Spir Dynamics 1240 2/19/98; 1070-86, 6/15/97, 1046, 1051-52; Romans 3/20/79; 6/16/77; 4/1/77

DOCTRINE OF THE INTEGRITY OF GOD

A. The Divine Personality.

1. Anything that contradicts the righteousness of God is not the divine personality. Anything that conflicts with the righteousness of God is sin.

2. God is one in essence but three separate and distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. God is a person. Personality comes from a person. His personality connotes both self-consciousness and self-determination. We cannot superimpose our personality on God, because uses language of accommodation to explain Himself to mankind.

4. God recognizes Himself as a person, and as such acts rationally in compatibility with His divine integrity—righteousness, justice, and love.

5. God’s point of reference with mankind prior to the original sin of man in the garden of Eden was the love of God. God’s point of reference with mankind after the fall of mankind is the righteousness and justice of God. The point of contact in harmonious rapport with God is to satisfy the righteousness of God, so that the justice of God does not have to spend our whole life on earth judging us by divine discipline.

6. All divine grace is based on the righteousness of God. God does not relate to us on the basis of His personality, but on the basis of His righteousness, justice, and love—His integrity.

7. God is to an absolute degree all that constitutes personality. He is Himself and He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other being, because the other beings are creatures.

8. God is infinite.

a. Infinite is defined as the doctrine of the omnipresence of God.

(1) Omnipresence includes both immanence and transcendence. The Trinity indwells the entire universe; this is called immanence. Transcendence means that God is above and independent of the universe and time. God is both immanent and transcendent, Ps 139:7-8, 17-18; Jer 23:23- 4; Act 17:17. Omnipresence is found in Deut 4:39; Isa 66:1.

(2) Omnipresence means that God’s life is from within Himself, having neither beginning or end. God created space with its billions of light years. Therefore, divine omnipresence is both in space and in time and totally outside of space and time. If space and time were defined in terms of boundaries, God would exceed them to the point of infinity. God is free to be on Mount Sinai with Moses and at the same time to be present at all times in all places, creating and sustaining both time and space and at the same time being outside of space.

(a) Omnipresence means the total of each divine person is everywhere present in the totality of their divine essence.

(b) Immanence means that all three members of the Trinity indwell and fill all of space with all of its galaxies.

© Transcendence means God occupies all of infinity. God is above and beyond all space and fills everything beyond space. (d) Locality means that God can occupy one place as the human nature of Christ did during the incarnation while still being immanent and transcendent.

(3) God is total in His essence without diffusion, expansion, multiplication or division, penetrating and filling the entire universe with His person and beyond it. God is free at the same time to become local, Isa 7:14, 9:6; Lk 1:35; Jn 1:14; 1 Tim 6:16.

(4) The uniqueness of the Church Age is that the total of each divine person indwells each believer in Jesus Christ.

(5) God lives. God does not possess life; God is life. There never has been a time when God has not existed. God is eternal, infinite, unchangeable, unending life both inside and outside of space and time. God’s life includes holiness. God’s love is a part of His integrity.

b. God unites in Himself those perfections which belong to His person and to His being. God is infinite personality, without boundary or limitation, uniting those perfections which belong to Him. For example, God cannot sin. God cannot be complicated with ignorance or absurdities.

(1) Because God is infinite, eternal, immutable, perfect justice and righteousness, perfect love and grace, He cannot be complicated by ignorance, absurdities, silliness, or even emotion in relation to His person.

(2) Because God is holy, His love can only function in perfect virtue, totally compatible with His righteousness, His justice, His love, and His grace. Even divine discipline is given in love, Heb 12:6.

(3) Because God is immutable, His love cannot vacillate or change. God’s love does not increase or decrease, improve or decline. God’s love is never frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned, or distracted.

(4) Because God foreknew human sin and failure, He did not cancel His love for mankind. That is far greater than human compassion. You cannot assign human compassion to God; you must assign God’s integrity to us.

(5) God is truth and veracity. Therefore, divine love is rooted in every Bible doctrine of the infallible word of God and every form of knowledge which belongs to the person and essence of God.

(6) God is not emotional. God does not have to respond to emotion because all three members of the Trinity in eternity past had an object for their love—the essence of the other persons of the Trinity.

(7) God’s love is not sustained by any form of rapport or attraction or any category of human works or merit. God’s love is not bought with good behavior or deeds of worthiness. Legalism tries to bribe God’s blessing with what it considers to be good morality. The only thing that impresses God in the human race is the reflection of divine integrity in the spiritual life as provided for us by the two power options, three spiritual skills, ten problem solving devices, and three stages of the spiritual life. Human good cannot attract the love of God to the believer. God loves because it is a part of His internal integrity. He doesn’t love us in response to our behavior.

