John Thiel mp3
Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Let us understand what is meant with the law being our schoolmaster. I want to remind you what we had studied last Sabbath. The law as a schoolmaster is the agency by which we are condemned to punishment. Which law is here being brought to our attention?
“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us to feel our need of Christ and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 1SM 234.5
The Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law, the Ten Commandments. The law reveals sin to us and causes us to feel our need of Christ and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Ten Commandments are our schoolmaster that is to bring us to Christ. Why has the Scripture concluded all under sin? That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. If you and I believe in Jesus Christ, then there is a promise by faith of Jesus Christ. There is a promise there that we might have the faith not only in Jesus which can come from you, but the faith of Jesus which comes from Him.
The schoolmaster a preliminary exercise
The promise by faith to have the faith of Jesus is available to each individual believer after a preliminary exercise. Before that faith came, what must you and I be under? A schoolmaster which is the Ten Commandments. Before that, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.
The preliminary to receiving the faith of Jesus is the law the Ten Commandments which is the school master that must happen so that I can come to Jesus. Faith, to bring me unto Christ that that I might be justified by faith. The Holy Spirit is telling us here that every individual is being given the promise that he might be a partaker of the faith of Jesus but he first must go through an experience with the schoolmaster which is the law of the Ten Commandments that condemns him to punishment for a period of time as a preliminary exercise before he can come to Jesus and experience the faith of Jesus. We must flee to Jesus because of the condemnation that the law lays upon us.
For how long do we need to be under the schoolmaster? People can be under the law for many years. I have observed that each individual stays under the schoolmaster as long as he needs to until he comes to the full realisation of the faith of Jesus. For some, it can be a half a lifetime; and others never come to Jesus. They stay under the law, they believe the law, and they keep on shielding themselves from the condemnation of the law as the pharisees did. The same with the Laodiceans. We each need to come to a point in our life where Jesus becomes the true release from the schoolmaster.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Lord says, “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.” “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.” 1 John 1:9; Jeremiah 3:13; Ezekiel 36:25. COL 158.1
But we must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that will result in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. The Pharisee felt no conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit could not work with him. His soul was encased in a self-righteous armor which the arrows of God, barbed and true-aimed by angel hands, failed to penetrate. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. He came “to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Luke 4:18. But “they that are whole need not a physician.” Luke 5:31. We must know our real condition, or we shall not feel our need of Christ’s help. We must understand our danger, or we shall not flee to the refuge. We must feel the pain of our wounds, or we should not desire healing. COL 158.2
She talks about the Laodiceans. That’s exactly their problem. They do not feel their pain of their true condition because they don’t submit themselves to the schoolmaster which is the Ten Commandments.
The Lord says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Revelation 3:17, 18. COL 158.3
For the Hebrews in wilderness at Mount Sinai, it took a relatively short time to discover their true condition. God gave them the Ten Commandments with great power from the mountain with a big trump and then was a booming voice and they were trembling and scared. They told Moses; ‘Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ They were really shattered and they said ‘all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.’ God made a very strong covenant with them and told them ‘Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.’ But how quickly did they break it? Moses went up for the forty days to the mountain and they made a golden calf and worshiped it. After he came down, they saw their true condition. Many of them were slain, the other ones confessed.
Our promise to keep God’s commandments is also a total failure. This is the function of the schoolmaster which is the Ten Commandments to show us that our promises to keep them is a failure. What did God have to do?
Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Jeremiah 31: 31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Under the old covenant that God made with them to start with, they made a promise, but that covenant was broken because they didn’t keep their promises. So God had to bring them to a new covenant and that new covenant was nothing else than the faith of Jesus by which the law was written in the hearts. The old covenant of people coming to the law and being given the Ten Commandments in a very powerful communication was the preliminary to the new covenant. The people trembled under that old covenant at Sinai and they realised that they must obey it. Then failed miserably and their sins are made clear to them. Then comes the new covenant, the faith of Jesus.
Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
This is the new covenant that Apostle Paul found after he came out of his physical condition. The law, the schoolmaster, gave him the conviction of his punishment, his failure. The law killed him, but he says that now he is crucified with Jesus. The law that killed him, also killed Jesus. He died because of our sins didn’t He? Now the apostle has discovered the faith, the promise of the faith of Jesus Christ. Because of the law he was dead that he might be justified by faith, but as he said, before that the schoolmaster had to do its work. Now that the schoolmaster has done its work, he says that he is crucified with Jesus, and he lives by the faith of the Son of God after the law had totally condemned him.
