Question: What is the Scriptural ground for Christians to gather together on? L. C. G.
Answer: Matthew 18:20. It is gathered to the name of Christ as members of His body. We are redeemed by His blood, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and to be gathered to His name implies separation from evil, and that in the unity of the Spirit. (Eph. 4:2-4; 1 Cor. 10:16, 17).
Question: How are we to understand Matthew 5:34-37?
What is the thought of James 5:12?
What does Hebrews 7:21 mean? A. O.
Answer: Matthew 5:34-37 and James 5:12 refer to the habits and customs of the Jews to make vows and pledges in the name of Jehovah. The Lord teaches us not to make vows or pledges, but to be content with “yes,” or “no”. A vow made in Jehovah’s name, they could not take back. It was needless and wrong in some instances (Judg. 11:30, 31, 34-40; Matt. 14:7-11).
Hebrews 6:13-18; 7-21 refer to how God has met man’s natural unbelief, conforming His promise by an oath, and so in 7:21, Christ Jesus has an unchangeable priesthood. He is a priest forever. What assurance this gives the believer’s heart, that he will be carried all the way through to the end.
Question: Is the law (the ten commandments) the rule of life for the Christian? D. H.
Answer: The law was given from Mount Sinai to Israel only; any stranger who settled among them was also under it. It was never given to the Gentiles. Its use is to show man his wickedness. By the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 1 Tim. 1:9). It was a schoolmaster to Israel until Christ came (Gal. 3:24).
The Lord Jesus died for sinners. And the gospel, unlike the law, goes out to every creature (Mark 16:15). Since Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:15), both the believing Jew and Gentile are saved through Christ’s death, and can say, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). Now they have life “in Christ,” and no condemnation can come to them (John 5:24). Christ is their life (Col. 3:1-4). They are, or shall be saved by His life—that is, by His living for them at God’s right hand (John 14:19; Rom. 5:10). He is their Intercessor (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). He is their Advocate, if any man sin (1 John 2:1). The converted Jew being dead with Christ is freed from the law (Rom. 7:4; Rom. 6:14).
The converted Gentile is the same. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin by the body of Christ (Rom. 6:11; 7:4). The Holy Spirit now dwells in the Christian to tell him the things of Christ (John 14:16, 17, 26; 16:13, 14).
Christ is the pattern for the Christian’s walk (Phil. 1:21, 2:5; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15). He is our goal in glory (Phil. 3:14, 20, 21; 1 John 3:2, 3). Christ is our all in all (Col. 3:11).
The Epistle to the Galatians was written specially to Christians, free from the principle of law-keeping (See also Acts 15). Our proper privilege and relationship is sons, and children of God (Gal. 4:4, 5). If Christ is our pattern, that is far higher.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
Jesus our Lord is our only rule of life.
Question: What is Romans 6:3,4 meant to teach us? T. E.
Answer: The question here is how sin, or the flesh which is in us, is to be treated. From verse 12 of chapter 5 we are viewed as not now associated with Adam, though in the body still, but rather associated with Christ who has passed through death. He not only died for our sins, but died to sin, and we are seen as dead to sin. “How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein,”
The lesson taught in baptism is that being baptized unto Jesus Christ we are baptized unto His death. “We are buried with Him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” We are not to own the claims of the flesh; we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God. Sin is not dead, but we are to reckon ourselves dead unto it; faith owns that we are really planted together in the likeness of His death, and that we surely shall be in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (annulled), that henceforth we should not serve sin. Our old man has been crucified, but the nature—sin in us—is still there. We are to reckon ourselves dead to its claims. We are to disregard it, refuse its suggestions as unworthy of a child of God, count ourselves dead to its claims, go on living for Christ as if it was not there. We know it is there, but we can turn from it, and give our minds something good to be occupied with (see Phil. 4:8). Let us never cherish bad thoughts, but turn the mind to good at once. Baptism is brought into this chapter to illustrate how we are to be dead unto sin in our behavior. We are baptized unto Jesus Christ, unto His death. Ordinarily we bury a dead body, but in baptism it is burial to be dead—that is, unto death, the death of Christ.