We are presently doing a study of how the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord impacted the spiritual life of believers in the Church Age.
We are presently discussing the two opposite systems, the arrogance of the Cosmos and empowered by the OSN and the Grace of the Royal Law that is empowered by God the Holy Spirit.
We left off last time with the idea that iconoclastic arrogance is divorced from reality in human relationships. Iconoclastic arrogance is subjective preoccupation with other people that is rooted in subjective preoccupation with self and results in the creation of unrealistic role models for others.
The arrogance of idolizing and rejecting one's very own icon is transference arrogance where one transfers the blame for their own failure to an innocent person. This is a direct violation of the royal law.
The feet of clay syndrome is the arrogant irrationality of rearranging the doctrine of sin to be compatible with one's own self-righteous arrogance and self- centered attitude.
It is very rare for a believer to see their own sinfulness and evil while functioning in role model arrogance, unrealistic expectation, the feet of clay syndrome or iconoclastic arrogance.
It is also unrealistic to expect to receive the best response from someone when we think the worst of them.
In addition to the acknowledgment of sin, the problem solving devices that are absolutely necessary to bring the believer back from all this arrogance are grace orientation, personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, and occupation with Christ.
Rom 12:2-3; states the problem and mandates the solution,
v2 "Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renovation of your thinking, that you may prove what the will of God is good of intrinsic value production (which is harmonious rapport with God), acceptable to God (being in the will of God), the completion (of the spiritual life).
The word translated "perfect" in the NASB is the Greek word "teleios" that means to become mature or complete.
v3 For I say through the grace which is given to me to everyone who is among you, stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but think in terms of sanity, as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from doctrine."
The royal law is named after the royal person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was God's intent that the royal law be revealed in the dispensation of Israel, but not be completely understood until the hypostatic union when Jesus Christ went to the Cross and received the imputation of the sins of all mankind.
The royal law is included as a part of the spiritual childhood of the Church Age believer. This means that the complete fulfillment of the royal law could not occur until Jesus Christ came and fulfilled it in His perfect human nature under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the highest form of royalty that has or ever will exist in all of human history. The royal law was for His royalty. Our Lord was born into the greatest royal line in all of history as the Son of David.
It is the only royal line that will survive human history. Ultimately his royalty will not only include Israel, but in the future it will include all believers in the human race in glorified bodies.
The royal law was waiting for a perfect royal person to come along and execute it. Jesus Christ fulfilled it on the Cross.
This resulted in impersonal love for all mankind becoming a part of the spiritual life. Impersonal love for all mankind was how Jesus Christ received the imputation of every sin in human history on the Cross without committing a single personal sin.
1Pet 3:18; "For Christ also once for all suffered as a substitute for our sins, the Righteous One as a substitute for the unrighteous ones, in order that He might bring us to God, on the one hand having been put to death in the flesh, but on the other hand having been made alive by the Spirit."
Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross fulfilled the royal law to the maximum. He is the only person in history who could fulfill the royal law perfectly because every sin against our Lord was unjust and unfair because He never sinned.
Our Lord brought us to God through fulfillment of the royal law. 2Cor 5:21; "He (God the Father) made Him (our Lord) who knew no sin to be sin as a substitute for us, in order that in him (in Christ) we might become the righteousness of God."
The royal law is named for the greatest human royalty in history, and Jesus was born into the royal family of Israel under an eternal unconditional covenant, called the Davidic covenant found in 2Sam 7:8-16; Psa 89:20-37; 2Chron 21:7;
We have seen that Jesus Christ is descended through David and Bathsheba through Nathan, the forefather of Mary in the genealogy of Luke 3:31; and Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, is descended through Solomon, but Solomon's line is cut off by the virgin birth.
Because of his victory, Jesus Christ has additional royal titles including King of kings and Lord of lords, Rev 17:14; Rev 19:16 and The Bright Morning Star, Rev 22:16;
Some principles that come from the application of the Royal Law include:
When facing injustice, the danger is meeting a sin with a sin rather than seeking the divine solution.
Impersonal love enables the believer to a sin with a divine solution.
With impersonal love, the integrity of the subject is greater than the obnoxiousness of the object.
The major issue when the believer is a victim of unjust treatment is the status of the believer's soul in relationship to the spiritual life. Will the believer remain in the spiritual life and apply grace and doctrine or react in arrogance.
Impersonal love as a solution is not usable unless the believer has developed personal love for God as an integral part their spiritual life.
When an innocent person meets a sin by reacting with a sin, the sin of the innocent person is greater than the one who committed the initial sin. This is because arrogance is the worst sin. Prov 6:16; Net note 33
The royal law is fulfilled in three dispensations. It was fulfilled by any Israelite who used the fourth stage of the faith-rest drill and became a plaintiff before the supreme court of heaven.
It was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ during the hypostatic union.
It is fulfilled by every Church Age believer who uses impersonal integrity love as a problem solving device.