Life Experience After the Schoolmaster
Let’s dwell upon life after the schoolmaster. What is this new life which apostle Paul says ‘I am crucified with Christ but now I live by the faith of the Son of God?’
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Under the schoolmaster we are all condemned to punishment. Those are the old things that we experience under the schoolmaster. Now that the school master has brought me to the point where I flee to Jesus, I have found the faith of Jesus. Now the condemnation of the law and old things are passed away, because I’m crucified with Him, and I live a new life. All things are become new. I am justified. Let’s meditate on this under inspiration. Remember by faith we are reconciled.
Reconciliation means that every barrier between the soul and God is removed, and that the sinner realizes what the pardoning love of God means. By reason of the sacrifice made by Christ for fallen men, God can justly pardon the transgressor who accepts the merits of Christ. Christ was the channel through which the mercy, love, and righteousness might flow from the heart of God to the heart of the sinner. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). NL 27.1
Every soul may say: “By His perfect obedience He has satisfied the claims of the law, and my only hope is found in looking to Him as my substitute and surety, who obeyed the law perfectly for me. By faith in His merits I am free from the condemnation of the law. He clothes me with His righteousness, which answers all the demands of the law. I am complete in Him who brings in everlasting righteousness. He presents me to God in the spotless garment of which no thread was woven by any human agent. All is of Christ, and all the glory, honor, and majesty are to be given to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” NL 27.2
Let’s spend a little moment on the reconciliation. I spent my first two years of school in Germany and there the schoolmaster treated the students severely. I was trying to learn the times table and when I was put on the spot, I felt condemned. There was a barrier of fear, I couldn’t think straight, and it took me through my final year of nursing for that barrier to be slowly diminished and removed. Now by the reconciliation that we find after the schoolmaster has pointed us to Jesus, that barrier between my soul and God is to be removed. After the schoolmaster, I am free from the condemnation of the law. I can think straight while before I couldn’t. Because there was a barrier which now is removed through Jesus. I am free by His beautiful merits from the condemnation of the law. This is all an experience. When you are under pressure, can you give a right answer? Can you do the right thing? It’s impossible. How many times I’ve met people who have said this teaching of the law that you have been doing as Adventists does not make me very happy. They want to just accept Jesus without understanding the importance of the law, how the law must show each one of us our weakness; then we see Jesus who takes away the pressure. He takes away the condemnation because He has kept the law for me. He covers me by His merits and presents me before God as though I had never sinned. What a release.
Reconciled, justified, Saved by His life, Declared perfect
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Now you can see what we’ve just been highlighting. Reconciled means that every barrier is broken down and I am no longer under the condemnation of the law, because I have taken Jesus and His merits for me, and I have come into a new experience. I am now on a journey being reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more I shall be saved by His life. Reconciled, justified, saved by His life
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The schoolmaster is not operative in my life anymore. Now I am focused upon Jesus and His faith, a new journey with Jesus to His perfection, not relying on the law anymore, but on Jesus. That’s how I commence a path of the faith of Jesus. Now I am declared perfect by Jesus covering me with His righteousness, by Him keeping the law perfectly. I am now covered. An atonement has been made for me. I am before God accounted perfect because I believe in Jesus as my personal Savior. But while I’m declared perfect, I’m still told that I must reach out for perfection just like Jesus was being made perfect. We look at the example of Jesus how He was made perfect as He continued to travel the journey which He made for us.
Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
He was the faith of Jesus. He traveled a long a journey of His life and He became the Author of eternal salvation unto them that obey Him. We are reconciled by His blood but we are saved by His life because He was the author of our salvation in His life. We don’t look at the law anymore trying to keep it right and failing badly, but we look at Jesus the author of our salvation. He died and gave us a new start. I am crucified with Christ because the schoolmaster has pointed me to His crucifixion, and He died with my sins. Now we are saved by His life, the ongoing experience.
Hebrews 12:2 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. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Being the author and finisher or our faith, the faith of Jesus, He did resist unto blood, striving against sin and He covers us. Just keep on looking to Him because as you look at Jesus, the nearer you come to Him, the more you will see yourself as sinful; not by the law anymore, but by seeing Jesus. The faith of Jesus is an experience that you make after you’ve been condemned and reconciled. Jesus has obeyed the commandments for you.
Reaching for Perfection
You are no longer under condemnation. Now you are looking to Jesus with a different lifestyle and exercise of mind all together and you are justified. You are covered by Christ’s righteousness, but you are reaching to perfection. Looking to Jesus, I see that I’m not perfect.
Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
The apostle Paul knows that he’s not perfect when he wrote that. Jesus kept the law perfectly and He learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and I am reaching for that same perfection by which He was perfected. I am following His authorship and as I’m looking to Jesus, I am reaching for that which I haven’t attained to yet but which Jesus apprehends for me. He knows that I’m going to get there. I’ve been declared as perfect by Jesus Christ. Now that I am perfect let me press on to that perfection that Jesus wants me to reach.
As we have come from a law of condemnation to the release in Jesus Christ, now I can be joyful, I can be free. The barriers have been broken down. I can have clear thinking, I’m no longer in my brain under stress. I have perfect peace because I’m declared perfect and righteous. Jesus has kept all the commandments for me. As we travel on to reaching for perfection in practical life, we are no longer doing it under any stress or condemnation.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Now that I’ve got the faith of Jesus, I follow Him by accepting Him as my personal Savior. Baptism professes that when a person is truly come to this beautiful relationship with Jesus and is covered from top to bottom by His righteousness. This person now will fight the world, flesh, and the devil by the good fight of faith. That faith that has been given him by promise and a perfect confidence that he is going to conquer. If you are fighting in a battle that you think you’re not going to win, how will you fight? You will be languid and weak thinking that you can’t win. How many times have I heard this? But if you are covered as you are striving, you are not striving in your own strength and totally released from condemnation thinking straight with a clear mind, happy, and without any barriers. I can now think straight there is no barrier. You can have love, but you must have faith and faith works by love.
2Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
You are still learning and may be failing here or there, but covered by Christ’s righteousness all the way along this journey
1John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Jesus’ righteousness has covered me but I’m not without sin because I am travelling still. Don’t think for one moment that you are without sin.
1John 1: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
I don’t want to sin anymore. I’m not under condemnation and if I do sin, I have an advocate. I’m covered. He is pleading my case. I don’t have to go around feeling that I’ll never make it. But I’m trusting my Saviour. I’m walking with Him and He is walking with me and when I sin because I lose sight of Him temporarily, He pleads my case. We preach the law and the law which is the schoolmaster must be until we discover Jesus as He really is.
Turning Your Sin into Victory
How careful is the Lord Jesus to give no occasion for a soul to despair. How He fences about the soul from Satan’s fierce attacks. If through manifold temptations we are surprised or deceived into sin, He does not turn from us and leave us to perish. No, no, that is not our Saviour…. He was tempted in all points like as we are; and having been tempted, He knows how to succor those who are tempted. Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. The Lamb slain is our only hope. Our faith looks up to Him, grasps Him as the One who can save to the uttermost, and the fragrance of the all-sufficient offering is accepted of the Father.25SDA Bible Commentary 7:948. OHC 49.2
If you make failures and are betrayed into sin, do not feel then you cannot pray … but seek the Lord more earnestly. OHC 49.3
Was King David betrayed into sin or did he sin willfully? No, he was betrayed into sin.
He often conquered, and triumphed. He increased in wealth and greatness. But his prosperity had an influence to lead him from God. His temptations were many and strong. He finally fell into the common practice of other kings around him, of having a plurality of wives, and his life was imbittered by the evil results of polygamy. His first wrong was in taking more than one wife, thus departing from God’s wise arrangement. This departure from right, prepared the way for greater errors. The kingly idolatrous nations considered it an addition to their honor and dignity to have many wives, and David regarded it an honor to his throne to possess several wives. But he was made to see the wretched evil of such a course, by the unhappy discord, rivalry and jealousy among his numerous wives and children. 1SP 377.3
David needed Jesus to save him because he did have a heart for Jesus. But he failed. Remember that when we do sin, we are not under the schoolmaster, but we’re under Jesus. When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin, we won’t enjoy sin. Christ will be working with us, not the law. Christ has a relationship with the person and we may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the suffering of the Son of God. As soon as you look to Jesus, you confess and you are forgiven because you love Jesus and you hate what sin has done to Him.
If one who daily communes with God errs from the path, if he turns a moment from looking steadfastly unto Jesus, it is not because he sins willfully; for when he sees his mistake, he turns again, and fastens his eyes upon Jesus, and the fact that he has erred does not make him less dear to the heart of God. He knows that he has communion with the Saviour; and when reproved for his mistake in some matter of judgment, he does not walk sullenly, and complain of God, but turns the mistake into a victory. FLB 118.3
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
That’s what King David did. He turned his sin into a victory and that’s why King David was able to help sinners. If David had not been a converted man, he would have slain the prophet Nathan.
