Yeshua Explored

Transitioning

Why should we bother with The Law?

No, this is not a nod to the murky waters of gender fluidity but rather a sad Christian reality. It is a false reality experienced by those Christians who are told that the New supersedes the Old but are never told why or how? What to do with the Torah, specifically the Laws of Moses and particularly the Ten Commandments? We are under grace not law! Jesus has done away with the law! You’ve heard these before but consider their implications. Is this a cause for “Christian” lawlessness? Are we Christians so “holy” that we no longer need guidelines to live by? Many think so, influenced by “teachers” who “know so”! There’s a word for this, antinomianism. With the meaning “anti law”, it was first used by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century as an insult against those who believed that the sole purpose of the Law was to drive us to the Cross. It is conviction-free Christianity, blind to our faults and ignorant of the fact that we still have an inclination to sinful behaviour, which still needs to be personally dealt with. We have not become sinless beings and we still need Law to remind us so.

These people would look at Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For you are saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God: it is not from works, so that not anyone could boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is their thinking; As Scripture tells us that we are saved by grace alone, then we can basically do what we like afterwards, as our works are not going to keep us from heaven.

We need to understand this ‘Blessed Assurance’, God’s promise to all true believer of the eternal life that awaits them? For every true believer this is a given, but sadly there are many false believers out there, who haven’t totally given their lives over to God, who show no outward signs of being born again in the Spirit. For these people the ‘Blessed Assurance’ is not a reality and it is the responsibility of the Church to re-align them to the true path before it is too late! This is a joint enterprise and highlights the need for true discipleship of all who profess a faith.

For true believers we must ensure that we live in the assurance of salvation. David Andrew puts it most eloquently:

“Salvation is not the terminus, it’s the embarkation point. The journey is sanctification, which is better understood as ‘salvation underway’. Jesus has paid the fare (in full) and there is no more to pay to reach our destination. In fact, we have already crossed over from death to life, have already been cleared and freed from God’s judgment. At Calvary “the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him” (Isaiah 53:5 cf. Romans 5:1). All condemnation has been lifted from us (John 3:17; Romans 8:1) and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39). “There is no more for heaven now to give”. This means that we are disciples, but we are not probationers – there is no question over our final status, but along the way we shall learn many hard lessons about obedience and perseverance… “

As disciples we have a responsibility to God and to the Church. We must find our function and run with it. Unfortunately, many in the Church follow the thinking of antinomianism, that we are totally under grace and not law, a consequence of the teaching of Covenant Theology and the idea that Christ freed us from any responsibility for our behaviour – freeing us from any need for discipleship! This is a disconnect, brought about through the toxic consequence of the pagan understandings of Platonism that has infected the Church for centuries. It’s the dualism that encourages an unconscious separation between our beliefs and our behaviour. Beliefs and doctrines must feed our faith and thus determine our actions and we will allow the apostle James to remind us.

“And you must steadily be doers of the Word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves. Because if someone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, this one is like a man when he observes his own natural face in a mirror: for he observed himself then went away, and immediately forgot what manner of person he was. But the one who looked into the perfect Torah the one of freedom, and continues to do so, not being a forgetful hearer but being a doer of work, he will be blessed, happy in what he does.” (James 1:22-25)

“For as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)

The fact is that Jesus gave more laws to live by than Moses did, and many of them are tricky to keep as he sometimes adds his own conditions to them. For a full analysis of this please read my book, God’s Tapestry. Paul mentions the continuation of the Law here:

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

The Law of Christ, eh? So Moses wasn’t the only law-giver then? In fact, Jesus repeated nine of the ten commandments, (even adding to them where necessary) and demonstrated the other commandment, keeping the Sabbath, as something as still alive and kicking!

Jesus addressed the situation generally in this famous passage in Matthew:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)

It’s so simple really, Jesus really is so unlike many of our theologians who seem to revel in over-complicating everything and pander more to their own egos. Thank goodness they are not all like that and I am privileged to have the acquaintance of Bible teachers at our Foundations conferences who dig deep into the Word in order to present God’s truth to others.

Jesus is, in essence, saying here; if you truly loved me with all your heart, soul and mind then you would keep the first five commandments without question, if you loved your neighbour then you would do the same for the rest of the ten commandments. No question! He also addressed the situation specifically.

As we shall see next week …

This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp