Let the Law of the Spirit of Life set you Free
“So what about the 10 commandments,” she asked, “do Christians not have
to follow those anymore?”
I hadn’t grown up in a legalistic religion, so I had never considered
how the Old Testament Law fit in with grace.
But she had, and her church had taught that in order to be saved, you
had to believe in Jesus AND follow the 10 commandments, along with an
assortment of other requirements.
So she was understandably confused, and a little skeptical of my
beliefs.
And I’m afraid I wasn’t able to clear it up for her because honestly, her
question confused me.
In reading over Paul’s letters, it seems that the early Christians were
also confused on this issue. Early
churches would start out strong in grace, but then people would come into their
midst and teach a combination of Law and grace.
Much like my friend’s belief that salvation was based on Jesus plus
the 10 commandments, these teachers would say, “Yes, we’re under grace, but …
you still have to follow the Law regarding
circumcision …” (see Galatians 5)
you still have to follow the Law regarding sabbaths
…” (see Colossians 2)
you still have to follow the Law regarding foods …”
(Colossians 2)
you still have to follow the Law regarding Jewish
Holy Days and Feasts …” (Colossians 2)
Maybe the reason Christians have always been wary of grace is because
there will always be people who use grace as a “license to sin.” And that’s a valid point. Jude says there are …
… are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our
God into a license for immorality (Jude 1:4 NIV)
Unfortunately, there will always be ungenuine Christians in the church,
those hypocrites that turn non-Christians away. But let’s not let that stop us
from growing in grace and living in all the freedom, joy, and blessing that God
intends.
Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about Grace and Law.
Jesus said,
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or
one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18 KJV)
For some, that’s the
end of discussion. Christians must
follow the Law.
But if that’s true,
then why did Paul say,
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. (Romans 10:4 KJV)
So the law was our
guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now
that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. (Galatians 3:24,25 NIV)
if you
are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal 5:18 WEB)
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our
legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken
it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13,14 NIV)
Paul’s verses seem to
contradict Jesus.
But wait – Jesus also seems
to contradict Himself in John 4, where he spared a woman caught in
adultery.
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman
caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses
commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using
this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with
his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to
them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a
stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the
older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing
there. Jesus straightened up and asked
her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go
now and leave your life of sin.” (John
8:3-11 NIV)
The Law takes
adultery very seriously. It says,
If a man commits adultery with another man’s
wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to
be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NIV)
But Jesus,
who said, “Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled,” now blatantly disregards the Law and sets both the adulterous woman
(and her partner) free.
Why?
Surely the Pharisees
saw it as a contradiction, and no doubt many of them walked away grumbling
about how Jesus was giving people a license to sin.
Jesus also disregarded
the Law in the parable of the prodigal son.
Even though the son had slept with prostitutes, he wasn’t stoned; instead,
he was welcomed back into his father’s arms and home.
In these two examples,
Jesus wasn’t operating under the Old Covenant.
He was ushering in the New Covenant that Jeremiah foretold:
The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I
will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of
Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors … (Jeremiah 31:31,32 NIV)
When the woman was
caught in adultery, the Pharisees made it clear that they wanted nothing to do
with this New Covenant of grace and mercy.
They wanted to stay in the Old Covenant; they wanted the woman
stoned.
Much like the
Pharisees, there are legalistic Christians today who also choose to stay in the
Old Covenant. For these people, Jesus’s
words are true – “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.”
And, as Paul points
out, the Law of the Old Covenant is still very much in effect for another group
of people as well. He writes:
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for
lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and
irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for
the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and
liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that
conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he
entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:8-11 NIV).
So the Law is still
“good” for those who choose to continue in their sins.
But for those in the
New Covenant, “Christ is the end of the Law.”
And now we see there
is no contradiction at all.
Unfortunately, the New
Covenant seems to be too wonderful for us to grasp, and so most of us waver
somewhere between legalism and grace, Old Covenant and New.
As I said, in
the early church, new Christians wavered so much that Paul, (fortunately for us),
spent a great deal of time clearing this up.
We’ll look at what Paul says in a minute, but
first, let’s remember what the Law was like for people before Jesus came.
Under the Old Covenant, people had to follow a very
strict law. There were the ten
commandments plus hundreds of other rules and requirements. Men couldn’t cut their hair at the side of
their heads or clip the edge of their beards.
People were required to observe all appointed feasts, festivals,
Sabbath years, and the Year of Jubilee.
Sins were taken extremely seriously. Some sins could be atoned for by sacrificing
animals, but other sins, (like adultery), were punishable by death. There was little to no mercy; it was eye for
eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.
Old
covenant Law was so harsh that Paul called it “the Law of Sin and Death.”
(Romans 8:2) In 2 Corinthians, he says that it “kills”:
He has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but
the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians
3:6 NIV)
If you managed to follow all the laws and
requirements, you would be blessed by God.
But if you failed to do everything the law required, you would be under
a curse (Galatians 3:10). Meaning one
strike and you’re out. Since the Bible
also tells us that “all have sinned,” (Romans 3:23) we see that under the Law
of the Old Covenant, nobody could be saved.
So, not only was the Old Covenant Law harsh, it was
also doomed to fail.
