Counterfeiters, Con Artists (and the Consummate Consumer)

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As I explained in Not All Israel Is Israel, The Law of Moses is the Torah of Moses, and the word torah means “teaching” (p. 154, n. 29). Therefore, in this particular passage Jeremiah is telling us that the dwelling place of God within the born-again Believer is going to be the Torah of Moses written on the heart—meaning The Teaching of Moses written on the heart. That’s why he also says one will not have to teach the other how to “know the Lord” because each one will have the Lord dwelling within them as The Teaching.

The point is, the “perfect law” that James mentioned in his discussion is the same “law” that Jeremiah has said the True Believer will have “written on the heart” under the terms of the New Covenant. That’s why James says that those who don’t do what they are supposed to do “delude themselves,” and the one who thinks he is religious but isn’t “deceives his own heart.” He knows that, for a True Believer, belief in a lie begins with a failure to seek Truth no matter what the cost. In other words, an understanding of the Truth begins by doing exactly what James says. To see yourself for what you are, you have to “look intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty” that resides within you—provided you are a born-again Believer.

The Spirit residing in the first bit of Truth you believed when you were born again will always make your situation known to you, provided you are willing to accept the reality of your situation. Just don’t turn away and immediately forget what kind of person you saw yourself to be. If you do that, you’ll be one of those who James says “delude themselves.”

How can it be that the Spirit of the Living God resides in The Teaching written on the heart of the Believer? Because the Spirit of Jesus Christ is a Word. Is that news to you? Perhaps you didn’t hear what John said:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
(John 1:1–5)

“Counterfeiters, Con Artists (and the Consummate Consumer),” The Voice of Elijah^®, July 1993, p. 9

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