The Law

[titushome]

I was challenged in another discussion forum to take upon myself a deeper study of the Law, as referred to in the Bible – in particular the distinction, if any, between the Law of Moses and the Law of God.

What follows is the initial fruit of that study, though I still have much to learn and understand.  I should also warn my readers that what I have written is at times repetitive; but how does one describe, using the linear thought process inherent to writing (in English, at least), a picture that is best appreciated when it envelops your field of vision, when you take it in all in at once?  Also, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if what I have written is full of mistakes, misunderstandings and misinterpretations, but hey – we all have to start somewhere.

It's a long read, but if you're willing to tackle it I'd appreciate your feedback: positive, negative, complementary, detractive or anything other.

In this study, all Bible quotations are from the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise noted, although in studying I also utilized the King James Version, New King James Version, New International Version and New Living Translation (as well as a few Bible dictionaries, and of course much prayer ).

[titushome]

The Law - Part 1


This study will be, I hope, a "big picture" study; a holistic, comprehensive look into the Law of God and its role in our lives.

What is the Law of God?  When we think of laws, we think of rules, commandments, guidelines, regulations, instructions, etc.

But when I refer to the Law of God, I refer not to the Law of Moses which was given by God to the nation of Israel, and which we have recorded in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Nor do I refer to the commandments and instruction given to us by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel books, or by Paul or other apostles in their letters.  Rather, I refer to something that is higher than, and overarching these laws; or, if you will, undergirding, fundamental to, and deeper than these laws; or, yet again, transcending these laws.

The Law of God of which I speak is not a codified set of instructions; it is not a list of rules and regulations; no "thou shalts" or "thou shalt nots."  Instead, it is, in fact, the very nature and character of God Himself.  Simply put, to obey the Law of God is to conform to the character of God.

Genesis 1:27 tells us, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."  Read that again.  The repetition contained within this statement tells us that something very important is being communicated here; the writer is emphasizing a key point.  The fact that man and woman are made in the image of God is a truth that we must grasp if we are to understand our existence, and our human nature – and if we want to understand the role of the Law of God in our lives.

This truth is repeated in Genesis 5:1, where it says, "In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God."  It is reiterated in Genesis 9:6, in Psalm 8, in James 3:9; and it is echoed throughout the Bible.

Man was created in the image of God; He has imbued us with elements of Himself, His character.  As a result, each of us has, embedded within our natures, woven into the roots of our minds and hearts, God's Law: God's sense of right and wrong.  We often call this natural understanding our conscience.

If you've done any reading or study of psychology, you know there has long been debate concerning the relationship between nature and nurture.  How much of who we are – our personality, our character, our conscience, etc. – are we born with; and how much of who we are comes from external influences, such as our upbringing?

There is considerable evidence that a substantial amount of our understanding of right and wrong is innate: we don't learn it; we are born with it.  Romans 2:14-15 testifies to this:

14for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.... 

Despite the incredible variety of human cultures all over the world and throughout history, most of us seem to have the same basic understanding of what is morally acceptable, and what is not.  Love, compassion, generosity, truthfulness, humility; these things are almost universally considered good.  On the other hand, hatred, selfishness, dishonesty, arrogance and the like are universally considered bad.  The only exceptions to these we see fall into one of two categories: in the first, we find people who do wrong and know they are doing wrong, but attempt to justify or simply ignore the wrongfulness of their actions.  In the second category, we find people who over time have become so twisted in their thinking that they actually seem to believe that bad is good, and good bad.

But the people in the second category are such a tiny minority that it is impossible to deny the nearly identical morality that is shared by every woman and man.  Our real problem is that we all, to some degree, fall into the first category: even though we know in our hearts what is right and wrong, we fail to do the right, and we choose to do the wrong.  We seek to justify our actions regardless of what our consciences tell us.  Like Adam and Eve in the very beginning, we know what God desires of us, yet still we say, "But I want that!"  And we take it.

Adam and Eve in the beginning were flawless; God created them, and called His creation good: that is, whole, complete, perfect.  Made in God's image, Adam and Eve dwelt right next to the beating heart of God Himself.  They communed with Him intimately on a daily basis.  There was no separation between man and God.  Adam and Eve perfectly understood their place in God's creation, and perfectly fulfilled His will for their lives, perfectly walked in His ways.  (I believe I can safely make these claims, based on what little information Genesis gives us about Adam and Eve's life in Eden.)  There was no question of any other way; they simply did what God created them to do, and lived in perfect loving union with God.

