The Red Letters - of death and condemnation!

I'm assuming everyone knows what a "Red Letter" edition of a Bible is. It's where the words of Jesus are printed in the color red (representing His blood). Fascinating words, are they not, those words in red? They're the very words of Christ, right? And so it's all about how to live the Christian life then, right? After all, He's the Messiah! And whatever words the Messiah spoke, we just do it and we're on the right path, right?

Let's back up just a bit and look at something else. Actually, let's look "ahead" to Paul's writings, which of course were written years after Jesus' death and resurrection. He says some interesting things that have helped me to see a lot clearer when it comes to some of the words of Jesus. Regarding God's law, Paul called it "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (see 2 Cor 3:7-11). Paul talked much about the purpose of the law. It was a "tutor" to lead TO Christ, but once faith has come, the tutor's (law's) job is done and we are no longer under it (Gal 3:24-25). And the key verse that turned my thinking upside down in such a way in which I can never go back is Romans 3:19, "Now 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 become guilty before God."

The law was meant from the beginning to be the ministry of death and condemnation. It was not meant as a source of life, but of death. It was not meant as a way to live a godly and holy life, but rather through it we died and were then made alive together with Christ (Gal 2:19-20). Its purpose was to speak to those who were under it, stopping their mouths and making them guilty! All of this is important, but I want to focus on that one phrase, "that every mouth may be stopped."

Now that we know what the law's purpose was, we can look back and see how Jesus used the law when speaking to people. They didn't have Paul's epistles, and Jesus was very clever and skillful with His use of the law, so we're very fortunate today to have Paul's epistles to understand all of this! Let me give a few examples of what I'm talking about.

In Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-23), the man asked Him, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Now, we know through Paul's epistles that we cannot obtain eternal life through keeping the law, right? But yet Jesus answered the man, "You know the commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" Huh? And what about this - Another time "a certain lawyer" asked Jesus the same question (Luke 10:25-37). Again, two commandments came up. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus replied to the man, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." Again, I say, "Huh?" Paul said in Gal 3:21 that there is NO LAW that can give life!

But if we put all of this together I think we get the bigger picture. The law was meant to make everyone guilty and it was meant to stop mouths! Jesus used the law perfectly with these two men, and He used it perfectly and skillfully elsewhere as well. Follow the "certain lawyer" story all the way, and the man sought to "justify himself" by probing Jesus a little bit further about the meaning of those laws, and Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan. We've often looked at this parable as a "Christian teaching," but look, it was spoken as an answer to this man who was seeking to justify himself! It was a mouth-stopping parable! "My neighbor" is EVERYONE, including my worst enemies.

Keep all of this in mind when reading the "Red Letters" (the words of Jesus). Very often it's not a "Christian teaching" that He's giving, but rather it's the ministry of death and condemnation! But you say, "Joel, Jesus didn't come to condemn, but to save!!!" And you're very correct! The thing is, often it takes a mouth-stopping, guilt producing word to bring people to the end of themselves and their self-reliance, and their trust in their own works, and that acts as a tutor that leads to faith and salvation!

GIG 201 - Dead People Don't Keep Laws and Don't Break Laws

Continuing on with our conversation that we were having before our 3 special highlight editions of Growing in Grace, Kap talks about an actual person who no longer breaks the laws of the land to illustrate how we as Christians no longer break God's laws!

Also this week: The Christian life is, of course, not about keeping or breaking God's laws, so how in the world do we live our lives in Christ? Might it have something to do with grace?! Can too much grace be preached? We'll talk about all this and more on this week's Growing in Grace podcast.

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 199 - If Not Law and Rules Then What is the Source of Living the Christian Life?

For the past several weeks we've been getting pretty heavy into discussions about God's Law. We've discussed the purpose of the Law, and how it is the ministry of death and condemnation, and how being under the Law is bondage. We then talked about how Jesus came to FREE us from the Law! For those not familiar with all these things that the New Covenant scriptures say about the Law, this may leave some scratching their heads and asking questions such as, "If the Christian life is not about keeping God's law and it's not about following rules, then what is the motivation and the source of living the Christian life?

