Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
From my kitchen window I watch as aging leaves sparkle while they clap unto the Lord on a clear day in the last of the summer's sun, then I begin to ponder the Laws of God; an inspiration from my study weeks before of Paul's letter to the Romans. During my study of God's Word I asked the following questions: What again are the origins of God's Laws, also called the Letter and the Commandment (Romans 7:6,12)? Why were they given, and how do they fit into the New Testament which is ratified by the Blood of Jesus Christ? This essay tries to answer these questions.
What are the Origins of God's Laws?
The Everlasting Covenant is where I choose to begin. God revealed Himself to a man named Abram, and told him to leave his country for a land that He would show him and later give him. God encouraged Abram to be courageous because He, God, would protect and reward him exceedingly. Most important God commanded Abram to live perfectly before Him. Consequently God promised that He would establish an Everlasting Covenant between Abram and Him, and between Abram's descendants and Him for generations; this covenant is also known as the Abrahamic Covenant or the Promise (Genesis 12-17).
Although Abram already had a child, and would have many more children through his marriage to Keturah following Sarah's death, God's Promise was only through Isaac and Isaac's seed after him (Gen. 17:19). It was also after God established the Everlasting Covenant with Abram that He changed his name to Abraham, and his wife's name from Sarai to Sarah.
Why did God give His Laws?
About four hundred years later1, during the Exodus of Father Abraham's descendants—the children of Israel—through the wilderness, God gave His Laws to them. God gave His Laws to the Israelites as a part of the Everlasting Covenant so that He could be their God and they His people (Gen. 17:7-8, Exodus 19:5-6). God promised that He would endear the children of Israel unto Himself above all other people of the Earth if they were faithful to Him, and that He would care for them, and cause them to multiply and live long in the land of Promise (Deuteronomy 5:29,6:1-3, Isaiah 48:18).
How do the Laws of God fit into the New Testament which is ratified by the Blood of Jesus Christ?
The Laws of God and humans are not completely compatible. The Law is one part—spiritual (Rom. 7:14). Humans, however, have three parts like God. It is written that God created men and women in His own likeness and image (Gen. 1:27). Well since God is a triune being, and He created us like Him, then we are triune beings as well. God's three parts are; first, God our Heavenly Father; second, God the Son, Jesus Christ; and third, God the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. God's Trinity or Name in the Hebrew tongue is Elohim, and is more commonly known as the Holy Trinity or the Blessed Three in One (Matthew 28:19, John 10:25-30, 1 John 5:7).
Man's trinity comprises the spirit, the carnal mind, and the body. The first part of man's trinity is the spirit; this part of us will never die. Like the Law of God, and God Himself, the spirit lives on for eternity either with God and His Christ, or away from God in Hell and the Lake of Fire (Mark 9:43-48, John 5:28-29). When a man becomes born again, only this part of him—his spirit—changes to become a new man.
The second part of man's trinity is the carnal mind, also known as the flesh. Although human beings have spirits, and can be spiritual, again like the Law and God Himself, we also have the carnal mind, which is not spiritual and cannot be. After getting saved the man's carnal mind stays the same, and sometimes his body stays the same too. Since the carnal mind is not and cannot be born again, it contends with the man's regenerated spirit. The mind in its carnal or natural state is against God, so many times you will hear people say, "His or her mind is in the gutter," and it really is; which is why God instructs us to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2). The Scripture says that the "carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the [L]aw of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). The carnal mind must be renewed.
The third entity of mankind is the body. The body is just a casing and is subject to the leadership of either of our other two parts—the spirit or the carnal mind. A comical rendition of the human condition is the cartoon in which the character has to choose between good and evil. Suddenly a devil appears on one of his shoulders, and an angel on the other and they are both telling him what to do.
The last two components of man cannot be born again (Rom. 8:7-8), which is why if he endures to the end, his carnal mind, and his body will be put off or changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 2 Peter 1:14).
