In our study of how the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord impacted the spiritual life of believers in the Church Age we are discussing the two opposite systems, the arrogance of the Cosmos empowered by the OSN and the Grace of the Royal Law that is empowered by God the Holy Spirit.
When we stopped last time we were discussing the fact that TLJC always function in complete transparency because he always functioned under the Royal Law.
Peter refers to this in 1Pet 2:22; "(Christ) who did not sin, not even was any deceit found in His mouth;"
We see here that deceit is antithetical to the Royal Law.
Deceit includes every form of lying, and behind it is the motivation of trickery, duplicity, hypocrisy, the disguise of bitterness, hatred, rancor, malice, spite, vindictiveness, implacability, and resentment.
Deceit violates the royal law and the principle that "You shall love you neighbor as yourself").
Deceit is the disguise of the lust pattern of the OSN, and is consequently a very common type of sin.
People use deceit to gain power, approbation, pleasure lust, sexual lust, and crusader lust. This is inordinate ambition that results in inordinate competition.
Deceit hides malice that is the lust to destroy someone with lies.
Deceit advances under false colors. It flies the flag of the arrogance skills. Self-justification uses deceit in legalism. People use deceit to justify their own goals and objectives.
The result is perversion of the truth, prevarication and speaking falsely with deliberate intent.
Deceit can be dressed up as flattery, it is the contriving of duplicity, and the artifice and subterfuge to inflate the ego of people in order to manipulate and control.
The impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union resisted every temptation in every one of these areas.
No relationship in life can be built on deceit. This includes one's relationship with God. If we are deceived regarding how to be saved, we have no relationship with God no matter what we may think in our deception.
If we are deceived regarding the post-salvation spiritual life, we have no harmonious rapport with God no matter what we think in our deception.
Instead of having deceit we must have impersonal love for all mankind and we cannot have impersonal love for all mankind without personal love for God as our motivation.
When we have impersonal love for all mankind, we have the capacity for personal love for a select few. If we overload our soul with too many personal love relationships, we will never find happiness in personal love.
Heb 9:14; says that He "offered Himself without blemish to God." 1 John 3:5; "in fact in him there is no sin in Him." 2Cor 5:21; "He made Him who knew no sin to become sin as a substitute for us."
1Pet 2:23; "(Christ) who when they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; while suffering, He uttered no threats, instead He repeatedly entrusted Himself to the One who judges in a righteous and just manner;"
The impeccable human nature our Lord used four procedures from the Royal Law in order not to retaliate.
He used the fourth stage of the faith-rest drill where he put the matter in the hands of the supreme court of heaven.
He used personal love for God the Father as the motivation for impersonal love for all those at the Cross insulting Him.
He used impersonal love for those who wronged Him unjustly.
He shared the happiness of God in the staying power of both imputation and judgment of all sins.
Our Lord did not bear a grudge against those who were insulting Him. Heb 7:26; "For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."
We therefore have the most exalted of all spiritual lives because we have the most fantastic Lord and Savior and role model.
The impeccable human nature of Christ on the Cross entrusted Himself to God the Father who judged righteously. The human nature of our Lord placed His trust in the righteousness, justice, and love of God.
1Pet 2:24, "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
Instead of carrying a grudge toward those who sin against us, we must remember that Jesus Christ carried our sins and the sins committed against us in His own body on the Cross.
1 Pet 3:18, "For Christ also once for all suffered as a substitute for our sins, the Righteous One as a substitute for unrighteous ones, in order that He might bring us to God, on the hand one having been put to death in the flesh, but on the other hand, having been made alive by the Spirit."
The application of the royal law in Christian marriage is taught in 1 Pet 3:1-9.
1Pet 3:1, "In the same manner, you wives, remain under the authority of your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without saying a word by the behavior of their wives,"
In this illustration, "even if" the husband has rejected Bible doctrine and the wife has not she is to remain under his authority.
A lot of injustice can occur in marriage on the part of the husband who resents his wife's interest in the word of God. She has the right to go to the supreme court of heaven. but she is to remain under his authority.
No husband is ever won over by nagging, but it is possible to win him over by the wife's silent testimony.
