Many Christians regard the law – the Ten Commandments – as “the Christian code of conduct”, something that as Christians we should adhere to and make sure we keep. Most unbelievers think that God wants us to “obey the law given by Him, or else…”
However, if we read Exodus 19-20 we see that the law was given as Moses had fellowship with God, and it was not something that God’s people are supposed to keep and obey to the letter but it is a testimony of God – the tablets of the law were called “the tablets of the testimony”. The law is God’s testimony: the law shows us who God is, what He is, and how He wants to make us the same as He is.
When we see the law, we see God; Christ is the living law of God – He fulfilled the law, lived out the law, and became the law of God. Today we have to “keep Christ” by abiding in Him, praying over His words, and receiving the breath of God with His element into us so that Christ in us would fulfill the law.
When we pray-read the word of God, we breathe God’s element into us, and we are infused with what God is; this causes us to live Christ and become the living expression of God, His “living law”, the living portrait of God among men today.
Today we want to be impressed more of the fact that there’s a highest and most intrinsic function of the law, which is not merely to require things from us so that God would accept us but that the law is God’s word to impart God’s substance into us and make us ONE with God and even make us the same as Go din life, nature, and expression, but not in the Godhead! Wow!
The law as the living word of God, once taken into us by means of all prayers and petition (Eph. 6:17-18), operates in us to dispense and impart God’s element into our being, organically causing us to be one with God and even the same as God in every possible way. How wonderful!
May we be the Lord’s loving seekers who experience the day side of the law by coming to the Lord’s word in a prayerful way with a turned heart so that the Lord would constantly infuse His element into us until He lives in us the word He spoke to us in the Bible!
The Law as God’s Word Imparts God’s Substance into us to make us One with God
As we read Exodus 19-20 we wonder: what did Moses do up there on the mountain with God for 40 days? The giving of the law, the inscribing of the law, and even its memorization should not take more than 1-2 days; what did Moses do on the mountain with God? While Moses was receiving the law from God, he was being infused with the element of God to cause him to glow with God (see Exo. 34:32-35).
God didn’t call Moses up the mountain to give him a set of commandments but to infuse His element into him; this marvelous transfusion from God caused Moses to abide in God, be filled with God, and even glow with God. When Moses came down from the mountain, the skin of his face was shining because God infused him with His element, and the children of Israel could see the shining (Exo. 34:29).
The highest and most intrinsic function of the law as God’s word is to impart God’s substance into us to make us one with God and even the same as God in life, nature, and expression (but not in the Godhead). God’s desire is to infuse His element into us and to impart His substance into us. He doesn’t merely want us to keep some outward laws and commandments but to have His law written and inscribed in our heart (as seen in Jeremiah and Hebrews).
In the new covenant God imparts His law into us, and He inscribes it on our heart of flesh (see 2 Cor. 3). The law is not merely “a list of divine commandments” but the living word of God which infuses God’s substance into those who lovingly seek Him, causing them to be one with Him.
We need to be those who, like Paul, pursue Christ, run after Him, seek to gain Him, and desire to obtain Him (Phil. 3). Daily we should pursue the Lord, contact Him, and abide in His presence, dwelling together with Him; as we abide in the Lord, He constantly imparts His substance into our being and causes us to be one with Him and even to become the same as He is! When we are infused with God’s substance through His word, we become what He is, and His divine attributes fill and are expressed through our human virtues.
How can the law of God, a set of rules, regulations, commandments, and precepts, become the living word of God which imparts God’s substance into us? It is by our pray-reading the word so that we would breathe in what God breathed out. God breathes out His word, and we breathe it in by loving the Lord and exercising our spirit to take His word by means of all prayer and petition.
Our pray-reading of the word of God needs to be uplifted, increased, and revolutionized; we need to pray all kinds of prayers over the word of God so that His word would richly abide in us (Col. 3:16) and would abundantly impart His substance into our inner being for us to be one with God!
The only way we can fulfill the law of God is by being one with God and by having God live in us; only God can fulfill His law, and by being one with Him and by having Him live in us, the law of God can be fulfilled in us!
Lord Jesus, we love to come to Your word as Your loving seekers to have Your substance imparted into our being to make us one with You! Lord, infuse us more with Your element and impart Your laws into our heart as we practice to pray-read the word of God. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to pursue You, contact You, and abide in Your presence out of love for You. Lord, save us from trying to keep the requirements of the law by our own effort; keep us abiding in You to be infused with You so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us!