9. Infinity characterizes all that God does. Infinity is a part of His personality. The infinity of God involves His eternal self-existence, His immutability, His perfection, His absolute truth, His eternal love and integrity. God knew infinitely about you in infinite, eternal past and provided everything for you. You can have rapport with infinite God.

10. Since the finite mind cannot understand the infinite, often anthropopathisms are used reveal divine policies, judgments, blessings, etc. An anthropopathism ascribes to God human compassions, feelings, attitudes, which God does not actually possess, but they are used to indicate divine policy in terms of language of accommodation. Anthropopathisms are God’s use of man’s frame of reference and human attitudes to explain divine policy in terms of human frame of reference. In anthropopathisms, God barrows from humanity compassion, longsuffering, benevolence, happiness, and even by way of illustration human love. All of the personality traits and manifestations of human characteristics which describe God must be related to anthropopathic expression to avoid blasphemy and to understand the divine policy in terms of human modus operandi. Therefore the borrowing of human personality expressions in good and bad emotions must not be construed as conflict or incompatibility with divine absolute perfection.

a. For example anger, wrath, hatred, repentance are ascribed to God as human characteristics, which God does not possess. God does not possess these things, but we can understand these things from our human frame of reference. For example, Rom 9:13, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” are both anthropopathisms. God expressed His divine policy of acceptance or rejection of each brother based on regeneration.

b. Infinite God is beyond the limits of human language, but God has revealed Himself to us in very clear concepts in terms of our own language.

c. Emotion is not part of the integrity and the person of God. Emotion is not a motivator in the spiritual life. In the person of Christ in hypostatic union, the two natures, divine and human, were united inseparably but there was no mixture or loss of separate identity or transfer of attributes. The humanity of our Lord had true human emotion, such as compassion, but human emotion was not transferred to the deity of Christ. The eternal essence of God did not change to accommodate or to relate to any creature of the universe, angelic or human.

d. The anthropopathism does not literally denote so-called repentance, but the human expression applied to God indicates change in policy.

11. The Postsalvation Summary of the Spiritual Life.

a. What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes.

b. When the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judges. The righteousness of God condemned every sin in human history and imputed them to Jesus Christ for judgment by the justice of God.

c. When the righteousness of God approves, the justice of God blesses. The righteousness of God has given total approval to the postsalvation spiritual life.

d. The righteousness of God is the base and foundation for the function of the grace of God. The justice of God is the provider.

e. The justice of God is the point of reference for every believer in Jesus Christ; therefore, the justice of God is the activator of the grace of God, the catalyst for both blessing and discipline from God. You cannot contradict the justice of God without destroying the grace of God and turning grace into legalism and evil.

f. The righteousness of God approves the believer’s execution of the spiritual life, because the spiritual life was designed to be compatible with His righteousness, justice, grace, and His love.

g. The righteousness of God condemns perpetual carnality; therefore, we receive discipline.

h. 2 Cor 13:14 explains to us the principle of harmonious rapport with God as the overall definition of our spiritual life. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.”

(1) The postsalvation spiritual life is harmonious rapport with God. Harmonious rapport with God is the believer’s response to this divine love as an integral part of the postsalvation spiritual life. That is why the winner believer has virtue love based on the integrity of God.

(2) That is why 1 Jn 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”

(3) Gal 5:22, “The production [profit, gain, advantage] of the Spirit is love [impersonal love based on integrity], joy [sharing the happiness of God], harmonious rapport with God.”

i. Jn 14:26 says, “The Mentor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” The all things which He teaches are provided in the word of God and must be communicated in our language by the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.

12. All divine attributes contribute to the person and integrity of God. While we separate these attributes for analysis and understanding, our harmonious rapport with God is the issue. Note the unity of the integrity of God—the divine essence of love is a part of that divine integrity. In the Godhead from eternity past, divine love is always related to an object through the holiness of God. Each person of the Trinity has divine righteousness both as the subject and the object in the interaction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity has divine love and righteousness related to self, the basis for spiritual self-esteem. This is the basis for the tremendous spiritual life we have now.

