Ch. 3  

What Does The Law Say Today

   When the law is mentioned to many people, they only think of the rituals that were done away when Jesus came to fulfill the law. The rituals did pass away, but the law still stands today. Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt 5:17).

   Since Jesus came to fulfill the law, we need to know first what the law is really saying. Jesus answered this in Matthew 22, verses 37-40: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  What the law is really saying is that if you do these two things, love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself, you have fulfilled the law and are no longer a law breaker. (Not, that you got your Salvation through the law. Please don’t read into any other then what is written.) But this is impossible, keeping the law, without Jesus Christ because of our bondage to our selfish, self-centered flesh nature.

    Since Jesus did not abolish the law, then what does the law do today? The law stands today to bring judgment upon all sin. The law, when it sees sin—if you will, brings the wrath of God (Romans 4:15). The law brings a curse (Gal. 3:13).  The law is a ministry of death (2 Cor. 3:7), and the law is a ministry of condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9). All of these things come upon law breakers. Who are the law breakers? They are those who do not walk in love and cannot walk in love. Their minds are set upon the things their hearts love. “Because the carnal (fleshly)  mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God (which commands us to walk in love), neither indeed can be. So then they that are IN THE FLESH cannot please God (Rom 8:7-8). So if anyone loves their flesh nature, they refuse to love God with all their heart and love others as themselves. They choose to walk in the image of Satan. Jesus was asked, “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Matt 19:16-19).

    Obviously if someone loves his neighbor as himself, he will not kill his neighbor; he will not commit adultery with his neighbor’s wife; he will not steal; he will not bear false witness against his neighbor. Those who still love the flesh nature (which is the nature of Satan) refuse to obey God’s law. The law stands in judgment today against all rebellion. Paul said, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom 2:13).

    When we understand that God is commanding us to walk in love or be destroyed, then we can see Paul’s dilemma in Romans 7. We find ourselves in exactly the same place as Paul. Like Paul, we know that through our efforts alone, it is impossible to keep the law. We cannot walk in this kind of love when we are in bondage to the selfish flesh nature. Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal (of the flesh), sold under sin…for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do…For I know that in me (that is, my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me…For I delight in the law after the inward man: But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members (of the fleshly body)…So then with the mind I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin (Romans 7:14, 15, 18, 22-23, 25).

    While a backslidden church today uses this passage to justify their sins, Paul clearly saw that he was under the judgment, curse, wrath, and death that comes from breaking God’s laws. He saw, that he was in this dilemma because it was not possible for him to walk in the kind of love that the law required. Paul said, “…for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law (Gal 3:21).     In other words, if we could have attained righteousness by our efforts alone, then Jesus would never have needed to go to the cross. If we could overcome the flesh through our own efforts, Jesus died needlessly. That is what Paul is saying in Galatians 2:21: “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”  However, this does not release us from the law that tells us that we must love others as ourselves. Jesus came to fulfill this law by perfecting the God-kind of love in us. This is how we are reconciled back to God. Forms of godliness have explained this love away by saying it is impossible to walk in the kind of love that the law requires. This is true if you are being led by a doctrine that does not conform you to godliness, and does not even give you the hope that you can be holy. But if you are led by the Holy Spirit, He will make you holy, just as He is holy. When we are led by the Holy Spirit of God we are not under the judgment of the law, because we are fulfilling the requirements of the law by walking in love. When we walk after the flesh, we defraud and take advantage of others. This is sin and breaks God’s law. Those who sin by walking after the flesh do not have a hedge of protection against the powers of darkness. Therefore, the powers of darkness bring the judgment, wrath, and curse of the law upon all those who walk after the works of the flesh.   

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