After we have come to Christ and are justified by faith, without the deeds of the law (Romans 3:28), after we have become “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26), having received Him who is righteousness and the living law, what then is our relation to the law? This will perhaps best appear by considering the results of genuine faith in Christ.BEST May 11, 1896, page 138.1

To believe on Christ is to receive Christ; not to assent to a creed, but to accept a life; not to strive for the maintenance of certain outward forms, but to become “partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4. Creeds and forms cannot save people from their sins. Terrible is the catalogue of the sins of those “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5. A new life must be imparted before man can “live unto God.” “Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Galatians 6:15, R.V. This experience depends upon the faith which each one exercises for himself, and “it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Romans 4:16. To all who sincerely pray the prayer, “Create in me a clean heart,” (Psalm 51:10), the reply comes, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?... According to your faith be it unto you.” Matthew 9:28, 29. “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4); but faith for victory is the “faith which worketh by love.” Galatians 5:6.BEST May 11, 1896, page 138.2

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31. “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our Christ made present with all His glorious power by faith;” but this is the Christ in whose heart is the law of God; who said of Himself, “I have kept my Father’s commandments” (John 15:10); who was and is the law of God in life, so that when the prayer, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:17), is answered, the law in Christ is “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” 2 Corinthians 3:3. And thus do we establish the law.BEST May 11, 1896, page 138.3

“Where there is not only belief in God’s word, but a submission of the will to Him-where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith, faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts.” “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. His law is an expression of His love, and Christ is that law of love expressed in life; so when we receive Christ into our hearts, then love, the fruit of the Spirit, is received into our hearts, and “when the principle of love is implanted in the heart,... the new covenant promise is fulfilled, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them” (Hebrews 8:10)[Steps to Christ, 60]; for “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10. And thus do we “establish the law” by faith.BEST May 11, 1896, page 139.1

But after the law is thus by faith established in the heart by abiding in Christ, and having Him, who is the living law, abide in us, then the fruit of such a union with Christ will appear in the life. “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (John 15:5), and thus are we “filled with the fruits of righteousness.” Philippians 1:11. And now the law, which revealed sin but could not confer righteousness, witnesses to the character of the righteousness which we have received through faith in Christ. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Romans 3:21. The law reveals sin by defining righteousness, by showing us the character of God. The gospel reveals righteousness. “Therein is the righteousness of God revealed.” Romans 1:17. We receive this righteousness as the free gift of God in receiving Jesus Christ. The law cannot give us what we need. It urges us to Christ, where we receive what it demands but cannot bestow. Then we return to the same law, and it bears witness to the fact that the righteousness we have received in Christ Jesus is the very righteousness which it demands but cannot impart.BEST May 11, 1896, page 139.2

This was God’s plan for those who would believe in Christ. “God offered them in His Son the perfect righteousness of the law.” [Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 54.] If they would open their hearts fully to receive Christ, then the very life of God, His love, would dwell in them, transforming them into His own image; and thus through God’s free gift they would possess the righteousness which the law requires.BEST May 11, 1896, page 139.3

May 4, 1896

May 18, 1896