B. What is the integrity of God?

1. The integrity of God is the sum total of divine attributes in operation, but three are functional in relationship to the believer and his spiritual life: righteousness, justice, and love. The grace of God is an extension of divine love.

a. As an extension of divine love, grace is both a characteristic and a policy of divine love. Therefore, grace is an integral part of divine love.

b. In 2 Cor 13:14, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ...", grace is a part of the nomenclature of harmonious rapport with God as the spiritual life principle for the Church Age. Grace belongs to both the deity of Christ as a divine attribute and to the humanity of Christ as the quintessence of the spiritual life.

c. Grace is identified with God as a part of the integrity of God, Rom 5:15; 1 Cor 1:4, 15:10; 2 Cor 6:1, 8:1; Eph 3:2,7. Grace has existed from eternity past.

2. The integrity of God is part of the divine essence known as “holiness,” being composed of perfect righteousness and justice, and His love. Perfect righteousness is the principle of integrity and justice is the function.

3. All of God’s grace is based on the integrity of God. God’s perfect righteousness is the foundation, the support for the function of the grace of God. There is no function of grace that violates the integrity of God and contradicts the righteousness of God.

a. Salvation by grace alone is based on the function of the righteousness and justice of God in judging our sins in Christ on the Cross.

b. Ps 111:1-4,7-8,10 describe the integrity of God. Ps 111:1-4, “Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, In the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great the works of the Lord; Studied by all who have pleasure in them. Majesty and honor His work, And His righteousness endures forever. A memorial He has made to His wonderful works; The Lord is gracious and compassionate.” Ps 111:7-8, “The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure. They are consecrated forever and ever; They are performed in truth and integrity.” Ps 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.”

4. The righteousness and justice of God cannot be compromised. To avoid compromise of the integrity of the holiness of God there is a judicial procedure which was established in the divine decrees of eternity past and fulfilled in time—what the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judges.

a. Righteousness demands righteousness and justice demands justice under the integrity of God. This is the foundation for the production of believer righteousness in the unique spiritual life of all human history.

b. The holiness or integrity or divine virtue of God is mentioned in Ex 15:11, 19:10-16; Isa 6:3, “Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of the armies. The whole earth is full of His glory.”

5. God’s integrity is not maintained by His sovereign will. Therefore, it is a part of His unchangeable self.

6. The justice of God is man’s point of reference with God. God can do nothing for mankind that would conflict with His divine justice. Prior to the fall of man in the Garden, the love of God was man’s point of reference with God. But the love of God has not been man’s point of reference since the fall of man. The justice of God warned man in Gen 2:17 not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

7. Divine justice administers a system of divine laws which are compatible with God’s perfect integrity. Divine justice is the function of eternal God as the judge, the evaluator of mankind, and renders daily decisions in the court of heaven with regard to mankind. The decisions of the court of heaven are always compatible with God’s perfect righteousness. Everything God does must be compatible with God’s righteousness. This includes our condemnation, salvation, spiritual life, death.

a. In the integrity of God, perfect righteousness demands perfect righteousness and justice demands justice. Since man is a sinner, he can have no integrity before God unless he shares divine integrity.

b. In perfect righteousness the divine love for integrity is revealed. In justice the divine hatred for sin, human good, and evil is revealed. Each member of the Trinity loves their integrity more than anything else. They always have and always will.

c. What perfect righteousness demands, justice executes. Perfect righteousness rejects man’s sinfulness, while justice condemns his sinfulness.

d. At the cross, the personal sins of mankind were imputed to the humanity of Christ and judged by the justice of God the Father.

e. Therefore the integrity of God supercedes the love of God. God the Father set aside His eternal love for His Son and judged Him in our place.

f. The imputation of perfect righteousness at salvation is the basis for all blessings to man from the integrity of God. But justice can only bless where perfect righteousness exists. Justice only blesses under two categories: logistical grace for all believers, and escrow blessings in time. The love of God is free in eternity to provide our eternal escrow blessings.

8. The documentation of divine righteousness is found in Lev 19:2; 1 Sam 2:2; Ps 22:3, 47:8, 119:9, and many others. God is absolute good, Ps 25:8, 34:3, 86:5, 119:68, and many others. God is perfect in person and character. God is totally free from any form of sin. God is perfect in all of His attitudes and actions. God is perfect in rejecting all human standards of righteousness, none of which are compatible with His perfect righteousness.

9. The moment you believe in Christ, God the Father imputes to you His very own righteousness with three results.

a. The imputation of God’s righteousness is the means of justification, Rom 5:1, “Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

b. The imputation of God’s righteousness is a guarantee that God the Father now has personal love for us.

c. The imputation of God’s righteousness is the basis for divine justice blessing you with logistical grace blessings which sustain your life.

