VIII. The Law and Commandments of Christ

Of the preceding we see that all of Christ's acts of salvation have saved us from the ordinances and all the curse of the law, because He Himself has borne these in His flesh on the cursed tree. But here again the question presents itself: Is the believer then freed from everything pertaining to the laws and commandments? Does not Christ say: "If. ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed"? (John 8:31.) Yes, and it is His law and commandment we now will present. His commandments and those of the law are entirely separated from one another, that is, as separated as two commanding authori­ties that are independent of each other must be. And this Paul makes clear when he illustrates this matter by quoting the power of the marriage law over the woman as long as her first husband is living, and how this law loses its power over her when her husband dies. He says:

"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her hus­band. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married. to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be mar­ried to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Rom. 7:2-4.)

We are dead to the law, he says. This is the same as to say: If we once lived in and owed obedience to all demands of the law, but then died, this released us from it all. But then we rose again in strength of what some­one else had done, and from that time we belong exclu­sively to Him and are obliged to keep His commandments. But now the question is: What constitutes the command­ments of Christ, and upon what are they based? That they are not, like the Mosaic law-system, based on trans­gression, we well understand, for Christ Himself did not keep this law-system in the days of His flesh. He neither gave tithe to the temple, nor did He sacrifice there, and He was also accused by the temple people of breaking the sabbath. They even questioned His righteousness and looked upon Him as a transgressor of the law, saying: "This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sab­bath day." (John 9:16.) This is exactly what the sabbath keepers of our time say about those who in faith follow in Christ's footsteps.

Christ, the Spiritual Seed or Offspring

As the spiritual seed of the promise He was not limited by definite laws and ordinances, hence He could not give His followers law-bound commandments. But the natural seed of the promise could not, however, be bound to the promise in any other way than by law-bound regulations of the letter, which kept them submissive to the faith that was connected with the promise. The liberation of faith depended on the coming of the spiritual seed, and when He came, faith with its devotees were liberated from the hedging-about letter. This work of the future was illustrated already to Abraham, the father of the children of faith, in connection with his own life. Paul, speaking to a people who had mixed together faith and the commandments of the law, says:

"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid. the other by a free-woman. But he who was born of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jeru­salem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and' cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." (Gal. 4:21-29.)

Those who are obedient to faith are, like Isaac, born under the promise, are not under the law, like the natural seed, and are liberated by the spiritual seed, prefigured in and through Isaac. The goal of faith is the resurrection, by means of which the new Jerusalem will finally appear, and the resurrection does not take place according to written commandments of the law, but through the direct and infinite power of the Spirit of God.

Of this we see that Christ could rot Rive His followers definite commandments of the law, which they must keep according to given regulations, we therefore ask again: On what are His commandments based, and what do they look like?

The commandments of Christ are based on the foundation of love, which He Himself laid by sacrificing Himself for the sins of the world. This foundation even excels the just and the good moral 'law was given to de­fend and further. This law put a frame around the good and the right by stressing the love of God above all things and that of one's neighbor as oneself, but the foundation upon which Christ's commandment lo His followers rests, lies still deeper, hence demanding more of those who submit to it than the written commandments of the law do.

Paul tells us that, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Thus the foundation of His commandment is He Himself. And how did He lay this foundation? Paul explains this in the following words:

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Rom. 5:6-11.)

This foundation of love and forgiveness surpasses everything else, and on this foundation rests the command­ment of Christ. In Him, as the object of the law, God has centered all authority, hence all commandments and orders concerning the children of faith, the spiritual seed, come from Him. Those who carry on with other com­mandments and ordinances than those which emanate directly from Christ, turn away from the foundation and use another foundation than the one which God has authorized to Christ.

The Commandments of Christ for Spiritually Minded

The commandments of the law are for the natural seed — the natural man in his efforts to learn to know God and to abide by Him. But Christ's commandments concern those who are spiritually minded — those who, through the co-operation of the Spirit of God and the Word, have experienced a renewal of mind. It is therefore to be pre­sumed that they seek that which is good and right — that they are righteous — and, "knowing this, that the law (written law) is not made for a righteous man." (1 Tim. 1:9.)

Christ Himself says that He has received a special commandment from His Father. He Himself expresses it as follows:

"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." (John 10: 17, 18.)

The object of the law — both the moral law and the sacrificial — enters into this commandment. The moral law surrounds the love of God and that of our fellowman, and the sacrificial law constituted a door on this wall of restriction, through which it was made possible for the transgressor to come inside or into the sphere of love. Christ went still farther, that is, beyond the barrier of the law, when He even gave His life for His enemies. Through this He became a new foundation of love, one which rises by virtue of faith above the frame of the commandments of the law. And being raised above this, it is evident that it cannot be mixed with it. And the commandments going forth from this elevated foundation are also, as a result of the foundation upon which they rest, of a superior value, hence so adapted that those concerned take a higher position than those who are subject to the restrictions of the law. The latter, with its commandments, concerns the natural seed, but Christ, or the law of the Spirit, concerns the spiritual seed. Hence we must learn to differentiate between the law of Christ and the prefigurative law, also between the natural and the spiritual seed.

The Import of Christ's Law

Paul says: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Gal. 6:2.) This goes farther than the letter of the law. The testimony of the law was: Love thy neighbor as thyself, but the law of Christ de­mands that one carries the burdens of the weaker, also that if anyone compels you to go one mile, you should voluntarily go two miles, and if your brother offends against you up to seventy times, and regrets it and asks forgiveness, you should be willing to forgive him from your heart.

This goes much farther than the law with its pre­scribed commandments. Faith is, as mentioned, unlimited, and the law of Christ is the law of faith. Man will learn to understand the contents of Christ's law and walk accord­ingly in the proportion faith molds the spiritual mind. But those who are not spiritually minded, do not know the law of Christ, and no matter what commandments they keep, it avails nothing.

The Intermingling of the Two Laws

Christ says: "He that bath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.... He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." (John 14:21,24.)

And it is from this and similar passages of Scripture the interminglers of the typical law and that of Christ take support. They do not know the difference between the two separate laws, but mix them together, as if Christ were still subject to demands of both the moral law and that of the temple law, and that He handed them over as a heritage to His followers. But the Scripture differen­tiates very clearly between these two laws. Just as clearly as it differentiates between the natural or carnal-minded person and the one who is spiritual-minded, it differentiates between the law of ordinances and that of faith. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews says:

"For there is verily a disannulling of the command­ment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bring­ing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." (Hebr. 7:18, 19.)

This hope was founded outside of the frame of the law, and Peter expresses this in the following spiritual words:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3.)

This living hope no commandments of the law could illustrate, nor could they limit the love that accomplished it. And hence the commandments of such a law cannot apply on those who by virtue of faith have linked them­selves with the One resurrected from death. The sum total of Christ's commandment to His followers is the following:

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that what­soever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another." (John 15:10-17.)

His own sacrificing love, which led Him into death for His friends, constitutes the law of faith, and this He impressed on His spiritually minded followers. He Him­self had completed the law of ordinances in all of its demands, and on the road of love He had excelled all of its commandments. And now, therefore, He presents to His friends the same law of faith that controlled Him unto death, hence this law, and no other, is their guide.

The object with the law of ordinances, namely, perfect love of God and fellowmen, is personified to perfection, yes, excelled, hence there are no regulations that turns the mind back. They look to and follow the One resur­rected from the dead, and they await His return. In the love which actuates them because of this, they proceed in the law of faith, doing their deeds in accordance there­with.