The Letter Of The Law

 The Pharisees were guilty of obeying the letter of the Law at the exclusion of the spirit of the Law.  They majored on minors and paid heed to minor  points such as tithing in small matters and ignored the weightier matters of the Law: faithfulness, mercy, and love. (Matt. 23:23).  For instance, one may say that he frowns upon dancing but overlooks covetousness as a minor affair or offense.  Being a legalist leads to judging and even condemning one's brother or sister. We are not to compare us to other persons or our Christian brethren (2 Cor. 10:12). Legalism is one way to end up doing that!  

Sometimes necessity knows no law like when  in the parable of the Good Samarian and the priest didn't want to become ceremonially unclean by defiling himself or even missing his Sabbath. This is an example of "going beyond that which is written!" (1 Cor. 4:4). Besides going against the spirit of the law, that it is fulfilled in loving our neighbor, making up your own rules and adding sins is also legalism. Tradition is often added to the Word of God and counted as a way to gauge sin. The priest was a slave to his tradition and could not see a need to be fulfilled.  Legalism elevates tradition to the level of Law and bind people where the Bible has left them free!  

In my day, good Christians watched the hemlines, movie lines, and hairlines! Spiritualty was something to be seen by men and an external thing noticed by others. Basically, believing that faith plus works equals salvation is legalism; actually faith equals salvation plus works--viva la difference!  One must distinguish that legalism sees sins, not sin!  Remember, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life!  Legalism is a form of spiritual tyranny as one believes he is spiritual but actually still a whitewashed tomb or refined sinner. 

We are forgiven for our sins and what we did, but delivered from what we are, sinners. The problem of mankind is slavery to sin and that can be any sin, even pet ones or presumptuous ones. When one says, for instance, to give up this or that to become a Christian, one fails to realize we are slaves to sin in toto and are sinners by nature. 

The opposite and equally evil distortion of the Law of God is antinomianism! The theme song: "Freed from the Law, O blessed condition, now I can sin all I want and still have remission." Some believers may think salvation is a license to sin or that God overlooks our sins. But Martin Luther wrote a book condemning these heretics: Against the Antinomians. The only way to maintain balance between these two extremes of Bible application is to know the Bible and to understand the definition of sin and what it is not as well.   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Limits Of Our Freedom

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy"  (Rom. 9:16, ESV).
"So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"  (John 8:36, ESV).
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, ESV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  ["who can know it?" KJV]"  (Jer. 17:9, ESV).


We don't need free will to be saved--we need our wills made or set free!   Actually, our freedom is a curse because we are only capable of sinning apart from being saved (as Augustine phrase puts it, "Non posse non peccare," or, in English, the double negative, "unable not to sin"), whereby we gain the power not to sin by grace--but when we do sin, it's because we choose to do so without compulsion or impulsion--all lost people can do is sin and cannot please God and they sin because they want to sin!  We are not automatons though, nor dumb beasts who have no understanding!  Job 18:3, NLT, says, "Do you think we are mere animals? Do you think we are stupid?"

Our freedom of the will is very limited and actually has very little to do with our salvation (genes, lineage, parentage, upbringing, experience, national origin, not to mention friends, all influence and affect our wills to make them limited in total freedom and not unmoved or uncaused like God's will, which is what makes Him totally free and the one and only Great I AM).  Actually, Martin Luther wrote an entire book on this subject, The Bondage of the Will, or, De Servo Arbitrio, as written in Latin.   Remember Paul's words to the Philippians in verse 2:13, ESV, italics added, saying, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Our wills are part of our heart and soul and are depraved just like our minds and emotions--totally, though not utterly as much as possible. However, after the Fall, man has not lost the faculty of choice completely, just the ability to choose God and please God--his motives are wrong and basically selfish and for the applause of others. To be specific:  Have you ever convinced a girl to go out with you or convinced your wife to do something that she was ill-disposed to do?  God can likewise work on our minds, wills, and emotions to change us and give us a new heart after His will.  She maintained her freedom of choice and didn't do anything she didn't want to, but just had a change of heart caused by you. Note that God is the initiator and sole primary cause of our salvation: "Salvation is of the LORD," per Jonah 2:9; Heb. 10:38; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11.  That's what repentance is:  a totally and radicalized change of heart from the inside out.  We make a complete turnaround after God works repentance in our hearts by grace and transforms us (repentance is granted according to Acts 5:31; 11:18; and 2 Tim. 2:25).

