We were created to be living epistles that all of God's creatures might learn the difference between good and evil.

God chose you and me, each Christian, to perform certain good works. Obviously we do not all do the same good works, but we press forward toward our individual mark. We are saved by grace through faith. This salvation is God's gift to us. We did not earn it by keeping the Law of Moses or any other code of religious or moral behavior.

God's purpose in saving us is that the angels and the inhabitants of the earth might see and understand the difference between good and evil.

In the middle of the Garden of Eden God placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is my opinion that both of these trees reflect the Character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The sign of spiritual maturity is that we can discern between good and evil and are willing and able to choose the good and reject the evil. But we cannot attain such maturity except as the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is the eternal law of God made flesh, is formed in us.

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14—NIV)

The mistake Adam and Eve made was to partake of the knowledge of good and evil before they partook of the tree of life. They were slain by the eternal moral law of God before they had a chance to partake of the Life of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul stated that the same was true of him before He received Christ. The Law of Moses killed him.

For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. (Romans 7:11—NIV)

God gave His elect the Law of Moses in order to control sin before the Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared on the earth.

Then through the Lord Jesus, and through the Lord Jesus through the Apostles, God's holy commandments were issued. The New Testament contains numerous commandments that we must observe if we are to enter eternal life. God also gave us the blood of the Lord Jesus so we can enter the Most Holy Place in Heaven and receive strength to help us overcome worldliness, the lusts of our flesh, and self-will.

All of these commandments are steps back to the original righteousness, the righteousness the angels experienced before the creation of the world, and yet did not comprehend. This is the righteousness which is God Himself—His moral Character.

The end of the new covenant is that God's moral Character might be written in our mind and heart. Then we are in fact the righteousness of God, for it is Christ in us who is living. Our inward nature has been transformed, by the Holy Spirit, into the image of the Glory of the Lord. Then the Father and the Son make Their eternal home in our transformed inward nature. Now we indeed are the righteousness of God—not an attributed righteousness, a legally assigned righteousness, but an actual righteousness of personality.

To be continued.