From “The Gospel of God”
From “The Gospel of God”
by Watchman Nee
What is Christianity? Christianity does not tell the sons of Adam to do good. That is not Christianity. Christianity says that Adam has been crucified and removed and that the Adamic race has been annihilated through the cross of the Lord Jesus. Man in Christ receives a new life and becomes a new race. The law is useless for the new race, for there is no such thing as law in the new race. The law was given by God to the sons of Adam to expose their sins. If one wants to be saved through keeping the law, he has to realize the serious consequence of the phrase keeping the law. Once man keeps the law, he will have righteousness. But this righteousness would be of the flesh. In other words, it would mean that the sons of Adam, that is, the Adamic race, need not die. It would mean that man can please God with his flesh. Perhaps one would argue that he does not mean to keep the whole law, that he realizes that it is impossible to keep the whole law, that what he means is to believe in Jesus and then keep the law. But if the work of the law has a millionth fraction of ground before God, it means that Adam did not have to die. This would revoke the very nature of Christianity. Christianity is not here to establish a ground for Adam. It is not here to maintain the old creation. It is here to transfer us to the new creation. We are of the flesh, and we cannot obtain the righteousness that comes from the keeping of the law.
Since the fall of man, the cherubim and the flaming sword were guarding the tree of life in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24). Why were the cherubim and the flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life? It was to prevent man from eating of the tree of life. After man became a sinner and had eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, there was no other way for him to go back to the tree of life and eat of its fruit except through the judgment of the cherubim and the slaying of the flaming sword. God shows us that man cannot eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and at the same time eat of the fruit of the tree of life. Man cannot eat of both. Man cannot receive the seed of sin on the one hand and take in the Lord's salvation on the other hand.
Here lies the difference between Christianity and Judaism. Judaism says to the man in the flesh that in keeping the law he shall live. But Christianity says he cannot live, for he cannot keep the law. Christianity asserts clearly that man cannot do this. There is no possibility for him to keep the law. Hence, we can see that in the Old Testament, God gave the law for man to keep. In the New Testament, we see that man cannot keep the law at all, nor does he have to keep it. This is one of the greatest truths in the Bible. Now there is a danger of mixing faith and the law together, and annulling the principle of the Bible. Right away, Adam will have the ground, and the fleshly man will be able to live again. God's judgment is that man must die. Through Jesus Christ, God has removed man. He does not want the fleshly man to come up with anything. If man still tries to produce something from the flesh, he has overturned the principle of the New Testament. If the law is given some ground, then the flesh also will have some ground. But God says that the flesh has no ground, that all grounds have been removed.
We may wonder whether this is to annul the law. Please remember that according to the Bible, the law requires two things from us. First, the law says that he who keeps it shall live (Rom. 10:5). The law demands us to keep and to do something. Once man keeps it, he will have righteousness. If we have righteousness, we will have the reward, which is life. But there is a second aspect. The law says that the day we eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we shall surely die (Gen. 2:17). On the one hand, the law requires man to keep something. On the other hand, its punishment is death for all those who do not keep the law. All who do not keep the law receive the recompense of not keeping the law. Hence, in the Old Testament, in principle, we see that the law required man to keep it and to be righteous. Those who did not keep it were condemned and punished.
In Shanghai, the traffic department has many traffic regulations. For example, to ride after dark, one has to have lights on his bicycle. If there is no light for the bicycle, then there will be a fine of sixty cents. This regulation requires two things: it requires man to install a light, and it requires those who do not do this to be punished. What then is to annul the law? To annul the law means that one does not need a light, and he does not have to be punished. What is to keep the law? To keep the law is to meet either of the two requirements. For those who have a light, they are keeping the law. For those who do not have a light, but are willing to pay sixty cents, they are also keeping the law.
