enjoying the many positive functions of the law as the word of God (Psalm 119)

April 11, 2012 by · 1 Comment

enjoying the many positive functions of the law as the word of God (Psalm 119)When we read Psalm 119 carefully we realize how much the psalmist loved the word of God, the law, the precepts, the ordinances, and the commandments. Yes, on the one hand the law of God / the word of God exposes us of our sin and preserves us unto Christ, but on the other hand there are so many positive functions of the law as the Word of God! We need to give heed to the reading of the Bible in a proper way so that the Word of God would operate in us to nourish us, restore us, guide us, enlighten us, enliven us, refresh us, strengthen us, hold us up, become our treasure, bring us peace.

positive functions of the law as the word of God

In the Old Testament, the king was supposed to write for himself his own personal copy of the law, the Pentateuch, and read it all the days of his life (see Deut. 17:18-20). When we not only read the word of God but also write it down with our own hand, something gets in! Today I want not only to read the Word but also to write it in this article so that I may get the benefit of being infused with the word of God. This writing of the word of God would keep the king’s heart from being uplifted and it would keep him in the central lane of God’s economy! Hallelujah for God’s word!

The law of God can be to us a killing law or a life-giving law – it can be a dead letter or the living word of God – depending on our attitude toward the Bible and the condition of our heart. We need to deal with our heart and pray to the Lord to have a proper attitude when we come to His Word, so that we may receive the law as the living word of God! Today we enjoyed at least 13 main positive functions of the law as God’s living word operating in and for man to keep man in God’s purpose and His economy.

As the living word of God, the law ministers the living God to His seekers. Psa. 119:2 says, Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart; verse 88, Enliven me according to Your lovingkindness, And I will keep the testimony of Your mouth. When we enjoy the word of God, it enlivens us, it refreshes us, it brings us much blessing, and it brings us more of God! The law as the living word of God ministers God into us.

As God’s living word, the law functions to dispense God Himself as life and light into those who love the law. Psa. 119:25 says, My soul clings to the dust; Enliven me according to Your word. Verse 50, This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has enlivened me. Verse 107, I have been greatly afflicted; O Jehovah, enliven me according to Your word. Also see: verses 116, 130, 154. If we love the law as God’s living word, we are enlivened and we receive God into us as life and light.

As the living word of God, the law restores our soul and make our heart joyous. Psa. 19:7-8 says, The law of Jehovah is perfect, Restoring the soul; The testimony of Jehovah is faithful, Making the simple wise; The precepts of Jehovah are right, Making the heart joyous; The commandment of Jehovah is clear, Enlightening the eyes. Especially when we are depressed, oppressed, and suppressed, we need the word of God to restore us and enliven us. We need to take time to read, sing, and pray the Word of God so that our soul would be restored and our heart would rejoice.

As God’s living word, the law functions to bring us salvation. Psa. 119:41 says, May Your lovingkindness also come to me, O Jehovah, Your salvation according to Your word. Verse 170 says, Let my supplication come before You; Deliver me according to Your word. We are saved once and for all, but we also need to be daily saved much more in His life (Rom. 5:10, 17). We need salvation every day and even every moment – by coming to the living word of God, we receive God’s constant salvation and even His instant salvation. Praying over His word saves us much more!

As the living word of God, the law strengthens us (v. 28 – My soul melts because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word), comforts us (v. 76 – Let Your lovingkindness, I beseech You, be my comfort, According to Your word to Your servant), and nourishes us (v. 103 – How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth). As we eat the word of God, it becomes sweet to our taste, and it continually nourishes us, strengthens us, and even comforts us. The Word of God is sweeter than honey to our taste!

As God’s living word, the law functions to uphold us, keep us safe, and cause us to hope. Psa. 119:116-117, Uphold me according to Your word that I may live, And do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Hold me up that I may be safe, And I will regard Your statutes continually. Verse 49 says, Remember the word to Your servant In which You have made me hope. The Word of God upholds us, holds us up, keeping us safe, and causing us to hope. By reading and receiving the living Word of God into us, we receive much hope – “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I would be put to shame” (Phil. 1:20).