10. The principle of divine integrity is divine righteousness and the function of divine integrity is divine justice. God cannot accept anything less than perfect righteousness and God cannot bless anything less than perfect righteousness. Consequently, the justice of God is the source of all direct blessing from God to the believer.

11. The righteousness of God rejects what the justice of God condemns. This means for us that the righteousness of God demands discipline of the believer who fails to execute the spiritual life of the Church Age. The justice of God administers what the righteousness of God demands.

12. Perfect divine righteousness resides in the believer from the very moment of salvation. Therefore the believer is qualified to receive life support and blessing from God under the principle of logistical grace. Mt 6:33 says, “But first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things [justification at salvation, logistical grace, personal love from God] shall be provided for you.”

13. Divine integrity is not cancelled because some member of the human race rejects Jesus Christ as savior. God’s integrity is not cancelled because some believers fail to execute the spiritual life after salvation. Lack of integrity or virtue in mankind does not cancel the integrity or virtue of God.

14. There are three functions of the integrity of God.

a. The righteousness of God is the point of responsibility toward all the sins of the human race.

(1) Responsibility denotes something within one’s own power to control. In this case, responsibility denotes the power of God related to the integrity of God.

(2) The integrity of God has eternal capacity expressed in the righteousness of God in eternity past to know the knowable simultaneously, including all human sin, and to program all of that human sin into one PROM chip in the computer of divine decrees.

(3) With all human sins in the computer of divine decrees along with the act of volition in every case, that produces a sin of cognizance or ignorance. Jesus Christ took the responsibility or burden of obligation to do something about those sins.

(4) The point of responsibility toward sin was made in eternity past by four decisions of Jesus Christ as eternal God—unlimited substitutionary atonement, propitiation (the responsibility to satisfy the justice of God), reconciliation (to fulfill the responsibility to provide salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone), and redemption (to fulfill the responsibility of paying for our freedom). Each one of these is related to responsibility.

(5) Responsibility is the reliability and dependability of the human nature of Jesus Christ to go to the Cross in a state of impeccability and be judged for the sins of the human race.

(6) The righteousness of God is the point of responsibility toward all the sins of the human race.

b. The justice of God is the point of contact of mankind with God since the fall of mankind for the unbeliever, spiritual blessing for the spiritual believer, and divine discipline for the carnal believer.

(1) Contact is a state of touching or meeting of two things. The two things are the justice of God making contact or meeting the unbeliever and believer of the human race.

(2) Contact with the unbeliever is our Lord’s substitutionary atonement by which spiritually dead human beings enter into association with God through faith alone in Christ alone.

(3) Spiritual death is the state of total depravity—total separation from God and total helplessness to do anything about it.

(4) But the justice of God did something about it by judging our sins on the Cross, so that the point of contact for the unbeliever is faith alone in Christ alone. What the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judged on the Cross, so that the love of God provides a solution as expressed by the grace of God.

(5) In the point of contact, God gave the believer at the moment of salvation thirty-nine irrevocable absolutes plus one revocable absolute (the filling of the Spirit which is revoked when we sin). What the righteousness of God approves, the justice of God blesses through the love of God at the moment of salvation.

(6) The justice of God administers to the carnal believer family punishment. Since the discipline of the carnal believer is a family association (or contact), the point of reference for the contact is divine love, which is also the point of reference for the unique spiritual life of the dispensation of the Church. The reason for divine discipline is divine love. Divine discipline clears us for the point of reference—divine love.

c. The love of God is the point of reference toward the spiritual life of the believer only.

(1) Reference means to direct attention to something important, something of personal interest.

(2) Reference means recourse for the purpose of information.

(3) Reference means to endorse a person or a course of action.

(4) The point of reference from the love of God includes all of these.

(a) The point of reference from the love of God directs attention to something important—the postsalvation spiritual life of the Church Age—something of personal interest.

(b) The point of reference from the love of God provides something of personal interest—New Testament Bible doctrine.

(d) The point of reference endorses a course of action related to virtue-love and metabolization of doctrine.

(e) The point of reference is the love of God, the sponsorer of the greatest life that ever existed.

C. How the integrity of God is formed.

1. Integrity is defined in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 5th Ed., 1940, p. 524, “as a state or quality of being complete, undivided, unbroken, entirety, unimpaired state, soundness, uprightness.”

a. Upright means in modern English to be righteous, to be in accord with what is right before God; therefore, to be in harmonious rapport with God, resulting in compatibility with the postsalvation spiritual life provided by God and becomes honorable relationship with the integrity of God.

b. The integrity of God is made up of God’s righteousness, justice, and love. Jeshurun is the word Moses invented to describe the concept of the integrity of God because of how God dwelt with Moses when he committed his terrible sin. The purpose of Moses in inventing this word was to focus attention on the integrity of God and the believer’s relationship to divine integrity.

c. Since divine integrity is the basis of our so-great salvation, it is the significance of our spiritual life; it is relationship to rebound, relationship to momentum in the spiritual life after rebound; it is the unique impact of the Jeshurun believer in all human history.