But all that changed when they found themselves desiring something that was not in God's plan for them, something – the only thing, as far as we know – that God had forbidden them.  And when faced with the choice of living with what God desired for them, or taking what they desired but was contrary to God's plan, they chose to follow their own desires.  Man has contended with the same struggle ever since.

[titushome]

The Law - Part 2


And as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve chose to pursue their own fleshly desires, and chose not to conform to the image of God within them, they drifted further and further away from that image; they lost the intimate knowledge of the character of God and the ways of God. This process is described in Romans 1:18-32:

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Those who choose to live this way are, as Paul describes in Romans 8, "carnally minded." That is, their concerns are for the desires of their flesh; their pursuit is after the pleasures of the body. This is the way of sinfulness, the way of worldliness, the way of man that is diametrically opposed to the way of God. So Paul writes that "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8:7-8.)

From the initial sin of Adam and Eve, man drifted so far from God, lost so much of his intimacy with and knowledge of God, that God instituted His plan to rescue us, and bring us back to Him: He began by seeking out and calling to Himself a righteous man, a man named Abram. In Genesis 12 we read God's call to Abram: "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (1-3).

And as Abram hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and learned to walk in His ways and trust Him in all things, God blessed him; changed his name to Abraham, and his wife's name to Sarah; and miraculously gave them a son, Isaac. In Genesis 15:5 we read God's promise to Abraham: "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them... so shall your descendants be." The following verse tells us, "then [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and [the Lord] reckoned it him as righteousness." Abraham was learning to believe in God; and God, because of Abraham's faith, was restoring Abraham, moving him in the direction of that place in God that was once enjoyed by Adam and Eve.

So through Isaac's son Jacob, whom God called Israel, we see raised up a mighty nation, a people chosen and called out by God for Himself. And after subjecting His people to slavery in Egypt He miraculously rescued them, and brought them out of Egypt to a place called Sinai, where, through Moses, He gave them the Law.

I have not counted them myself, but I understand there are 613 different commandments contained within the Law that God gave Moses for the people of Israel. Not all the laws were for everyone; some were only for the priests, some for judges, some for men, some for women, etc.

Keep in mind that God's goal all along was to restore to man what was originally lost by Adam and Eve. They once had such an intimate walk with God, such a rich knowledge of God's character and nature, they did not have to be told what God desired or expected of them. But by the time of Sinai, man had drifted so far from his origins that it would take a series of steps to restore him to his original place.

When the nation of Israel was first called out of Egypt, their lifestyles were hardly different from those of the peoples around them. They worshiped false gods; thus, God needed to tell them, "You shall have no other gods before Me" and, "You shall not make for yourself an idol." They were guilty of murder and sexual immorality; thus, God needed to tell them, "You shall not murder," and "You shall not commit adultery." The further man gets from the image of God – the further we get from the union with God enjoyed by Adam and Eve – the more we need to have the ways of God, and God's will for our lives, spelled out for us.

For example, in the beginning God made man and woman, and we are told that even as Adam was united with Eve, this set a precedent for other men to follow: that a man would be "united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." But as man drifted from God, he began to deviate from what God designed him for, into polygamy, adultery, promiscuity, homosexuality, pedophilia, even bestiality. Adam and Eve did not need to be instructed in such matters, but humans today – and Israel, as they came out of Egypt – so far removed from Eden, do.

(There is another aspect of this, which I will touch on only briefly: God desires to communicate directly with His people, His servants, His friends, His children – all of which we are, and are becoming. But another result of man's falling away from God is that we have forgotten the sound of His voice, and must re-learn the art of communicating with Him. That God has given us some of His Word in written form is one way – the primary way, really – which He has chosen to re-establish His communication with us. That is, for those who are still learning to recognize His voice, they have the Bible to which to turn in order to know what God is saying to them. But as we draw nearer to Him, and come to know how He speaks to us, the more we are able to rely on His specific Word given directly to us, and the less we rely exclusively on the written Word of God.)

Even the foremost and most basic of commandments - to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength - is, when obeyed, no longer a commandment. For if I love Him because I "have to", because I have been commanded to do so, then I don't really love Him. But when I truly love Him, I do not need to be told to do so. So it is with all the laws God has given us: as we learn to obey, to bend our lives to conform to His laws, the more the necessity of such laws falls away. God enables us to see beyond the written law to the living Word; beyond the Law of Moses to the Law of God; beyond the letter of the Law to the Spirit behind the Law.

