"How wonderful is the grace that can take up men and women, mould and shape them, put Christ into them and bring Christ out in them, and then make them the exhibitors of that blessed Man whom the world would not have. It makes Christianity a very serious thing".

This full, rich paragraph at once brings to mind Galatians 2:20:"I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

This is true Christianity:Christ displayed in this world through those who were once His enemies but are now the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

But by what means does Christ live in us? And why do we not see more of Him among the Lord’s people? Let us now seek the answers to these questions, for Christianity is a very serious thing indeed.

The above verse tells us, "I am crucified with Christ." And the previous verse (19) says, "I through the law am dead to the law." The "I" here is the old "I":what each of us was in our unsaved condition. We were rebellious sinners condemned by God’s holy law. But Christ was crucified and was condemned for sin. And now by His death we have died and are made free from the power of sin. So law no more condemns us because we have died in Christ. The old "I" is condemned and gone. Now our lives are unto God, because Christ lives in us. This is the righteousness that comes through grace. But if law produces it, then Christ’s death is empty and meaningless and grace is frustrated (verse 21). But, thank God, it is not so. Christ lives in us by faith through grace.

Thus is "the righteous requirement of the law" produced in us (Rom. 8:4 JND). It is grace that produces what law requires. Law could not produce its own requirement. Why? Because it addressed man in the flesh, man in his unsaved condition. And the flesh produces only sins, nothing else.

Romans 7:4-6 confirms this. There it says we "are dead to the law by the body of Christ." We are dead men as far as law is concerned; completely outside and above it. This means not only the law of Moses, but ANY PRINCIPLE OF LAW WHATSOEVER. For we are "married to Him." We cannot be under law and be married to Christ at the same time. It would be like having two husbands at one time, which is clearly an impossible situation (Rom. 7:1-3). That would mean two dominions or loyalties. But we are His and our loyalty should be unto Him and not unto law. It is what He desires so much from us. Thus we "bring forth fruit unto God." Verse 4 then shows us the work of the law. "When we were in the flesh, the motions [passions] of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." In our former unsaved condition, the law provoked the flesh by its prohibitions, and sins_fruit unto death_was the result. Even now as Christians, the flesh in us is provoked to sin when the principle of law is applied. The flesh ALWAYS remains the same. It produces nothing but sins, even in a believer. And by the same token, the application of law always results in the rebellion of the flesh. So how thankful we should be that "we are delivered from the law." Again, it is deliverance from the principle of law, and it is "that we might serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:6). Christ is that Spirit and the principle of law is the letter. "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit:for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. . . .Now the Lord is that Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:6,17).

It is grace that leads us to possess the ministry of Christ. This is the ministry of His glory which by far surpasses anything ever given to men. And it is glory in which we now share. "But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18 JND). This means that we really possess Him in our hearts and our minds. The result is a progressive transformation in us which produces conformity to Christ in our thoughts and ways. This is how we are delivered from the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is how we find rich, meaningful lives, and it is the secret of present joy and satisfaction. It is how Christ lives in us. It is the ministry of grace.

Suppose we fail to sufficiently possess this ministry? Or what if we put other things first in our lives? It is then that we become occupied with ourselves in many ways. We may become occupied with "our work" for the Lord, which really centers things in ourselves. We would, perhaps, think of our "duties" to Him, thus becoming "mechanical" in our ways. This could result in our becoming hard and demanding toward others, and so we would fail in love, tenderness, and meekness. If these things become true of us, we descend to the level of law, and grace is turned aside. We have failed to show righteousness, for Christ is not seen in us. The flesh has taken control.

What is the effect of this upon others? Flesh begets flesh. We judge and get back judgment. We lose the confidence of those with whom we desire to work. And we prevent the very thing we want most, which is fruit for God. How? By introducing the principle of law, which stirs the passions of the flesh into sinful activity. And this is not to be wondered at, for we have not served in the spirit, but we have served in the letter. There is no righteousness produced, for we have shown none. And so there is no fruit for God and grace is frustrated. We have brought ourselves into the bondage of law. "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (Gal. 5:15). What a terrible price must be paid under this bondage!

But "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17). And "brethren, ye have been called unto liberty" (Gal. 5:13). Oh, what a blessed contrast to bondage! How precious it is to be free_free from sin, from law, and the world! It is Christ who has set us so completely free. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). If only every Christian knew of this liberty and freedom! Oh, let us cherish this; let us jealously guard our precious heritage. How dearly it has been bought for us. No, there is no law, written or unwritten, for the Christian today.

But God gives us a perfect balance to all of this. And precious and wonderful it is, too. "Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Gal. 5:13). Liberty is not a license for us to do as we please. This would be lawlessness and not liberty. And God condemns it, for this would provide for the flesh and not for that selfless service toward others which is the direction in which God’s love leads. This is true liberty, for it seeks the good of others. It leads us to teach, to exhort, to encourage, to "bear one another’s burdens," to warn, to admonish, and to help in whatever other way that is needed for the building up in Christ of God’s people.

Finally, and most important, this liberty leads us to the happy acknowledgment of the Lord’s gracious claims upon us. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments…. He that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me. … If any one love Me, he will keep My word" (John 14:15, 21,23 JND). Is the Lord imposing law here? By no means. He knows, by His own experience, how to live for the glory of the Father. He knows the fulness of life in fellowship with the Father. In His commands to us, He tells us how to realize the same in our lives. It is by the principle of grace that He directs us. See how He appeals to our love for Him. It is an appeal of grace. "Do you love Me? Then follow Me," is what He asks of us. This is not law. But we must remember, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Are we occupied with Him in His love to us? Do we often think of where His love for us led Him, even unto the death of the cross? Do we think of how He suffered for us then? And do we ponder all the eternal blessings He has secured for us because He came out of that death in a glorious resurrection? Oh, how we should love Him! How ready we should be to obey Him! And how sensitive we should be to His will so that we would love to please Him even without command! It is clear from these verses that our love of the Lord is measured by our loyalty to Him. Do we refuse Him our loyalty? How can we withhold anything from Him who loves us without measure?

FRAGMENT Under the law they labored first and rested after (Exod. 20:8-11); but under grace we rest first by faith in Jesus, and then work. The law begins with commands and ends with blessings; but the blessings are fruit upon lofty branches which fallen man can never reach. The gospel of the grace of God, on the contrary, begins with promises; and promises give birth to precepts. The law demands justice; grace delights in mercy through satisfied justice.