PLUMB-LINE OF GOD’S WORD

(LICENSE, LIBERTY, LEGALISM)

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

(John 8:36)

The scripture is like a plumb-line by which everything is measured. There is liberty in the Spirit of the Lord and in His Word. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Liberty in the scriptural sense can be defined as the power and ability to please God. For “when the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.”

There is a ditch on either side of the “liberty” of the plumb-line: On one side is “legalism” and on the other side is “license.”

In the “liberty” of the plumb-line, we are instructed by the scripture and led by the Holy Spirit. There is a perfect balance of spirit and truth as described in John 4:23 “True worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.”

Life is in Jesus as taught in His word by the revelation of Holy Spirit. Jesus is the “new wine” that the Father desires to pour into “new wine skins” of the “called out ones” as described in Matthew 9:17.

The ditch of “legalism” adds to the word and as Mark 7:7-9 states, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, for laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men and reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition.”

On the other side of the ditch is “license” that takes away from the word and everyone “does what is right in his own eyes” as recorded in Deuteronomy 12:8. In this ditch, decisions are made according to the situation ethics of the situation. Every thing is relative. It just depends upon what “is” is?

This distortion of the truth is as old as the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempted Eve with the subtle question, “Hath God really said? And Satan still tempts us with similar questions such as “Did God say it?”…“Did God mean what He said?”…“Did God say what He meant?”…“Did God mean it for us today?”

According to I Peter 1:23 “The word of God liveth and abideth forever.” In II Timothy 3:16, we read, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

There was an old adage many years ago that said, “If God said it, I believe it and that settles it!” What we need to know and confirm is that “If God said it, that settles it whether we believe it or not!”