THE UNDEFILED by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 22, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 34.

“THE UNDEFILED.”

By G.

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Ps. 119:1.

IN the margin of this text, for “undefiled” we have “perfect, or sincere.” A synonym of “sincere” is “pure.” Then those who “walk in the law of the Lord” are perfect, pure. This must be so, for “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting [margin, “restoring”] the soul.” Ps. 19:7. Walking in a perfect “way” naturally produces perfection of character. It is so illustrated in the life of Christ. He gave up His very existence in the heavenly courts, took upon Himself our nature, took a new start from the very womb of a sinful woman, was born into this sinful world, and lived to mature manhood amid sinful surroundings. Yet He developed a perfect character. He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15.

How did Christ accomplish all this?—He walked, or lived, in the law of the Lord. This was the sincere, earnest, determined purpose of His heart when He volunteered the mission to earth. “Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:7, 8. We see, then, that Christ was undefiled, or sinless, because He walked in the law of the Lord—an undefiled, sinless way. So long as He remained in this “way,” He could not sin; for “sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.

Therefore Christ is the “way” unto us. “For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in His steps.” 1 Peter 2:21. But why the suffering?—Because men had lost the “way,” had become subject to the penalty of sin, which is death (Rom. 6:23), and there was no remedy excepting through the suffering of an acceptable substitute. Paul, referring to the situation as stated in the fourteenth psalm, says: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Rom. 3:10-12.

The purpose of Christ’s mission to earth was that “whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Therefore He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14. In other words, the purpose was and is to bring sinful, polluted men back into the “way;” to purify them through His Word (John 17:17), and enable them to walk “undefiled” before Him.

As Christ lived sinless, undefiled, in the world by walking in the perfect law of God, so must they who profess to know and to follow Him. “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:3-6.

Such are “the undefiled in the way,” who are assured of the continued blessing of God. In the first psalm we have this made emphatic by contrast. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” A further emphasis is given by the apostle James: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27.

There is but one way in which one “can keep himself unspotted from the world,” and that is the way in which Jesus walked,—“going about doing good,” and resisting all temptation to do evil, resisting through the Word every evil impulse. “This is the way, walk ye in it.”