The Nature of Gods Word is "Eternal and Alive." These are not "dead letters" but recordings of His Living Speech. We are shown here what "the Living Word" does:
Hebrews 4:
12 For
the word of God
is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it penetrates even to
dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;
it judges the thoughts and attitudes of
the heart.
Penetrates/Dividing/Judges. These are "living and active" activities of the Living Word. Whether we perceive it, or not.
This "activity" transpires where? In the HEART.
Seriously now, how many times did Jesus employ His Own Words in the N.T? Many many many times, "it is written." Too many examples to even begin to cite.
Jesus, Himself, in His Resurrected Body, TAUGHT the disciples on the road to Emmaus account, from the Old Testament.
Luke 24:
25
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
The Word of the Law, to this day, this moment, still has various effects, working, alive and active. For example:
Romans 7:
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good; that
sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
This reality can be "tested" by any believer to this day in the same way Paul encountered these matters for himself in Romans 7, IDENTICALLY to what Paul shows in Romans 7:7-13. That where the law against "coveting,"
the command NOT to came,
then, in his own mind
LUSTS were aroused within him, via every manner of concupiscence.
So, yes, the Word of God is very much ALIVE to this day in the way above, proving indwelling sin in the flesh and evil present with us, Romans 7:17-21. Beyond any doubt, if we are observing, internally. Paul steps us through the paces of what the law does:
Romans 3:20
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for
by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The second working is understanding this reality, personally, as Paul did for himself in Romans 7. And Paul understood that the commandments, the LAW, is precisely meant to "empower" sin, to make the facts of sin, of lawlessness, openly KNOWN:
1 Corinthians 15:56
The sting of death is sin; and
the strength of sin is the law.
We do not put ourselves "under" the law precisely for this reason.
Because sin dwelling in the flesh and evil present with us in the FLESH, RESISTS Gods Laws and is EMPOWERED to resist, to make this internal reality KNOWN to us.
This brings us to understand His Grace in Christ. That we are seated in an "unmerited" seat on our part.
Gods Grace in Christ is without our merits, because we are quite factually "without merit." This doesn't change after the fact of salvation.
Recipients of Grace should not seek, by the flesh, to resurrect any personal merits from the laws. It won't happen and it can NOT happen. The body is dead precisely because of sin therein and evil present "in the conscience." Heb. 10:22. Putting these operations in the flesh
back under the law is NOT going to change the conclusions.
Romans 8:10
And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin;
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
We can stick the SWORD of Gods Word, right there at the BUT, dividing one from the other. There is a "presently working" determination of the letter to KILL and there is, from there, also a determination unto ETERNAL LIFE.
The course of God is this:
Deuteronomy 32:39
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal:
neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
IF we read in the book of Revelation, those who LIVE by the Sword (Eph. 6), also DIE from the Sword, you'll see what it speaks of, to BELIEVERS.
Revelation 13:10
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
