Love Series #2

“Love and New Covenant”

Fred Coulter – July 9, 1993

One thing we need to understand, and that is, and this is the spiritual maturity to which we need to come. We need not be afraid of anything, or anyone, or any doctrine. I feel that if you really strive to stay close to Christ, which I’m sure all of us are trying to do, and you ask for the mind of Christ, and study His Word, that you will be able to know the truth and understand it. You will be able to differentiate truth from error, because Christ promised we would. It says, “Hereby [you] know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6). And so therefore you can have discussions of any length, and even quite heated at times like it was in Acts 15 if necessary, and still love each other, and still have the Spirit of God, because God doesn’t want us to be just doormats. I mean, how on earth are we going to assist Christ in ruling in the millennium if we’re just doormats? Never happen. And so, one of the things that we need to understand, and understand more deeply in the differentiation between, how shall I say it, law keeping, to the letter of the law. And so at this point I’m going to play a song for you.

Before we get the song to play it, I want to ask you a question. Can you have a relationship with people, or with one another, based solely on law, and be correct, but have it a nonfunctioning agreement? And this is what has happened in so many churches of God which stress, and rightly so but too much so, keep the commandments, keep the commandments. And no one is saying we should not keep the commandments. And which is really kind of the lesson of Job. Job did everything perfect in the letter but he was missing one important ingredient, and that was really loving God enough to see his own position in relationship to God. So that’s why he had to repent so drastically at the end. So I want to play this song, and it’s from Fiddler on the Roof.

“Do You Love Me?”

Tevye: Golde do love me?

Golde: Do I what?

Tevye: Do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you?

Tevye: Well?

Golde: With our daughters getting married and there’s trouble in the town, you’re upset, you’re worn out, go inside, go lie down. Maybe it’s indigestion.

Tevye: Ah no, Golde I’m asking you a question. Do you love me?

Golde: You’re a fool.

Tevye: I know. But do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you?

Tevye: Well?

Golde: For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked your cow. After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?

Tevye: Golde, the first time I met you was on our wedding day. I was scared.

Golde: I was shy.

Tevye: I was nervous.

Golde: So was I.

Tevye: But my Father and my mother said we’d learn to love each other. And now I’m asking, Golde, Do you love me?

Golde: I’m your wife.

Tevye: I know - But do you love me?

Golde: Do I love him?

Tevye: Well.

Golde: For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, starved with him. Twenty-five years my bed is his. If that’s not love, what is?

Tevye: Then you love me?

Golde: I suppose I do.

Tevye: And I suppose I love you, too.

Tevye and Golde: It doesn’t change a thing, but even so, after twenty-five years, it’s nice to know.

If you listen to the tape very carefully, she answered and said, “Do you love me?” She said, “Well I suppose I do.” And many people in the church of God, and many brethren, are that way toward God. And they think that they can love God, and express the love to God, by just keeping the commandments. And that’s exactly the reverse of what God wants us to have.

Let’s go to Mark 12. Let’s see something interesting, and let’s ask the question: why should we love God? And that was really the question that he was asking his wife: “Why don’t you love me?” “Well I washed your clothes, and I mended your socks, and I’ve cooked your meals.” All legal binding agreements in the law for a marriage, right? Yes. “But do you love me?” And we need to clarify something else I think is most important and most profound, which is this. You’ve heard said that God is putting us through all of this misery we’re going through so we will learn not to sin. That’s true. But I’ll tell you one thing that’s important. We’re not going to go through all eternity beating our spiritual flesh, as it were, saying, “I’m not going to sin, I’m not going to sin, I’m not going to sin.” No, because the only way you can live for eternity is by love. You think on that a minute, because God is not going to have us there unless we love Him. And that’s just the way it’s going to be.

Let’s come here to Mark 12, and this will show you that the love of God is more than just a commandment. It’s more than just repeating the words and a ritual. Ok, verse 28, “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, [he] asked Him [that is, Jesus], Which is the first commandment of all?” Now the Greek there is protos, primary, the most basic fundamental commandant of all.