If we say that Jesus came to deliver us from the Law, and all we talk about is God's love and grace, won't that cause people to want to go out and sin and live reckless lives? Is that what grace does? (Do we really have the gall to make grace out to be so cheap and powerless and insufficient?) The Law, which is good and holy and perfect, had one main problem. It could certainly lay down its demands of perfection - but yet it had absolutely no power to help anyone live right! Grace, on the other hand, is the ever-sufficient power of living the Christian life. To take it even further, it's not that grace enables the flesh to live a better life, but through God's grace we have died to the Law in order that we may have true life - the very life of Christ in us! Therein lies the power and the motivation and the source of the entire Christian life!

Special Note: Next week marks our 200th Growing in Grace program! To celebrate, we'll spend two or three weeks running highlights of our past programs. This should be a lot of fun as we look back on some of our conversations that have hopefully been a source of grace, freedom and life. Thanks so much for listening and for all your encouraging words!

gigcast.graceroots.org

It blows people's minds that the law is the ministry of death and condemnation!

It blew my mind when I first saw it and understood it, so I can understand why it blows the minds of others. Recently I've had interaction with others that drives home the point.

It's right there in the Bible. Loud and clear! And yet many people have never heard it or at least have never understood it - or simply not believed it. The Apostle Paul calls God's Law "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (see 2 Cor 3:7-9). I've written about this before, and I'm sure I'll write about it again, so I won't get into the full meaning of it right now. I just want to show how this essential gospel truth is hardly even known in the church!

A listener of our Growing in Grace program, who also became a Facebook friend of mine, recently wrote these words on his Facebook page:

This blow me away, what was engraved on letters of stone, the 10 commandments and Paul calls them the ministry of death, wow! and a ministry that condemns men. Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the truth is, the Law justifies no man.....sigh.....what a freakin relief.

On Facebook you can "like" someone's comment. (You can click a little link that says you "like" what the person has shared). So I "liked" his comment. He responded to me:

You should Joel, you did a podcast on it...man that was powerful....I never seen that before.

Nowadays I simply take it for granted that this is the truth - that the Law was the ministry of death and condemnation. And sometimes I forget that this is new news to so many people - even people who have been Christians for a long time!

"I never seen that before."

My friend and Growing in Grace cohost, Mike Kapler (Kap), was sharing with me yesterday about a conversation he'd had with some people at church recently. Long story short, he was sitting in on a certain class, and they began getting off of the particular topic of the class and began talking about our identity in Christ. Kap began sharing that Paul called the Law the ministry of death and condemnation. One of the women in the class spoke up and said, "I've never heard that before."

I don't know how long she's been in the church, but my point in all of this is that these are essential truths that should be known by anyone and everyone who has come to know Jesus (and has died to the Law in order to be married to Him - [see Rom 7:1-6 and Gal 2:19-20])! WHY is Law taught as part of the Christian life when the Bible says the exact opposite?!! WHY is today's church in such a state that stuff like this is so revolutionary when it should be the norm? Rhetorical questions. As I said at the start, I understand it. I get it. And that's why we need to keep on sharing the truth that breaks down all these falsehoods!

GIG 198 - Freedom Comes Not Through Law But Through Faith

Christians, declare your independence from the Law! Many Christians, it seems, have not realized that Christ set them free from God's Law. But since it's the truth, we might as well know and understand it so we can live a life of independence from the Law and of true freedom in Christ!

There are over 600 Laws in the Bible. So which Laws are we talking about here? As everyone knows, there are two covenants - the Old and the New. In the Old, we see that there are laws that are broken into three categories: sacrificial laws, dietary laws... AND what is known as "moral laws," or The Ten Commandments. Most Christians have no problem with the understanding that we don't live by the old sacrificial and dietary laws. But as we check out Paul's words in Galatians this week, we find out what he has to say about the latter set of laws, which many Christian seem to think are there for us to live by. If you see things that way, you may be surprised at what the Bible actually says about that!

In short, let's just say that walking by Law means that we are in bondage! To walk according to God's promise - to walk according to freedom - means to walk by faith, not law. We are children of faith and of the promise, not children of the flesh and bondage!

Next week: If our lives in Christ are not to be by Law, then what is the motivation and source of good works and righteous living?

