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News From Israel MagazineThe Law of God
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
God gave a direct command, a law, to Adam and Eve when He said, “Thou shalt not.” In Genesis 3:6, we read that that law was broken. Man acted contrary to God’s instructions. How did that come about? Through the deception of the serpent, who reinterpreted God’s law. God was very clear about what would happen if Adam and Eve disobeyed: “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (verse 17). But the serpent twisted God’s words and lied to Eve when he said, “ye shall not surely die.” That is completely the opposite of what God had said, but Satan followed his deceptive statement to Eve with a logical explanation: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
Did God intend for Adam and Eve to die the same day they ate the fruit? Scripture does say, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Some claim to have found a contradiction in God’s Word by assuming that it cannot be reliable, since Adam and Eve didn’t die that same day. After researching in several different translations, I noticed that some indicate that the dying process would begin on that day. The text says, “dying thou shalt die.”
Another interpretation is that with God, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. Adam and Eve did die in that day, meaning they did not live for a thousand years. Genesis 5:5 records Adam’s age as 930 years. Others insist that these words should be understood spiritually. At that moment, sin separated them from God. My understanding is that the process of death began that day. Man was condemned to die because of his sin: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin results in death, but from the point of sin to the point of death, there is life in the flesh.
Furthermore, does the fall and subsequent death mean that Adam and Eve were destined for eternal life? Yes. But they violated God’s law; therefore, they were condemned to die. However, there was a way in which they could have attained eternal life by their own actions. This is clear from Genesis 3:22: “The LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.” In other words, if Adam had eaten from the Tree of Life he would have lived forever, although it would have been in rebellion against God.
God made sure that did not happen, thus, we read: “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24).
Now let’s look at this law. God said not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve broke that law through their act of disobedience, therefore we ask: Can this law be broken again? No. Why not? Because the opportunity to take from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is no longer an issue. This sin was not sin exclusive to Adam and Eve; it was passed down to all of humanity.
We know what is good and evil because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit to receive that knowledge. Every person who has ever lived or who lives today knows the difference between good and evil; all know that there is a living God regardless of what religion he or she may practice. This is obvious from Romans 1:20: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Contrary to popular thinking, there is no such thing as an atheist. Instead, atheism is man’s feeble attempt to produce faith in the non-existence of God. But that is a contradiction in itself because one doesn’t have to deny something that does not exist. The atheist’s denial of God is actually a testimony of His being.
Good and Evil
Evil produces evil. It didn’t take long for fallen man to commit murder. Genesis 4:8 describes a religious conversation: “Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” So much for ecumenical dialogue; brother killed brother.
Was there a law regarding sacrifice? There doesn’t seem to be any evidence in Scripture, but we do know that man was capable of distinguishing between good and evil. Cain chose evil. Verse 9 says: “The LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Man’s evil tendencies continued to spread throughout the known world. So we read in Genesis 6:3: “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” God reduced man’s life span to 120 years, yet there was no change in attitude or behavior. Verse 5 declares: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Noah Walked With God
Only one man was found to be different: “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).
But then God gave another law. He commanded Noah to prepare to survive the coming flood.
Noah faithfully complied: “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:22). Noah obeyed God’s commandment; he obeyed the law. But Scripture also describes him as a “just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God.”
Striking about this story is that God didn’t reveal His intention to anybody but Noah. Nor did He perform any supernatural signs and wonders to coax people into entering the saving ark. No one but Noah and his family entered the ark.
The Lord Jesus spoke of Noah in Matthew 24:37-39: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” It is strange that no sin is mentioned in relationship to the people who perished in the flood. They were eating, drinking, marrying and giving into marriage. Noah did likewise; he ate, drank, married, and gave his sons into marriage. But there’s a major difference between Noah and the people who lived at that time. Their goal in life was to eat, drink, marry and give into marriage, while Noah’s goal was described with three words: he walked with God.
Christians Walking With God
That is the secret to living a victorious Christian life: walking with God under the Holy Spirit’s leadership and authority. That should be our permanent condition; as a result, obeying God’s commandments will no longer seem burdensome, but will become a natural reaction.
Perhaps you find it difficult to follow the Lord. You try hard to please Him, but you fail time and time again. What went wrong? You have over-burdened yourself with so many laws and traditions that you’ve lost sight of the Lord, who is the Good Shepherd who leads, directs, guides and protects. Don’t aim to please the law, aim to please the Lawgiver. Accept His invitation to: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). What must you do to receive this rest? Go to Him and He will give it to you. He will give you a yoke and a burden, yet He adds: “my burden is light.”
