The Teachings of the Law of Moses
This rule of life was revealed from God and accepted by Israel at Sinai, and was at no time addressed to the nations of the world. It was a peculiar form of government for a peculiar people, and accomplished a peculiar purpose in condemning the failure of man and in preparing him for the Messiah.
Its full detail is revealed in the writings of Moses; but the history of Israel under the law occupies the rest of the Old Testament, and a major part of the gospels up to the record of the death of Christ. The Law of Moses was complete within itself. It was sufficient to regulate the conduct of an Israelite under every circumstance that might arise. In her relation to God, that nation remained for 1500 years under pure law (God has been dealing with Israel now for 4 millennia and will finally bring them back to Himself, probably during the Millennium—NC).
The Teachings of Grace
Like the teachings of the Law of Moses, the teachings of grace have not applied to men in all ages (not applied until the ascension of the Lord Jesus—NC). They were never addressed to the world as applicable to it in the present age; but are addressed to a peculiar people who are in the world, but are not of the world. These teachings constitute the divine instruction to the heavenly citizen and unfold the exact manner of life that such a citizen is expected to manifest even here on earth.
It is revealed that God dealt graciously with the human family from Adam to Moses; but it is also revealed that the precise form of divine government which is the present teaching of grace was then disclosed, nor was it applied to men until the reign of the law had been terminated in the death of Christ. It is likewise revealed that the death of Christ was the necessary foundation for the present, full manifestation of super abounding grace.
It is equally certain from the Word that the teachings of grace will apply to the children of God under grace as long as they are in the world, and these principles will cease to apply, of necessity, when the people whom they alone address are gathered out and taken from the earth at the Rapture.
This age is not the time of salvation of society; that great undertaking is clearly in the purpose of God, but is reserved for the age which is yet to come. The present dispensation is characterized by a unique emphasis on the individual. The death of Christ contemplated above all else is the need of the individual sinner. The Gospel of grace, which the death of Christ made possible, is equal to the individual alone, and the very faith by which it is received is exercised only by the individual.
The message of grace is of a personal faith, a personal salvation, and personal endowment of the Spirit, a personal gift for service, and a personal transformation into the image of Christ. The company of individuals thus redeemed and transformed, are to be in the ages to come the supreme manifestation of the riches of God’s grace. Unto this eternal purpose the whole universe was created and all ages have been programmed by God.
The glory of this dispensation is lost to a large extent when the reign of law is intruded into this age (attempting to mix Judaism with Christianity—NC) which followed the death of Christ, or when the social order of the Kingdom, promised for a future age, is expected before the return of the king. The Bible affords no basis for the supposition that the Lord will come to a perfected social order. At His coming at the Rapture He will gather all the saved to Himself. The transcendent glory of this age is that very grace which will have been either accepted or rejected by the individual.
-Unknown
MJS daily devotional excerpt
God led the children of Israel into the desert with its thirst, that He might bless them. “For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). It is for no less a reason that He takes us into the desert at times. “How shall He not with Him [Christ] also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:2). -MJS
“Our Father disciplines us that we may be more fully free from the old nature, and find everything in the Lord Jesus. But He begins the lesson with the assurance, ‘I love you perfectly.’
“‘I bring you into the desert to learn what you are, and what I am; but it is as those I have brought to Myself!’ He gives us a place with the Lord Jesus, but then shows us what He is and what we are. The discipline of the way teaches this; but if He, in His love, strikes the furrows in the heart, it is that He may sow the seed which shall ripen in glory.”
“Those who receive deliverance from their troubles never grow like those who get strengthened in the difficulties.”
“How slowly one learns that His sympathy is not expressed in removing the affliction but in raising one above it to Himself, so that He becomes so endeared to the heart that He is more an object to the heart than oneself.” -James Butler Stoney (1814-1897)
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/day/2026/05/30/
