Exodus (2)
Message One The Law—the Testimony of God Revealing Him to His People and the Living Word of God to Infuse His Substance into His Loving Seekers
Scripture Reading: Exo. 20:1-17; 34:28; Psa. 19:7; Rom. 7:14; 2 Cor. 3:6; 2 Tim. 3:16; John 5:39-40
I. The law as the testimony of God, the expression of God, is the revelation of who God is to His people—Exo. 16:34; 31:18; 32:15; 40:20; 25:21-22; 38:21; 20:1-17; Psa. 19:7; Gen. 1:26:
A. A law is always a revelation of what kind of person has enacted that law.
B. God regards the Ten Commandments, the ten laws, as "the ten words" (Deut. 4:13; Exo. 34:28; 20:1)—a further indication that the law is a revelation of God Himself, since the words a person speaks are a revelation of that person:
1. God is jealous—vv. 4-6; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2.
2. God is holy—Exo. 20:7-11.
3. God is loving—vv. 12-15, 6; cf. Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14.
4. God is righteous—Exo. 20:5.
5. God is truthful—v. 16; cf. 1 John 1:5-6.
6. God is pure—Exo. 20:2-3, 17; cf. Psa. 119:140.
C. As the word of God and the testimony, the expression, of God, the law is a type of Christ as God's Word and God's testimony, God's expression; Christ describes and expresses God in a full and adequate way— John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13; 1:5; Col. 1:15.
D. Christ is the reality of the law as the testimony of God; the testimony of God signifies Christ, the embodiment of God (2:9), as the living portrait of what God is:
1. As the law is the ten words of God that reveal God to His people, so Christ is the Word of God revealing God to us— John 1:1, 14.
2. We should not try to keep the law from without but let Christ live Himself out from within so that we may become the testimony of God, the expansion and enlargement of God's expression—Rom. 8:4.
E. The reality of keeping the law is to live God and express God; such a living, a living in the eternal economy of God, is the living of a God-man, a life of continually denying the self and being crucified to live Christ, who is God's testimony, by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for the enlarged and expanded expression of God—Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a; Rom. 8:4.
II. There are two aspects of the law—the aspect of the letter and the aspect of the Spirit; "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"—2 Cor. 3:6; cf. Psa. 119:50:
A. If our attitude in coming to the law is to care only for the commandments in letters, we will have the law in the aspect of the killing letter:
1. Whether in our experience the law is positive or negative depends on the condition of our heart in receiving the law—cf. Exo. 19:8-9; 20:18-19.
2. If in coming to the law we do not seek God in love but rather separate the law from the living God as the source of life (cf. John 5:39-40), the law, which was intended to result in life but cannot give life of itself (Gal. 3:21), will become a condemning and killing element to us.
B. However, if we take every part of the law—all the commandments, ordinances, statutes, precepts, and judgments—as the word breathed out by the God whom we love (2 Tim. 3:16), we will have the law in the aspect of the life-giving Spirit:
1. If we love God, humble ourselves, and regard the law as His living word through which we contact Him and abide in Him, the law will become a channel through which the divine life and substance are conveyed to us for our supply and nourishment.
2. By being infused with God's substance through the law as God's word, we become one with God in life, nature, and expression and spontaneously live a life that expresses God and corresponds to His law—Rom. 8:4; Phil. 1:21a; John 6:57, 63.
III. The function of the law has two aspects:
A. On the negative side, the law exposes man's sin (Rom. 3:20; 5:20; 7:7-8) and subdues sinners before God (3:19); the law also guards God's chosen people in its custody that they might be conducted to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24).
B. On the positive side, as God's living testimony, the law functions to minister the living God to His seekers (Psa. 119:2, 88), and as God's living word, the law functions to dispense God Himself as life and light into those who love the law (vv. 25, 116, 130).
IV. The law is the living word of God to infuse His substance into His loving seekers to make them His testimony for the fulfillment of His eternal economy:
A. The law is spiritual, the same in essence, nature, and substance as God, who is Spirit—Rom. 7:14; John 4:24.
B. The law as God's ten words is His breath to convey His element into the ones who receive His words—2 Tim. 3:16:
1. Christ Himself is God's real and living law, the Word of God, the breath of God, the expression of God.
2. By pray-reading the Word, we breathe God's element into us, being infused with what God is, to cause us to live Christ and become the living expression of God, His living law, the living portrait of God—Eph. 6:17-18.
V. The highest and most intrinsic function of the law as God's word is to impart God's substance into us to make us one with God, the same as God in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead:
A. While Moses was receiving the law from God, he was being infused with the element of God to cause him to glow with God— Exo. 34:32-35.
B. When we are infused with God's substance through His word, we become what He is, and His divine attributes are expressed in our human virtues.
C. We keep the requirements of the law not by our own efforts but with what has been infused into us of the Lord through our contact with Him; once we have been thoroughly infused with God's substance, He Himself, the Law-giver, from within us will keep His own law.
VI. There are two kinds of people dealing with the law—the loving seekers of God and the letter-keepers of the law— cf. Gen. 2:9; 2 Cor. 3:6, 15-16:
A. The psalmists were the loving seekers of God, loving the law as the testimony of God and as His living word:
1. They loved God—Psa. 18:1; 73:25; 116:1.
2. They sought God— 42:1-2; 43:4; 119:2, 10.
3. They dwelt with God—27:4; 84:1-7; 90:1.
4. They beheld God's beauty—27:4.
5. They were infused with the riches of God—52:8; 92:13-14, 10.
6. They enjoyed the riches of life—36:8-9.
7. They were supplied with God to keep His word—119:57.
8. They treasured the law of God—vv. 14, 72, 127.
9. They tasted the sweetness of the law—v. 103.
10. They hoped in the word of God and mused upon it— vv. 147-148.
B. Simeon and Anna were also among those who lovingly sought God:
1. As Simeon and Anna waited for Christ, the Holy Spirit was upon them—Luke 2:25.
2. They also had the revelation of the Holy Spirit and walked by the Spirit—vv. 26-27.
3. Dwelling in the temple, they served God with fastings and petitions; thus, they enjoyed God and received His infusion—v. 37.
4. Because they had been infused with the substance of God, they could live a life that corresponded to the law as God's expression.
C. The Judaizers, the legal and dogmatic letter-keepers of the law, had a heart not for God but for the killing letter of the law, seeking the law apart from God—Matt. 15:8; Gal. 6:12-13.
D. Before he was saved, Saul of Tarsus was zealous for the law (Phil. 3:5-6); as a Judaizer, he was even a blasphemer of God and a persecutor of man (1 Tim. 1:13).
VII. By being infused with God's substance through His living word, we become the true worshippers of God, those who are according to what God is, who correspond to what God is, and who reflect what God is for His glory— John 4:24; 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:18:
A. A true worshipper of God is one who is infused with God and lives out God, who thereby becomes a person according to what God is and corresponding to what He is; the living of such a person corresponds to God's living and reflects what He is— this is the living testimony of Jesus.
B. The law as the word of God is God's breath for us to breathe in God so that we may have the strength of life to live out the law, which corresponds to God's nature and expression—2 Tim. 3:16; Eph. 6:17-18; Rom. 8:4.
VIII. The highest profession on earth is to spend time being infused with God so that we can glow with God and shine forth God; this accomplishes the eternal economy of God to work Himself into man so that He may have His testimony, His enlarged and expanded expression—2 Cor. 3:15-18.