That is the secret: We carry the burden, but He carries us along with our burdens. When we commit our lives to Him in the same fashion as Noah, then all of the burdens, problems, difficulties, even tragedies will become easier to carry. Thus we will fulfill what is written in 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
Noah walked with God; let us do likewise.
God’s commandment to Noah has been fulfilled completely. It cannot be fulfilled again because God has not asked us to build an “ark” to escape an impending flood. That is history; and it will never happen again as God has guaranteed in His Word: “I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:11).
Adam and Eve walked with God, yet they broke His law and were expelled from His presence, with the judgment of death upon them.
Noah walked with God and obeyed His commandment; as a result, he and his family were saved.
The People of Babel
The people of Babel built a tower that was supposed to reach heaven. They rebelled against God without the law: “They said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). This reveals the spirit of mankind to this day: He is trying to reach heaven from earth on his own power. God planned salvation in the opposite direction; rather than man reaching up to God, God reaches down to man. Later God fulfilled His plan for salvation by sending Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to this sin-tainted earth.
In the case of the Tower of Babel, God had not given a specific command, nor had He provided any way of salvation. He destroyed the plans and intentions of those people at that time. Genesis 11:5-8 says:
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one,and they have all one language;and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them,which they have imagined to do.Go to,let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth:and they left off to build the city.
God’s Law For Israel
Before we look at the details of God’s law for Israel, we must understand that God had already established a plan of salvation based on faith through Abraham the Hebrew. Abraham attained righteousness through faith: “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). When we follow Israel’s history after Abraham, we notice that Abraham’s faith was not present among the children of Israel. Even the calling of Moses, the great leader of Israel, was not by faith but by power. The first thing Moses experienced was God’s power as He witnessed the burning bush. This was a mighty demonstration of God’s supernatural power.
It was God’s power that liberated Israel from slavery and led them towards the Promised Land. Moses later testified in Deuteronomy 26:8: “And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders.”
In the early stages of Israel’s history we see the difference between faith in the invisible God and the visible testimony of God’s power. Abraham, who is called the “father of all that believe” Romans 4:11), believed in God; therefore, no law was necessary to lead him to God. When we read the story about Abraham, we notice the words: “And Abraham did.” That is true faith. This is necessary today to follow Jesus whom we do not see, yet we believe.
The Commandment of the Law
After God called Moses, He began to tell His people “thou shalt.” That is the law of God and that is the issue we are dealing with in this study.
We learn in Exodus chapters 3 and 4 that Moses refused to do God’s bidding, and as a result, we read God’s direct order: “And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs” (Exodus 4:15-17). This is God’s direct commandment: “Thou shalt” and “he shall” are based on His “I will.”
God showed great signs and wonders to all of Israel through Moses. Exodus 4:31 says, “And the people believed.” What did they believe? They believed what they saw. They had seen three mighty signs: 1) the transformation of Moses’ rod into a serpent; 2) the healing of Moses’ leprous hand; and 3) the changing of water into blood. Many more signs and wonders followed, but none of these signs led Israel to a living faith in God.
The uniqueness of the Israelites is recorded in Deuteronomy 5:24,26: “Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?”
God showed His mighty hand to the children of Israel through miracles so that they would believe. But did they? The Bible says they did not. Their faith reached only as far as they could see and the miracles they experienced. They had seen so much, yet they still did not believe.
Later in history, Jesus Christ, Son of God, came to Israel demonstrating the power of God in the presence of the people: “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen” (Luke 19:37). They believed what they had seen and experienced, but not much later, however, these same people cried: “Crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:21).
The Purpose of God’s Law
What was the purpose of the extensive law God gave to the children of Israel? This question was asked and answered by the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Galatians: “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Galatians 3:19). Here we notice that God’s original intention was not to use the law to save man; the law was only to reveal sin and transgressions.
Furthermore, we read: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:24-25). This makes it clear that believers are no longer under the law.
Besides, if we did keep the law — which is impossible because the law includes all of the intricate components such as temple service, sacrifices, certain holy days, dietary laws, etc., — we’d immediately be labeled a “lawbreaker” if we failed in one small instance. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10).
What about the Ten Commandments?
Controversy and heated debates have circulated lately surrounding the issue of whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed in public places. But what do the Ten Commandments actually mean? The Ten Commandments were addressed to the people of Israel. The first four commandments are specifically directed to the Jews whom the Lord liberated from the bondage of Egypt. God separated Israel from Egypt.Israel was to obey the commandments. The first four commandments relate to the God who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt. The next six commandments reveal the responsibility each person has in relationship to his family, neighbors and properties. But they were addressed to Israel, not to the nations.
