrity and uprightness, whose way of life was the law of God and who walked therein. David tells of the blessedness of those whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered, and in verse 8 of Psalm 32, speaking of what God would do for such, he says, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel thee with Mine eye upon thee." For those whose sins are forgiven God had a way then in the law, and He has a way now, for those that are forgiven, in the commandments of the Lord, and also those which the Lord gave through the apostles. We are not to be like the horse, or the mule, which have no understanding.

Moses also said about God's way when he spoke to Israel before they entered the promised land: "Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the way which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess" (Deuteronomy 5.32,33).

The days of Jeremiah were sad days for Judah and Benjamin who were still in their land, and God, through this prophet, spoke solemn words of correction to His people. He said, amongst many like words, "They have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, wherewith I sent unto them My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 29.19). Yet we read of God's gracious pleading with them, "Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein" (Jeremiah 6.16). God reminded them of the great importance of walking in His way in the words, "I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you ... But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornesss of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward" (Jeremiah 7.22-24). Indeed, God entered into a covenant with Israel based upon their obedience, when they said, "All the words which the LORD bath spoken will we do" (Exodus 24.3). Alas, their history, and the LORD'S words through Jeremiah show, that they did not obey His words. Yet because the LORD loved Israel with an everlasting love, He continued to deal with them and he gracious unto them. He went on to plead that they might walk in His way that it might be well with them. "He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chronicles 36.15,16). Then came Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and burnt the beautiful temple that Solomon built, and burnt Jerusalem, and took captive the best of God's people who remained alive after Jerusalem was destroyed. Had they obeyed God, and walked in His way, it would have been well with them in the land which God gave to them, but they brought His wrath upon themselves, and the Babylonians had no pity on them. Jeremiah gives God's estimate on their behaviour in the words, "My people bath forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity; and they have caused them to stumble

in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up" (Jeremiah 18.15). As the world grows darker, and the coming again of the Lord draws ever nearer, is it not time for God's children to see the right way and be found walking therein? Has God a way today? of course He has, as He ever has had, and will ever have, for all who are willing to walk therein.

J. Miller, Ayr | Sept 1966
General