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 197 - Law: Bondage, Jesus: Freedom

Continuing on from last week's program in which we talked about being delivered from the Law, this week we talk a little bit more about the ministry of the Law, which is bondage, and the "better hope" that we have in Jesus, which is freedom!

The Apostle Paul uses very strong language when talking about the Law. Sometimes we glance over these things, but we've got to look at the reality of the Law's purpose and ministry so we can have a clearer understanding of the ministry of Jesus! Did you know that Paul refers to the Law as "the law of sin and death," "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation?" He brings up the Old Testament characters of Hagar and Sarah, saying they are symbols of the two covenants - one that gives birth to bondage and the other that brings freedom. Are we of the child that was born according to the flesh, or of the child that was born according to the promise!

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 195 - The Purpose of the Law

Last week we asked the question, "Don't we need to commit ourselves to the laws of God?" This week we begin exploring that question by going back and talking briefly about what the gospel is (in short, we talk about God's righteousness that is given to us as a gift, apart from the Law) and we move on from there.

Was the Law given to help us live right and overcome sin? The Bible says that we've been set free from sin and that sin does not have dominion over us! Why? Does God's Law have anything to do with this? What is the Law's purpose? We'll talk about this and more on this week's episode of Growing in Grace.

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 194 - What Place Does the Law Have in the Life of the Christian?

As we talked about last week, a recent Barna study showed that a majority of Christians believe that spiritual maturity is about keeping the rules. Many people think that God gave the Law to teach people how to live righteously and according to His "standards." It may be surprising - or even shocking - to some Christians that the Bible actually says that the Law was added so that sin might increase. It also says that sin's strength is the Law!

So what place does God's Law have in the life of the Christian? Listen in as Kap and the Breezeman begin a series of podcasts on the true purposes of the Law and of the true source and motivation of the living out of the Christian life. We hope you'll be greatly encouraged and freed from the chains of legalism!

gigcast.graceroots.org

The Law and Chocolate

I posted this quote a couple of years ago but thought I'd post it again. It came in a daily radio prep email that I've subscribed to since my radio days.

If you're jones'n for some chocolate just give in. New research shows the more we try to fight off a chocolate craving, the more we desire it.

Sounds a lot like the effects of the law, doesn't it?

Church Pharisees

In the comments of Monday's "Am I here to judge or condemn your behavior?" post, Richard joked, "Christ did not come into the world to condemn it. He sent the church out to condemn the world for Him!"

That's funny. :) And isn't it also sad at the same time, since it points to the reality that so many people in the church today seem to think that it's their job to go around pointing out sin, and condemning people for their behavior and lifestyles? "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus came to save the world, so who's now going to carry the condemnation torch??? Might as well be us!!!"

Feh!

Seems like they'll wear their WWJD bracelets (figuratively speaking)... but forget about Jesus' grace-full encounters with the woman caught in adultery, the tax-collectors and sinners, the woman at the well, and so many other encounters with people in which their behavior was not His focus but rather the love, grace and mercy of God, and His kindness toward them and acceptance of them!

Forgetting that condemnation was done away with and that "the handwriting of requirements that was against us, that was contrary to us" (the law) was "taken out of the way" and "nailed to the cross" (Col 2:14-15), they bring the law back in to point out and protest how others are living such terrible lives - and they even make up their own rules, laws, traditions, principles, etc, heaping heavy burdens and condemnation upon people.

I don't like to be so negative, and really I am far more about simply sharing the love and grace of God with people than getting down and negative about what legalism does, but sometimes it helps to point out the contrasts and differences to show the absurdity of what the church is up to these days.

That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...' (repost)

In July 2007 I wrote a series of five posts called "That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...'," which was sort of my response to the billboard that essentially says that God meant it when He said it. I spent four posts building up to my main point, and I just thought I'd repost the final post in that series. If interested, the first four parts are here:
Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4

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Part 5
I hope by now I've made the point that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is no small task. In fact, it's an impossible task! In this fifth and final post, I hope to address two things: "Why" would Jesus teach impossible laws and "how" are the commandments ultimately fulfilled in us?