2. When you see a sentence in the Bible where any person of the Trinity is the subject, that subject represents either the essence of God or an anthropopathism or an anthropomorphism, and you must recognize that subject as having perfect divine integrity.

3. God as the subject has perfect holiness with this integrity, which includes divine righteousness, justice, and love.

4. There is always a point of reference in our relationship with God. Before the fall of man the point of reference was the love of God. After the fall of man in the Garden, the point of reference was the integrity of God with emphasis on the justice of God. Out of this comes the principles of function related to the justice of God.

a. The principle of function in divine integrity is: What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes. It is the righteousness of God that always activates grace. The righteousness of God indwelling you demands logistical grace blessing to keep you alive long enough to execute the spiritual life.

b. What the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judges. The justice of God judges the believer in love and always provides a grace recovery procedure in rebound and keep moving. Righteousness condemned sin and justice judged sin at the Cross.

c. What the righteousness of God approves, the justice of God blesses through the “grace of God,” Jam 4:6, namely, “the fulness of blessing from God” as a love gift to the Jeshurun, Eph 3:19ff; Jam 4:10. Without divine righteousness you cannot share the happiness of God or enter into occupation with Christ, where the fulness of blessing exists.

d. God is cognitive in this blessing and not emotional. When any form of emotion is ascribed to God, it is anthropopathic and not a true description of the essence of God.

5. Principles.

a. The grace of God is compatible with the righteousness of God because the righteousness of God is compatible with the justice of God. They are always in sync with each other. All divine solutions to problems in life go through the grace of God. Even divine discipline comes from the grace of God.

(1) There is a sense of responsibility that comes with integrity. True integrity is your sensitivity to others that do not understand your integrity.

(2) Love and grace are just as much a part of spiritual integrity in the believer as the righteousness and justice of the believer.

(3) With integrity your life has great meaning, purpose, and definition as a witness for God against Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict.

b. The love of God for the believer is not compromised because at salvation every believer receives the imputed righteousness of God. God can now love us with a personal love.

c. The grace and love of God are part of the spiritual life principle of harmonious rapport with God. But they are more than that; they are a part of the Jeshurun concept in the spiritual life. They are a part of the integrity of God. This principle is stated in 2 Cor 13:14, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

d. The righteousness of God cannot be compromised or contradicted by any decision of the sovereignty of God. It can be compromised by any decision of the volition of mankind. When this happens, the punishment is great. Nevertheless love and grace are still present.

e. This is why the righteousness of God condemned all of the sins of human history, so that the justice of God could judge each and every one of them at the Cross. It was the love of God, extending through the grace of God, that provided the solution to the personal sins of mankind. The integrity of God not only condemned and judged man’s sinfulness but also found a solution to the problem of man’s sinfulness. Love functions through grace, righteousness functions through justice, and all these characteristics are a part of the integrity of God.

6. 1 Jn 4:16-19.

a. 1 Jn 4:16, “And so we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in that love remains in association with God, and God remains in association with him.”

(1) God relates to us through His integrity with emphasis on His love. The integrity of God establishes a permanent relationship with the believer classified as eternal security, and the integrity of God establishes a temporal relationship with the believer through the postsalvation spiritual life. Through the function of Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness the believer relates to God on a daily basis all the way to spiritual maturity. But even for the carnal believer, God’s love remains because of the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation.

(2) We start out relating to God through our total depravity. We have nothing to recommend ourselves to God. We do not relate to God, He relates to us. When God relates to us, He relates to us through the revelation of Himself. The revelation of Himself is found in the vocabulary, thoughts, and concepts of Bible doctrine contained in the word of God. Unfortunately, we have a lot of believers trying to relate to God based on their emotions. There is no spiritual life in relating to God based on your emotions.

(3) You cannot relate anything to God until you understand how God relates to you. God related to you in eternity past before you ever existed. God dwelt with us in eternity past with the same integrity with which He deals with us now.

(4) This verse indicates that we now have a personal sense of destiny from the process of listening to the teaching of a pastor, and we have an understanding of the integrity of God through an understanding of God’s love. The love of God is just as much a part of the integrity of God as the justice of God. The grace of God is just as much a part of divine integrity as the righteousness of God. They all function together. God never disciplines you apart from divine love. God loves you with a far greater love than any human being is capable of giving you.

