The Requirement of the Law?

The Requirement of the Law?

“That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3-4.

What was the requirement of the law? It was: “You shall not covet.” On this point the law was powerless because of the flesh. The law could punish sin when it came out of the body in deed, but it was powerless when it concerned sin in the body and the thought life in the heart. It required a pure heart, a pure thought life, but it was powerless against covetousness.

“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 . . . .”

We have the same possibility through the Spirit. Instead of the desires in the flesh gaining power over our mind, our mind now has power through the Spirit over sin in the flesh. There is no connection between them, for we are in the Spirit, and we put sin in the flesh to death. V. 13. If there is a connection between our mind and sin in the flesh, this connection is made in our heart, and our thought life becomes defiled. It is impossible to fulfill the requirement of the law without putting sin in the flesh to death. Jesus was the first One in whom this death to sin in the flesh was active. Therefore it is called the dying of Christ. 2 Cor. 4:10-11. We bear it in our body, and by it we put to death all demands from the flesh, so Jesus’ life can be revealed in our body. The requirement of the law cannot be fulfilled in us without this dying of Jesus.

You cannot desire the things of the flesh and also fulfill the requirement of the law. This will never work. If you want to obtain this rest, “Do not covet,” you have to be in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Rom. 8:9. This is the hidden life with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3, 5), the circumcision of the heart. These kinds of people have their praise from God, for they stand before God. Rom. 2:28-29. They can put to death their members that are on the earth and enter into rest. Col. 3:5. Those who stand before the face of man and expect praise from them never come any further than cleansing the vessel on the outside. They never enter into rest. Their thought life will never be pure. They will be among the five foolish virgins.

“That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:19. It is out of the question to be filled with all the fullness of God as long as you keep cleansing the vessel on the outside. You have to cleanse it on the inside first. It can only be filled when you begin to put to death sin in the flesh so that the heart is pure. Therefore Paul prays in the same connection: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” V. 16.

Partaking of divine nature without putting to death the members that are on the earth is out of the question. 2 Pet. 1:4. We are nothing but an “Old Testament Christian” without bearing this dying of Jesus within us. That nice exterior can be ruined at any time from an impure thought life when the difficulties come. But the tribulation is momentary and light for the one who is in the Spirit and puts sin in the flesh to death. For them it works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Cor. 4:17-18. These are the five wise virgins.