The Law doesn’t remove our sins or our guilty
conscience:
The law is only a shadow of the good
things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason
it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make
perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have
stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for
all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices
are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and
goats to take away sins… (Hebrews 10:1-4 NIV)
The
Law is powerless to keep us from sinning:
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened
by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the 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 NIV)
The Law has no power
to justify us:
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a
person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus
Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the
works of the law no one will be justified. . . (Galatians 2:15,16 NIV)
Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified
before God (Galatians 3:11 NIV)
The Law was always
meant to be temporary, until Jesus came:
But only the high priest entered the inner
room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in
ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the
Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was
still functioning. This is an illustration for the present time,
indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to
clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of
food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external
regulations applying until the time of the new order. (Hebrews 9:6-10 NIV)
Knowing all these things, why would anyone choose
to stay under the Old Covenant?
Especially knowing how wonderful the New Covenant is. Let’s look at the New Covenant now.
Jesus ushered in the New Covenant during the last
supper with His disciples, when He took the cup and said,
“This cup is the new covenant in my
blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20 NIV)
The disciples didn’t
know too much about this New Covenant yet, but slowly they began to understand.
In Acts 10, for
example, Peter was astonished to learn that he could now eat foods that were
forbidden under the Old Covenant Law, and walk into the home of a Gentile, a
behavior also forbidden until this point.
While in that home, the Holy Spirit poured out onto the Gentiles, who
began speaking in tongues and praising God.
I imagine all these things must have been a lot to take in for Peter,
who had been brought up under the Old Covenant Law.
It was the same God that
Peter always knew, but a very different Covenant with very different Laws.
And the Laws of the
New Covenant are so much better than the Old.
According to Paul, the
New Covenant Law is called the “Law of the Spirit of Life.”
This New Covenant Law
has set us totally free from the Old:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin and death.
(Romans 8:2 NIV)
The Old Covenant Law
had no power to make us righteous, but the New Covenant Law does:
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
(Romans 8:3-4 NIV)
Verse 4 uses the word “fulfilled,” which brings up
a very interesting point. Jesus had said that “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Did Jesus
fulfill the law for us on the cross? It
appears He has.
What about Jude’s observation that some people
would exploit grace, and use it as a “license to sin?” Paul addresses this too, and he never ever condones sin. Far from it; in fact, the very opposite is
true. In Galatians 5 he
says:
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do
not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one
another humbly in love. For the entire law is
fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the
desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is
contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They
are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you
want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual
immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and
the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will
not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since
we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become
conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:1-26 NIV)
And in Romans 6, Paul says:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace
may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we
live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him
through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will
certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that
our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by
sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set
free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with
him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die
again; death no longer has mastery over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life
he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to
God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an
instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who
have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him
as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because
you are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:1-14 NIV)
And in Romans 8:
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what
the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have
their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is
death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
The mind governed by the flesh is
hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those
who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in
the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. (Romans
8:5-9 NIV)
Looking at Paul’s
writings, we’ll see that the New Covenant does have requirements, but these
requirements have nothing to do with Old Testament Laws. The requirements of the New Covenant seem to
be: Believe in Jesus, and be led by
the Holy Spirit. If we do these, the
Law will be fulfilled in us – we simply won’t break any 10 commandments or Old
Covenant Laws.
That’s why we no
longer have to follow the Law.
For people who can’t accept grace, the Old Covenant
Law is still available and they can live under it if they choose to.
But they must know that once they sin one time, they’ll
always be under a curse, because as we’ve seen, the Law is powerless to remove sin. It has no power to make a person good, holy,
or righteous. The Law has no power to
save.
The good news is this: the Law of the New Covenant,
the “Law of the Spirit of Life,” does have all the power we need.
By following after the Holy Spirit, we are changed,
transformed into His image. The fruit of
this union will be obvious to all – we’ll be flowing in love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22
NIV). We won’t continue in sin,
because our new nature won’t want to.
When we sin, we quickly repent, and the blood of
Jesus has the power to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 KJV).
Under the Law of the Spirit of Life, ALL the
requirements of the Old Covenant Law are fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4).
The New Covenant is a much better choice.
Even though all
Christians will tell you they live under the New Covenant, every Christian adds
at least a little Law – it seems to be human nature. I’ve never met a Christian yet who lives in
complete fullness of grace.
And of course, because
of individual experiences, we’re all on a different point on that continuum
between legalism and grace, Old Covenant and New. Because of free will,
we get to choose our point.
Some churches understand grace as far as salvation being by faith, but that’s about as
far as they get. They are definitely much closer to the legalism side,
mixing in huge chunks of the Old Covenant Law.
I’ve been in churches like that, and I never want to go back.
I know why Paul called
it the “Law of Sin and Death.” In those
churches, I never felt good enough, no matter how hard I tried. Condemnation always weighed heavy on my
heart. Looking back, I would say most
people there struggled with condemnation and depression. Even the kids.
But there is good
news! We don’t have to stay on the point
we start on. We can choose to grow in grace.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand
firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of
slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be
gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21 NIV)
Even that question wouldn’t have come up except
for some so-called “Christians” there—false ones, really—who came to spy on us
and see what freedom we enjoyed in Christ Jesus, as to whether we obeyed the
Jewish laws or not. They tried to get us all tied up in their rules, like
slaves in chains. But we did not listen to them for a single moment, for we did
not want to confuse you into thinking that salvation can be earned by being
circumcised and by obeying Jewish laws. (Galatians 2:4,5 TLB)
… we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them. (Galatians 2:16 TLB)
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