Years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, many things would be revealed to Paul that weren't necessarily understood during Jesus' life of ministry and teaching. Something that I think we often fail to grasp from Paul's writings is his teachings on the true purpose of the law.

Rom 3:19-20 Now 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. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. NKJV

Gal 3:24-25 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor . NKJV

I've made a habit of often pointing out that the law's purpose is to stop every mouth and to make the world guilty before God. By the law is the knowledge of sin, but not the power to overcome sin, so no one can be justified by the deeds of the law!

Remember the lawyer, who "wanted to justify himself" by asking, "who is my neighbor?" And remember the rich young ruler, trying to justify himself by his law keeping with his words, "all these I've kept since my youth." When he found out the true depths of the meaning of the law, he went away sad. The law's purpose was indeed to produce sorrow, and much more. I like how Matthew (Daelon) commented on the previous post: "Jesus is laying such heavy loads of the law on these people so they will scream "I give up!", not so that they will try harder." That's well put.

But yet Jesus said He came not to condemn, but to save! (John 3:17) Why then would He teach the law, which only produces guilt and condemnation? We return to Paul's revelation of the purpose of the law from his letter to the Galatians. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. In order to come to Christ, the tutor of the law must first do its work! Jesus wanted people to come to Him in order to be justified by faith - didn't He? The law then had to first do its perfect work!

But somehow we have looked at the law and not seen it for the true condemning factor that it is. We've looked at it as a "moral guide." We've tried to keep it, and we've changed it and amended it and made our own interpretations out of it so we could try to justify ourselves with our own keeping of it. Jesus, I believe, came and laid down the true depths and meaning of the law, so that it would do its perfect work and fulfill its perfect purpose: to condemn and bring guilt, so that people would then turn to Him and be justified by faith. Once the law has finally done that in the life of an individual, he comes to this place: "After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."

There are many, many examples of Jesus using the law, which the church today has turned into "teachings" or "principles" for Christian living. One example would be His words, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt 5:27-28)

We've "Christianized" Jesus' words that He spoke to those under the law, and since we see that adultery comes from the heart, and not just the physical deed, we've invented our own Christian principle by saying that we need to be very careful to obey Jesus' words to not lust. After all, what holy person would argue that lusting after someone else's wife is a good thing? But yet we miss the whole point! There are many, many people, even such as the rich young ruler, who have never committed the physical act of adultery. According to a simple knowledge of the law, they've "kept" that law. But Jesus says, "not so." This teaching of His, I would say, is a mouth-stopping, guilt-producing teaching to every person in the world who would justify themselves by their keeping of the law.

Jesus' words to the rich younger ruler, "sell all you have and distribute to the poor," were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words to this man who considered himself justified by his law keeping. Jesus' words to the lawyer were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words.

No one can be justified by keeping the law. That is the whole point of the law!

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Yup. He meant it alright! He meant it more than most people will ever realize!

So, how do we then walk in love? How do we fulfill 1 Corinthians 13? How do we agape God and agape others as we agape ourselves?

The answer isn't really a "how." It's a "Who." As Christians who have died to the law in order to be married to Christ, by faith, that we may bear fruit to God (see Rom 7:4), we seem to quickly fall back on law and principles as the means by which we live our lives and fulfill the call to love God and one another. But a person can know - and know well - all Christian principles in the world - and still have no power and still have no life and still have no love!

The "how" is really a Person - Jesus Christ. He is in us, and we are in Him. His life is our life. We are one spirit with Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. When it came down to the truth of living a godly life and bearing godly fruit, Jesus didn't say, "follow all these laws and principles and you'll bear fruit." He said, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Under the law and principles, we could bear no fruit. In fact, Paul says, "the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death!" (See Rom 7:5). But now that we've died to what once bound us (the law), we serve in the newness of the Spirit! The good fruit that comes forth is the Spirit's own fruit that He produces in and through us as we simply abide in Christ, not struggling to fulfill commands and principles. Maybe I'll put it this way: The commands of God and the principles for Christian living are fulfilled in us, not as we set out to try to do them, but as we rest in Christ and let His life in us take over and produce all of it. All of it!

I'd most certainly like to discuss all this with anyone who has any thoughts, questions, opinions, etc.