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God…” Now notice how this is to be. There is not one word of commandment keeping here, ok. And we will see how that all flows together in 1 John in just a minute. “…And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,…” So you won’t have to ask the question, “Do you love me?” “…With all thy soul,…” Now if your soul is your physical body, than that means you have to take care of it and eat the right things, and so forth. But, “…with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,…” Now that’s something else, because people truly, deeply in love can think of nothing else, ok. All of your mind, and not only that, it’s not a part-time job, it’s “…with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31).

And Jesus gave a third commandment, “…you shall love each other as I have love to you,…” (John 13:34, paraphrased). And He also said in the parallel account in Matthew 22, “…that on these hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40, paraphrased). They hang from. Love is not supported by. They come from. So law is derived from love. So when we understand that God is love, and there is only one lawgiver, Who is God, then law comes from love because God is love. Which is very important. We’ll change our whole perspective in how we obey God, and how we look to the things, and how we’re going to respond God.

Now notice what he said, continuing verse 32. “And the scribe said unto Him, Well, Master [that is, well spoken Master], Thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but He: and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” So in a marriage you can put up with an awful lot of clothes not washed if you truly love each other, ok. Now notice Jesus’ answer. And this is what is missing most of the time. “And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto him [notice], Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (vs. 32-34). He’s getting close to the object of it, and when you put all of this in context with the punctiliousness of the keeping of the commandments in the letter by Judaism you will understand the profundity of the statement. “You are not far. You are finally getting close,” see. And then look at all the other questions that they asked Jesus, and so forth, ok.

Now let’s understand something that is so, I don’t quite know how to put it. Profound is not the word. But let’s see the requirement of love that God put on Himself for us. And this is a very basic fundamental scripture. We’re going to turn to one we all know, and you probably know the exact scripture where I’m turning, and you probably know the exact scripture, and you probably have it well memorize, but let’s hope we can learn some more of the love of God from this, ok.

John 3:16, “For God so loved…”, this means God’s profound love for the world, not just us, but the world. And so in God’s own time He’s going to show that, and prove that. And after all it’s the same thing, just like in marriage. What on earth good is a marriage if it’s just run by law, if there’s no love? It will soon break down in hate. And what good is it to serve a God who is not a God of love? I mean, you think about that, ok. “…[He] so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,…” And it’s interesting in the Greek. “…He gave His only Son the begotten, the only begotten,…” see. So it’s even more emphatic. “…That whosoever [is believing on Him, or in Him] believeth in Him…” Of course as I mentioned in the series on John that “in” means “into”. Your faith comes from within you, out of you toward God, and into His very being of faith and love, ok. “…Should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17). And that is God’s desire. He’s given the choice up to us, ok.

Now let’s understand how this impacts into our lives. Let’s go to our print out here on 1 John, and let’s go to the 4th chapter, and let’s see some very important things. You can follow along in the King James if you have that, but we’ve got a special print out of 1 John. I’ll later use this for the whole series that I’m going to go through on it. Ok, let’s pick it up here in verse 7. And this is then the whole basis of the New Covenant, ok. “Beloved, we should be loving one another, because the love…” And it’s interesting and in the Greek is, “…the love is from God, and every one who is loving, has been begotten from God, and is knowing God. The one who is not loving, does not know God, because GOD IS LOVE!” (1 John 4:7-8, AT).

Now it’s something we can possess, but that is what God is. Now continuing in verse 9, “In this way,…” And of course in the Greek again, as we will learn, it is en toutoo, in this way or, this manner or, this means. “…The love of God was manifested in us,…” Now he’s talking about the apostles in relationship to showing the love of God towards the disciples and the believers. That this kind of, “GOD IS LOVE,” was manifest in us that we are preaching to you versus the first part of this, which are the antichrist and the ones of the Devil, ok. Because he goes on saying here, “…that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” Now we come back to the present tense again, ok. “In this act, is THE LOVE!” (1 John 4:9-10, AT).

