What is the Christian’s rule of life? The answer is Christ. Christ is our life, rule, pattern, example,
and everything; the Spirit is our living quickener and power to follow Him; and the Word of God
is that in which we find Him revealed and His mind unfolded in detail. But while all Scripture,
rightly divided, is our light as the inspired Word of God, Christ and the Spirit are set before us
as the pattern, life, and guide, in contrast with law; and Christ is exclusively everything. Power
accompanies this, for we are "declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart…. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:3,18). In this
chapter Christ is presented in contrast with the law. We are seen to be Christ’s epistle_His letter
of recommendation to the world. And verse 18 shows that there is power in looking at Christ to
produce such an epistle in us. Such power cannot be found in a law. So in Galatians 2:20 and
5:16, in contrast with law, the apostle shows the Spirit to be the power of godliness.

We have an Object governing the heart:One to whom we are promised to be conformed, and One
to whom we are earnestly desirous of being as conformed as possible now; One who absorbs our
attention to the exclusion of all else. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29). My delight in Him is the
spring of action and motive which governs me. And my love to Him and the beauty 1 see in Him
are the springs of my delight in being like Him. It is not a rule written down, but a living
exhibition of One who, being my life, is to be reproduced in me and by me; always bearing about
in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may he manifested in my mortal
body (2 Cor. 4:10).

Christ is a source to me of all those things in which 1 long to be like Him. Beholding with open
face the glory of the Lord, 1 am changed into the same image. No rule of life can do this. "Of His
fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace (John 1:16 JND). A rule of life has no fulness
to communicate. Hence He says, "Sanctify them through thy truth:thy word is truth. . . . And
for their sakes 1 sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:17,
19). It is the Spirit taking the things of Christ and revealing them to us which thus forms us into
His image. What a blessed truth this is! How every affection of the heart is thus taken up with that
which is holiness when 1 see it in One who not only has loved me, but who is altogether lovely!
Hence 1 am called to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing" (Col. 1:10), and to "grow up
into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Eph. 4:15).

The Object 1 am now aiming at is not now on earth; it is Christ risen. This makes my
conversation to be heavenly. Hence he says, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not
on things on the earth" (Col. 3:1,2). It is by looking at Christ above that we get to be like Him
as He was on earth, and to walk worthy of Him. We get above the motives which would tie us to
earth. We are to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
so as to walk worthy of the Lord (Col. 1:9,10). No mere rule can give this. The law has no
reference to this heavenly life. So we are to discern things that are excellent. Even Abraham did

not, in the most excellent part of his life, walk by rule. He looked for a city which hath
foundations and was a stranger and a pilgrim in the land of promise. If we are reduced to a mere
rule of life, we lose the spring of action.

The discernment of a Christian depends on his spiritual and moral state, and God means it to be
so. He will not be a mere director. He makes us dependent on spirituality even to know what His
will is. The perfection of Christ is set before us as attainment. The measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ is our measure, our model, our rule, our strength, and our help in grace, the
object of our delight, and our motive in walking. Happy is he who keeps by His side to learn how
he ought to walk, and who understands the riches that are in Christ and the beauty of His ways,
and who enjoys communion with Him, pleasing Him every day more and more!