(5) “God is love” means that love was an eternal part of His integrity and always a divine attribute of the essence of God.

(a) God does not relate to us through emotion, but through His integrity. We try to instruct God when we try to assign to God a characteristic which we think He ought to have which He does not have (such as emotion).

(b) Do not superimpose on God anthropopathic or anthropomorphic statements as being the essence of God. The fact that God deals with us in compassion is wonderful as language of accommodation, but compassion is not a characteristic of God. Integrity is infinitely greater than compassion. We profit from understanding anthropopathic and anthropomorphic statements, but do not use these statements to instruct God in what His characteristics should be. © There are four categories of divine love.

i. God in essence is love as a part of His divine integrity.

ii. God has personal love for His own perfect righteousness. This is divine self-esteem.

iii. God has personal love for the other members of the Trinity. God has personal love for all members of the human race who believe in Christ and share the righteousness of God.

iv. God has impersonal love for all members of spiritually dead mankind from His integrity.

(6) 1 Jn 5:11-13, “And the witness is this that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son does not have this life. These things I have written to you who believe in the person of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”

b. 1 Jn 4:17, “Because of this, virtue-love has been brought to completion with us, that we may have confidence in the day of evaluation [the judgment seat of Christ]; because just as He is [humanity of Christ executing the prototype spiritual life], so also are we in this world [advancing to maturity in the operational spiritual life].”

(1) The phrase “with us” means in the company of other positive believers who persist in the execution of the unique spiritual life. It denotes the company with whom you advance. You have the opportunity of maximum glorification of God as no one else ever had it. You have the opportunity to execute the greatest spiritual life which has ever existed.

(2) The phrase “bringing to completion” includes salvation, execution of the postsalvation spiritual life, and resurrection.

(3) For those who advance to maturity and take the objective of maximum glorification of God, they can have confidence in what is going to take place at the judgment seat of Christ after the Rapture of the Church.

(4) 1 Jn 2:8, “And now my children, stay in fellowship with Him that if He should appear [the Rapture], we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His presence.” This requires rebound to stay promotable in the spiritual life. None of us advance in the spiritual life or execute the spiritual life without rebound. Rebound is not a license to sin, but divine permission to continue your spiritual life.

(5) 1 Cor 15:34, “Come to your senses in a righteous manner [rebound]; for some believers have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” Rebound is compatibility with the integrity of God. Believers who are ignorant of the plan of God and the use of rebound will have shame at the evaluation of the Church.

(6) Phil 3:18c-19, “that you are enemies of the Cross, whose destiny is loss [of escrow blessings], whose god is their emotion, and their glory came to be associated with their shame.” Emotion is not a part of the spiritual life. We have appreciation as the proper function of emotion in our souls, but this is not the means of our spiritual advance. Your glory is the fact that you are living as a member of the royal family of God in the Church Age. But for the loser believer, their glory will be associated with their shame.

(7) 2 Cor 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive a reward for the things accomplished in the body according to what he has done whether good of intrinsic value [the execution of the spiritual life] or worthless [everything related to carnality, failure to rebound, and failure to execute the spiritual life].”

(8) Rev 3:11, “And I will be coming suddenly. Keep on holding fast to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown.”

c. 1 Jn 4:18, “There is no fear in virtue-love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and the one who fears has not been brought to completion by virtue-love.”

(1) Fear represents the emotional complex of sins, which includes: worry, anxiety, panic. Fear focuses on the problem rather than the solution. The other categories of the emotional complex of sins includes: hatred, self-pity, reaction, and guilt.

(2) Fear and the function of your spiritual life are mutually exclusive. 2 Tim 1:7, “For God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power and of virtue-love and of sound judgment.”

(3) The alternative to fear is the faith-rest drill. Ps 56:2-3, “My enemies have trampled on me all day long; for many fight against me with arrogance. What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Fear emphasizes the problem; faith emphasizes the solution.

(4) Virtue-love is compatible with divine integrity and it reflects divine love as a part of the integrity of God.

(5) The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. The extent to which you surrender to fear, the greater your capacity for fear. The greater your capacity for fear, the more you increase the power of fear in your life. The more you increase the power of fear in your life, the greater your failure to execute the four mechanics of the spiritual life (the utilization of the two power options, the function of the three spiritual skills, the deployment of the ten problem solving devices on the defense line of the soul, and the execute of the three stages of the adult spiritual life).