Only man has been given a choice to obey or disobey God, animals do not have this liberty of will.  Augustine said in a maxim that we are "free, but not freed"; meaning we have an independent will, but no liberty to exercise it-we do have a will of our own.  Why then is our will in bondage and the slave of sin and must be set free just like the rest of our soul?  We are not born free, but slaves to sin, and our whole heart is desperately wicked and deceitful according to Jer. 17:9!  God is the only Being that is totally free and can do His will without intervention or interference.  He is the unmoved mover and uncaused cause, meaning no one or nothing can influence Him or change Him and He alone is the sole primary cause of the cosmos and is the initiator of all events per Eph. 1:11---all things that perspire are orchestrated by Him through Providence.

We cannot come to the Father unless we are called and drawn or wooed by the Holy Spirit (cf. John 6:44, 65).  Matt. 22:14, ESV, says, "For many are called, but few are chosen." This doesn't mean permission to come, but ability--in a state of sin and rebellion and even stubbornness of heart we don't want to come on our own, but must be enticed; what it does mean is that don't have the ability to come to the Father in our state of sin!  We are not unmoved movers (even if we are movers and shakers!), nor uncaused causes, like our God and our faith must be quickened within us by an act of grace (cf. Acts 18:27).

Since our freedom can be changed and is changeable, in a state of flux, it is limited and influenced by God, therefore, not totally free--we don't negotiate our salvation from a point of neutrality but are biased and all our inclinations to good and to love God have left us in the Fall of Adam, with whom we are in solidarity with at birth. God desires all the glory for our salvation and doesn't' want us to have reason to boast as if we willed ourselves into the kingdom (cf. Rom. 9:16).

We must realize that our complete heart (intellect, volition, emotion) is depraved and in need of salvation.  God transforms each of them and gives us the heart to love God (will to obey and mind to know) at salvation.  The Bible speaks quite often about the stubbornness of man's heart and that he is in a state of rebellion--and condemns it in 1 Sam. 15:23, NLT:  "Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols...." Those who claim to have come to God of their own free will probably leave Him of their own free will and all alone too.

None of our freedoms are unlimited; no government allows absolute free speech or right to bear arms--only in restrictions of liberty is their freedom for all protected from the tyranny of the majority. Even God is not free to sin and we won't be either in glory!  In the final analysis, you must decide if you want your will to be saved (which is part of your heart), or you want to remain independent of God (for sin is merely man's declaration of independence from God) and be a spiritual lone ranger or lone wolf.

Salvation is a miracle of transformation of the heart to a new person, and the will is included; God metaphorically takes our "heat of stone" or stubbornness and gives us a "heart of flesh" (cf. Ezek. 36:26) or one inclined to do His will--a litmus test for believers is that we yearn for God's will, for we have denied, relinquished, surrendered, and substituted themselves for Christ, as He lives through us (cf. Gal. 2:20)!   We become "new creations" in Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)!

We are empowered to live life by the Spirit as our enabler.  God indeed makes the unwilling willing and has the omnipotence to change us from the inside out, not by force though, which would be coercion or determinism or the use of outside forces as though we're puppets on a string or programmed to respond a certain way by an impersonal fate--we never do anything we don't want to do, but God makes us willing--what a concept!

A few words to the wise concerning God's providence over all should suffice:  Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands (Psalm 31:15, HCSB, says, "The course of my life ["of my future" or "of my times" in other versions] is in your power...").  Note that the only will that is free is one that is uncaused and unmoved like God's!  We cannot thwart God's will! As it is written in Job 42:2, ESV, "'I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

God's sovereignty is not limited by man's freedom either; it's absolute and total, including every spin of the dice (cf. Prov. 16:33), every ruler (cf. Prov. 21:1), and every molecule being micromanaged and ruled with no room for, and nothing to, chance or happenstance ("... [W]ho works all things according to the counsel of his will" Eph. 1:11, ESV, italics mine).