Keeping the Law not by our own Efforts but by being Infused with God to Live Christ
When we read the law, something in our being rises up to agree with it, desire to fulfill it, and strive to keep it; Paul described his experience of trying to fulfill the law in Rom. 7 – it was total failure. When we try to keep the law by our own efforts, even though we agree with it and consider it so good, we fail to fulfill the law because sin takes advantage of this to kill us.
The only One who can fulfill God’s law is Christ – He is the expression of God, the living word of God (John 1:1, 14), the living out of the law. Christ is the lived out the law of God, the word of God, the breath of God, and He is God Himself; the only way we can keep the law is by being infused with God so that we may live Christ, that is, so that Christ may live in us.
God gives us His law, Christ is the One who fulfilled God’s law, and Christ is the word of God which can be spirit and life in the Bible (John 6:63); when we pray-read the Bible, the divine substance of God is infused into us and spontaneously causes us to live Christ.
We can keep the requirements of the law not by our own efforts but with what has been infused into us of the Lord through our contact with Him! Once we have been thoroughly infused with God’s substance, He Himself – the Law-giver – from within us will keep His own law.
Only God can keep and fulfill His law, so we should stop trying to keep His law in our own efforts; we should turn our heart to Him, love Him, pray over His word, and He will infuse us with Himself and He Himself in us will fulfill His own law.
The law was not given to be kept by God’s people; the law was given for God’s people to live out the law by being infused with God so that God in them would fulfill the law. We are not meant to keep the law of God; we are meant to live out the law by having Christ live in us.
When we abide in the Lord, love Him, love His Word, and pray-read His word, He in us will fulfill and keep all the law, and we will become the living portrait of God for others to see Him.
If we come to the law and try to keep it in our own efforts, the law will condemn us and will bring death to us; if we open to the Lord as we come to His word and let Him infuse us with Himself, the righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh (the vain efforts of the flesh trying to please God and keep His law) but according to the spirit (by exercising our spirit over God’s word and living in spirit to abide in the Lord).
Oh, what a relief to know that the law is not to be kept but to be lived out!
Lord Jesus, we love Your word. We love to pray over Your breathed out word so that we may have more of Your element infused into us and thus have Christ live in us. Lord, save us from keeping the requirements of the law by our own efforts! Remind us again and again to open to You, turn our heart to You, love You, and pray-read Your word so that we may be infused with God through our contact with Him and spontaneously live Christ! Lord Jesus, live in us today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 58 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 1 / msg 1, The Law – the Testimony of God Revealing him to His People and the Living Word of God to Infuse His Substance into His Loving Seekers.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Take time to receive Him—the blessing’s outpoured, / And we may obtain it by reading His Word; / We bask in the splendour of His healing light, / And light becomes life, as in Him we delight. (Song on spending time with God)
# Lord, I love You, I’m charmed by You. / I open my whole being to be infused by You. / Lord, do whatever You have to do in me / To make me what You need. / Lord, make my heart a duplication of / Your heart in every possible way. / O Lord, do something in me for You, / And keep my heart single for You. / Lord, I love You. (Song on being infused with God)
# Reading the Bible— / I love the Word of God! / Reading the Bible— / I love the Word of God! / Every verse reveals Yourself to me, / Every line conveys reality. / When I pray the words that You breathed out / You become so real to me. (Song on pray-reading the Bible)
The law is not only a list of divine commandments; it is the living word of God which infuses God’s substance into those who lovingly seek Him. If we consider the Ten Commandments only as laws and then try to keep them, we are not proper in our approach to the law. We should not apply the Ten Commandments in this way. On the contrary, we should be those who love God and seek Him. In this matter, we should be like Paul in Philippians 3, one who was pursuing Christ out of love and even running after Him. Out of love for the Lord, we should pursue Him, contact Him, and abide in His presence, dwelling together with Him. If we do this, day by day we shall be infused with God. Then automatically we shall walk according to God’s law. We shall keep the requirements of the law, not by our own efforts, but with what has been infused into us of the Lord through our contact with Him. Once we have been thoroughly infused with God’s substance, He Himself from within us will keep His own law. We should remember that the law was given on the mountain of God, the place where God’s people could be infused with His substance. Thus, we should not regard the law simply as His commandments but as the word of God and the testimony of God, which not only express Him, but also infuse His substance into those who seek Him in love. Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 58