Dead to the Law part 3
Peter Ditzel
The Law of Christ
Now, I know what many of you are asking. Do
Christians, then, have no law? Are we to live lawless lives? The answer
is that we do have a law, and we are not to live lawless lives. The New
Testament tells us we do have a law. But it is not “THE law” that is so
often referred to in the Bible. That is, it is not the law of the Old
Testament. The law we Christians have is called the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 tells us to “bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill
the law of Christ.” Jesus called it a new commandment in John 13:34: “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have
loved you, that you also love one another.” This is further broken down
into many other commandments, nine of which are obviously related in
some way to nine of the Ten Commandments. The way in which they are
related is that the New Covenant commands are the reality that was only
shadowed or typified by the Old Testament commands. The Old Covenant
commands were external, written on stone. The New Covenant commands are
internal, written on our hearts. By the way, the keeping of a Sabbath
day is never commanded for Christians. The Old Testament Sabbath command
was also a shadow. It was a shadow of God’s true rest that Christians
have entered.
There is a big difference between New Testament law and Old Testament
law. Under the Old Covenant, the law could only condemn. Paul wrote in
Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue
in all the things which are written in the book of the law, to do
them.’” Those under the Old Covenant had to obey the law perfectly or
die. Under the New Covenant, the law never condemns. It does not bring
death. It has no such death penalty associated with it. New Covenant law
is simply the way we Christians live, walking in the Spirit.
No Condemnation
Hear this wonderful news from Paul: “There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law
of sin and of death. For what was impossible for the law to do in that
it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh, so that the righteous 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).
Does this mean that we now run amok, giving in to fleshly desires? No,
just the opposite! Paul continues, “For those who are fleshly set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is
death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).
What preachers of the law have not realized is that the Bible teaches
that it is the law that leads to sin. “But sin,” Paul taught, “taking
opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of lust.
For apart from the law sin was dead. For I was alive apart from the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, but I died” (Romans
7:8-9).
But being freed from the law, living by the Spirit, produces the fruit
of the Spirit. As Paul says in Galatians 5:16-26,
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall by no means fulfill the
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; and these things oppose each other, so that
you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, immorality, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envies, murders, drinking
bouts, revelries, and the like; which I tell you beforehand, just as I
also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control—against such things there is no law. And those who are
Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we
live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become
conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
This does not mean that we are perfect and will never sin. It means only
that sin is no longer a way of life for us. And when we do sin, we abhor
it. It also means that when we sin, it does not condemn us. Notice what
the apostle John writes in 1 John: “If we claim that we have no sin, we
are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us”
(1 John 1:8). But John also says, “Everyone who abides in Him [in Jesus]
does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him nor has he known Him”
(1 John 3:6). This is not a contradiction. It simply means that sin is
not our way of life, and that when we sin, it is not counted against us
to condemn us. John says this again a couple of verses later: “No one
who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him;
and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).
Stand Fast in Your Freedom
Let no man ever put you back under the Law
of Moses, even if he calls it the law of God or uses the fabricated term
“moral law.” Do not get dragged under the bondage of the Old Covenant by
those who would remind you of your so-called “obligation” to your long
deceased husband, the law. This is just what the Pharisees were saying.
In Acts 15:5 we read, “But some of those from the sect of the Pharisees
rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command
them to keep the law of Moses.’”
Remember, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to
the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me
free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:1-2). Not only is the
law dead, but also you are dead to the law, and you have now been raised
to newness of life in Christ Jesus! “Therefore we were buried with Him
through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness
of life” (Romans 6:4).
How do we stand fast in our freedom? By making sure that we have not
fallen from complete and faithful reliance on grace to rely in any way
on the works of the law. We must remain faithful to Jesus Christ, our
Husband who has set us free from the law of sin and death.
Yes, as Jesus Christ said in John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed” (KJV).
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