From Life Study of Exodus by Witness Lee, pg. 749,
http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?n
Many Christians have the concept that the Old Testament is a book of commandments, but the New Testament is not a book of commandments. Actually there are strong commandments in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament. Consider how many commandments are found in chapters five, six, and seven of the Gospel of Matthew. The commandments given by the Lord in His message on the mountain are both deeper and higher than those found in the Old Testament. These commandments are so strict that no human being can possibly fulfill them. In the Epistles more commandments are given. If we read the New Testament carefully, we shall see that the commandments given through Moses are repeated in the Epistles. This is true, at least in principle, even of the commandment about keeping the Sabbath day. The book of Hebrews speaks of the coming Sabbath rest. Thus, the commandment about keeping the Sabbath is repeated not in the old way, but in a new, deeper way.
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From Life Study of Exodus by Witness Lee, pg749,750
http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?n
[My bolding]
As an example of the Lord’s requirements, consider His word in Matthew 5:48: “You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Are you able to fulfill this word? We can only say, “Lord, I am fallen and sinful. How could I ever be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect? This is absolutely impossible for me. I just cannot do it. But, Lord, I love You, and I love Your Word.” If this is our attitude toward the Lord, the Lord will have a way to come into us and to fulfill this requirement for us and in us. Our responsibility is to love Him, receive Him, stay with Him, and spend time with Him so that He can infuse Himself into us. Do not worry about fulfilling God’s requirement. Simply open and receive Him.
Because they are blinded with pride, many Christians today do not see God’s intention. Instead, they have a religion of work and self-effort. In fact, all religions instruct people concerning how to do things, how to work, how to behave, and how to improve themselves. The emphasis in the Bible, however, is that we need God to come into us and do everything in us and for us. If we read the Epistles in this light, we shall have a much better understanding of them. For instance, in Philippians 2:12 and 13 Paul says, “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” In verse 12 Paul charges us to work out our own salvation. The standard of this salvation is Christ, the One who emptied Himself, humbled Himself, was obedient unto death, and who has been exalted to the third heaven. Are you able to work out such a salvation? We must admit that it is impossible for any of us to do this. We may receive God’s salvation, but we are not able to work out our own salvation. This is the reason Paul says that God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. In ourselves we are not able to work out our own salvation. But God is operating in us. We need to open to Him, cooperate with Him, and work with Him. On the one hand, in the Epistles there are many commandments. On the other hand, God’s desire is to come into us and fulfill all the requirements He makes upon us.
In a very real sense, Paul was a greater lawgiver than Moses. The commandments given by Moses are not as deep and demanding as those given by Paul. For example, did Moses require a husband to love his wife, or a wife to submit to her husband? Moses gave no such commandments, but Paul issued them. A Pharisee could mistreat his wife and still boast that he had kept the commandments given through Moses, for Moses did not explicitly command a husband to love his wife. Likewise, a woman could insist that she kept the law in the Old Testament even if she refused to submit to her own husband. This indicates that Paul’s commandments are more difficult to keep than those given through Moses. When we read all these commandments in the New Testament, we need to open to the Lord, receive Him into us, and allow Him to do everything in us and for us. Let us learn to listen to the Lord’s word and then say, “Lord, I love You, but I simply cannot fulfill this word. I would like to do it, but I can’t.” Then the Lord will say, “I only ask that you open to Me so that I can come into you and do this for you.” The truth of God coming into us to do everything for us and in us is the central concept in the Bible concerning the giving of commandments.
Originally posted by josephw [b]"You Witness Lee people are so far from God and Christ its not funny."
Who made you god that you can decide who's far from God?
"Imagine preaching that its is ok to continue on in sin and disobeying God and just telling God that you love Him but cannot obey?"
That's not what sonship is saying Clyde. When you stop sinning then you'll h ...[text shortened]... an obey God by your own innate ability, then you're nothing less than a self righteous Pharisee.[/b]
You have references to support your last paragraph?
[Im not interested in the rest of your post]
Originally posted by sonship From [b]Life Study of Exodus by Witness Lee, pg749,750
http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?n
[My bolding]
As an example of the Lord’s requirements, consider His word in Matthew 5:48: “You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Are you able to fulfill this word? We can only say, “Lord, I am fallen and sinful. ...[text shortened]... us and in us is the central concept in the Bible concerning the giving of commandments.