In other words, that there’s no other way of saying the profundity of the love of God. THE LOVE - in this very act of sending His Son. Now he didn’t…when you look at it, the hardest thing for us as people to do. Now I’ve had to go through this, and I know you have. The hardest thing in the world to do is to show love to someone that you don’t want to show love to, ok. With the world filled with sin the way it is, would you come and die for them? I mean think of that the next time you watch all the evil on TV, and you’ll realize, as I do, we have a long way to go in growing in love, right? That doesn’t mean, for the acts they have done they don’t deserve to be punished, because they do. And we know God’s plan - that God is going to take care of it in the long run. But nevertheless, Christ was sent before these people were even created, and His sacrifice applies to them even to this day. And you know in this world we’re going to be dealing with a lot of people that they… It’s not going to be a manner of arguing over whether you go to church on Sabbath or Sunday. It’s going to be a matter of how they can restore their lives to God. And living in such a hateful world, how’s it going to be if there’s no really true love? You can have all kinds of mealy mouth love; you can have all kinds of things where you profess love, but to really have it, that’s what we’re trying to learn here tonight, ok.

“In this way, the love of God was manifested in us,…” we read that. “…that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this act, is THE LOVE! Not that we have loved God,…” And that’s the whole lesson of Job. No one is going to go to God and say, “God I love you: you got to give me salvation.” Because in that then, you’re telling God what to do, ok. “…Not that we have loved God,…” And what is the greatest thing that brings us to repentance, is to understand the love of God. That in spite of all the stupidity, in spite of all the sins, in spite of all the difficulties that I have gone through, that you’ve gone through, that whoever has gone through whatever in their life, whenever you’ve gone through a trial or difficulty or whatever it is, you realize that God loves you. And that’s the whole basis of the New Covenant brethren. “…Rather, that He loved us and [not only that He] sent His Son as an expiating,…” I’m going to change that in the final print-out to… I’ll have to look it up, but it is a propitiating, constant propitiating. Propitiation is one step above expiating. Expiating is removing your sin once. Propitiation is removing your sins on a constant basis. Which we need, which we need. And that’s why we have grace, you see. “…For our own sins. Beloved, if God so loved us in this manner, we also are duty-bound to love one another.” And it is in the Greek “duty-bound”. Now we’ve never had it put this way before, have we? But that is true. “No one has seen God at any time;…” Because there were a lot of people going around saying that they had seen God. “…If we should be loving one another, God is dwelling in us…” (1 John 4:9-12, AT).

You think about that for a minute brethren. The very fact that you have the Spirit of God in you, God is dwelling in you. Now that’s a tremendous amount of love in itself just to think on that one thing alone. That of all the people in the world (and we surely have got to come in somewhere right at the bottom rung or near to it too, or maybe on the bottom side of the bottom rung, ok whatever ok), that God loved us, not because we’re great, that we love God and God responded because of our great deed. No. And “…God is dwelling in us…” (vs. 12, AT).

Now let’s go back to chapter 3. And I tried to translate this in the English the best that I could. Let’s pick it up here in verse 1, “[Beloved] Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! [And] On account of this very thing, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but, we do know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, [for] because we shall see Him exactly as He is. And every one who is having this hope in him, is purifying himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:1-3, AT).