(6) Fear is both irrational and irresponsible. It results in garbage in the subconscious and distraction from the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. Therefore, fear functions in the emotional complex of sins; it utilizes the arrogance complex of sins, and it destroys the problem solving devices.

(7) Fear replaces Bible doctrine with the attack of the four horsemen of apostasy: emotional revolt of the soul, locked-in negative volition, blackout of the soul, and scar tissue of the soul. Fear panics when the four horsemen of apostasy attack and the believer loses the battle of stress in the soul. The hysteria and panic which overcomes the carnal believer immobilizes the problem solving devices. Fear creates stress. Stress in the soul contradicts the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. The only solution to stress in the soul is rebound and counterattack by the use of 2 Pet 3:18, “grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

(8) When you allow stress to invade your soul, you have defeated your own spiritual life.

(9) Mt 10:28-31, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him [Jesus Christ] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Now the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, stop being afraid; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

(a) The power of Satan and the power of evil have no power over the believer beyond the grave. The ultimate in victory over fear is the believer’s ability to face death without fear.

(b) If the integrity of God cares for the sparrow, how much more will the integrity of God care for the believer. God knows every detail about your life, therefore, you are commanded to stop being afraid.

d. 1 Jn 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”

(1) “We” refers to the believers who have reached the adult stage of the spiritual life. This is when we have confidence in God as a part of our personal sense of destiny.

(2) Since love is a part of the integrity of God, it must also be a part of the spiritual life. We must have virtue-love as a part of our spiritual life. Integrity-love belongs to God; virtue-love belongs to the believer who has entered the adult spiritual life. “We love” must be directed toward God the Father. If you do not have personal love for God the Father, you will have nothing but cheap substitutes. Unless you have a love for God, you have no spiritual life. We love in time because God loved in eternity past.

(3) The integrity of God set the pattern for virtue-love in eternity past. The virtue of that divine love is righteousness and justice. The righteousness and justice of God made the love of God honorable. The love of God motivated the grace of God, so that this virtue is shared with you as a believer. The expression of that love is antecedent grace in eternity past, manifest to us in time through the word of God. Righteousness and justice is the internal action of integrity; love and grace is the overt function of integrity.

(4) To honor Christ, we must be honorable. To be promotable, we must be compatible with the integrity of God, which means we must have virtue-love. All promotions in the postsalvation spiritual life are the function of the integrity of God with emphasis on more or greater grace of Jam 4:6.

(5) Love is not a matter of attraction, but capacity. God’s love has eternal capacity from His perfect essence. The believer’s virtue- love has capacity from the execution of the spiritual life. Virtue-love is honorable when the believer executes the unique spiritual life of the Church Age.

(6) The pattern for love is integrity or virtue. Perfect and eternal God has perfect and eternal love. This love belongs co-equally to each member of the Trinity. Because God is sovereign, His love is self- motivated. God’s love exists eternally, unsustained by Himself or any other source. God’s love will never be tarnished by reaction to our failures. Because God is immutable, His love cannot be changed by any form of creature failure. Because God is omniscient, God’s love functions in a rational manner, devoid of any emotional content or irrational reaction. God is perfect wisdom, which does not have emotion. Therefore, the love of God is neither irrational or emotional. God’s love is not based on human attraction. Because God is holy, His love is incorruptible and can only function in perfect integrity, perfect honor, and perfect virtue. The virtue-love of the spiritual life can only function in human honor, integrity, and virtue as provided by the four mechanics of the spiritual life.

(7) Therefore, it is more important to have God’s love than to be loved by people. God’s love cannot be bribed with good deeds. God’s love cannot be patronized by legalism or Christian activism. God’s love cannot be disappointed, frustrated, or distracted. God’s love is not sustained by any form of human attraction. God’s love is not emotional. God’s love cannot be bought by good behavior. Discipline from God does not imply or suggest any change in God’s love for us.

(8) It is impossible for God to compromise either His righteousness or justice in the expression of divine love. Neither divine love or righteousness is ever compromised.

(9) The spiritual dynamics of virtue-love are found in 2 Cor 13:14, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [F], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Gal 5:22, “The profit [gain] from the Spirit is virtue-love.” Rom 5:5, “and absolute confidence does not disappoint, because the love for God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Virtue and values of the spiritual life include not only honor and integrity but a system of thinking from Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness.

D. Integrity of God Related to the Mosaic Law.

1. Self-righteousness is excluded from any phase of the plan of God. Self-righteousness is the overt manifestation of arrogance. Keeping the outward form of the Mosaic Law only produced arrogance in the Jew.