1Pet 3:2; "when they observe your blameless manner of life associated with respect."
She is not to react to her unjust husband in any way. She is to remain blameless.
She is to continue loving her husband with respect that is the highest category of reciprocal love. Respect is a responding love of deference, admiration, honor, esteem, consideration, and partiality to the one with the authority over her.
The greatest thing a woman can give a man in the area of love is her respect. Therefore, the Christian wife must make an issue out of her love-respect for her husband rather than his flaws, sins, or failures.
She enters into a silent testimony because reaction cannot solve problems.
Both spouses in marriage have free volition. Therefore, in making an issue out of her spiritual life, the wife must remember that freedom without authority is anarchy, which is the chaos and confusion of soul under sin nature control.
To avoid anarchy in the home, freedom must have virtue. When a wife starts nagging her husband, she has lost her virtue, and with the loss of virtue comes the malfunction of her spiritual life and the marriage.
Nagging never advances the wife's cause. Her cause is only advanced with the fulfillment of the operational spiritual life of the Church Age, that has impact in association with the royal law of Lev 19:18; and James 2:8;
The wife's staying power in marriage is the virtue that comes from the function of the royal law plus her personal love for God the Father.
1Pet 3:3; "Your adornment must not be merely external braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
Coalescence of souls from integrity love is far more important than physical beauty and attraction. Beauty should come from the soul not just from external appearance.
Good grooming plus inner beauty of the soul is irresistible to the husband. Spiritual values emphasize inner beauty, but at the same time do not reject proper grooming.
1 Pet 3:4; "but the hidden person of the heart associated with the imperishable quality of a humble and quiet spirit, which has great value in the sight of God."
In this passage, the inner beauty of the soul is defined in terms of the spiritual life of the Christian wife.
The heart is the right lobe of the soul that circulates metabolized or spirit taught Bible doctrine throughout the soul. Doctrine becomes part of one's vocabulary, category storage, memory center, frame of reference, conscience, momentum, wisdom, and is the mirror of the soul.
Without humility there can be no inner beauty. The word translated "gentle" is the Greek word "praus" that denotes a person who is soothing, patient, and calm with those who are irritated because of inner strength from Bible Doctrine.
This composure and strength avoids bitterness and all of the sins of reaction. This Inner beauty is the only beauty that gets more beautiful with age.
When a woman reacts to the man she loves, a vacuum is created in her soul, so that the problem solving devices are neglected or rejected resulting in the loss of inner beauty. This causes the woman to become vulnerable to flattery from other men.
When one reacts to someone they love it often results in one responding to the wrong person or persons. When a woman uses reaction in an attempt to punish someone she loves she destroys her own inner beauty.
She loses all of her values related to the spiritual life. The result is the transfer of her love-respect from her husband to the deceptive deceitful praise of another man. This loss of virtue results in the loss of coalescence of souls in marriage.
1Pet 3:5; "For in this way in former times holy women (believers) also, who had confidence in God, kept adorning themselves, being submissive to their own husbands;"
Peter gives us the Old Testament illustration of inner beauty. A holy woman is one who was set apart unto God, that is, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as he was revealed in their time.
Hope is confidence in God. Hope as confidence in God is part of the function of the faith-rest drill. It was the focus of the spiritual life of the Old Testament and is the coordinator of the spiritual life in the New Testament.
These women kept making themselves attractive by their submission to divinely established authority. In this case it was the authority of their husband. The woman was created as a responder, so that living under the authority of their husbands is not considered demeaning.
A woman who does not respect her husband is out of fellowship, is under the control of the OSN, and will come under divine discipline.
1Pet 3:6; "like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him lord, you have become her daughters, when you do what is intrinsic good, and are not intimidated."
Intimidation or fear always sees the problem; faith always sees the solution. If you go through life in a state of fear, you are intimidated by life. If you are intimidated by life, you will never have any inner beauty.
Psa 56:3, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in You." You put your trust in the Lord and refuse to be intimidated. Great believers are those do not live by fear, and therefore, cannot be intimidated by fear. All of us have to pass the intimidation test a number of times.