Now notice, based on love, let’s see how our conduct has to be. “Every one who is practicing sin, is also practicing lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness [or, anomos, against law]. And you have known that He has appeared, in order that He might take away our sins; in Him is not any sin. Every one who is dwelling in Him, does not practice sin;…” And that’s what it means in the Greek. You’re not practicing sin. It doesn’t mean you don’t sin, but you don’t practice it. “…Every one who is sinning, has not seen Him, neither has he known Him. Little children, do not be allowing anyone to deceive you; the one who is practicing righteousness, is righteous even as He is righteous. The one who is practicing sin is of the Devil, because the Devil is sinning from the beginning. [And] For this purpose, the Son of God has appeared, that He might destroy the works of the Devil. Every one who has been begotten from (of) God,…” And that’s what it means in the Greek. “…Is not practicing sin, because His seed of begettal,…” And I inserted “of begettal”. And the Greek for seed is sperma, ok. From the Father - that’s how He is dwelling in us, “…is dwelling within him and he is not able to practice sin, because he has been begotten from God.” (vs. 4-9, AT). So brethren this means this - anyone who has the Spirit of God, if they’re living in sin God is going to bring them to a conviction so they can repent, because they can’t be practicing sin.

Now I recently had someone come to my door, and was so happy that I was still living where I was when I was pastoring in Monterey. And this individual went to the congregation in Monterey that I was pastoring at that time. And with all the trouble and difficulty in the church, dropped out, and has been going to a Methodist church. And every Sunday knew that it wasn’t right. And she came and knocked on the door and said, “I’ve got to get back on the track.” You can not be practicing living in sin. And you know this is a fantastic example, brethren. Think of how many are out there, that have the Spirit of God, that are wandering like lost sheep, and all they want to know is, “Do you love me?” And all God wants to know is, “Do you love Me?” The question is, to ask in relationship to what I just said about someone not living in sin, what about weakness? If you have a weakness which causes you to sin, and I guarantee everybody one thing - that you will never be perfect in the flesh, and everyone has a weakness somewhere along the line, ok. Weakness falls into the category that…let that be a motivating factor to let you love God more and more. Because you don’t have the strength within you to overcome the weakness, because it is a weakness, and only through the strength and love of God can you ever overcome it, ok.

Now continuing on, “…because he has been begotten from God. In this manner are manifest the children of God and the children of the Devil. Every one who is not practicing righteousness is not of God, and neither is the one who is not loving his brother. Because this is the commanded message, which you heard from the beginning, that we should be loving one another.” And I’ll tell you, from the pulpit, and between brethren, there’s been too much lack of love, and bashing, and knocking, and condemning. “Not as Cain, who was of the Wicked One, and murdered his own brother. And what was the reason that he murdered him? Because his own works were wicked, but those works of his brother were righteous. My brethren, do not be amazed if the world is hating you. We are knowing that we have passed from out of the death into the Life, because we are loving the brethren. The one who is not loving his brother is abiding in the death.” Now we’ll come down through verse 16, which I think is very interesting. “Every one who is hating his own brother, is a murderer, and you are knowing that any murderer does not have eternal life dwelling in him. By this very act, we have known The Love, because He laid down His Life for us: and we are obligating ourselves to lay down our lives for the brethren” ( vs. 9-16, AT).

Now let’s come back to chapter 4. We think that it’s easy to love God, Whom we haven’t seen. But God says you better love your brother that you do see, ok. We’ll see how this ties in with the love of God. Let’s pick it up here in 1 John 4:14, “And we have seen for ourselves…”, that is the apostles. Probably at this particular time John and Andrew, and some of the other apostles at Ephesus when this was written. “…That the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God is dwelling in him and he in God. And we have known and have believed the love which God has towards us. GOD IS LOVE, and the one who is dwelling in love, is dwelling in God and God in him.” Now you see how this ties in with the command to love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being, ok. “[And] By this spiritual indwelling [I inserted there] the love has been perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because even as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in the love” (1 John 4:14-18, AT). Now you need to think about that. That doesn’t mean that we throw caution to the wind and we run out, we run cars down the road at 200 miles an hour or anything like that, and say we have no fear. But this is there is no fear in coming to God, if you love Him. There is no fear in love. Now you see if you have a husband and wife who love each other, opposite of what we’ve heard on this song here, then there’s no fear. He wouldn’t have to have the fear, “Well, do you love me?” And she wouldn’t have to have the fear to answer back and say, “Well, I’ve done all these things.” So this is the kind of fear it’s talking about, ok.

