What Part Should The Law Play In Our Lives?

(Continued from: "The Solution")

Certainly the law should be good for us in some way –shouldn't it? Can't it at least point out the flaws and weaknesses that we Christians have so that we can ask God for help in correcting them? No! The law has only one function, it's to tell dead people that they are in need of life through Jesus Christ. That's all and nothing more!

The Law is for the Unrighteous!

In First Timothy we are told that the law is only for those who are unrighteous –not for the righteous!

They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that 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 adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers– and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:7-11)

The above Scripture says that only the unrighteous need the law. There is a difference between unrighteous behavior and an unrighteous person. All people have a fallen nature –that tendency to be our own god over what's right and wrong. That will not leave us until we pass from this earthly life. To emphasize this, here are a few passages describing what changed when you took on a new life –a new identity.

You are clothed with Christ...

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ . (Galatians 3:26-27)

You have been washed, sanctified and justified...

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

You exchanged your unrighteousness for the righteousness of God...

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

You were dead and now made alive in Christ...

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions –it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Why would you base your relationship with God on the law? This 1 Timothy passage goes on to say that those teachers –who say that you need to keep the law– don't know what they are talking about or at least don't know how the law relates to the gospel!

The Law Brings Death, Not Life!

In chapter two of Galatians, Paul relates what happened to him when he realized that the good and perfect law –that to which he dedicated his life– condemned him. The law was what he lived for, but it essentially killed him.

"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:17-21)

Paul died to the law and he wasn't going to rebuild his relationship to God with it again. Its only purpose was to open his eyes to the fact that he needed to be saved God's way. His own efforts –as great as they seemed– were not sufficient to meet the righteous requirements of the law. The law that he thought he knew so well was full of examples showing the need for a perfect substitute to take on the death penalty that he deserved as a law breaker. Once Christ became his Savior and took the death penalty for him, he had no more need for the law!

Have You Died to the Law Yet?

Chapter seven of Romans contains an illustration presented to the religious legal experts of the time using the law of marriage. It dictates that marrying while still being married is adultery. However, it is quite legal to remarry after the previous spouse dies.

Do you not know, brothers– for I am speaking to men who know the law– that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. (Romans 7:1-3)

So, my brothers, 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, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 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)

Based on these Scriptures, "What is required in order for us to belong to Jesus?" We must die to our first spouse –the law– or else we are adulterers! And, "What is necessary before we can bear fruit to God?" Once again, the answer is, "Die to the law!"

When we put ourselves back under the law again –for example the Ten Commandments– we are committing spiritual adultery. It's having an affair with the law –while it's dead and buried in its casket– when our living spouse is Jesus. What a foolish way to exist!

What Makes Sin Such a Powerful Enemy?

Sin is an enemy, right? Of course it is –and we battle it continuously! Would you knowingly give any weapons to your enemy so that he could overpower you? No way! As you read the following passages, think about how you are doing just that –helping to defeat yourself– by just trying to follow God's law!

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. (Romans 7:7-8)

Could it possibly be that God's holy, righteous and good law can be fuel for sin? –Yes! Is it because the law is bad? –No! We have a fallen, rebellious nature which is naturally disobedient. And the law is God's mirror to show us that distrusting, rebellious nature. (You can continue reading about this in chapters 7 and 8 of Romans.)

For a Christian to live a victorious life, he must die to the law. How foolish it would be to maintain a relationship with a dead spouse after remarrying. We are to be faithful to the new, living spouse –not the one who is dead and rotting in the grave. The law has no place in a Christian's life. When dying to the law becomes a reality believed in the heart, not just words spoken by the mouth, then sin loses its power!

Which Law Are We Talking About?

Let's set the record straight here before we go any further. The law that we've been talking about dying to is "the law of sin and death." It's that set of rules which point out our sins. For the Jews, it's the laws, statutes and regulations embodied by the Ten Commandments. For the Gentiles, it's basically the same thing but written on our hearts (Romans 2). And in both cases –for Jews and Gentiles– the penalty for breaking even one is death. There is another law to live under; it's the law of the Spirit of life.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

We have been freed from the law of sin and death. Under that law, whoever sins is to be put to death. But we now serve God based on a new law. Whoever has the Spirit has been made alive –eternally alive!

Continue reading: "The Sabbath Rest"