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the right and bis opposition to righteous ness. The law reveals the holiness of God to man and thus shows him the iniquity of his own heart. The law was not given to Israel as a means of their salvation— that was provided through the sacrifices which were offered upon the Jewish al tars. “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.’’ The law itself was holy. Had it been possible to keep it, life would have been the result. “This do and thou shalt live.” Thus Tesus spake to the young man, but he could not do it. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness o f the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Jesus fulfilled all law and He fulfilled it in us by His own abiding life. The law of God is the expression of the will of God. To do His will was the delight of the Son of God. The Father’s will was His will. This made heaven on earth for Him. The law had its foundation in grace —p | am the Lord which brought thee out of bondage.” -The last lesson embraced the first table of the law and had to do with the motives which regulate the life in its relation to God. The second tahle has to do with the method of life in its actions towards others. It will bear repetition that the ten com mandments were not given as a means of salvation to Israel. Every Israelite looked toward the bleeding sacrifice far his atone ment. Neither are they 'given as a means of justification now, for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Npr are they given to Christians as a source of their sanctification. Thev do stand, however, as two great mountain peaks in the Word of God, commanding the attention of all men, revealing by their very mandates the terrible sinfulness of the ■ L esson XI.—S eptember 14 T he T en C ommandments Golden Text,—Luke 10:27
human nature and showing the great neces sity of a substitute for man and a deliv erance from the bondage of a broken law. The holy law comes from a holy God and its demands are all righteous. It has pleas ed God' in Jesus Christ to fulfill all the demands of the law and to set those who accept the Saviour free from the conse quences of their failure to keep the law. It has also pleased God to impart to such believers through Jesus Christ a new life which loves the law of God and rejoices to do His whole will. Upon this moral law of God all judicial law has its high est interpretation. All ¡s fulfilled in this. —love God and love men. Upon this hangs all the law and the prophets. Love, then, is the fulfilling of the law, and only when the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of men can the claims of God be met. Thus it is no longer man who meets its claims, but the new life of God which is in him. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled, not by us, but in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. L esson XII.— S eptember 21 T he G olden C alf Golden Text,—1 Jnp. ,5:21 The people cried tp Aaron for gods. The natural man ever seeks for something upon which the eye can rest. All false systems must have their idols made with hands. Spiritual worship requires nothing but an unseen God who is a Spirit. He .is the One who seeks spiritual worshippers. Only by faith can the heart rest upon the prom ises of the invisible God; only by faith can the soul be stayed in its night of trial. Faith needs no signs or sights; faith rests secure upon what God is as revealed in His blessed Word. A molten calf, an altar, a feast unto the Lord, burnt offerings, eating and drink ing—what a conglomeration of the false and the true; what a sacrilege to offer sacrifice to the true God in the presence of a heathen god and attend the feast ol the Lord while bowing to a god of gold, stripping themselyes after the lustful fash ion of the heathen and performing the
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