Nevertheless, the fundamental principles of these commandments are recognized by all nations throughout the world. No one is encouraged to kill, cheat, steal or lie. The commandments are universally accepted as part of all governmental judicial systems. It is significant that even the six-day workweek is universally accepted. Nearly all people, regardless of religious affiliation, observe God’s ordination. But to the Jews — and to Christians, who are an integral part of the organism of Israel— the reason is that God created for six days and He rested on the seventh. But the commandments given to Israel were a complete package. They had to keep all of them very carefully and very precisely.
What about the violation of these laws before the Ten Commandments was given? Cain killed his brother Abel; therefore, if the law did not exist, was he guilty? Scripture declares him guilty; he knew he committed a crime and even tried to cover it up with the words: “Shall I be my brother’s keeper?” The commandments are already covered under the original sin, which brought about man’s recognition of good and evil.
Commandments Void Grace
The fact that the law was given to Israel is obvious from God’s command to take possession of the Promised Land and execute judgment upon the inhabitants. Joshua 6:21 says: “They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” There was no provision for Israel to proclaim the Ten Commandments to the people. They were not given an opportunity to repent and obey the God of Israel because the time for judgment had come.
Why was there no grace extended to the people? Because God already had given them a grace period of 400 years. God told Abraham:
[God] he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full (Genesis 15:13-16).
The Ten Commandments and the Church
When we look carefully at the Ten Commandments, we conclude that the law of God is good and perfect. There is only one God, and the only way to that one God is through Jesus Christ.
Regarding the Ten Commandments, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2). The Ten Commandments are part of the Holy Scriptures and nothing should be discarded or ignored. However, we do not keep any of the laws to attain favor with God, to add to our salvation, or to add to our sanctification.
Fulfilling the Law
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). It is not the law, but faith that justifies. The New Testament is very clear that we are saved by grace. The Apostle Paul asked: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31).
How do we establish the law? By following the Lord Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of the law! The law is active and remains unchanged, but so is the fulfillment. How can we participate in the fulfillment? “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). It is no longer the law that says “Do this and live,” but the new person who partakes of the fulfillment of the law. The rebirth creates a new person who lives eternally and therefore is a partaker of the fulfillment of the law.
No longer are we under the bondage of the law, but we have become part of the fulfillment, which is far above any law that ever was written.
The Ultimate Law
Jesus puts the law into perspective from the point of fulfillment: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). Jesus went directly to the source of evil: our old nature. Our thoughts and words are now considered actions, putting us on the same level as murderers when our thoughts and words are used for evil.
Jesus revealed another important law: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). It’s no longer the act of adultery that condemns us; the thought — “whosoever looketh…to lust after her” — makes us guilty of adultery. Based on the new law, such a person is guilty and deserving of death. When we understand the severity of Jesus’ statement, not one ounce of self-righteousness should remain within us. We must confess, “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).
You want to keep the law? There it is from the words of Jesus, keep that law! Can it be done? Our old sinful nature is condemned by this law, but the newly born nature keeps that law. The Bible says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). Now the battle between the old and the new nature begins. The fulfillment
of the law is for those who have lost all confidence in themselves. They have been crucified with Christ. Fulfilling the law means not fulfilling the natural tendency of the flesh: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Spirit, Soul and Body
Man is made up of a body, soul and spirit. The spirit of the born-again person is yearning for Jesus to return: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
The soul relates to the flesh, the visible things of this world. Thus, the soul must be separated from the spirit. How is that possible? The Bible says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). This clear instruction reveals that the soul and the spirit must be separated by the Word of God.
We underestimate the soul’s desire to please the flesh. Unfortunately, this is often done religiously. Some people believe that they are serving God, doing Him a favor by acting “soulish.” Therefore it is not surprising that the soul is being pampered in religious circles. Soulish people feel good in worship services when emotions are being pampered. Often the leader of such a congregation will encourage the people to be emotional (soulish), deliberately creating a soulish atmosphere. This is done particularly through repetitious music that makes the soul think it is the spirit, but it is really the work of the father of lies.
Let’s also look at the conflict between the spirit and the flesh: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). What must happen? We must allow the sharp sword of God’s Word to divide the soul and the spirit, then the spirit will have the upper hand and we will be guided by His Spirit. Only when the Spirit rules can we fulfill the law: “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18). What will happen if we do not allow the Spirit to lead us?