I do like to ascribe full and complete, absolute sovereignty to God, for what kind of God isn't in control of everything?  This is God's prerogative and right; he's no ruler like the "do-nothing" sovereign of GB--he rules and doesn't just reign (cf. Psalm 22:28)!  Let me close with this caveat from Paul in Romans 9:16, ESV,  "You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault?  For who can resist his will?'"  Soli Deo Gloria!

Do We Need The Law?

"So the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good"  (Rom. 7:12, CEV).
"All those who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone is cursed who does not keep on doing all the things that have been written in the scroll of the Law"  (Gal. 3:10, CEV).
"Blessed condition, freed from the Law, now I can sin all I want and still have remission!"  (Old antinomian ditty.)  [We are free to obey the Spirit of the Law, not to disobey.]
"We know that the law is good when used correctly" (1 Tim. 1:8, NLT).  

Does the Law serve a purpose?  Yes, if one uses it lawfully!  Don't desire to be a teacher of the Law or to lord it over others by putting them under the Law (cf. 1 Tim. 1:6-8).  The main usage of the Law is to make us realize we don't keep it, and to convict us of sin, for "by the Law is the knowledge of sin"  (cf. Rom. 3:20).  The Phillips renders it:  "...indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are."  It was "for freedom that Christ set us free," and we are not to be entangled in a yoke of bondage again (cf. Gal. 5:12).   Israel had promised to keep the Law (cf. Ex. 24:3), when God expected them to beg for mercy and realize they could never keep it.

Scholars, including Martin Luther, have mentioned that the Law is a whip to drive us to Christ, a mirror to show us our real self, and a hammer to smash our self-righteousness.  The Law's Ten Commandments, known as the Decalogue, as the guide of moral principle has not been rescinded; because morality is not relative, but absolute, and doesn't change with respect to time or dispensation;  murder is always wrong with all its implications--character assassination, anger, bullying, pushing your weight around, et cetera.

There are many misuses of the Law:  Judaizers added law to grace and works to faith (Romanists follow suit today).  We are not saved by the works of the Law (cf. Rom. 3:28), but saved so that we can keep the Spirit of it; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (cf. 2 Cor. 3:16);  we are not under any obligation to keep the Sabbath day holy as Christians, though the principle of periodic rest from our labors still stands and for regular spiritual renewal.  The Sabbath was merely a sign for Israel (cf. Ezek. 20:9-12, 20; 31:13-17; Neh. 9:12-15).

We don't judge by this precept: see Col. 2:16; Romans 14:5!  Where in the NT is the believer told to keep the Law?  For the New Covenant means that the Law is written in our hearts and we know right from wrong (cf. Heb. 10:16).  Even the pagan has the Law in his heart as a conscience (cf. Rom. 2:15).  One could argue for the keeping of the Decalogue but note that the only precept not repeated in the NT is the Fourth or the Sabbath.

The Law is merely a shadow of things to come (cf. Col. 2:17) and looks forward to being guided by the Spirit in our hearts because Christianity is not performance-based, but relationship-based.  Paul said repeatedly (cf. Rom. 13:8, 10; Gal. 5:14) that love is the fulfillment of the Law or that the Law can be summed up in love. The Law was merely our schoolmaster/tutor to show us the way and to lead us to Christ (cf. Gal. 3:23-24)--but as adults, we no longer need one and are emancipated, as it were.

We weren't given the Law to keep, but to break (cf. Rom. 5:20), for it made sin worse and aroused sin in us; people always have a tendency to violate prohibitions and to give in to temptation, not to keep regulations and rules.  As believers, we are dead to the Law and it has no power over us (cf. Rom. 6:14).  "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (cf. Gal. 5:18)--in fact, there's nothing more musical in God's ears than to hear a sinner realize he cannot keep God's law and to beg for mercy, because he realizes the futility of saving himself and needs God's grace.   The Law wasn't given to show us how to get saved or that we were good enough to be saved, but that we needed to be saved and couldn't save ourselves.