[/b]
"In a very real sense, Paul was a greater lawgiver than Moses."
I think, to be precise, Moses received from God the law, but to Paul was given the revelation of God's grace. Until this present dispensation of the age of grace man was under the law, but with the revelation of the mystery to the apostle Paul came the grace of God, which we are under today.
The law demanded the performance of the flesh, but grace is accessed by faith.
Do this and live
the law demands
but gives me neither feet nor hands
a better way the gospel brings
it bids me fly
and gives me wings
Originally posted by Rajk999 Your opinion pertaining to people, is like the wind blowing ... of no consequence.
However if you are capable of making a contribution of value then I will comment.
Let me help you. Sonship and friends are making the claim that you can disobey God/Christ and just tell God that you love him and thats ok. Is that supported in the Bible. I quoted a passage and I can quote dozens more which say that following Christs commandments is not optional.
Amazing. And here I thought you only ever read the red bits.
I think that your assumptions that others do not follow His commandments are not only insulting to us, but dangerous to you, as well. What about His commandment to love your Christian brothers? Like the JWs, you seem to think that one is not very important at all. You think you can judge our Christianity. That is YOUR vanity.
Originally posted by Rajk999 Imagine preaching that its is ok to continue on in sin and disobeying God and just telling God that you love Him but cannot obey?
Sonship has never said this when I was reading your thread Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ
There are three aspects of the law: the principle of the law, the commandments of the law, and the rituals of the law. If you do not differentiate between these three things, you will never have a proper understanding of the law. We know, the principle of the law is over. Today, in the dispensation of grace, God does not deal with us according to the principle of the law; rather, He deals with us according to the principle of faith. Whether or not we shall be justified, saved, and accepted by God depends on the principle of faith, not the principle of the law. As long as we have faith in Christ, we are justified by God, accepted by Him, and saved. This is what it means for the principle of the law to be abolished in Christ under the dispensation of grace."
"Although the principle of the law has been abolished, the commandments of the law have not been annulled. Instead, the standard of these commandments has been uplifted. Thus, the commandments, related to the moral standards, have not been abolished; they will remain for eternity. Even for eternity we should not worship an idol, murder, steal, or lie. In His heavenly kingdom the King has uplifted the standard of the law in two ways: by complementing the lower laws and by changing the lower laws into higher laws. In this way the morality in the commandments of the law has been uplifted to a higher standard."
"The kingly Savior Himself kept all the commandments of the law when He was on earth. Then He went to the cross to die for us. Through His substitutionary death, He fulfilled the law on the negative side.
Furthermore, through His substitutionary death, He released His resurrection life into us, and we now have this resurrection life in our spirit. Because we are able to live by this resurrection life, we have the strength, ability, and capacity to have the highest standard of morality. As we walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4), we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, fulfilling even more than the law requires. Therefore, we do not abolish the law; rather, we fulfill it in the highest way."
"The third aspect of the law is the rituals of the law. For example, offering sacrifices and keeping the Sabbath are outward rituals of the law. These rituals were also terminated because they were part of the old dispensation of shadows, figures, and types, all of which have been fulfilled by Christ as the reality. We are no longer obligated to observe the rituals of the law. Therefore, the principle of the law and the rituals of the law have been terminated, but the commandments of the law, which require a high moral standard, have not been terminated. Rather, these commandments have been uplifted. By means of Christ as the resurrection life in our spirit, we can fulfill the standard of morality required by the higher law of the kingdom of the heavens.
Life-study of Matthew, Chapter 20
“Here for Christ to fulfill the law means (1) that, on the positive side, He kept the law, (2) that, on the negative side, through His substitutionary death on the cross He fulfilled the requirement of the law, and (3) that in this section He complemented the old law with His new law, as repeatedly expressed by the word "But I say to (or, tell) you" (vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). Christ's keeping of the law qualified Him to fulfill the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross. Christ's fulfilling of the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross brought in the resurrection life to complement the law, to fill the law to the full. The old law, the lower law, with the demand that it be kept and the requirement that man be punished, is over. The kingdom people, as the children of the Father, now need to fulfill only the new law, the higher law, by the resurrection life, which is the eternal life of the Father.”
