“Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).
The Apostle of Faith, Smith Wigglesworth, said “Who dares [to] believe God? Who dares claim his rights? What are the rights? ‘Now are we the sons of God.’ Absolutely the position of rest, the position of faith. Perfect trust, perfect habitation, no disturbance, peace like a river. Look at the face of God. Hallelujah! The very Word itself that comes to judge comes to help. Look! The law came as judgment, but when the Spirit comes and breathes through the law He comes to lift us higher and higher. Oh Hallelujah! We must go further. God comes to us and says, ‘I will make it right if you dare believe it.’ It is so in everything” (“Smith Wigglesworth: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings,” compiled by Roberts Lairdon, page 441).
Did you hear that?! IT IS SO IN EVERYTHING!! If we’d only dare to believe, He’d make it right! It is so in everything to those who believe. Mercy ALWAYS triumphs over judgment is the great news behind the good news. Indeed, the law came as judgment and continues its judgmental onslaught to anyone who foolishly remains devoid of the Spirit. Just because “the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” (Romans 7:14), however, does not mean that all hope is lost. Resurrection life fixes hopelessness; it repairs all inconsistencies and ambiguities. But we must divorce the letter to marry the Spirit to tap into that resurrection life. Marriage to Christ is the final answer—hope realized and faith fulfilled. Yes, “We were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that we might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
As Wigglesworth put it, “the Spirit comes and breathes through the law.” The Spirit does not blow away the law like the chaff of sin on the summer threshing floor; no, rather the Spirit blows THROUGH the law and into the recesses of the new creation man to reorient his new life to new reality. We have a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Now we “serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). Nonetheless, we still value the letter, not because of its oldness or murderous properties to our old man, but because it bears witness to Jesus Christ, the progenitor of our new man. By the Spirit we mortify (kill) the flesh, and undoubtedly, the Spirit wields the sword of the word of God (all those letters contained in Scripture, but with His breath upon it). “Death in me, life in you” was Apostle Paul’s modus operandi; killing flesh and enlivening spirit is how ministry happens. Jesus’ life, resurrection life, is what we are after, not life as we are natively constructed in Adam. Mercy triumphing over judgment is resurrection life; it is life from the dead, only said differently. The grace of mercy cannot sidestep or dismiss judgment out of hand; it must override it!
Though grace and law are in the same range of things, their peaks penetrate different heavens. When fleeing the wrath to come, do not settle down into some cul-de-sac town, nor come to the wrong mountain; rather come to Mount Zion (and have your righteous soul perfected). Whether we live or die, we are His; come up, come up, come up! Do not participate in her sins. Mercy triumphs over judgment, not by removing judgment’s force, but by transcending its reach and scaling past the baseness of its nature. Though God is love, He gets angry, and anger is not sin (only unrighteous anger and misguided expressions of it are). In the range of God’s infinite nature wrath and mercy exist. Climb the right peak and arrive at a city made without hands; climb the wrong mountain, and you will be thrust through as soon as you touch its base. We are more than overcomers not because we obtain victory without a fight, but because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The good fight of faith is fought on the same ground we once beat our common meal on; our temple was once filled with idols, but now it is filled with the Holy Spirit. Law is not eradicated by grace, only subsumed and transcended by it; indeed, grace and law are in the same range of things. Again, mercy ALWAYS triumphs over judgment is the great news behind the good news. And for the believer, it is so in everything!
The Apostle of Faith, Smith Wigglesworth, said “Who dares [to] believe God? Who dares claim his rights? What are the rights? ‘Now are we the sons of God.’ Absolutely the position of rest, the position of faith. Perfect trust, perfect habitation, no disturbance, peace like a river. Look at the face of God. Hallelujah! The very Word itself that comes to judge comes to help. Look! The law came as judgment, but when the Spirit comes and breathes through the law He comes to lift us higher and higher. Oh Hallelujah! We must go further. God comes to us and says, ‘I will make it right if you dare believe it.’ It is so in everything” (“Smith Wigglesworth: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings,” compiled by Roberts Lairdon, page 441).
Did you hear that?! IT IS SO IN EVERYTHING!! If we’d only dare to believe, He’d make it right! It is so in everything to those who believe. Mercy ALWAYS triumphs over judgment is the great news behind the good news. Indeed, the law came as judgment and continues its judgmental onslaught to anyone who foolishly remains devoid of the Spirit. Just because “the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” (Romans 7:14), however, does not mean that all hope is lost. Resurrection life fixes hopelessness; it repairs all inconsistencies and ambiguities. But we must divorce the letter to marry the Spirit to tap into that resurrection life. Marriage to Christ is the final answer—hope realized and faith fulfilled. Yes, “We were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that we might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
As Wigglesworth put it, “the Spirit comes and breathes through the law.” The Spirit does not blow away the law like the chaff of sin on the summer threshing floor; no, rather the Spirit blows THROUGH the law and into the recesses of the new creation man to reorient his new life to new reality. We have a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Now we “serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). Nonetheless, we still value the letter, not because of its oldness or murderous properties to our old man, but because it bears witness to Jesus Christ, the progenitor of our new man. By the Spirit we mortify (kill) the flesh, and undoubtedly, the Spirit wields the sword of the word of God (all those letters contained in Scripture, but with His breath upon it). “Death in me, life in you” was Apostle Paul’s modus operandi; killing flesh and enlivening spirit is how ministry happens. Jesus’ life, resurrection life, is what we are after, not life as we are natively constructed in Adam. Mercy triumphing over judgment is resurrection life; it is life from the dead, only said differently. The grace of mercy cannot sidestep or dismiss judgment out of hand; it must override it!
Though grace and law are in the same range of things, their peaks penetrate different heavens. When fleeing the wrath to come, do not settle down into some cul-de-sac town, nor come to the wrong mountain; rather come to Mount Zion (and have your righteous soul perfected). Whether we live or die, we are His; come up, come up, come up! Do not participate in her sins. Mercy triumphs over judgment, not by removing judgment’s force, but by transcending its reach and scaling past the baseness of its nature. Though God is love, He gets angry, and anger is not sin (only unrighteous anger and misguided expressions of it are). In the range of God’s infinite nature wrath and mercy exist. Climb the right peak and arrive at a city made without hands; climb the wrong mountain, and you will be thrust through as soon as you touch its base. We are more than overcomers not because we obtain victory without a fight, but because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The good fight of faith is fought on the same ground we once beat our common meal on; our temple was once filled with idols, but now it is filled with the Holy Spirit. Law is not eradicated by grace, only subsumed and transcended by it; indeed, grace and law are in the same range of things. Again, mercy ALWAYS triumphs over judgment is the great news behind the good news. And for the believer, it is so in everything!
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