Ⅳ
We need to be rescued from lawlessness and from being workers of lawlessness and to do what is right in the eyes of God by obeying the principle of serving God—Titus 2:14; Matt. 7:21-23:
A
Doing what is right in our own eyes is lawlessness—Judg. 21:25:
１
“Sin is lawlessness”; hence, lawlessness is sin, or, reciprocally, sin is lawlessness—1 John 3:4:
ａ
In 1 John 3:4 “lawlessness,” or being without law, denotes being without, or not under, the principle of God’s ruling over man.
ｂ
To sin is to be without law, to trespass against the law.
ｃ
In God’s eyes, a person sins when he acts according to his own nature and deliberation, walking according to self-will and rebelling against God’s authority.
ｄ
Lawlessness is not recognizing and submitting to God’s authority.
ｅ
To practice lawlessness is to live a life outside of and not under God’s ruling principle over man; the present age is full of lawlessness and rebellion.
ｆ
In lawlessness one not only rebels against authority but acts as if there were no law.
２
In order to purify to Himself a particular people as His peculiar possession, Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness—Titus 2:14.
B
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens”—Matt. 7:21:
１
To call on the Lord suffices for us to be saved, but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we also need to do the will of the heavenly Father—Rom. 10:13; 12:2; Matt. 12:50; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9.
２
Since entering into the kingdom of the heavens requires doing the will of the heavenly Father, it is clearly different from entering into the kingdom of God through regeneration—John 3:3, 5:
ａ
The entrance into the kingdom of God is gained through being born of the divine life—1:12-13; 3:5-6.
ｂ
The entrance into the kingdom of the heavens is gained through the living of the divine life—Matt. 7:21; 12:50.
C
The Lord Jesus rebuked those who prophesied, cast out demons, and did works of power in His name because, as “workers of lawlessness,” they did these things out of themselves, not out of obedience to God’s will—7:23:
１
There are two principles in the universe—the principle of God’s authority and the principle of Satan’s rebellion—Acts 1:7; Isa. 14:13-14:
ａ
We cannot serve God on the one hand and take the way of rebellion on the other hand; we must turn away from the principle of lawlessness and reject the way of rebellion—Matt. 28:18; Jude 11.
ｂ
Serving God is directly linked to His authority; if we do not settle the matter of authority, we will have problems in all areas of our service.
２
May the Lord preserve our service in the principle of submission to God’s authority and the Father’s will—Acts 1:7; Matt. 7:21; 12:50.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father…. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and…cast out demons, and…did many works of power? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.[Matthew 7:21] does not refer to the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today, but to the coming manifestation of the kingdom in the future. To enter into the kingdom of the heavens we need to do two things: call on the Lord and do the will of the heavenly Father. To call on the Lord suffices for us to be saved (Rom. 10:13), but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens we also need to do the will of the heavenly Father. Hence, “Not everyone who says…Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens,” but those who call on the Lord and do the will of the heavenly Father.
Since entering into the kingdom of the heavens also requires doing the will of the heavenly Father, it is clearly different from entering into the kingdom of God by being regenerated (John 3:3, 5). This latter is by the birth of the divine life; the former is by the living of that life. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 302)
Today’s Reading
In Matthew 7:21 the Lord does not say “your Father,” but “My Father.” Here the Lord seems to be saying, “I, the Son of Man and the Son of God, have been doing the will of My Father. You also are sons of God and My brothers. Therefore, you must be My companions and take the same way that I take….You are My brothers, My companions, and My partners. You and I are walking the same way and doing the same will. You are living with Me according to the will of My Father.”…In order to do the will of the Father, we need to walk in the constricted way….Our Father has a will to accomplish, but we can accomplish it only by His life. We need to live in the life of the heavenly Father and also by that life. This kind of living is for the doing of the Father’s will.The Lord never approved those who prophesied, cast out demons, and did many works of power in His name, but not according to the will of the heavenly Father (v. 21). The Lord did not deny that they did those things, but He considered those things as lawlessness because they were not done according to the will of the heavenly Father. They were not done in the line of the divine will. The Lord seemed to be saying, “You prophesied in My name, you cast out demons in My name, and you did many works of power in My name, but I never allowed you to do them. I never approved you because you did all those things in a lawless way. You did them in yourself, in your own desire, and according to your own intention, not according to the will of My Father.” Thus, those who do such things, even in the Lord’s name, will not enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but will depart from the Lord; that is, they will be rejected from the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming age.
The runners in any race must run in the proper lanes. Although you may run faster than others, your running will not be recognized if you run outside the lines of your lane. Rather, that type of running will be considered lawlessness. You must run the race between the lines; that is, you must run in a constricted way. Today the work of many Christian workers is not restricted by the heavenly lines. In their own eyes, they have done a great deal in the Lord’s name and for the Lord. In the eyes of the Lord, however, their work is a kind of transgression, a violation of the heavenly lines. Hence, their work is lawlessness….There are constricting lines in the Lord’s recovery, and we must be constricted in our running. If we run between the lines, not outside of them, we shall be approved by the Lord. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 303-305)
Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msg. 24; CWWL, 1932-1949, vol. 3, “Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2,” chs. 25-26