Could This Be You?
This illustration should help you understand!
You are sitting on murderer's row. You have just killed a man. Lonely, miserable, full of fear and terror, you await the telltale footsteps clinking down the corridor of the prison, beckoning you to your fate.
The jury found you guilty of murder in the first degree. The stone-faced judge sentenced you to DEATH. Droplets of cold sweat break out on your forehead. You shiver with fright and dreadful anticipation.
Then, as these thoughts race through your mind, you notice footsteps. Soon a key turns in the lock of your cell door. A voice booms, "Come with me." Depressed, hopeless, you follow the guard down the hall, appalled at the awful deed you committed. A door opens ahead of you, and suddenly you find yourself standing face to face with the warden of the prison. Fear grips you.
Then a voice calmly says, "You are free to go. Your crime has been pardoned by the governor. You are free to go."
You stagger back. You can hardly believe it — FREE! Free! In a state of shock, you can hardly grasp what is happening. Free! "Free to go!" You have been given a new lease on life!
Sound like a strange tale? It has happened in the past. But why do I mention it?
Because YOU, in God's sight, were just like this murderer. You were IN SIN, and the DEATH PENALTY was waiting irrevocably for you (Rom. 6:23). You were doomed! But Christ set you free by paying your penalty in your stead!
Now is the released murderer free to go out and BREAK THE LAW? Is he free to murder someone else? Does the gift of life give him license to KILL? Of course NOT! Such a thought is preposterous!
The murderer received pardon. Grace. If he murders again, he will go back to prison!
Even so, when a sinner repents, and accepts the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as atonement for his sins, he comes under the GRACE of God. His past sins are forgiven. The death penalty for sin no longer hangs over his head.
Does this mean he can now DISOBEY God? Does this mean he is free to do whatever he wishes? Obviously not!
The grace of God, and FAITH in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to atone for your sins, must be accompanied by law-abiding WORKS! If you willfully turn again to the way of sin, knowingly rejecting God's way, there remains no more sacrifice for your sins, and you will incur the death penalty once again — this time, without any escape! (Heb. 10:26; II Pet. 2:21) That's what your Bible says!
Can you see the point?
Salvation is a GIFT! But it is predicated on certain conditions! A sinner cannot earn salvation — for he is already CONDEMNED. But through repentance, and the grace of God, he can receive it as a GIFT. He must, however, meet the TWIN conditions of faith and obedience, even as faithful Abraham did, setting us an example!
What About God's LAW?
Abraham, we have found, obeyed God's Law. His faith was combined WITH obedience. But, what about Christians?
"Aren't Christians under GRACE, not law?" you ask.
"Isn't God's Law a harsh monster? — a yoke of bondage?" "Wasn't it but a temporary substitute until the coming of Jess Christ?"
Notice what God's Word has to say!
Abraham kept God's Commandments, His statutes, and His laws (Gen. 26: 5). Speaking of God's Law, David was inspired to write, "The law of the LORD is PERFECT, converting the soul" (Ps. 19:7). He added, "The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the COMMANDMENT of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes" (verse 8).
Notice! The LAW David was speaking about is a GOOD, pure, perfect law. There is nothing wrong with it! It is NOT a harsh yoke of bondage — a stern, exacting, monstrous, EVIL thing! David wrote, "The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are SURE. They stand fast FOR EVER AND EVER, and are done in truth and uprightness" (Ps. 111:7-8).
Can you BELIEVE it?
The LAW of God which David spoke of endures FOREVER! It is an EVERLASTING Law! This obviously means it is in effect, TODAY!
Clearly, then, it has NOT been done away! Isn't that simple — easy to understand?
Now notice what the apostle Paul himself had to say about the LAW of God.
"Wherefore the law is HOLY, and the commandment HOLY, and JUST, and GOOD" (Rom. 7:12). Paul went on, "For we KNOW that the law is SPIRITUAL . . ." (verse 14). Those things which are spiritual are ETERNAL.
Now I ask you — would God institute a holy, just, good law — a SPIRITUAL law, and ordain it FOREVER — and then turn right around, and abolish it? Do you believe in such a fickle, changeable God ? Do you believe in a God who doesn't know His own mind?
Utterly absurd, isn't it? Let's be honest!
But Why LAW?
But what is the purpose of God's Law? WHY did God institute LAW in the first place? Was God's Law just a temporary measure for ancient Israel?
Why do we have national laws and state laws today? Why do we have motor vehicle laws, regulating the operation of automobiles and the flow of traffic? Isn't the answer rather obvious?
Men make laws for the well-being of the public. Laws are made to maintain order. Without traffic laws, for instance, city streets would be a scene of sheer chaos. Mayhem would be the common result!
Without penal laws and criminal statutes, crime would go unpunished. The lawless and greedy would be free to ravage society, without fear of punishment. Men's laws are intended to GUARANTEE LIBERTY!
This same great principle applies to God's spiritual Law. God made His Laws for our GOOD. They tell us which way to go. They reveal to us the DIFFERENCE between right and wrong!