Now that you have seen the difference between the Law—the Letter or the Commandment—and humans, you know why God had to propitiate the sins of mankind another way. The Law is spiritual, whereas God created man with a spirit, a carnal mind, and a body. Remember that God gave His Laws to help us to be His people, and him our God. But how can this be if God's Law is different from us; how can we be God's people and He our God? Well our intelligent God found the Perfect Solution, His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the genius and love of God for mankind. As it is written Christ has redeemed us from the "law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
This probably shocks you. How did the Law of God, which is supposed to be good—by endearing us to God—become sin and death, you might ask? Good question because Paul also asked the same thing (Rom. 7:13). First of all, the Law of God is good, so you are right if you thought that. The Law is good for two reasons. First the Law is good because it sets a standard by which God will judge the world, and second the Law is good because it alerts us of sin (Rom. 3:19, 7:7,12,16).
The Law (the Letter), however, has become sin and death to us because It is weak through the flesh; It is only spiritual with one part, whereas we are Christians with three parts. Although we are spiritual, we also have the carnal mind, and the body; and this is why the Letter kills us. So when the Letter tries to save us from our sins, and thereby make us the children of God, it kills us; this It does by reminding us of sin, and that sin exists. To put it another way sin, the opportunist, uses the Commandment to show itself clearly as with a mirror (Rom. 7:8-11).
You might say that it sounds like the Law is too strong for us, not the reverse; and that is why it kills us. The Law is spiritual, and we all know that physical things are weaker than the spiritual. I admit that is how it sounds, but the Scripture says that the Law is indeed weak, and it is weak because it kills us, when God's intention is to save us. (In the New Testament, to describe God's endearment of people we say to save us from our sins, or justify us, as well as make us the children of God.)
The weakness of the Law to save us is a real reason that actuated God to deliver the Perfect Solution. It is written, "For God so loved the world, that [H]e gave [H]is only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in [H]im, should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). So now God justifies people if they have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. What about the Law, has God replaced it with His Son in this New Testament? Certainly not! As it is written, "God forbid:" our faith in Christ establishes the Law (Rom. 3:31). It is still incumbent upon us all to obey all of God's Commands. The disparity between the Laws of God and Christ is only marginal because they share a feature; and because the Laws of God appertain to Christ. Christians also share this feature with the Law of God. You guessed it, the spirit.
Because Christ is not just spiritual; He is the Son of God (spirit), and the Son of man (flesh), Christ's affinity to mankind has empowered Him to make us the children of God, as it is written, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending [H]is own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3-4).
The Law, Itself is good, but weak in that it is only spiritual, and as such cannot condescend to the level of humans to save us from our sins, endearing us to God, which is why God gave It to us in the first place. So God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in the form of sinful flesh to strengthen His laws, and die for us thereby saving us from our sins or justifying us, making us the children of God, and God our Father. After three days God raised Jesus from the dead.
What about the thief on the cross? You will surely plague me with him. He did not obey God's Law and that is what brought him to be crucified with Christ. True. But he believed that Jesus is the Son of God, Whom God would resurrect from the dead, which is why Jesus and he had this conversation in Luke 23:42-43:
Thief: "Lord, remember me when [T]hou comest into [T]hy [K]ingdom."
Jesus: "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in [P]aradise."
Since the time of his faith in Christ was as he was dying—the thief on the cross obviously did not avail himself of the opportunity in this present world to show his allegiance to God by keeping His Commands—he was saved by His faith in Christ alone (Rom. 3:20-23, 10:9-10).
Where the Law was weak, Christ is strong, as it is written, "[T]he law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:20-21). Clearly, the Laws of God are very much valid in this New Testament, but they, when allied obsequiously to Christ, are made more effective. God has enriched His Laws through His Son, Jesus Christ; which is why Christ said that He came, not to destroy but to fulfill the Law (Mat. 5:17).
Notes
1http://contenderministries.org/middleeast/timeline.php
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Yours in Christ's Love,
Denise