The command to love vs. the law of love

This past weekend at the Radical Sonship Conference in Atlanta, Steve McVey asked a question that went something like, "Do you know what the most legalistic teaching in the church is?" I mean, if you were to survey all the legalistic stuff you've ever been taught, which do you think would be the most legalistic? Well, Steve went on to talk about the man who came up to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law is. Jesus, of course, replied that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

And so there you have it. The greatest LAW is to love God more. Therefore the greatest LEGAListic teaching in the church is teaching people to love God more. We can teach people that they're supposed to love God more, but there is simply no power to be found in a law, rule or principle to actually do it!

About a year and a half ago I drove past one of those "-God" billboards.

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Well of course He meant it. After all, it's the second greatest commandment! But to teach it as a Christian principle or rule, just as with the greatest commandment, is to miss the point entirely!!!

The command to love is bondage, as is any and all of God's law. But the "royal law of love" is something that is fulfilled, not as we look to commandments, but as we abide in the Vine and as we submit ourselves not to our own attempts at loving others, but to God's very life that we've been made alive to!

I ended up writing a series of five posts in July 2007, based upon what I saw on that billboard, and building up to the impossibility and futility of trying to keep the commands to love. I essentially took four posts to show how our attempts at keeping the commands don't work, and then in the final post I made my point that it's all about a "Who," not a "how," when it comes to loving God and loving people. My next post will be a repost of the final post in that series.

Ruth Part 2 - Unconditional Friendship

About a week and a half ago I posted God Sent Ruth - Friendship, which is a great message from my old pastor, Mark, from 1997. He continued on with Ruth the following week. You may think that studying an Old Testament character such as Ruth might be dull or boring, but it's amazing how much grace can be found here!

Among other things in this message, Mark talks about friendship - friendship between Christians (which of course should be rich and unconditional, but is often full of conditions and judgmentalism), and friendship between Christians and non-Christians - which Christians often sadly stay away from, or at least only view from an evangelistic standpoint. He sidetracks off of Ruth's story with his own touching story of a decision he made to relate to a certain coworker not in a "Christian" or "religious" context, and not for the purpose of evangelizing him, but rather from the perspective of unconditional friendship. The coworker knew he was a pastor and kept expecting Mark to preach at him about Christ, and in fact he even kept bringing up Christian stuff himself, but Mark simply related to him as a friend who loved him unconditionally. It's amazing what can happen if we just love people.

Mark also reiterates what he had said the previous week about God having made a LAW that said no Moabite shall be a part of the congregation of Israel, but yet here was Ruth, the Moabitess, coming into it with Naomi. The New Testament would later say that if a person broke any single law, he was guilty of all and was under the curse... and yet so many blessings would come out of this act of Ruth being a true friend - forsaking her own people and way of life - and clinging to Naomi and becoming a part of her own people. Did you know that Jesus descended from Ruth, the Moabitess?!

There's so much more here. This is the kind of stuff I was weaned on in my early days of having begun to shed legalism and embrace grace. I can't say enough how I highly recommend giving this a listen!

Ten specific examples of what was against us and contrary to us...

If the last post didn't step on any toes, I'm sure this one will. But let's at least look at what the Scriptures say. "Let us reason together." :)

First, a summary:
Scripture tells us that something was against us and contrary to us. It tells us that we were in bondage to something. It tells us that in Christ, this has now been taken out of the way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete. Isn't it quite astounding for God to go to such great lengths to take something out of the way, nail it to the cross and make it obsolete! So what is it that was against us, and contrary to us, and put us into bondage... and God then took out of the way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete?

Gal 4:24 "For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage..."

Col 2:13-14 "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

Heb 8:13 In that He says, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. Now what is obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."

What came from Mount Sinai? God's LAW. What is the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us? God's LAW. What has been taken out of the way, nailed to the cross? God's LAW. What has been made obsolete? The Old Covenant, which was based upon man keeping God's LAW.

Brace yourself, I'm here to lay it down.