As the living word of God, the law causes us to enjoy God as our portion. Psa. 119:57 says, Jehovah is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words. When we keep God’s word, when we read and pray over God’s word so that we may get it into our inner man, we enjoy God as our portion. For us to enjoy Christ as our portion we don’t need only to study the Word of God but to receive the Word into us in a living way! Receive the word of God by means of praying, singing, psalming, and thanking – so that it may bring God as our portion into us!

As God’s living word, the law causes us to enjoy God’s countenance (v. 58 says, I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word) and the shining of His face (v. 135 says, Cause Your face to shine on Your servant, And teach me Your statutes). When we come into God’s presence and receive His living word, we are enjoying the shining of God’s face, His countenance… We shouldn’t be like the Israelites staying at the bottom of the mountain in fear and trembling, but we should go up the mountain to enjoy God’s face, His presence, His living Word!

As the living word of God, the law causes us to enjoy God as our hiding place and shield and also enjoy God’s help and well-dealing. Psa 119:114 says, You are my hiding place and my shield; In Your word do I hope. Verse 175, Let my soul live, and it will praise You; And let Your ordinances help me. Verse 65 says, You have dealt well with Your servant, O Jehovah, according to Your word. God cares for us in a good way, and He deals well with us – according to His Word. If we enjoy His living word constantly, we will enjoy His well-dealing and His all-inclusive tender care.

As God’s living word, the law functions to make us wise and give us understanding. Psa. 119:98-99 says, Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are always with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my musing. This is so true: the more we get into the Word of God, the wiser we become – a wisdom that is not of this earth is being infused into us to really know things and understand things. The Word of God makes us wise unto salvation – as we muse upon the Word, as we chew on the Word, as we ponder and pray over the Word of God.

As the living word of God, the law gives us proper discernment and knowledge. Psa. 119:66 says, Teach me proper discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments. The way for us to have the proper discernment and the real knowledge is by coming to the Word of God in a prayerful way. Discerning between right and wrong, good and bad, evil and good, and even between life and death in all the situations – this comes from a regular time spent in enjoying the Word of God, praying and singing God’s word, even memorizing the Scriptures.

As God’s living word, the law functions to keep us from sinning and from every evil way. Psa. 119:11 says, In my heart I have treasured up Your word That I might not sin against You. Verse 101 also says, I have withheld my feet from every evil way, That I might keep Your word. We cannot control ourselves or stop ourselves from sinning, but by allowing the Word of God to saturate us and even become our treasure, we are kept from sinning! The Word keeps us from sinning and from every evil thing. Lord, may we store Your word in us and make it our treasure!

As the living word of God, the law keeps us from stumbling, establishes our footsteps, and causes us to overcome iniquity. Psa. 119:165 says, There is great peace for those who love Your law, And there is no occasion of stumbling for them. Verse 133 also say, Establish my footsteps in Your word, And do not let any iniquity have dominion over me. The most simple and organic way for us not to allow iniquity to have dominion over us is to love the Word of God, eat the Word, and have a rich deposit of the Word of God into our being. The result will be that we will be more than conquerors because of the overcoming Word in us!

Lord, keep us in Your Word daily. We need to be daily saved, nourished, and enlivened by Your Word. May we be those who have a prayerful attitude as they come to Your Word, receiving the Word into us by means of all prayer, thanksgiving, petition, singing, and psalming. Lord, cause us to love Your word in the same way that the psalmist did in Psalm 119. May Your word become our treasure and even sweeter than honey to our mouth.

References and Further Reading

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the blood of Christ is for our redemption and His flesh/His life is for our life supply!