[titushome]

The Law - Part 3


Some of Jesus' teachings, as recorded in Matthew 5:17-48 – excerpts are quoted below – point us in this direction:

17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished....
21 "You have heard that the ancients were told, `YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and `Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' 22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, `You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, `You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell....
27 "You have heard that it was said, `YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart....
33 "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, `YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.' 34 "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 36 "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 "But let your statement be, `Yes, yes' or `No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.
38 "You have heard that it was said, `AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' 39 "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
43 "You have heard that it was said, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The fulfillment of the Law comes when God transforms us into the kind of people who by nature keep the Law – that is, when our natures once again conform to God's, when we are holy as He is holy, perfect as He is perfect, merciful as He is merciful. When it is anathema to us to murder, or commit adultery, or abuse our brethren by making vows; when loving and serving our neighbor flows naturally from a heart that beats in time with God's.

Thus it is that Jesus alone has fulfilled the Law – and that perfectly. As He said (Matthew 5:17), ""Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." Recall the statement at the beginning of this study that the Law of God is, in the deepest sense, the very nature and character of God Himself, and that the written Law is a manifestation of this higher Law. Jesus Christ, then, is the bodily expression of God's nature and character – or, to put it another way, God in the flesh. He came both to fulfill the Law by the manner in which He lived, and to open the door for our transformation, so we too could fulfill the Law.

With the written Law, the Lord is reminding man of the way that has been lost; He is reminding us of the image of God that is still within us, even though it is bent and broken, even though we have drifted so far from it. The apostle Paul points to this in I Timothy 1:5-11, in particular verse 9:

5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. 8 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

"Law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane..." – for those who are divorced from the image of God in which we were originally created, divorced from God Himself.

Thus the purpose of the Law has never been to save anyone; God had already saved Israel from slavery in Egypt, already called them to be His people. The purpose of the Law was to help them, once again, to conform to the image of God, to walk in God's ways, to live as God has always intended man to live. It is to point in the right direction those who are opposed to God. In fact, the word "Torah," usually used to refer to the first five books of the Bible, does not even mean "law" or "rulebook" or anything like that; it means "the way," or "the path." It is instruction on how to live. The Law of Moses, in particular, was God's instruction to the Jewish people on how He would have them live in their time. And, Israel was to be an example to all the other nations of the earth; they were to be a shining light, a living proclamation of the Lord.

So God gave the Law of Moses to Israel as a manifestation of His higher Law, the Law of God – a manifestation of His very character, His heart and mind. The Law of Moses was never intended to be permanent, nor obedience to it an end in itself. It was merely one step in the process of restoring man to that intimate knowledge of the nature and character of God.

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The Law - Part 4

Thus we see God looking forward to the day when His commandments would no longer consist of words carved into stone, but instead would live in the hearts of men and women. In Jeremiah 31:33 God promised, "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days... I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Paul writes of the fulfillment of this promise in 2 Corinthians 3:3: "...you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."

So, simply having the Law of Moses – simply knowing some of the things that God expects of us – is not enough. Man still needs to be transformed on the inside. That flaw in the image of God inflicted by Adam and Eve and further distorted by every man and woman since cannot be repaired externally; it needs miraculous restoration by God Himself. That's not to say that in Israel's case, God somehow cheated them by demanding they obey a Law they could not possibly keep. To the contrary, He said they would be able to keep it, in Deuteronomy 30:11-20:

11 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. 12 "It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' 13 "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' 14 "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17 "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong {your} days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

This theme is repeated in Leviticus 18:1-5:

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'I am the LORD your God. 3 'You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. 4 'You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. 5 'So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.

The laws that God gave Israel were not in themselves too hard to bear; it was the expectation that they could somehow earn their salvation, and make themselves right in God's eyes by keeping the Law, that was too hard to bear. It was the belief that keeping God's commandments could transform a sinner into a righteous man that was too hard to bear. If our salvation depended on us keeping the Law, then indeed we would be without hope.