The problem today is that we cannot keep the law. The law of God requires that we be righteous. If we are not righteous, then we fail. Only by being righteous can we live. But no man of the flesh is able to keep the law. None among us can have righteousness before God through keeping the law. Once man touches God's law, he will fail. Paul said in Romans 7:7 that even if God has only one law, man is not able to keep it. Paul did not transgress all the laws. He mentioned only one law, the one concerning covetousness. In the original language, covetousness is lust. Paul said, "I am helpless. The lust keeps coming back again and again. It is impossible for me not to have lust." He could not get the light of his bicycle to work, yet he had to travel in the city. For some, the problem is not that the light does not work. For them, they simply do not want to have the light. These people do not even want to light the lamp. What is annulling the law? It is when someone pleads with God saying, "O God, I cannot keep Your law today. Please let me go on account of the Lord Jesus. I have done my best. Please do not punish me." All who plead for the Lord Jesus to be lenient or for God to have mercy on them are annulling the law. On the one hand, they do not want to keep the law. On the other hand, they do not want the punishment of the law. They do not want to have a light. Yet at the same time, they want to avoid the fine of sixty cents. What about us today? Do we have our lights today? If we have the lights, then we can travel peacefully in the city. But none of us are able to have the light. Hence, the only way is to pay the sixty cents. This is what the Lord Jesus has done for us. This is the judgment that we have borne in Christ. We have to say, "Praise and thank the Lord that we are already judged in Christ!" We have been punished in Christ. God has punished us in Christ. Since the Lord Jesus has died, resurrected, and ascended, the salvation we receive now is equivalent to what we would obtain if we keep the law. The ones who have the light are free. The ones who have been punished are also free. Today if a man keeps all the laws, he will be justified and will be saved in the same way that we who have believed in Jesus are saved and justified. Of course, we are not just saved when we believe in Jesus; in saving us, the Lord Jesus grants us many other things apart from the law as well.
Paul said in Romans 3:31, "Do we then make the law of no effect through faith? Absolutely not! Rather, we establish the law." Hence, when we are saved through faith in Jesus, we have not made the law of no effect. Since we have met the requirement of the law in us, the law has nothing to say. Never think that we should add the work of the law to our faith. For us to believe is like paying the sixty cents. For us to keep the law is like having the light. No one in the whole world would have the light and pay sixty cents at the same time. This is unreasonable. Why does one have to pay sixty cents and at the same time have the light? If he is able to have the light, then he does not have to pay the sixty cents. If there is the word of faith, then there cannot be the law. If there is the law, there cannot be the word of faith. No one can have faith and keep the law at the same time, for to do so would be to despise the Lord Jesus. It would mean that one fails to see his utter weakness and filthiness.
Please read again Galatians 2:16-17: "And knowing that a man is not justified out of works of law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed into Christ Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in Christ and not out of the works of law, because out of the works of law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also have been found sinners, is then Christ a minister of sin? Absolutely not!" The book of Galatians shows us that some in Galatia contended that even though man was justified through faith in the Lord Jesus, it was not enough; he still had to keep the law. They were not saying that a man should not believe. They recognized that a man was justified in Christ. But they were saying that one still needed to keep the law. Paul said a very strong word here. He said that if while seeking to be justified in Christ we have been found sinners, it meant that after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, we are still not justified, that we are still sinners, and must still keep the law before we can be saved. For example, suppose that I am sick, and I spend ten days with one doctor. Afterwards, because the sickness is still present, I have to consult another doctor. If I seek to be justified in Christ, and at the same time try to keep the law, it means that I am still a sinner and have not yet been saved. If I am no longer a sinner, then I should not need to keep the law anymore. If I am still a sinner, is Christ a minister of sin? Paul asked that if he was not justified after he had believed in the Lord Jesus, did that mean that Christ is a minister of sin? The answer is, "Absolutely not!" In the New Testament, Paul said "absolutely not" many times. In Greek, it is an idiom. It is translated in the King James Version as "God forbid." It is equivalent to the expression "heaven forbid," a very strong word. This means that even heaven would reject this. There is no reason under the sun that this should be so. Hence, one can see that a man cannot have faith in Jesus and at the same time keep the law.
In Romans 3, Paul made another clear statement. Verse 28 says, "For we account that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." This is a conclusive statement. Now it is a matter of faith. It has absolutely nothing to do with the law. Thank the Lord. Jesus is enough. When the Bible pays attention to faith, it pays attention to God's grace. This shows us that everything comes by receiving. Some like to exalt men in their gospel preaching. But if we know the Bible, we will see that apart from God, man is absolutely helpless. Please remember these two sentences: man is not saved by the law, and neither is he saved by faith with the law. This is the first and most common mistake of man. Man has mixed faith with the law.”
