WRITING THE LAW IN THE HEART.
By Elder William Covert
At the end of forty days' communion with the Lord, Moses received two tables of stone, upon which the law of God was written. In their Sinaitic covenant with the Lord the children of Israel agreed unconditionally to obey this law, but before Moses departed from the immediate presence of the Lord, they openly violated the covenant they had solemnly made. When Moses saw their shameful conduct in the worship of the golden calf, he cast down the tables of stone and broke them, signifying that they had broken the covenant that they had made with the Lord. Yet the Lord did not cast them off, but asked Moses to hew out two tables of stone like unto the first, and promised to write again the same words that were upon the stone that had been broken. Moses obeyed the instruction, and the Lord fulfilled his promise in rewriting the law. Dear reader, there is a broken and mutilated copy of the law of God in every stony heart. God is asking the privilege of taking away that stony heart and furnishing a new heart instead. In this new heart he promises to write the law unbroken. He says:— "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." Heb. 10:16. The law unbroken cannot be written upon the material upon which the broken copy was written. Therefore the Lord says:— "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Eze. 36:26, 27. The reader will notice that the Lord promises that he will do all the exchanging and the writing and the causing to walk. When the Lord is permitted to do this, the work will133not be marred. With very many this object has been difficult of comprehension, because they have had no conception of the law only as they have thought of it in letters and words, printed on books and charts, drawn up in tabular form. By study and meditation upon this tabulated form, they have tried to incorporate its principles in the mind. The result has not been satisfactory. At best they acquire only broken tables in this manner. It is only by the reception of Christ that the law is received into the heart. It is written, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Rom. 10:4. Christ himself is the object of the law. The law is not written in one part of the heart and Christ seated in another, apart from the law. But the law of God was incarnate in Christ, and Christ is incarnate in the Christian, so that when Christ is received into the heart, the law is also received in him. It comes in the heart a living principle, a heavenly plant embodying the divine nature. We will cite a few scriptures in which the law is shown to be in the heart, and others in which Christ is shown to be there, and then see if both do not speak of the same thing. Of the righteous man David wrote:— "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Ps. 37:31. Paul wrote to the Colossians, saying:— "God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col. 1:27, 28. In the first text the law in the heart prevents the steps from sliding. In the second, Christ within is the hope of glory, making the man perfect in Christ. Moses wrote the law, saying, "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart." Deut. 6:6. But of Christ it is written, "In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." If all is in Christ, then the law is complete in him. To learn how Christ is put in the heart is to learn how the law of God is written there. We have already referred to the promise of the new covenant that God would write his law in the heart. There is also a promise that Christ will be written in the heart. To those who had received Christ through his ministry, Paul wrote, saying, "Ye are our epistle, . . . known and read of all men." 2 Cor. 3:2. The ability and Christianity of the minister is read in the lives of those whom he has taught. They are to the observing public like an open letter, to be read by all men. But he says of these same persons they are "declared to be the epistles of Christ." Then each Christian should be a letter from Christ to the community in which he lives. Verse 3. These letters are written in the fleshy tables of the heart, by the Spirit of the living God. But the actions of the life are only a reflex of what God has put in the heart, and in this figure Christ is represented as writing the life work of each Christian, which work becomes the moral image of God, through which he speaks to the world. In this chapter (2 Cor. 3) the apostle speaks of the work of the Christian ministry, presenting it as the ministration of the new covenant. In this he clearly shows that the gospel worker ministers Christ to those whom he teaches. After having stated, as above, what the Christian is to the world, he proceeds to speak of what God makes of the minister. He says: "Our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament [covenant]; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Something is ministered by the Christian minister. That which is ministered gives life. But Christ is our life. He is the bread of life. It is Christ that is preached, and Christ that is ministered in the new covenant that makes the work a work of glory. It was the preaching or ministering of the law as in the old covenant apart from Christ that condemned and so became a ministration of death. Just change this as it is in the new covenant, and present Christ, and in him the law, in that which is the power of God unto salvation, and we have indeed a glorious ministration. Let the mind but turn from the darkness of unbelief to the light of Christ, and then the veil of sin is taken away. In verses 13–16 the apostle refers to the veil that Moses put over his face when he came before Israel with the law in his hands. He shows that there was a glory veiled from their eyes because of their unbelief, and that the veil is removed by turning to the Lord. The glory that was veiled was, therefore, as much the glory that shone from Calvary as that which shone from Sinai. Had their minds been as clear concerning Christ and Calvary as concerning the law and Sinai, then their condition would have been far different. In verse 17 he says the Lord is that spirit. He is the spirit ministered in the new covenant, and where Christ is, there is liberty instead of bondage and condemnation. But Christ cannot be preached unless he is living in the preacher. If the minister possesses Christ as a living power, it will go out to the willing hearts and infuse itself into them also. The manner in which this is done is beautifully portrayed in verse 18. Here he says, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as the Spirit of the Lord." The most careful and vigorous thinkers of the present, agree that the word "glory" in this text refers properly to character. The figure, therefore, shows how man's character is transformed into the divine image. Jesus is seated, that his image may be drawn in man's heart. The Spirit of God impresses the picture upon the fleshy tables whenever the veil of unbelief is removed. In chapter 4:3, 4 Satan is shown to be busy trying to keep the veil of unbelief over the heart, that he may prevent the image of Christ from being formed thereupon. Says the apostle:— "If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But while all the powers of darkness are combined to keep the foolish heart of man in the darkness of unbelief, God commands the light to penetrate the darkness. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." God commands this light to shine "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Verse 6. God's character is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, as his glory was revealed in the face of Moses. We with open face may behold Jesus, and beholding receive him and the character revealed in him. Thus we obtain the glory of God through Christ. But this glory is also veiled in the flesh of Christ. Heb. 10:20. Receiving the law embodied in the life of Christ, we receive an unbroken copy, drawn out in a whole lifetime. With this copy there can be no condemnation, because it is infinite in perfection and inviolate in all its applications. Thus God's law is a perfect law of liberty. It is this unbroken law as seen in Jesus Christ that the Christian looks into and is blessed in his deeds. James 1:25. It is the law as beheld in the life of Christ that manifests the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17), "even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference" (Rom. 3:22). It was from this view of the subject that David wrote, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts." Ps. 119:45. As we view the matter, the old covenant presented the principles of the law in letters and tables, which the legalists studied and endeavored to embody in their lives. They felt a constant sense of condemnation because of their failure to reach the thing required, and were thus in bondage, while the new covenant shows the unbroken and living righteousness of God through the gospel of Christ, and this righteousness as a living principle incorporated in the believer through faith. The child of God possessing within his spiritual nature the living principles of righteousness, enjoys the freedom of one whose citizenship is in heaven. Instead of feeling in bondage before God he enjoys his presence as a free son enjoys the love of his father.