Few people realize it, but Almighty God created in each one of us a carnal, defiant, God-rejecting, rebellious HUMAN NATURE. God says, "Because the carnal [natural, normal) mind is ENMITY against God" (Rom. 8:7). Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9).
When born, we know nothing — absolutely nothing. Everything you know today, or think you know, came into your mind since the time you were a little squalling baby.
You were born with a rebellious nature. Hostile to God. You were born in complete IGNORANCE of the spiritual LAW of God — without knowing how you should live and govern your life. But God did not leave the human race without this vital knowledge. He gave mankind His holy LAW to regulate human conduct. He gave a LAW which explains How to live, how to be happy, how to have an abundant, joyous and brimful life!
Sadly, most men have ignored that way — that LAW. And even most preachers today scoff at it, spurn it, and claim it is done away! When will mankind learn? When will we see?
God's spiritual laws are in motion today. They are ETERNAL, immutable, inexorable — and binding on every one of us! To break one of them is like breaking the law of gravity. There is ALWAYS a fearful penalty which automatically follows every infraction!
God not only created PHYSICAL LAWS for the control of the Universe — laws of chemistry, physics, mathematics — laws like the law of gravity and inertia. But God also created SPIRITUAL LAWS for man's happiness — laws which automatically regulate man's relationship with God, and with his fellow man!
Just like the physical laws governing matter and energy, these spiritual laws are ALWAYS BINDING. You break them, and they break you! You may ignore them, but they never ignore you. They are always present; whenever broken, they always exact a penalty commensurate with the offense.
But they were created for YOUR GOOD!
What is wrong, for instance, with a spiritual law which tells you to LOVE your neighbor? What is wrong with a law which says you should love God with your whole being — your very Creator, who gives you every breath you breathe?
What's wrong with a LAW which spells out how you should behave, whom you should worship, forbids you to commit murder, or steal, or commit adultery with another's wife, or lie, or commit other things which are BAD for you? Is such a law WRONG?
What's wrong with it?
Hand-in-hand with the modern "no law" concept is the current plunge into gross immorality and sexual promiscuity, the rising crime rate, and the threat of explosive racial violence! Where ministers teach there is "no law," there is the growing menace of LAWLESSNESS among the people!
It is time we learned RESPECT for God's Law!
Listen to these words of the apostle John:
"And hereby we do KNOW that we know him, IF we keep his commandments" (I John 2:3). John was so positive of his statement, that he continued, in STRONG language: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth NOT his commandments, Is A LIAR, and the truth is not in him" (verse 4).
John was inspired to write these words! This scripture was inspired decades after Jesus Christ was crucified!
It means exactly what it says!
But back to the original question. Since the scriptures do NOT contradict (John 10:35), and since EVERY scripture is given by DIVINE INSPIRATION (II Tim. 3:16), how do we explain those verses which might seem, on the surface, to give the impression God's Law is not binding today?
This is one of the most misunderstood matters in the Bible! This is the rock over which more theologians stumble and fall, than perhaps any other!
They have Assumed — falsely — that the LAW OF GOD — the Ten Commandments — and the "law of Moses" are one and the same! Nothing could be further from the truth.
Let's understand the proof!
TWO LAWS — One Eternal, One Temporary
This is the crux of the whole matter! It is so simple, a child can understand!
First, then, remember that God's spiritual Law — the Ten Commandments — did NOT start with Moses! The Law of GOD long anteceded the time of Moses! In fact, God's spiritual Law has been in effect since CREATION!
Hard to believe?
Notice!
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's instruction, and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they SINNED. What is "sin"?
Very few people know the BIBLE DEFINITION of "sin." Here it is, given by the apostle John: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW" (I John 3:4). There it is! SIN is breaking God's Law. Adam and Eve SINNED. Therefore they broke God's Law! They stole what was not theirs and broke the eighth commandment. God's Law was THEN IN EXISTENCE! They "transgressed" against God. But, we read in Romans, ". . . where no LAW is, there is no transgression" (Rom. 4:15).
Isn't that plain? So there was a Law long before Moses!
Adam and Eve broke God's Commandments. They dishonored their only Parent — God — and thereby broke the fifth commandment (Ex. 20:12). They stole something which wasn't theirs (Ex. 20:15). They COVETED something which did not belong to them (Ex. 20:17). THREE of God's basic TEN Commandments already broken!
The apostle Paul said, "Wherefore, as by one man [Adam) sin entered into the world, and DEATH BY SIN . . ." (Rom. 5:12). Death is the penalty of sin (Rom. 6:23). Adam sinned. And yet, Paul added, ". . . SIN is not imputed where there is NO LAW" (Rom. 5:13). But sin was imputed. Adam therefore broke God's Law! And he died — and so have his children. "Nevertheless, DEATH REIGNED from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression [Adam knew better], who is the figure of him [Christ] that was to come" (verse 14).
SIN was now in the world. Sin is the transgression of God's LAW! Death is the penalty of sin, and death reigned from Adam to Moses — for sin is not imputed where there is no LAW. That's Paul's teaching. Those are the plain words of the New Testament.
God's LAW was in effect from ADAM TO MOSES! Nothing could be clearer!
But then, exactly WHAT did Moses bring?