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).
Crucified With Christ
Galatians 5:24 says: “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” This is one of the most difficult verses in Scripture.
Why must we be crucified with Christ if He already accomplished salvation for us? Because He showed us the way and we are instructed to follow Him. Victory over sin cannot be accomplished when we walk in the flesh, because the flesh is sin.
At this point, it may be important to emphasize that we are not talking about our sinful nature that has been judged once and for all on Calvary’s cross where Jesus shed His blood for the remission of our sins. We are speaking about the natural man, in whom dwells the new person created by the Spirit of God. The fact that Galatians 5:19-21 identifies these terrible sins reveals that our old nature is completely capable of committing such atrocities although we are new creatures in Christ.
The Apostle Paul warns us to heed this important knowledge: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6). And the next verse says, “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (verse 7). Don’t ever let anyone tell you that there is some good in you, and that you must try to develop that good so that you will become a better person. That concept is being taught in virtually all religions: “Follow our instructions and we will make a better man out of a good one.” Incidentally, that is the motto of the Freemasons. Needless to say, they are very successful, and so are many other religions that pamper the flesh and improve the character of man through various methods. But no matter how good these things may seem, they have no relationship to our spiritual lives. Christians are spiritual people who walk in the Spirit. This realization is extremely important: namely, the knowledge that the Spirit of God abides with us forever.
The Succession of Salvation
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). We were born again after we heard the Word of truth and believed it; that is, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But that is only the beginning of our eternal life. The KJV uses the phrase “earnest of our inheritance.” We still use the word “earnest” when we intend to purchase real estate. We put down a certain amount of money that tells the seller that he can no longer offer this property to anyone else, because we have reserved it with the earnest money. But we still don’t take possession of the property at that point.
It is the same for us: We are still burdened by the things of the world whether we like it or not, but all of those things are temporary. When it is all over, the Spirit, which has been given to us as an “earnest of our inheritance,” will cause us to be raptured into His presence. Then we will experience “the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.”
The Greatest Battle
The battle begins the moment we are saved. But the battle is not against the things of the world. Midnight Call Ministries’ founder, Dr. Wim Malgo, used to say: “The greatest battle is not to fight.” When I first heard that, I didn’t think that it made much sense, but later I understood that not to fight means “he that is dead is freed from sin.” Therefore, when we consciously surrender our lives into the death of the Crucified One, we can no longer serve sin. That is the secret to being crucified with Christ. Now we should better understand Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
The Fruit of the Spirit
In contrast to Galatians 5:19-21, we read this in verses 22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Once again we see that fruit of the Spirit will be created when we are led by the Spirit. Based on the fruit, we no longer are under the law, nor are we above the law, but we fulfill the law because there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit!
The Law of God
So we have seen that the law of God is good and it is perfect, but the law is not the end in itself, it is a schoolmaster that points to a greater law, the law of perfection that is attained through faith, not through keeping any laws or ordinances. Actually, Ephesians 2:15 says, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” For the new person, the law, the commandments and the ordinances have been abolished in the death of Jesus, with whom I have died to myself.
That doesn’t mean we ignore the laws, commandments or the ordinances. We have been called into their fulfillment. That means “ye are complete in him” (Colossians 2:10). We are “buried with him in baptism” (verse 12) and “he has quickened us together with him.” That means we are resurrected with Him. Now the old law is fulfilled, thus we read: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). These clear words are impossible to misunderstand: Christ has redeemed us from the bondage of the law!
In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul wrote strong words regarding those who wish to burden the believer with special holy days, the Sabbath and dietary laws: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days” (Colossians 2:16).
The Perfect Law
The purpose of the law is to reveal sin and lead the sinner to the Savior. It never was God’s intention to save people through the law. For that reason, the Apostle Paul made this strong statement when he wrote to the Galatians: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). The law is temporary, but serves as a prophecy of the coming perfect law of liberty. Hebrews 7:11 says, “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?” Melchisedec prophesied of that which was to come: “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:12). That is the law Jesus brought about: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). This is the eternal law of God, not the one that was given on a temporary basis for the people of Israel. Something new had to come about. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and the end of the old law. Praise His Holy Name! Of Jesus we read, “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:24-25).
That is the new law, the new commandment, the New Covenant: “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:8).
Are you abiding in the law of perfect liberty? That law is based on serving Him and rejecting ourselves. When we follow this new law, we are following in the footsteps of perfection. This love fulfills the law: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14)