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The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not murder."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not commit adultery."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not steal."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

The following was against us, contrary to us, a source of bondage to us, and is now taken out of our way, nailed to the cross and made obsolete:

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

(All of the above: "The Ten Commandments," taken from Exodus 20:3-17)

We now have something so much better than all of this! All of the above is good and holy, but it was weak in that it could never do a thing to make us good and holy. All it did was to make us guilty before God. It was against us, contrary to us, and put us into nothing but bondage. But what the Law could not do, God did by sending His Son. We have now died to the above so that we could be joined with Christ, whose life in us will always lead us into what is good, holy and righteous. We are now free to serve righteousness, which is something we could never, ever find in the Law!

What was against us and contrary to us has been wiped out and made obsolete!

This post, and the post to follow, are not posts that are meant to turn your head a little. They're not simply "double-take" posts. These are absolute all-out in-your-face posts! I might even make some enemies with these posts, and I'm willing to take that risk. But my ultimate hope is that the words in these posts will be used to set people free.

For too long the Church of Jesus Christ has been involved in an atrocious, yet all too widely accepted, form of Christianity that continues to include within it various forms of the very thing that Christ came to set us free from! Actually, this has been going on for 2,000 years. Certain early Christians, such as the people in the churches of Galatia, were so involved in this atrocity that the Apostle Paul, in a strong rebuke, called them foolish and he asked them who had bewitched them that they would turn back to such things!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free," Paul said (Galatians 5:1), but yet there are still many Christians living today who are in bondage to the very thing that Christ set us free from! It should not be this way! So what is this terrible, heinous form of slavery that Christians are involved in, through the preaching and teaching of it, and through the daily yoking of themselves together with it?

The LAW. God's Law. God's holy Law. I'll be specific: The Ten Commandments (and any and all other of God's 600+ laws and ordinances in the Bible). This is what Christians, to their detriment, are misguidedly teaching and preaching as the way of the Christian life. The paradox here is that God's good, holy law... is not good for us! It was against us and contrary to us (Colossians 2:14). It was bondage to us (Galatians 4:24). See, God's good and holy Law has this itsy bitsy little shortcoming when it comes to sinful man: It can make no one perfect or holy or good! (See Hebrews 7:18-19 and Romans 8:3). So what God did through Christ was not to enable us to live according to the standards of His Law, but rather He took the Law out of the way by nailing it to the cross with Christ! (See again Colossians 2:14). And so with the Law nailed to the cross and our sin taken away, we were freed from our bondage and made close to God by His grace. We now live, not by God's Law, but by the Life of Christ that has come to indwell us.

So why the obsession with the Law in Christianity??? Do we not get that it was against us and that we had to die to it in order to belong to Christ? (Galatians 2:19-20, Romans 7:4). Jesus
said He didn't come to destroy the Law. He came to fullfil it. And guess what? At the cross, all was fulfilled!!! When Jesus died, God's Last Will and Testament (the New Covenant) was executed. When all was fullfilled, and the New Covenant came to be, God made the first covenant "obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13)! We can't miss the fact that Jesus, "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12). Jesus sat down, signifying that the work was complete and sufficient and finished forever!!! What the Law could never have done, Christ did once and for all.

Thank GOD that what was against us and contrary to us (God's Law) has been wiped out and nailed to the cross and made obsolete! Because of this, we are truly FREE!

A change in covenants: From bad news to good news!

I'm going to speak in general here, but under the Old Covenant, prophets would be sent out now and then to point out how the people were failing to follow God's commandments, and to proclaim the judgment that was awaiting them if they didn't repent of their evil deeds and start doing right.

There is no such bad-news prophet 'office' in the New Covenant! We got a taste of the change when the angels appeared to the shepherds with a brand new message, all focused around the Savior of the world, and no longer focused on what had condemned the world (the law).

Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

A stark change from the message of "change your ways or suffer the consequences!"

The law had done its job - death and condemnation. However, "when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5).

No longer is the message, "change your ways so that you won't be punished." That's bad news! The reason it's bad news is because there is none righteous, no not one. There is no one who can ever change their ways in a way that satisfies God! The new message, the message of the gospel (good news) is this: "Having been justified [made righteous] by faith [not by turning from bad behavior to good behavior], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom 5:1-2).

The Old Covenant gave birth to bondage! There is nothing about the Old Covenant that is good for us. Nothing! Cast out the bondwoman (the Old Covenant) and her son (the bondage that comes from the Old Covenant)! We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Gal 5:1).