March 17, 2011 by · 3 Comments

In the Old Testament we have the type of the people of Israel being delivered out of Egypt(Exo. 12) – before God delivered them, they received specific instructions regarding how to prepare the Passover lamb. They had to kill the lamb and put the blood on the door posts and then they had to roast the lamb and eat it, the entire lamb! This morning I particularly enjoyed the fact that Christ was not just “roasted on the cross by God’s judgement” for our sins, but He also became our life supply for us to accomplish God’s economy! On the one hand, the blood of Christ the Lamb of God is being applied to us so that God would not judge us, and on the other hand we eat Christ as the Lamb of God for our life supply! Christ as the Lamb of God has redeemed us from our sins and has brought us back to God; now He is also the Lamb of God for us to eat, enjoy, and be supplied, so that we may accomplish God’s economy! This is God’s full salvation – God’s judicial redemption(Christ died on the cross for our redemption, and we need to apply His precious blood by faith) and God’s organic salvation(we are now saved in His life by eating Christ as the Lamb of God and taking Christ in). We can see God’s full salvation in a nutshell in Rom. 5:10,

For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.

On the judicial side the blood of Christ needs to be applied to our being so that we may be reconciled to God and so that God’s need would be met. On the organic side Christ is our food and our drink for us to be now much more saved in His life! The Lord Jesus said many times in the Gospel of John that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink – His life is real food and real drink! The Gospel of John reveals that the blood of Christ redeems and the life of Christ supplies. Praise the Lord, we have the blood of the Lamb for redemption and the flesh of the Lamb for the supply of life! Today we can come and enjoy the Lord and be saved much more in His life! Through His death on the cross He paid the price to redeem us and reconcile us back to God. Now that we have been reconciled, we need to be much more saved in His life! By eating the Passover Lamb, the people of Israel were strengthened and supplied to get out of Egypt(out of the world) and go towards the destination – to have a feast with God in the wilderness. Through our eating the Lord – the all-inclusive Christ as our food supply – we are being also strengthened and supplied to get out of the world and accomplish God’s economy! [sharing inspired from the Life-Study of Exodus and the Crystallization-Study of Isaiah(2), msg. 6] [Read this portion also in Spanish / Puede leer esta porción también en español, ¡La sangre de Cristo es para nuestra redención y Su carne/Su vida es para nuestro suministro de vida!]

Thank You Lord for Your death on the cross for us! Thank You for being the Lamb of God dying for our sins! You redeemed us and You reconciled us through Your all-inclusive death on the cross! Now much more we can be saved in Your life! Lord, save us more today! We want to come to You and apply the blood to our being – and we want to also eat You! Lord, You are our real food and our real drink! You are the bread of life, the living bread, and the life-giving food! Keep us eating You today! We praise You, Lord, for Your full salvation!

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the complete gospel of God as revealed in the book of Romans, God’s full salvation

July 8, 2010 by · 10 Comments

The book of Romans is many times called “The Gospel of God“, since it presents the full gospel according to Paul. Here we see not just the fact that we are sinners in need of God’s redemption, but also that after being regenerated we are much more saved in His life, we are being daily transformed and conformed, we live in the Body of Christ, we are the local expression of Christ, and so many more wonderful things. Mainly, the book of Romans can be divided into three sections:

1. The first section of Romans, from Romans 1:1 to 5:11, covers the forgiveness of our sins and our justification by God, reconciliation to God, and acceptance by God. We are born as sinners – we offended God, we were alienated from God, we were rebellious against God, and we were enemies with God. When we received the Lord, we have been cleansed by His precious redeeming blood, we have been forgiven of our sins, justified by God, reconciled to God, and accepted by God. This is the objective aspect, something “outside of us”, done by God for us. This is the first aspect of the Gospel of God in Romans.

2. The second section of Romans – from Romans 5:12 to 8:13, covers the second aspect of the Gospel of God involving life and sanctification. Christ did not just reconcile us, redeem us, and forgive our sins – He came into us to be our life(your spirit is life because of righteousness, Rom. 8:10). The redeeming Christ who died on the cross for our sins has entered into us that we may live by Him, take Him as our life, and live in Him. Here we enjoy the divine life and live by the divine life. We are being daily sanctified dispositionally – God’s holy element is being worked into our being, and we are being transformed and eventually conformed to the image of the Son of God.