Nathan the prophet was bidden to bear a message of reproof to David. It was a message terrible in its severity. To few sovereigns could such a reproof be given but at the price of certain death to the reprover. Nathan delivered the divine sentence unflinchingly, yet with such heaven-born wisdom as to engage the sympathies of the king, to arouse his conscience, and to call from his lips the sentence of death upon himself. PP 720.5
The prophet’s rebuke touched the heart of David; conscience was aroused; his guilt appeared in all its enormity. His soul was bowed in penitence before God. With trembling lips he said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” All wrong done to others reaches back from the injured one to God. David had committed a grievous sin, toward both Uriah and Bathsheba, and he keenly felt this. But infinitely greater was his sin against God. PP 722.1
There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ, and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And do not forget the words of Christ, “The Father himself loveth you.” John 16:27. He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ.87Steps to Christ, 64.FLB 118.4
All sin … may be overcome by the Holy Spirit’s power. FLB 118.5
It is biblically true that although you may sin grievously, because you are deceived and betrayed into sin by wrong suggestions of the enemy, if you fall, God still covers you, and you are still justified.
Proverbs 24:15 Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: 16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
if you are in Jesus Christ, you have been reconciled, you are covered if you have fallen into sin. But because you hate the sin that you’ve done, you are restored again by Jesus. You’re not shut out.
Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
What a profound statement.
Summary
What is the life after the schoolmaster? A life enlightened by Jesus Christ, a life that delights in the law because in Jesus that law was perfectly kept and stands on my behalf. Therefore I love the law. This is my meditation day and night. The law is no longer a schoolmaster. It becomes my delight because I have found the covering righteousness of Jesus Christ. My life is then delighted by the law and is a life of a blessed fellowship with all that are embracing Jesus, because there’s no condemnation. We are no longer looking at each other with a condemnatory mind.
We see each other making mistakes and sins. But we uphold Jesus before each other and each person comes and realises straight away the moment they’ve done something, that oh dear I failed the Lord again. I will then come with tears in my eyes, and I cry, Lord, I have hurt you again; Lord Jesus forgive me and I am thankful that you do forgive. You have promised, I’m covered by your righteousness; thank you Lord. This represents a life of progressive development, a life coming to perfection by discovering of our sins.
At times, in my life, when I am deceived, surprised, betrayed into sin, but I have no relish for it, I will turn my mistake into victory. I will live a life that has the assurance of final victory in quietness and in confidence I shall be saved. We give up a life of uncertainty, and we walk joyfully with a clear mind, no longer oppressed in our mind. I will walk with my Jesus and whatever the sin that made me fail may be, Jesus died for that, and He covers me as I repent. That’s the life after the schoolmaster.
Conclusion
Rest yourself wholly in the hands of Jesus. Contemplate His great love, and while you meditate upon His self-denial, His infinite sacrifice made in our behalf in order that we should believe in Him, your heart will be filled with holy joy, calm peace, and indescribable love. As we talk of Jesus, as we call upon Him in prayer, our confidence that He is our personal, loving Saviour will strengthen, and His character will appear more and more lovely…. We may enjoy rich feasts of love, and as we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven. Wait upon the Lord in faith. The Lord draws out the soul in prayer, and gives us to feel His precious love. We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul…. Our peace is like a river, wave after wave of glory rolls into the heart, and indeed we sup with Jesus and He with us. We have a realizing sense of the love of God, and we rest in His love. No language can describe it, it is beyond knowledge. We are one with Christ, our life is hid with Christ in God. We have the assurance that when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. With strong confidence, we can call God our Father. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. His Spirit makes us like Jesus Christ in temper, and disposition, and we represent Christ to others. When Christ is abiding in the soul the fact cannot be hid; for He is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life. We can but represent the likeness of Christ in our character, and our words, our deportment, produces in others a deep, abiding, increasing love for Jesus, and we make manifest … that we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. SD 311.2
Do you know this experience? if you still don’t know that experience, you’re still under the schoolmaster. When you are under Jesus this will be your experience and I pray we will grasp it and in this fellowship. We can’t help but seeing each other’s faults, we remember that we are under Christ. We love one another. We don’t condemn each other, and we don’t pick up on those who are spreading evil about you and me, because we are under Christ and not under the schoolmaster.
May God bless us is my prayer.
Amen