Paul referenced the Deuteronomy 30 passage in Romans 10:1-11:

1 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, `WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or `WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." 8 But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Paul drew a parallel here between the Law given by God to the people of Israel, and Christ. Whereas the Lord emphasized to the people that He did not require them to go to great lengths – ascend to Heaven, cross the sea – to retrieve the Law God was giving them, Paul emphasized that we need not go to great lengths to approach Christ, to receive the Word. Rather, "the word" – for Israel the Law of Moses, and for us Christ the Word – "is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart."

The Christ has come!

[titushome]

The Law - Part 5


Paul shared this wonderful news with the Greeks on Mars' hill, as recorded in Acts 17:24-31:

24 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, `For we also are His children.' 29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." 

Though God had apparently, up to that point in history, overlooked "the time of [man's] ignorance," the divine nature had been revealed in Jesus Christ, and God was calling all men everywhere to turn away from their own ways and return to Him, return to His ways, to participate once again in His divine nature.

The time had come for what Paul described in Ephesians 4:17-24:

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 

The time of "futility of... mind," of "darkened... understanding," of "ignorance," of "hardness of... heart" was, and is, over. The time of Christ has come! Thus we are told in Ephesians 5:1-14:

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you." 

We are to be "imitators of God"! This is our calling; this is what we were created for! We are told again in Colossians 3:1-11:

1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-- 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. 

This was the next step in God's plan to restore fallen man. Prior to this time God had given His Word only in a limited, that is written, form; now "the Word was made flesh." Our salvation does not depend on our obedience to the written Word; our salvation depends on the Living Word, living in us, redeeming us, transforming us, helping us conform to His own image, and restoring us to our lost status as sons and daughters of God. The written Laws delivered to us by God are tools to help us learn to live as befits God's children.

Ron Lennex puts it this way: "I follow God's commands because he chose me. He did not choose me because I deserved it. He chose me by his kindness and his mercy. Because of that, I want to live in a manner that pleases him. The Law he gave me shows me how to do this. It is my instruction. I do not do it in order to obtain salvation. I do it because he gave salvation to me already."

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The Law - Part 6


Yet the ultra-religious among the Jewish people perverted this truth, and came to believe that by living according the Law of Moses they were making themselves acceptable to God, and that those who failed to live according to the Law of Moses were duly rejected by God. Sinful acts are not what force God to reject us; they are merely the symptoms of the debased mind, the inner man who no longer conforms to God's image. Refer again to Romans 1:28-31:

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.... 

The mistake comes when we substitute the Law for God Himself. Rather than seeking to know the God behind the Law, we seek to obey the Law in order to know God. It is not just the Jews who are guilty of this; all men seem to tend to this extreme. We convince ourselves that we will earn God's favor by obeying the rules, even making for ourselves additional rules that we believe are pleasing to God. This is not to say that it is necessarily wrong for us to create rules for ourselves – only that obedience to the rules is not an end in itself. Conforming to God's image is our end, or should be. The more we conform to His image, the more we grow to be like Him, the less necessary the rules become.

There are two great dangers (among others) facing the Church today; both stem from a lack of understanding about the role played in the life of the Christian by the Law.

The first is the same mistake made by many adherents of Judaism, epitomized by the Pharisees of Jesus' day, and discussed briefly in the paragraphs above. This views obedience to the Law as indispensable to completing the work of salvation – and may even go so far, whether in theory or in practice, as to view obedience as the sole means by which we are saved.

The second occurs when people become so enamored with God's saving grace, and with the understanding that we are not saved by obedience to the Law, that they seek to do away with the Law entirely. "Live as you will," they seem to say. "No matter what you do, God's grace will save you." This view remains ignorant – I believe, for the most part, willfully so – that God gives us laws as instruction in His kind of living.

Each extreme tends to reinforce the other, as folks on one side or the other look across the divide between them and, horrified by the legalism or lawlessness as they see it, cling even more tightly to their false understanding and ungodly way of life. People on each side live, in their own sad way, woefully below the abundant life God intends for His sons and daughters.

[titushome]

The Law - Part 7


But praise God for the abundant life He gives His children! We have so much to enjoy today, and so much to look forward to.

God's people were promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 (and this promise was reiterated in Hebrews 8:8-12):

31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 32 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, " I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." 

And again in Ezekiel 36:26-27:

26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

And as God transforms us and makes of us new creatures – Godly creatures utterly unlike the creatures we were before – we enter into a new kind of life, His life, an eternal life. We are "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you...." (2 Peter 1:3-4).

[titushome]

The Law - Part 8


At this point, in the context of what has been presented above, let us turn our attention to some of the New Testament writings – especially those of Paul – concerning the matter of the Law.

