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Steps to Christ
own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into
harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works
in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. All that man can do
without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin. It is the grace of
Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy.
The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ
releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone
we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to
do with our redemption.
But notice here that obedience is not a mere outward compliance,
but the service of love. The law of God is an expression of His very
nature; it is an embodiment of the great principle of love, and hence is
the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. If our hearts
are renewed in the likeness of God, if the divine love is implanted
in the soul, will not the law of God be carried out in the life? When
the principle of love is implanted in the heart, when man is renewed
after the image of Him that created him, the new-covenant promise is
fulfilled, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will
I write them.”
Hebrews 10:16
. And if the law is written in the heart,
will it not shape the life? Obedience—the service and allegiance of
love—is the true sign of discipleship. Thus the Scripture says, “This
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” “He that saith,
I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him.”
1 John 5:3
;
2:4
. Instead of releasing man from
obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the
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grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience.
We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free
gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith.
“Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is
no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath
not seen Him, neither known Him.”
1 John 3:5, 6
. Here is the true test.
If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our
thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of
God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law. “Little children, let
no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as
He is righteous.”
1 John 3:7
. Righteousness is defined by the standard
of God’s holy law, as expressed in the ten precepts given on Sinai.