2. Imputed perfect righteousness and self-righteousness are mutually exclusive.

3. Self-righteousness brings cursing from the justice of God, while the imputation of perfect righteousness sets up the basis for blessing from the justice of God.

4. Distortion of the Mosaic Law produces a self-righteousness which is hostile to the imputation of perfect righteousness. This is why the Jews, during the First Advent of Christ, rejected His offer of a salvation, which provided the imputation of God’s righteousness.

5. The true purpose of the Mosaic Law is not to produce self- righteousness, but to condemn man and his resources, as well as self- righteousness as the means of blessing from God.

6. The only benefit which comes from God, comes through adjustment to the justice of God at salvation, rebound, and maturity.

7. The failure of certain members of the human race has never abrogated the integrity of God. The integrity of God is not cancelled because the believer fails to utilize logistical grace. Lack of integrity in man has never cancelled the integrity of God toward us.

8. The justice of God is the source of both blessing or cursing, but is never neutral doing nothing. The very function of the justice of God maintains the integrity of God.

9. Since God is infinite, eternal, invisible and incomprehensible, it is necessary for God to reveal Himself to mankind, and He does so through Bible doctrine. The content of the Bible reveals and vindicates the integrity of God. Through comprehension of doctrine we learn of the integrity of God and adjust to His justice. If we learn doctrine, we come to share the thinking of divine integrity.

10. Man by man’s efforts seeks to acquire human integrity. Such activity maligns God and ignores His grace. For man to be justified before God, he must possess the righteousness of God.

E. The Integrity of God and Human Self-Righteousness.

1. The integrity of God is infinite, absolute, and eternal.

2. It is not the mere absence of sin, but the sum total of His divine attributes, their perfection, and their infinity.

3. The integrity of God is not maintained by the will or sovereignty of God. It is His immutable Self. Nor is it maintained by the self- righteousness of man.

4. Divine perfect righteousness totally rejects man’s self- righteousness. God in grace provides all that His integrity demands of the human race. Therefore there is nothing man can do to destroy or compromise the integrity of God.

5. God does not need our help or our relative righteousness. We need His help, His perfect righteousness.

6. Imputed perfect righteousness is where God begins to share His integrity with us. God didn’t do this from human sentimentality or emotional attraction to our pleasing personality.

7. All of our righteousnesses are as menstrual rags in His sight, Isa 64:6.

8. Neither man’s sinfulness or self-righteousness advances the glory of God. Only God can glorify God. Divine integrity advances the glory of God. Only what God has provided for man in grace can glorify God.

9. Any member of the human race who ignores his personal sins as a manifestation of spiritual death, and at the same time presents his self- righteousness to God for salvation, has neither respect nor awe for the integrity of God.

10. Maladjustment to the justice of God at salvation means no relationship with the integrity of God, no eternal life, and no imputed perfect righteousness. Therefore the justice of God can only condemn the unbeliever. The unbeliever can only be blessed through association with the mature believer.

F. Summary.

1. No nation can possess freedom, prosperity, or blessing apart from the integrity of God.

2. Social, political, and economic reform, apart form the integrity of God, is useless. To try such reform only intensifies the problem. Believers who ignore this principle become self-righteous do-gooders, who intensify the problem, thus creating chaos, national degeneration, revolution, and historical catastrophe.

3. Political and theological liberalism seeks social and political reform apart from the integrity of God.

4. The integrity of God is never arbitrary. As long as God is God, He must punish sin, human good, evil, self-righteousness, and reversionism. This explains the Mosaic Law as an instrument of condemnation rather than for salvation or justification.

5. Law is incapable of making man righteous before the integrity of God. The Law cannot justify, only the justice of God can do that.

6. Justification is a judicial act from the justice of God recognizing the imputation of perfect righteousness at the moment of faith in Christ.

7. Justification is not forgiveness. Forgiveness is subtraction, justification is addition: the addition of perfect righteousness.

8. Justification is the basis for the first a fortiori of blessing in time: If God can provide the greater in the imputation of perfect righteousness, then it follows with stronger reason (a fortiori), that He will not withhold the less in the imputation of blessings in time.

9. There is nothing mankind can do to destroy or compromise the integrity of God. The integrity of God stands eternally without any help from mankind. That is why everything is grace. Legalism does not promote the integrity of God.

10. God has found a way to bless mankind without compromising His divine integrity through the imputation of divine righteousness at the point of salvation. Only divine integrity or holiness advances the integrity of God. Only God can glorify God. Therefore, what God provides in grace glorifies God. Man glorifies God through cognition and utilization of grace provision—living grace followed by dying grace.

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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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