GOD DOESN’T WANT BELIEVERS TO BE MOTIVATED BY THE LAW OR BY
rules. But it’s important to clarify what I’m not
saying here.
The law itself isn’t sinful. Law-haters, known as antinomians, have been misinterpreting the Scriptures since the days of the early church. They say that the law is evil. In combating this false doctrine, the apostle Paul notes that the law isn’t sin. In fact, he declares it to be holy, righteous, and good: “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).
So there’s nothing imperfect about the law itself. It’s without blemish. The accurate position on the law is not
that it’s flawed. But its perfect standard when combined with human effort results in failure. In short, the law is perfect, but it makes no one perfect.
HERE TO
STAY
The law hasn’t disappeared just because we have the New. It is still at work today as a tool to convict the unbelieving world. As the words of Jesus indicate, the law will continue to be an everpresent force until heaven and earth disappear:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
MATTHEW
5:17-18
Jesus’ statement may appear to contradict Paul in Ephesians. Paul talks about the barrier wall between Jew and Gentile (the law) being abolished:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
EPHESIANS
2:14-15
The law is irrelevant
to life in Christ.
Paul’s words are sometimes misinterpreted to mean that the law has been obliterated. But this would contradict Jesus’ teaching that the law will endure as long as this world. Paul’s meaning, it seems, is that the law is irrelevant to life in Christ. Both Jew and Gentile are now saved by the same grace. The distinguishing element that separated Jew from Gentile is no more. This is very different from saying that the law has been obliterated.
Maybe the clearest statement concerning the law’s usefulness today was written to Timothy: “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous…” (1 Timothy 1:8-9a). Here we see a balanced view of the law. The law still exists and has a purpose today. But it’s not designed for Christians as a tool or guide for daily living. Its sole purpose is to convict the ungodly of their spiritually dead state.
Understanding the law’s place in the world today keeps us from the error of antinomianism (“law hating”). Understanding that
the law has no place in the life of a Christian keeps us from the error of legalism.
FULFILLED
So God’s purpose is
not
to fulfill the law within Christians today. Why not? Because he has already fulfilled it.
*
Hence, the Holy Spirit is not trying to bring Christians into subjection to the law. Nor is he helping Christians comply with it. Jesus already met the requirements of the law. And those who are born of the Spirit have the law’s requirements credited to them:
What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in human flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us,
who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
ROMANS
8:3-4, italics added
Our righteousness
is greater than all
of the Pharisees’
efforts combined.
God did something in the past
and fully met
the law’s requirements. He sent his Son to be a sin offering, so he could condemn sin. Did God succeed? Of course. When did he succeed? Nearly two thousand years ago. So is God still trying to fulfill the law today? No, he has fulfilled it already. It’s a past event.
Notice that God did this so that the law would be fully met in
us, not by
us. When we come to Christ, all that he did to fulfill the law is placed in
us and credited to us. This makes our righteousness greater than all of the Pharisees’ efforts combined, even from the first day we believe
.
“DEAD TO
ME
”
In Mafia movies, you’ll sometimes see a disappointed don inform his son that their relationship is over. The don exclaims, “Son, you’re dead to me.” The son fixes his gaze on the floor, and tears stream down his cheeks. He slowly leaves the room and his family forever. The connection between him and his father is over. The son is severed from the family, never to be reconnected.
Romans tells us we’re dead to the law.
Just as the Mafia don was disappointed with his son’s performance, “Don Law” is disappointed with us. We’re not able to perform well enough to stay on his good side. Living under his roof was killing us.
So what was God’s solution? God made us die to the law so that we could be reborn into a new family and enjoy a newfound freedom. As Paul writes, “Through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:19).
The moment we die to the Law family, we’re picked up by a family of far greater influence. Since we’re part of a new family, we’re no longer under the demands of “Don Law”:
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law
through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead…But now, by dying to what once bound us,
we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
ROMANS 7:4, 6, italics added
Remember that the law came in so that sin might increase,
not decrease (Romans 5:20). God knew the effects of the law. Through the law, we become conscious of sin. Through the law, we die. The law kills. When we realize this, we’re ready for a new approach altogether
.
COLOMBIAN CADAVER
As a child, my wife, Katharine, lived in Colombia, South America, with her parents who served there as missionaries for four years. In Colombia, Katharine visited some of the most legalistic churches imaginable. Elders and deacons who were well respected among their peers were caught with other men’s wives. Admired church leaders turned out to be drunks, compulsive gamblers, or extortionists.
Perhaps the most amazing event was when a man’s car blew up in his own driveway, apparently an assassination. The charred body was recovered from the flames, and a funeral was held for the man. About a year later, the man was found alive and well in another city—married to another woman! It turns out he had dug up a cadaver from the cemetery and staged his own death. Apparently, he carried out this charade because of the extensive gambling debts he owed to the local mafia.
Katharine witnessed both extreme legalism and extreme immorality at the same time. Those outrageous events served to illustrate an important point about life under the law. We can dress up, play church, and gain the respect of those around us through the trumpeting of our strict religious rules. But no amount of window dressing can change reality. Sooner or later, life under law will evidence itself.
In Christ, we die and are reborn—free from the law. So we don’t have to pretend. Playing church leads to more
sinning every time.