301. The Laws and Commandments of the New Covenant

God has made a new covenant with us by putting His laws in our hearts and writing them in our minds. Heb. 10:16.

Jesus was obedient to God’s laws to the point of death. This death of Jesus can now be used against all flesh, because if One died for all, then all died. The Spirit of Jesus has complete knowledge of the entire work of Christ, including His death. Therefore the Spirit is able to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. All this is done for us. Now our part is to keep His laws and commandments even to the point of bloodshed and death.

Our human nature is not willing to go along with this. It is willing to hear about what Jesus has done for us. It finds it reasonable that He has suffered death according to the flesh and that He has drunk the cup, but it does not tolerate hearing that we should also suffer with Him. Nevertheless, it is so. God’s will is our sanctification, and He reveals His will to us through His laws and commandments and in the Scriptures. If we are faithful, we receive the light of life and are made living by the second Adam. The new and living way goes through the veil—that is, His flesh. This way is narrow, and there are few who walk on it even though it leads all the way to the Father. On this way there is a division of soul and spirit. We do not need to read about other people’s experiences; we experience it personally. This is the way of the cross, the way of the cup of the new covenant, the way of Jesus Christ. He said about Himself: “I am the Way.” There are not many who find this way, because not many are willing to take up their cross daily and suffer with Him. Yet, praise God, there are a few people here and there who believe in this way and walk on it. We have the most wonderful fellowship with such people. Oddly enough, carnal Christians warn against such people. In so doing, they speak evil of the way of God and of those who walk on it. This has been my own personal experience for over 30 years. But we do not lose heart over it. On the contrary, we become stronger and stronger in faith with each year that passes. No one has ever managed to refute any of the Word of God that we believe in and labor for. We experience what the Scriptures say, that those who live according to the laws and commandments of the Lord become like Mount Zion which cannot be moved.

False liberty, or the harlot, has forced its way in among God’s people everywhere and has corrupted all of His laws and commandments. They say, “All the laws belong to the old covenant, and those who do not understand that are not liberated.” My dear friends, we are intimately acquainted with liberty in Christ; but that liberty is in the Spirit, not in the flesh. However, we are also acquainted with the doctrine of Satan that liberates the flesh instead of crucifying it. It allows the harlot to be victorious, and the fruits are immediately manifested in the form of party spirit, wrath, anger, partiality, immorality, not paying debts, etc. We know very well the liberty of the harlot that has deceived assemblies of all kinds; even those who should have known better have been swept along. People know only too well how to spoil what God has given them. A small child is beautiful and innocent when it is born. But look again after that child has lived 30 or 40 years, and you will see how sin has ravaged his life. The same thing happens when God sends spiritual revival. Everything that comes from Him is pure, but after revival and after the gifts have been handled by people for a time, then it all becomes defiled and spoiled. Revival becomes big business. They earn money by enlisting people into their denomination and imposing taxes on their brothers. Enmity arises against those friends who will not join their denomination, and thus Satan plays his game. He has come to divide, destroy, and kill. If only they understood the importance of teaching people to live in godly fear; if they understood to help them to walk on the way and instruct them in righteousness, self-control, and judgment as the apostles did, then Christianity would become a force to reckon with, one which would cause people to believe.

Paul said to Timothy: “I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things . . . that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing.” 1 Tim. 6:13-14.

These are the commandments of the new covenant; they are written in our hearts and minds. The effect of these commandments is described in Romans 7: “The commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.” This is the death of Christ to which we must always be surrendered by keeping the commandments. By this blood we enter into the Holiest. Heb. 10:19. Here we meet the three who bear witness: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three agree as one. This is the witness of God, and those who believe in the Son of God have this witness within themselves. This is the testimony that overcomes the world. It is the witness that comes when the commandments have been kept to the point of the death of Christ. The water cleanses outwardly, the blood cleanses inwardly, and the Spirit bears witness and agrees. In order to attain to this testimony, which is able to triumph over absolutely everything, we must exercise the obedience of faith. Those who come to this blessed testimony of Jesus Christ experience that principalities, powers, all of Satan’s might, the rulers of this world who reign in the darkness of this present age, and the demands of the flesh are all conquered and trodden under foot.

Satan and all his hosts only have access to us through our flesh. When we keep the flesh with all its lusts on the cross, all evil is conquered, because it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man. Anger is nailed to the cross, as are all other evil lusts.

As long as there is any flesh left in us, the laws and commandments are at work, because nothing good dwells in the flesh. Even though we are the children of God according to the Spirit, we are still slaves of Jesus Christ according to the flesh. But we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in us. The fact that we are in the Spirit and live in the Spirit does not mean that the flesh no longer exists. It is still there, and the Spirit wages war against this flesh as a land that is yet to be conquered. Blessed fight of faith, blessed laws and commandments—when I keep them. This is the new and living way that goes through the veil, which is the flesh. This is the way to Jesus Christ in His perfection and to the Father for all eternity. The Son and the Father will both come and make their dwelling with all those who have His commandments and keep them. On this way, life and teaching go hand in hand. John 14:23.