For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Through the law a person comes to know sin, for the law leads to recognition of sin and to becoming dead to reliance on the law for righteousness so as to live unto God. When the commandment reaches the conscience, sin is seen as it truly is. Being dead to the law means ceasing to rely on the law for righteousness. Being dead to the law means dying to sin in order to live unto Christ. That life unto God is lived through faith in Christ, who lives in the believer, since righteousness does not come by the law.
Dying to the law to live unto God takes place by having Christ formed within through feeding on the Word of God, which is His flesh and blood. The written Word brings the searcher to the Son of God, and through obedience to that Word the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature with Christ living within as the hope of glory. Just as the body must be supplied with food daily to renew the blood, so the Word must be eaten daily. Its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, renews the spirit of the mind, and causes growth up into Christ the living Head. Receiving the bread from heaven is receiving Christ Himself, and firm union with Him like a branch joined fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine gives nourishment, spiritual health, and fruit.
Living unto God is the true conversion and the sanctification that God requires and will accept nothing less than. It renounces self-love and vanity, and works of holiness once thought wearisome become delight. The Word of God becomes the chosen study and counsel and the rule that tests thoughts, words, and deeds, with trembling at its commands and threatenings and firm grasp of its promises. The society of the godly is chosen instead of the wicked once loved, sins once laughed at are wept over, and the life becomes rich in good works.
Through the law a person comes to know sin, for the law leads to recognition of sin and to becoming dead to reliance on the law for righteousness so as to live unto God. When the commandment reaches the conscience, sin is seen as it truly is. Being dead to the law means ceasing to rely on the law for righteousness. Being dead to the law means dying to sin in order to live unto Christ. That life unto God is lived through faith in Christ, who lives in the believer, since righteousness does not come by the law.
Dying to the law to live unto God takes place by having Christ formed within through feeding on the Word of God, which is His flesh and blood. The written Word brings the searcher to the Son of God, and through obedience to that Word the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature with Christ living within as the hope of glory. Just as the body must be supplied with food daily to renew the blood, so the Word must be eaten daily. Its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, renews the spirit of the mind, and causes growth up into Christ the living Head. Receiving the bread from heaven is receiving Christ Himself, and firm union with Him like a branch joined fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine gives nourishment, spiritual health, and fruit.
Living unto God is the true conversion and the sanctification that God requires and will accept nothing less than. It renounces self-love and vanity, and works of holiness once thought wearisome become delight. The Word of God becomes the chosen study and counsel and the rule that tests thoughts, words, and deeds, with trembling at its commands and threatenings and firm grasp of its promises. The society of the godly is chosen instead of the wicked once loved, sins once laughed at are wept over, and the life becomes rich in good works.