Law keeper? Law breaker?

As a Christian, do you keep God's law? Do you break His law?

The answer to both is "no!"

As a Christian, do I keep God's law (am I a law-keeper)? You might see me walking righteously - not stealing, not committing adultery, honoring my parents, loving my neighbor as myself, etc, and you might say, "See, you're keeping God's laws!" To which I'd say, "No, I'm not!" I'm not looking to God's law as the source of my righteous living at all. Rather, what you see is an expression of the Life of Christ in me. I'm not following the law, I'm not keeping the law. What you see is me walking according to the Spirit of Christ who lives in me and who is my life.

As a Christian do I break God's law (am I a law-breaker)? You might see me doing unrighteous things - stealing, committing adultery (Matthew 5:28, anyone?), not honoring my parents, not loving my neighbor as myself, etc, and you might say, "See, you're breaking God's laws!" To which I'd say, "No, I'm not!" What you see is an expression of my flesh acting out in independence, rather than me walking according to my true identity in Christ and my union with Him.

In Christ I'm not a law keeper and I'm not a law breaker. I have died to the law. The only way I could "live to God" in the first place was to die to the law! How can I 'keep' or 'break' what I've died to? In fact that old written code was "wiped out." It was against me (no matter how well I kept it or how badly I broke it), and God took it out of the way, removing it completely. He nailed it to the cross. My life is no longer defined by law keeping or law breaking. My life is now defined by the Life of Christ in me, and nothing else! How has this become one of the church's best kept secrets???

Col 2:13-14
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Gal 2:19-21
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."

The answer is always B - 11/18/08 - Decrease or Increase

What's the correct wording of Romans 5:20?

A. The law was added so that sin might decrease. Because where sin is increased, law is needed all the more.

B. The law was added so that sin might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.*

C. "Increase your giving to ma ministray and I will surely be blessed." - The Extra Very Reverend J. Slick Breeze.

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*Bonus addendum to "B." I like the way The Message words it: All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.

Screen door on a submarine - about as useful as Law in the life of a Christian

One of Rich Mullins' early songs spoke about faith without works being about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I see what he was trying to say... "faith without works is dead..." and on the one hand I can easily accept his analogy, but on the other hand I'll just say that I've spent too much time over-analyzing the analogy. :)

However, no matter what the worth of the analogy, I've been ministered to greatly by the life of Rich Mullins and there are many, many of his quotes that I love, and I shared some a year ago on the tenth anniversary of his death. If you've not followed this blog for that long (or even if you have, and have already seen these), I highly recommend checking out these two posts: Rich quotes and More Rich quotes. (Even a year later, I welcome your comments there if you have any).

What I really wanted to get at here was a different use for the phrase "screen door on a submarine." Law in the life of a Christian is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I suppose you could spend some time analyzing that statement, and you're free to do so! :)

But if, as Christians, we had to die to the law in order to be married to Another - that is, Christ - and in Him we are now alive with real life (which the law could never produce) and we are now a solid, leak proof "submarine" - because in Him and Him alone we bear fruit to God and we are complete and we have Life, and we are new creations with spirits that are joined together with His, not by works or law, but by grace alone - then why would we try to add anything to this, especially the ministry of death and condemnation that we had to die to in order to be joined to Christ???

It's the ministry and life of the Spirit that brought us to life, saving us from death and condemnation, and it's the ministry of the Spirit that keeps us. The law could do nothing to save us and the law can do nothing to bring us to maturity in Christ. Isn't it all the work of the Spirit?


FWIW: Screen Door On A Submarine - live

Big Difference 7 - Guilty of ALL vs. Innocent and justified

Rom 3:19 Now 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.

James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

Yep, that's what happened under the law. However...

Col 2:13-14 When you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Rom 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...

Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...

JUSTIFIED: Greek word Dikaioo -
-to render righteous or such he ought to be
-to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
-to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be
-to render as just or innocent

What guilt? The law made everyone guilty. But by faith in Christ we are now JUSTIFIED - declared to be righteous, rendered righteous and innocent!


*For an explanation of this Big Difference series, see the original post.*