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 describes Jesus and tells dead people that they are in need of life through Him.
In First Timothy we’re told that the law is only for those who are unrighteous –not for the righteous!
wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane,
for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers,
and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (1 Timothy 1:7-11)
The above Scripture says that only the unrighteous need the law. There’s a difference between unrighteous behavior and an unrighteous person. All people have a sin 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 received a new life –a new identity.
For 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)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Such were some of you;
but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Ephesians 2:1-5)
Why would you base your relationship with God on obeying 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!
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 to following– condemned him. The law was what he lived for, but it essentially killed him.
But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” (Galatians 2:17-21)
Paul died to obeying 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 obeying the law!
Chapter seven of Romans contains an illustration presented to the religious legal experts using the law of marriage. It states that marrying while still being married is adultery. However, it’s quite legal to remarry after the previous spouse dies.
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:1-6)
Based on these Scriptures, “What is required in order for us to belong to Jesus?” We must die to our first spouse –our relationship to God based on 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 obeying 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!
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? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law;
for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the 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 rebellious, sin nature which is naturally disobedient. And the law is God’s mirror to show us that 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 obeying the law. How foolish it would be to maintain a relationship with a dead spouse after remarrying. We’re to be faithful to the new, living spouse –not to the one rotting in its grave.
Trying to follow 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!
Let’s set the record straight here before we go any further. The law that we’ve been talking about dying to is any set of rules that point out our sins.
For the Jews, it was 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– they showed that we are under the sentence of death.
They are all derivatives of the law of sin and death. But there is another law to consider –the law of the Spirit of life.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin,
He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
We have been freed from the law of sin and death. That law showed us our separation from God –our death. But we now serve God based on a new law. Whoever has the Spirit has been made alive –eternally alive!