Judge for Yourself What Is Right

Judge for Yourself What Is Right

The obedience of faith is the true foundation for becoming really free. No one can continue to live in true freedom unless he lives in obedience to the faith.

We are freed from the curse of the law when we stop striving to be sanctified according to the law. Our eyes are opened to see that the old man, even with his best works, is judged and condemned to die on the cross. What a tremendous rest and relief this vision brings after perhaps years of toil and drudgery as a slave to the law. The law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ. The old man was not on the cross and was trying very hard to please God, but the holy requirements of the law drove him up onto the cross. It is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Faith in Christ and in the work He did for us makes it possible for God to accomplish His work in us. “Faith without works is dead.” A sinner has to believe in the works that Jesus has done for him, and he who is saved must believe and allow God to complete His works in him. There is a distinction between what has been done for me, and what must be done in me. What is done for me is grace, but what is done in me is righteousness. Grace is not the end in itself, but grace should chasten me to righteousness. When we have become righteous, then we can say together with the apostle Paul, “His grace toward me was not in vain.”

Generally speaking, people think that it is God’s work of grace that sets them free. But it is not written anywhere that grace sets us free. It is the truth that sets us free. Jesus came with grace and truth. It is absolutely impossible to experience real liberty except through the truth. Through grace a criminal can be pardoned, but this does not take away the judgment over him. He is and will remain a pardoned criminal. The truth, on the other hand, slays “the criminal,” so that by the power of the resurrection, he is set free indeed. He who loses his life will find it. In other words, those who can bear to hear how loathsome they are can lose their self-confidence and become completely dependent on Christ. The truth sets them free from their “self.” There is a vast difference between being freed from the curse of the law and being freed from yourself. Liberation from our “self” is a long process. I don’t think any living creature, with the exception of Jesus Christ, has been completely and totally set free. In this process of sanctification, we become more and more liberated from our self by means of Christ’s sufferings and death. Yet since Christ surpasses all understanding, the goal always lies far beyond what we have attained, despite the fact that we press forward with all our might and forget everything that is behind.

The light of the law is outside the body and judges sin outside the body. The light of the kingdom of heaven is within us and will judge and condemn sin in the flesh. Thus these Scriptures prove true: “For what the law could not do . . . God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” “The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” In this way, the body can be presented by the power of God as a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

The basis for being saved by Jesus’ life is that we are first saved by His death. He died for our sins, but He is resurrected and lives for our justification. Read Romans 5:10.

When we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we live according to the perfect law of liberty. It is possible to remember the time when you were redeemed from the curse of the law and believe that you still have that same freedom even though you have never taken the obedience of faith seriously. On this point many people are deceived. If we are disobedient to the faith, we immediately become subject once again to a spirit of bondage and fear. Freedom and obedience go hand in hand. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty—even though we have to suffer death in the flesh.

Knowledge about freedom doesn’t set us free; freedom has to be experienced. Liberty in the Spirit never allows liberty for the flesh. The flesh is on the cross and must remain there. If you give the flesh freedom, the result will always be sin and ungodliness. It is not possible for the Spirit and the flesh to be free at the same time, because they are in opposition to one another. If the Spirit of God is to reign in our hearts, and if Christ is to be sanctified as Lord in our hearts, the flesh must be silenced and crucified on the accursed tree. But if the flesh becomes lord, God’s Spirit will withdraw, and Satan and his spiritual hosts will take control. If a person vacillates, he becomes lukewarm and lethargic and usually ends up as an enemy of the cross of Christ and an enemy of those people God uses to preach the word of the cross. If such a person believes that he possesses the liberty that is in Christ, he deceives himself.

All the preaching about continually sinning and receiving grace for forgiveness only teaches people not to take life seriously, because they are taught that there is grace enough, even if they sin seventy times seven each day. It is as if people are constantly “marching in place.” Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. But such people make no progress on the way, nor do they come to the truth or the life. They never come any further than a life of sinning and receiving forgiveness. People can live their whole lifetime this way and yet never come to the liberty of Christ, to the truth and to a real life in Christ Jesus. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,” but it would be true to say that most preachers today are not preachers of righteousness, but “preachers of grace and forgiveness.” Righteousness must be preached, for we must speak as the oracles of God. When people see themselves in this mirror, they become aware of their shortcomings. Then they can earnestly seek God. Then and only then are they able to partake of that grace that chastens them to righteousness. When light is cast into the darkness, God’s judgment enters the heart. The result is loud crying and tears, a godly sorrow and asking, “What must we do?”

Such people have an altar from which to eat that those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat from. “Serving the tabernacle” is the service of constantly preaching forgiveness for sin. We can call it “a seventy times seven ministry.” God’s people are wasting precious time by carrying on in this way. We are to live the rest of our lives for the will of God and not for the lusts of men. If we do that, we will walk in the light and become acquainted with the judgments of the light in our inner man. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin—sin in the flesh—and then we have fellowship with one another. No one should believe that it is possible to walk in the light and at the same time live in sin, or that Christ’s blood cleanses those sins we willingly commit. The works of darkness are done in darkness. Those who walk in the light suffer together with Christ because of the judgments of the light. They cleanse themselves according to the requirements of the light. In this way, they go from light to light and from power to power. This is the basis for fellowship with one another. Here alone you will find fellowship with the saints. Sinning and receiving forgiveness can never produce fellowship. Our fellowship is in righteousness, truth and light. Suppose a person does something very evil to me and then asks for forgiveness. I can forgive him sincerely from the heart. Yet we cannot have intimate fellowship together until he has proven by his conduct that he really has repented. There are many preachers who are so darkened and confused, in their ministry and in their own personal life, that they seriously believe something is amiss when a man in the power of God starts to get victory over sin. For them, sinning daily is part and parcel of the “good old gospel” where every evening they receive forgiveness for all the evil they have done. So it is not surprising that they continue to smoke their pipe and that all kinds of unrighteousness flourishes under this so-called “covering of grace.” Finally at the end of the day, all the evil that has been committed can be thrown into the “ocean of grace.” Where are the righteous acts of the saints, the fine linen in which the bride is to be clothed? These people acknowledge that their deeds are reprehensible and that their consciences condemn them. Then their linen must be filthy, since their deeds are so filthy that they have to be washed clean from everything.

Those who walk in the light don’t just ask for forgiveness at the end of the day. Every deed throughout the entire day is washed in the light of God’s judgment by the blood of Jesus. They do not amass a huge pile of laundry that needs to be washed in the ocean of grace. They cleanse their garments in the blood, since Jesus came not only by water, but also by blood. The water is for outward cleansing, but the blood is for inward cleansing.

“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12:10.

If these words have been sealed for you until today, then break the seal now and you will understand them. The seal is broken when we cleanse ourselves from every filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God—in other words, that we live the rest of our lives in the obedience of faith according to God’s will.