3. The third section of Romans, from Romans 12 to 16, speaks about us – the ones redeemed, who are being saved, renewed, transformed, and conformed – being the many sons of God and the many  members of the Body of Christ, living a life in the local church. We are being coordinated together and joined together as the members of the organic Body of Christ. We take Christ as our Head, and as the church we are His Body, His expression. On the one hand in a personal way we enjoy the Lord and we are being renewed, transformed, and conformed, and on the other hand corporately(together with the other saints) we’re being built up together into the Body of Christ that is expressed as the local churches.

What about Romans 9 – 11? It looks like this section is a word of insertion concerning the grace of God’s selection – before the foundation of the world, God selected us; in time – according to His selection – He gives us grace, calls us, and justifies us; then He transforms us and causes us to be coordinated and built up together with the saints as the One Body of Christ to express Him.

Wow, what a complete and full Gospel of God! I thoroughly enjoyed this marvelous bird’s eye view of the book of Romans, as bro. Witness Lee presents it in “The collected works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol 3″. Lord, may we really see Your full salvation as You reveal it to us in Romans, and may we daily be saved much more in Your life + be built up as Your corporate expression on the earth!

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As we see in Romans, the Spirit of life liberates us, delivers us, renews us, and glorifies us!

June 24, 2010 by · 12 Comments

These days we’re going through the book of Romans – the Crystallization Study of the Gospel of God in Romans, and more specifically, this week we’re really enjoying “The Divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit – the secret of God’s organic salvation and the key to the entire Christian life“. Wow, even the title of this week itself is so rich, packed, and full of meaning! Yesterday and today I was enjoying the fourfold work of the Spirit of life in us, as revealed in the book of Romans: The Spirit of life Liberates us, Delivers us, Renews us, and eventually Glorifies us!

1. The Spirit of Life Liberates us! Rom. 8:2 says, For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death. The Spirit of life sets us free! This liberation does not take place by us “reckoning ourselves dead with Christ” – as many seeking believers are emphasizing – but it is as we enjoy this Spirit and we walk in the Spirit of life that we are liberated! It is not a doctrine or knowledge that liberates us – it is the Spirit of life! What we need to do is not necessarily to “pray to be liberated from sin”, but to pray ourselves into the liberation by praying ourselves into the liberating Spirit! As we contact the Lord and touch Him, we’re being liberated from sin, sins, and every negative thing – in a spontaneous way!

2. The Spirit of Life Delivers us! To be delivered is not just to be liberated, but even more – to be saved from the fall. There is the element of the fall in our thinking, our mentality, even in our “good temper”, in our attitude, in our motives, in our intentions, in our loving, in our decisions, and in many other matters that seem to be “good” and not sinful. In all these matters, we need to contact the Spirit in our spirit so that we may be much more saved in His life(Rom. 5:10). We were reconciled to God, but now much more we need to be saved in His life – saved from ourselves, from our good self, from anything that is of the fallen human nature!

3. The Spirit of Life Sanctifies us! To be sanctified, according to the book of Romans, is not just to be saved from sin – it is to be saturated with the divine and holy nature of God! We were common and worldly, but now that the Lord is in us, our whole being is being gradually saturated and permeated with God! We are being made holy – we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind(Rom. 12:2), by having our mind saturated with the element of God! Not only sanctified positionally – taken out of the world and put into the kingdom of God; but sanctified and made holy dispositionally – in our very constitution we are being saturated with the element of God to be thoroughly made holy as God is holy!

4. The Spirit of Life Glorifies us!On the negative side we are being set free/liberated and we’re delivered, and on the positive side we’re being renewed and transformed! By being daily renewed and transformed we are being also glorified! This doesn’t mean that we become “glorious and unapproachable”, but just as the electric bulbs are “glorified” when the electricity fills them & they shine out, so are we saturated with God and glorified with Him until we shine out His glory! Eventually, He will saturate even our mortal body with Himself so that we will be transfigured in our body – we have the redemption / glorification of our body(Rom. 8:23)!

Hallelujah, this Spirit of life is operating in us to fulfill God’s plan! Lord, today, keep us turning to You in our Spirit and enjoying You in our mingled spirit all the time! May our living be according to and in this wonderful mingled spirit!

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