The differences between law and
responsibility are immense, and it is important to understand them. Law
comes to man and says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and
your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). It says, Do this and live, but if
you fail in any measure, your doom is sure. Such is law, both in
character and purpose. It is unbending. It cannot forgive. It demands of man
what is right, but it gives him no power to do the right. It forbids and
condemns the wrong, but cannot change the heart of man who naturally loves evil
and hates restraint. Like a dam across the river forbidding the waters to flow
on, it stands as a bulwark against evil, only to find out that the flood breaks
over the dam and still flows on. Law manifests the evil but does not cure it.
Responsibility is what
comes with receiving gifts from God. If, as Creator, He has bestowed upon man
abilities, talents, a mind and a will, each and all of which make him a
creature superior to all others, man is responsible for making use of all this
in the way suited to the purpose God had in giving them. If as Redeemer He bestows
new gifts upon man, those new gifts bring their own responsibilities.
When God came to Abraham and
called him to leave his native land and kindred and go to a place which God
would show him, it was because He had bestowed upon Abraham that which enables
a man to confide in God as a little child confides in its father, trusting
implicitly in the love that guides him. Faith had been imparted to
Abraham. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"
(Rom. 10:17). While dwelling in his own country the God of glory appeared to
him and said, "Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and come
into the land that I will show you" (Acts 7:2,3).
Abraham was thus brought into a
new relationship with God, and this relationship brought responsibility. The
true God having made Himself known to Abraham, Abraham could no longer serve
false gods. Having been bidden to leave his native land and go to another, he
could no longer feel at home where he was, but must go on as bidden. He may
have been checked and hindered in this, but his new responsibilities pressed
upon him.
It was not till after his father’s
death at Haran, part way to Canaan, that Abraham seemed free. From that moment,
"they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came" (Gen. 12:5). They did not stop this time, but pressed on to
the end. But all those days of Abraham’s dwelling in Haran, the responsibility
of obeying God was upon Him; while he lingered there, we hear of no word of any
appearance of God to him or of any altar built by him. But as soon as he came
to a stopping place in Canaan, the Lord appeared to him and he built an
altar. There is the obedience of faith on Abraham’s part, grace and blessing on
God’s part. The relationship between God and Abraham was of God’s pure grace;
it involved responsibility on Abraham’s part to believe and obey.
The responsibility was a very
different matter from the law which was given 430 years later. "Get out
… and I will make of you a great nation" (Gen. 12:1,2) is very different
from "Do this and you shall live" or "Cursed is everyone who
disobeys." The principle is different, the purpose of both is different,
and should not be confounded. One reveals God while the other reveals man and
leaves God still in the thick darkness and amid the thunderings and lightnings
of Sinai.
Christians are not under law, but
they have wondrous blessing and grace and privileges and promises. This brings
corresponding responsibilities, and this, if we understand our weakness, as displayed
in Abraham, casts us the more upon God for grace to meet those
responsibilities. The more a child of God realizes his absolute dependence upon
God, and what God has in Christ for His people and gives them whatever they
need, the more will he glorify Him, and the more will such an one enjoy the
grace of God. A sense of our responsibility as children of God will bring us to
Him for strength and wisdom and all else we need. It will, of necessity, make
us a prayerful people.
But law sets men to trying in
their own strength to do what is right, to keep the commandments. Under grace a
believer walks in newness of life, walks after the Spirit in love, and thus in
him the righteousness of the law is fulfilled (Rom. 8:1-4). Under law a soul is
in bondage, trying to do what his fallen nature makes impossible. He is never
at rest, always coming short. One’s own doings are ever before the mind of the
earnest legalist, and such a mind is never at peace. What brings peace is the
knowledge of the grace of God through the work of Christ on the cross, thus
keeping Him ever before us as the Friend who loves us better than anyone else,
and is never weary of us.
As the sense of our responsibility
presses upon us, we find all we need in Him. It is not trying and fearing and
hoping under law, but turning away from all else to Christ, finding in Him
strength and wisdom and every need fully me.