The Spirit gives life; the
flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they
are life. John 6:63
Do
you notice that whenever the Spirit is mentioned the Spirit is related to Life?
Life, then, is a matter of righteousness. The "ministration of
righteousness" means the ministration of Life, or the standing in Life
with an unveiled face, without fear of condemnation, or judgment. It is most
important to recognize this truth. It is elementary. It is one of the first
things of our faith. It may sound technical, but the Lord's people need
instruction. It is good to have exhortation; it is good that we should have
testimony; it is good that from time to time the Word of the Lord should come
to us in the fullness of a proclamation, but as the Lord's people we also need
sound instruction, foundation in the truth.
There
are today a great number of the Lord's people who are finding it well nigh
impossible to stand their ground because their foundation is not solid. After
all, their relationship to the Lord has been very largely an emotional one, one
of ecstasy, and when it comes to sounding the foundation of truth, they are not
well grounded; when the enemy comes, and the storms beat upon them, they do not
know where they are. When the ecstasies and the emotions and all the more
superficial elements in our salvation are brought under the stress of terrific
opposition; when in addition to that the enemy lays on his accusations, then
the foundations are discovered, and many, many breakdown. It is not that they
are lost, if they have trusted the Lord, but, so far as their enjoyment of
their salvation is concerned, they lose it. So it is necessary for us to be thoroughly
instructed in the Word, and this is one of the things about which we must be
perfectly clear in heart and mind, and assured in spirit, that Life, with all
that it means – the Life of an unveiled fellowship with the Lord, the Life
which in itself sets forth victory over death and the abolishing of
condemnation – that Life is rooted in righteousness, a ministration of
righteousness. It must be possible for us to say with perfect assurance and
confidence before God: "Lord, what I am as apart from Christ is one thing;
what I am by faith's union with Christ is that I am righteous with Thine own
righteousness; I cannot be destroyed, I cannot come under condemnation!"
You can challenge God on that ground, if we may so speak. God invites us to
test Him on that ground.
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