We will begin with Romans 3:19-31 (and those who first review Romans 1:16 through 3:18 will get extra credit ):

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. 

In this passage is reiterated much of what has already been said: that righteousness is not something we earn by obeying the law – nor unrighteousness something we earn by disobeying the law – but that we are all by default unrighteous, because we fail to conform to the nature of God. This is a state of being we have inherited from Adam. By grace through faith, however, God imputes to us His righteousness and so re-creates us – causes us to be reborn – in His image.

Let us skip ahead to Romans 6:12-18 (but for those who don't skip over Romans 4:1 through 6:11, but read through it first, you'll receive extra extra credit):

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 

How do we "not let sin reign" in our mortal bodies? The only way to accomplish this is through the transforming work of God in us, through Jesus Christ. Allow me to return to a previous point: the fulfillment of the Law comes when God transforms us into the kind of people who by nature keep the Law. It is because of this transformation that we are able to "present [ourselves] to God as those alive from the dead, and [our] members as instruments of righteousness to God." It is only because of this transformation that sin is no longer master over us, and we "are not under law but under grace." Those who interpret Paul's statement in verse fourteen to mean that God's written laws to us are no longer in effect, and who seek to remove the restraints of the Law apart from God's work of transformation, do a tremendous disservice to those who desire to live a Godly life. Paul warns against this danger in verse fifteen: our shift from being under the Law to being under grace does not grant us license to sin.

We must learn to be servants of God – slaves of righteousness rather than slaves of sin – before we can become the friends of God. Refer to what our Lord said in John 15:15: "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." Granted, Jesus' point in this statement is not exactly the point I am making here, but still I believe His words indicate an orderly progression of growth as part of our life in God. As children of God we are growing into our freedom from the Law – a freedom preceded by and founded upon our submission to the Lord and obedience to His commands. It is much the same as the way natural children must be taught to obey and trained in the art of making right choices, until they become mature and are able to make their own choices outside of their parents' instruction.

[titushome]

The Law - Part 9


After writing in the sixth chapter of Romans about our freedom from sin and no longer being under the Law, Paul went on in chapter seven to expand upon this theme:

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 

We are free from the written Law, from sin and death only when we are bound to Christ, the Word of God, the Eternal Law, the Life.

7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. 

Once Jesus takes hold of us and begins to transform us, making us into sons and daughters of God, we find ourselves in a bind: our hearts and spirits have a new orientation, toward God; but our bodies are still oriented toward whatever we have been training them during our pre-Christ lives. Our bodies must be brought into subjection, re-oriented, and trained to live the new life in Christ – a lifelong process.

This is why certain types of sins are so much more difficult than others to overcome – because they tap into a much deeper, more fundamental part of who we are. Speaking for myself, I can say that pornography was once such an integral part of my life that it took a good deal of extrication to gain freedom from it. Today, more than three years since I last intentionally viewed anything explicitly pornographic, I still battle lust on an almost daily basis. The battle is not so much about behavior as it is about mindset; when I see a woman do I view her as a human being bearing the image of God, or as a potential object of my desire? The shift from the latter to the former involves re-training my mind and body in the more Christ-like way.

While in my mind the Lord has given me a great deal of understanding about the destructiveness of lust in general, and pornography in particular – so that I no longer need to be told it is wrong and that I shouldn't engage in such things – my body still needs that message, still needs to be trained in the way of the Lord. Thus it is that I, too "with my mind am serving the law of God, but... with my flesh the law of sin." And it's all because of Jesus Christ, who has set me free and is gradually transforming me to be more like Him, enabling me to serve the Law of God, so that I too can say, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

[titushome]

The Law - Part 10


Let us now continue to Romans chapter eight (emphases added):

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Let us read again the portions of the passage I chose to emphasize, but from the New Living Translation (I like the light this translation casts on these verses):

2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

12 So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. 

I cannot say it any better than Paul did, and there is nothing I can add to what he wrote.

[titushome]

I know there is much more in the Scriptures, especially in the writings of Paul (in particular Galatians) that addresses the subject of the Law, but I thought I'd stop here and offer up for discussion what I've found and written so far.

[Melody]

I'll have to come back but the scriptures you provided and all of Galations, which is one of my favorite areas, are all awesome.   It drives me to surpass the do's and don'ts to actually Godliness and Holiness, springing from the well within my soul that's fed by the Holy Ghost. 