“But perfect love is casting out fear,…” And it’s an ongoing thing. You are casting it out. This includes your sins, this includes your weaknesses, this includes fearing that you won’t make it into the kingdom of God. And how many times has that been held over people’s head? God wants you there. That’s why God has called you. You should have no fear that you’re not going to make it. God wants you there, ok. “…Because fear has torment,…” (vs. 18, AT). And boy I tell you, the times I’ve had fear, and worry, and frustration, what happens? Torment, sleepless nights. We’ve all gone through it. Anyone who hasn’t, you know, it’ll come because it’s a test of love. And I’ll tell you one thing that is sure, absolutely for sure, as human beings we do not have love perfected in us unless we suffer. And God did not have love perfected in Him through Christ, until Christ suffered. Think on that. God is always perfect in love, but what God did to redeem us was such a loving act that even God had His love perfected to a greater degree through the suffering of Jesus Christ, because of what Jesus went through and what He bore in His body.

“…And the one who is fearing has not been made perfect in the love. We are loving Him, because He loved us first” (vs. 18-19, AT). We need to always remember that, and especially for a minister. What did Christ ask Peter? He said, “Peter do you love Me?” He said, “Yea Lord, I love you.” He said, “Feed My sheep.” He said the second time, “Peter do you love Me?” He said, “Yes Lord.” He was a little irritated that time, he said, “You know I love You.” He said, “Feed My sheep.” And the third time He said, “Peter do you love Me?” (And we know the play on words between phileo and agape.) And he said, “Yes Lord, You know I love You.” And He said, “Feed My lambs” (John 21:15-17, paraphrased). And this needs to be an act that a minister does, not because he wants to prove that he’s a minister, but because he loves God, ok.

“If anyone should say, I am loving God, and should be hating his brother, he is a liar.” So God puts it right back to us doesn’t He. “Because, if he is not loving his brother whom he has seen, how is he able to love God Whom he has not seen? And this is the commandment we have from Him, that the one who is loving God, also should be loving his brother.” (vs. 20-21, AT).

Now let’s come down here in chapter 5, and we will see that in the Sermon on the Mount that’s exactly where Jesus started, wasn’t it? He said, “…if you go to give a gift on the altar, and there you remember that you have aught against your brother, you go to him first and be reconciled [which is an act of love] and then come and offer your gift…” (Matthew 5:23-24, paraphrased), ok.

Now let’s come to chapter 5. “Every one who is believing that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten from [of] God; and every one who is loving Him that begat, also, should be loving him who has been begotten from Him. In this way, we are knowing that we are loving the children of God, [now notice this] when we are loving God [present tense] and keeping His commandments.” Now how much more will you keep the commandments of God if you love Him? How much better will you keep the commandments of God without having to say, “Oh I got to keep it better.” See, by having the whole attitude of loving God. So it is, “…when we are loving God and keeping His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we should be keeping His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:1-3, AT).

Now let’s go to the Gospel of John, let’s go to chapter 14 we’ll cover 14 and 15. And when I did the, “Passover Ceremony Booklet,” it really dawned on me how absolutely profound the New Covenant is, based on love. And love is greater than law. Law will give you the minimum requirement as to what you should do. If a husband says, “I want my breakfast at 6:00 every morning,” he has to tell his wife every day. “I want my breakfast at 6:00 every morning.” If she loved him she would have it ready, he would never have to ask. She would know, and wouldn’t that make things better? Or, likewise with the husband. You don’t come along and suspect because certain things aren’t done that she doesn’t, you know, she doesn’t love you or care for you, you know. And anyone who says that they’ve been married and never had a fight, well then come and tell me about it, I’d like to know. Even ministers and their wives have fights, everybody, once in awhile. I’ll guarantee it. They’re not human if they don’t.