According to the verses that follow Matthew 5:17-19, the requirement of the new law of the kingdom of the heavens surpasses the requirement of the Mosaic law. This requirement can never be fulfilled by man’s striving in his natural energy and virtue. It can be fulfilled only when man lives by the resurrection life of Christ, that is, by the eternal life of the Father, which every believer in Christ possesses (John 3:16). When man lives by the resurrection life and not by the natural human life, he can fulfill the higher requirement of the new law of the kingdom of the heavens, which surpasses the requirement of the Mosaic law and fulfills that requirement to the uttermost.
The Law and Grace of God in His Economy
There was case happened when a certain brother did not understand about man's striving to keep the law.
One brother gave him an answer:
The Bible shows that only one man in human history was absolutely righteous according to the standard of God’s law—Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior (Acts 3:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 John 2:1). The Bible further tells us that no flesh can be justified before God by works of law (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). Because of this we needed Christ to bear God’s judgment for us on the cross to fulfill God righteous requirement for the forgiveness of sin (1 Cor. 15:3). In the verse immediately following the ones you quoted, the Lord Jesus said, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens” (Matt. 5:20). He then gave examples of what this surpassing righteousness was—not only not murdering, but not getting angry with one’s brother (vv. 21-22); not only not committing adultery, but not looking upon a woman to lust after her (v. 28). This is to uplift the standard for entering the kingdom above the moral standard of the Ten Commandments.
The key question is this: How can we live such a life of surpassing righteousness when we could not even live up to the standard of the Old Testament law? Paul, in his epistles, makes it abundantly clear that this is not something we can achieve by our striving in the flesh. In Romans 7 Paul describes his personal experience of trying to strive in the flesh to keep the law of God. At the end of the chapter he cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” The answer lies in Romans 8. Verse two of that chapter speaks of the operation of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freeing us from operation of the law of sin and death in our flesh. In verse 4 Paul says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. In verse 7 he says, “Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be.”
In Galatians 3:2-3 Paul asked the Galatian believers, who had been “bewitched” by the Judaizers into trying to keep the law, “This only I wish to learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” The Galatians received the Spirit when they heard the gospel and believed in Christ, but they were distracted from what they had received in God’s salvation by the Judaizers who were telling them to keep the Old Testament law. In verse 5 Paul goes on to tell them that God is bountifully supplying the Spirit to them, not by the works of law, but by the hearing of faith.
The Christian life is not a life of striving to keep the law by self-effort but of receiving the supply of the Spirit to live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), so that through the operation of the law of the Spirit of life in us (Rom. 8:2), it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us (2:20) a life that matches and even exceeds the requirement of God’s righteousness expressed in the law of Moses. To attempt to be righteous by keeping the law is to nullify the grace of God (v. 21). The point is not whether or not the moral standard of the law should be kept. It is absolute and cannot be changed. The point is what should occupy our attention and pursuit. Do we seek to establish “our own righteousness which is out of the law,” or do we seek to “be found in Him” and “to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:9-10)?
Originally posted by Rajk999 You Witness Lee people
The New Testament. tells us that the church is of God (Acts 12:5, 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2), the church is of Christ (Rom. 16:16), and the church is of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33, 1 Thes. 1:1, 2 Thes. 1:1). Never are the churches referred to as the churches of this teacher or that leader. So, although we highly value the testimony and ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and the writings of Christian teachers, we are not the church “of” either man. Rather, we simply seek to meet as the church wherever we are and inclusive of all genuine believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, “both theirs and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2) regardless of where they meet or how they may otherwise identify themselves.
Originally posted by kevinlee123 The New Testament. tells us that the church is of God (Acts 12:5, 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2), the church is of Christ (Rom. 16:16), and the church is of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33, 1 Thes. 1:1, 2 Thes. 1:1). Never are the churches referred to as the churches of this teacher or that leader. So, although we highly value the testimony and ministry of Watchman Nee and ...[text shortened]... ours” (1 Cor. 1:2) regardless of where they meet or how they may otherwise identify themselves.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits." -- Matthew 7:16
God, I just can't do it.
19 Jun '15 12:48
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