And so you are slaves to the one you choose to obey (cf. Rom. 6:16); the Law has no power over you (cf. Rom. 6:14) as believers set free in the Spirit of the Law.  But we still thank God for the Law, since it gave us the knowledge of sin and made us realize we are sinners.  Its purpose is not to give us the impression we're good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation!  The Law was never intended to be a guide or way of salvation, but only to show us the need for salvation.  "Now we know that the Law is good if used appropriately.  We understand this:  the Law isn't established for a righteous person but for people who live without laws and without obeying any authority.  They are the ungodly and the sinners.  They are people who are not spiritual and nothing is sacred to them..."  (1 Tim. 1:8-9, CEV).

As believers, we are no longer under the yoke of the Law, but under the yoke of God's will; Jesus said that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (cf. Matt. 11:30).  "For Christ is the goal of the Law, which leads to righteousness for all who have faith in God"  (Romans 10:4, CEV).   In other words, Christ is the end of the Law for believers.

We are not under the Law, are we lawless?  "Sin is lawlessness."  No, we keep the Law in the Spirit.  Jesus bemoaned the fact of the Pharisees being entangled in the Law legalistically, and were neglecting the "heavier matters of the Law," which were "justice, mercy, and faith" (cf. Matt. 23:23, NLT).  The immediate purpose of the Law was to put a restraint on sin, and to convict of sin--a diagnosis of sin, not its antiseptic or panacea! The Law was never meant to be the way of salvation, but to show us our need for it!

In contrast:  the Law lays down what we must do; the gospel what God has done!  We show that we know Him by obeying His commandment; "This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us"  (1 John 3:23, CEV.  We are bad, indeed.  But not too bad to be saved!  Rejoice that Christ kept the Law on our behalf, living for us! 

In summation, Christians live by a higher law, the law of love and this law's requirements can never be fulfilled; one can meet the demands of a law, but never pay back, earn, nor deserve the demands of love (we hold a debt of gratitude forever!)--Christ raised the bar!  "You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'--but not everything is good for you.  You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'--but not everything is beneficial'" (1 Cor. 10:23, NLT).  "You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'--but not everything is good for you.  And even though 'I am allowed to do anything,' I must not become a slave to anything" (1 Cor. 6:12, NLT).   Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Ultimate Yoke

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light"   (Matt. 11:28, ESV). 
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you"  (Isaiah 43:2, ESV, italics added).

Jesus invited all to pick up His yoke, which would not become overbearing and burdensome, like the yoke of the Pharisees had been (adding hundreds of laws to the Law of Moses and even making a fetish out of the Sabbath).  Jesus did indeed announce His yoke would be easy and His burden light in Matt. 11:30.  No one could bear the yoke of the Law, which was not meant as a way of salvation in the first place, but only to prove us sinners and make us realize our need for grace, (cf. Ex. 24:7: "...All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." ) though Israel had promised to obey it despite this.  The rule-obsessed Pharisees had become legalistic and lost track of the concept of grace (for the Law came through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus, per John 1:17).  People who make up rules always decide on ones they think they can keep!

We don't need a Law to obey but grace and mercy because we cannot keep any law!   God gave us the Law to show us we cannot keep it!  When we have a law we are always wondering if we measure up and we end up comparing ourselves to others, as to how they keep the Law.  We can be too hard on ourselves and not be merciful to others by the same token.  The whole purpose of salvation is that we need a whole new heart, and this was no new concept to Israel (cf. Ezek. 36:26), not a code to keep or credo to believe.  We need the heart to know and love the Lord, not to bind us and keep us from enjoying our freedom in Christ.  Paul warned the Galatians that they were trying to finish with the Law what Christ had begun by grace, and they had insulted the Spirit of grace in the process.

So what is our yoke?  Do we have any law to abide by ourselves, or are we antinomians (i.e., against the Law)?  No, we are not under the Law, and it has no power to condemn us nor to enslave us, yet we are free to be under the yoke of God's will as believers, which is a far easier task and can only be accomplished because we have the resident Spirit to testify His will to us.  We have a heart to delight in God's will as David did in Psalm 40:8, ESV, which says, "I desire [delight] to do your will, O my God..." In fact, if you don't have an inner supernatural yearning to do God's will, you have reason to doubt the reality of your profession, as to whether it's genuine or bogus.

