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 fleshly 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 first born 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 I 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 the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10).
Christ is a source to me of all
those things in which I long to be like Him. Beholding with open face the glory
of the Lord, I am changed into the same image. No rule of life can do this.
"Of His fullness we all have received, and grace upon grace (John 1:16
JND). A rule of life has no fullness to communicate. Hence He says,
"Sanctify them through thy truth:thy word is truth…. And for their
sakes I 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 I see it in One who not only has loved me, but who is altogether
lovely! Hence I 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 I am now aiming at is
not now on earth; it is Christ risen. This makes my conversation to be
heavenly. Hence he says, "If you then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sits 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 that has 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 fullness 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!