'Active obedience' means that our salvation is based not upon Christ's death alone, but on His life as well. This means that our justification is two-fold. But what does the Scripture say on this matter, did the Law make anyone holy?
“For Christ once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh . . .†(1 Peter 3:18);
“. . . being justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him†(Rom.5:9);
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many . . .â€Â(Heb. 9:28).
“ . . . to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly†(Rom. 4:5);
“...no man is justified by the law in the sight of God†(Gal. 3:11);
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ...â€Â(Gal. 2:16).
Does the righteousness of God mean simply that, or does it mean law keeping? For the Reformer, it means keeping a shadow of the Mosaic Law for personal holiness. But what does the Scripture say? Doesn't it say we will bear fruit, and why does it never ever say the fruit of the Spirit is the ability to keep the Mosaic Law?
We are saved by Grace, but we are also 'made into the image of Christ by Grace as well. Romans 8 makes this clear.
I'm don't believe in lawlessness, but being in Christ to fulfill the Law. We must abide in Christ as our rule of life.
Quote:
"And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT" (Ephesians 5:18).
"This I say then, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
"Likewise RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD, AS THOSE THAT ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13).
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK YE IN HIM" (Col. 2:6).
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye WALK WORTHY of the vocation [the believer’s high, heavenly, holy CALLING] wherewith ye are called" (Eph. 4:1).
"And that ye PUT ON THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT" (Eph. 5:8).
"If ye then be risen with Christ, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1).
"PUT ON therefore, AS THE ELECT OF GOD, HOLY AND BELOVED, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. 3:12).
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and LET US RUN WITH PATIENCE THE RACE that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2).
If a servant of God merely sought to insist on the danger of what is vulgarly called Antinomianism  that is, the wickedness of making liberty a cloak for maliciousness (and we know from scripture that flesh is perfectly capable of doing so), certainly he would not have me for an adversary. If they called this the moral law, in urging godliness as the necessary fruit of a living faith, I might have regretted the vagueness of an unscriptural phraseology  the want of spiritual point and power in not making Christ the substance of moral teaching, as of doctrinal, as the scripture surely and blessedly does; but, in the root of the matter, I think I may say I should have cordially joined with what was intended. Such exhortations have their place and their necessity. That a Christian should walk according to the precepts of the New Testament, and all the divine light he can gather for his walk from the Old, be it the Ten Commandments or anything else, no consistent or right-minded Christian could for a moment deny. I could not own as being on christian ground one who would. I may not be his judge, but I am bound to judge the principles he professes. But I suppose such are rare, if such are to be found. At any rate he would receive no support from me or from you. I need hardly dwell on it otherwise than to reject it as utterly evil and unchristian. JND
The charge being against the law is a false charge.
If I speak of moral law (which scripture does not), I make it, by the very expression, a fatal thing to be delivered from it. Yet Paul says the Christian is delivered from the law. If I make of the law a moral law (including therein the precepts of the New Testament, and all morality in heart and life), to say a Christian is delivered from it is nonsense or utterly monstrous wickedness; certainly it is not Christianity. Conformity to the divine will, and that, as obedience to commandments, is alike the joy and the duty of the renewed mind. I say, "obedience to commandments." Some are afraid of the word, as if it would weaken love and the idea of a new creation; scripture is not. Obedience and keeping the commandments of one we love is the proof of that love, and the delight of the new nature. Did I do all right and not do it in obedience, I should do nothing right, because my true relationship and heart-reference to God would be left out. This is love, that we keep His commandments. We are sanctified to the obedience of Christ. Christ Himself says, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me; but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given me commandment, so I do." His highest act of love is His highest act of obedience. JND
What the Holy Ghost now ministers to us is not merely a Saviour who came down into our woe and misery to bear our iniquities and sins, but that same Saviour after the work of grace is done when He is gone up as the witness of its perfectness into the presence of God; and we are invited by the Holy Ghost to keep our eye fixed upon Him there, glorified according to the excellency of redemption. WK
peace,
jason