John 14:15, here’s the whole basis of the New Covenant, ok. “If ye love Me,…” Notice there again - love first. You’re going to keep the commandments because of love, and that profound love, of loving God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being, as you can say, every fiber of your being. “…Keep My commandments.” Now this would be an interesting thing, and I don’t have it on computer, nor do I have the Greek on computer, but I hope to one of these days as one of my projects - go through the New Testament and pick out every commandment that Christ gave.

Some people like to specialize in going back over the six hundred thirty in the Old Testament. That’s fine, nothing wrong with that. But let’s try all the ones in the New Testament and see how we measure up, ok. And then He says He would send the Holy Spirit. Let’s come on down here to verse 21. “The one having My commandments and who is keeping them, that is the one who is loving Me [the “eth”, loving]; and [he] the one who is loving Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will be loving him and will be manifesting Myself to him” (AT).

Now brethren we are sitting here with the most profound thing, and I pray for greater understanding of this - God the Father, the greatest being in the universe loves us. I mean think on that. If you feel down, if you feel out, if you feel neglected, if you feel put upon, if you feel unwanted, which all of us have, remember the greatest being in the universe loves you, and loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Who was God. Read the first three verses of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “And the Word was made flesh,…” (vs. 14). And so that God could understand the temptation and the sin that we go through, Jesus Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and carried the law of sin and death within His very members, so that we could have our sins forgiven. And that’s what He bore in His body to the tree, to the cross. So that with that then, not having sin but tempted in every way like we are, He would show His profound love for God and His profound love for us. And that is so profound what He did. For God to empty and divest Himself. We’ll cover part of that when we get into Colossians tomorrow. And to divest Himself as being God to become a human being, which he was a human being, and having the law of sin and death in Him, and to be tempted in every way as we are, was an absolutely qualifying for Christ as our Savior, ok. Had to be.

Now coming back to here in John 14:22, “[And] Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?”, which is quite a question. What makes you different than other people in the world? What is it that separates us from people in the world? Not because we’re better, not because we’re richer, not because we’re greater. But there’s been a manifestation to us by the Holy Spirit of God to lead us to Him, and lead us to love Him and keep His commandments. So He says here’s how I’m going to manifest Myself to those that I call and not the world. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words:…” Now you can do a great and profound study on that. “In the beginning was the Word,…” (John 1:1), ok. So not only just the commandments, but the words of Christ. “…And My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. [The one] He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me” (John 14:22-24).

Now that brethren, is really a deep and profound thing how we need to really love God. And I’ve been through every doctoral argument that there is, and some people like to say that they manifest love by throwing out doctrine. You can’t do that, because doctrine are the teachings of God. You can’t love God and throw out doctrine, see. But I tell you what, even though you get all right and get it all straightened out, if you don’t love God what good is it? Are there people who know of the Sabbath day and keep it in their own way but don’t have Christ? Yes. Are there people who don’t murder and don’t have Christ? That don’t have the love of God. Yes. So you can go right on down the line any one of the commandments, you see. That’s not to do away with them.

Let’s go to Romans here and let’s see how that this love, coupled with grace - and grace is the first manifestation of the love of God - that something very important happens, ok. Romans 3:31. By faith, and by grace, and by love, what we actually do when we love God then, we keep the laws of God in a proper and correct way. Now that’s something to really think and ponder on, isn’t it? We do, ok. And what are we doing with this love, because you can have law without love and you accomplish nothing eternally. But if you have eternal love and you keep the commandments of God with faith and grace, then here’s what you do. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). And it’s very interesting that in the Greek it means you make the law to stand. And I think that’s profound. We make it to stand, ok.

Let’s come over here to… Now let’s see how this is true with loving God and magnifying the law, ok. Isaiah 42:21, “The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;…” Now think how absolutely perfectly Christ kept the laws, ok.