[Brother Dad]

I have read to part six.  I am enjoying what I am reading thus far.  I am pushed for time but will return to finish reading it later.  Looks like you put a lot of work into it. 

[Brother Dad]

I enjoyed these writings very much.  It reminded me of when I first went to the First Pentecostal Church in Gastonia NC.  I had some people tell me you don't want to go to church there, that man is a clothes line preacher.  What I was taught there and still continue to grow by was to have a prayer life.  It is by praying I can built that relationship with God.  The more I am in fellowship with Him the more I love Him.

I would like to give kudos to Brother TitusHome on this writing.  Thank you for presenting the truth in the way you did. 

[Raven180]

Speaking of conforming to the image of God, it should be noted that the image to which we are conforming is to the image of the invisible God, i.e. the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

What I like about all of this is from 1 John 3:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18,

2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

18. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This speaks to the idea that our conformity to the image of the Son of God is a lifelong process, i.e. from glory to glory, or as it reads in Romans 1:17, from faith to faith. Even though we are currently the "sons of God", we cannot yet see what it is that we shall become, i.e. our conformity will be incomplete until the image of God, i.e. Jesus Christ comes for us and we finally see Him as He is. The best we can do now is behold His glory as if in a mirror. We cannot yet see Him as He is until He comes in the clouds with power and great glory.

He is the author and finisher of our faith. Then, when Jesus comes, in that twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. The mortal becomes immortal. The corruptible puts on incorruptibility. Death is swallowed up in victory. This is why our conformity will always be incomplete until Shiloh comes. While in the tabernacle of flesh, we are subject to death. But Jesus Christ is no longer subject to death. This coming of Jesus, Who we cannot see, yet still love, is the "end of our faith", even the salvation of our souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9) His coming to complete the transformation in us into His image is our rejoicing; it is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So even though we do not see what we shall become, we do see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels and a partaker of flesh and blood so that he could be subjected to, and taste death for, everyman. (Hebrews 2:9). And though Jesus tasted death for everyman, He could not be held by the pangs of death. (Acts 2:24). And now that Jesus has died once to sin, He dies no more and death has no dominion over him. (Romans 6:9). He is alive forevermore. (Revelation 1:18)

No wonder we groan and travail, waiting for the redemption. No wonder we'd rather be absent from the body in order to present with the Lord. It's the last phase of our conformity to the image of the invisible God: Everlasting Life.

Good work, Titus.

[titushome]

Speaking of conforming to the image of God, it should be noted that the image to which we are conforming is to the image of the invisible God, i.e. the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Amen!  (To your whole post, but I won't take up space by quoting the whole thing.  )

[doogie]

I am unsure how it is that you can find any distinction between the "Law of God" as you define it and the "Law of Moses" which is in fact the writen "Law of God" for his people, Israel. 

I will write more later...
 

[titushome]

I am unsure how it is that you can find any distinction between the "Law of God" as you define it and the "Law of Moses" which is in fact the writen "Law of God" for his people, Israel. 

I will write more later...

I'm looking forward to what you have to say, but for now I'll respond with this:

The Law of Moses was something given by God to Israel, and it is something that we today are no longer subject to.  It's okay to eat pork, it's not required that males be circumcised, we no longer have to perform elaborate sacrificial rituals, etc.

What we are subject to are the principles, the righteousness of God, which undergird the Law He dictated to Moses - and it is these principles, the Law which flows from God's very nature, which I am calling "the Law of God."  Perhaps you don't agree with my chosen terminology, but I hope we can agree about the concept.

[titushome]

*oops*

[Brother Dad]

Perhaps you don't agree with my chosen terminology, but I hope we can agree about the concept.

I for one like your chosen terminology.  I feel it better helps us to understand the Law that is alive within us.  The living Word of God.

[titushome]

I for one like your chosen terminology.  I feel it better helps us to understand the Law that is alive within us.  The living Word of God.

Thanks. 

[dnr1128]

Nothing wrong that I see with your phraseology. 

[doogie]

Titushome:

I find your thesis to be an interesting read in regard to better understanding your personal "God view."  I will leave my comments at that.

[titushome]

I find your thesis to be an interesting read in regard to better understanding your personal "God view."  I will leave my comments at that.

Awwww - please don't leave your comments at that.  I want to know what you now better understand about my "personal 'God view'."