God's "commands are not burdensome" (cf. 1 John 5:3) and our love for God is measured in obedience, not ecstasy, for some people can get overly emotional and sentimental, or even maudlin and all over the spectrum going overboard. We can be sure that when we go "through the fire" God will be with us (cf. Isaiah 43:2) and that He accompanies us along the way, even lifting and carrying us through the difficult trials, and we are never alone in our fight for His will in our lives:  God's best plan is not overwhelming but can be accomplished when God is with us, as He promised.

The yoke of His will is perfectly custom designed, adjusted, and fitted to our needs and abilities and God will certainly use us to His glory as instruments of grace.  In sum, it isn't some code of honor, creed, or ethic to learn, but a relationship to gain in Christ as we matriculate in the school of Christ and become learners, or students, that is, of Christ via the Word of God--His disciples at heart.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Antinomianism Versus Legalism...

The two extremes I am referring to are libertinism or antinomianism and legalism. It is vital to know these distortions of the Christian walk and learn to distinguish them so that one can walk faithfully and obediently with Christ.  The only antidote known is a thorough knowledge of the Bible and to know Christ--Christianity is not a list of dos and don'ts but a living fellowship with the Lord.  Christianity is not a code but a relationship with Christ. 

You have to decide whether you are the kind of person who needs no law because you are regenerated and obey the new nature, or know no law because of your carnality and obey your old nature.  Martin Luther (and I believe Dietrich Bonhoeffer reiterated) pointed out that there are no disobedient Christians--for this is a contradiction:  "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes."  They go hand in hand and the only test of faith is obedience.  A Christian can be guilty of carnality, but there is not a sub-class of carnal Christian.

Antinomianism was refuted by Martin Luther in Against the Antinomians in 1539.  It refers to a distaste for the law or literally "anti-lawism."   You might say that it designates a believer who feels he has a license to sin or for disobedience since he cannot lose his salvation and is secure in Christ.  I must stress that the Bible never gives one the right to do what is wrong or sanctions sin or doing what is right in according to your opinions, or your own thing.  We have many believers today who make up their own rules as they go along and do their own thing like the Hebrews did in Judges 21:25 when each man did what was right in his own mind or made up his own rules as he went along: whatever seems or feels right. 

Romans 6:1 (ESV) is the rebuttal to antinomianism saying that we should not go on sinning at all after salvation ("... Are we to continue in sin, that grace may abound?").  This would be taking advantage of God's grace and nullifying it and going back to the old life before salvation. The philosophy of antinomianism is "Freed from the law, O blessed condition; now I can sin all I want, and still have remission."  It is a frantic search for freedom to run amuck.  Rather, heed Paul's testimony:  "I do not frustrate [take advantage] of the grace of God"  (Gal. 2:21)!

There is a place for the law in our life and the whole of Scripture is law and grace and one must rightly divide it and know how to apply it.  In short, we never have a right to do what is wrong, and if it was morally wrong then it is still morally wrong because God's standards of morality haven't changed.  The law is meant to show us our sin and not a means of salvation; it is the mirror that shows us our unrighteousness.  The Phillips translation says of Romans 3:20:  "Indeed it is the straightedge of the law that shows us are crooked we really are."  It is a guide to the principles of morality and nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament (except keeping the Sabbath). Note that the Law doesn't save us, it measures us! 

Legalism is the error of many churches that try too hard to be spiritual or "holier than thou" (cf. Is. 65:5) than their counterparts in other churches.  Believes like to commend themselves and compare themselves to others (2 Cor. 10:12).  They seem to think they have a corner on the market of spirituality and this is one measure of it.  Legalism is counter to grace and salvation by grace because one is essentially trying to earn salvation and get to heaven by good works.  But in effect they are "going beyond that which is written" (cf. 1 Cor. 4:6).  If the Bible doesn't forbid something nor imply it by the application it is not a sin, though some things may be sin to some and not to others, due to knowledge and enlightenment.  "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin"  (James 4:17, ESV, emphasis mine).

By way of example, the Pharisees were legalists because they adhered simply to the letter of the law and not the Spirit.  Legalistic churches bind people where they should be free and exercise tyranny over the congregants.  They also stress minor issues and ignore major ones or major on the minors. For example, they condemn smoking, drinking, gambling, card-playing, dancing, movie-going and even TV (watching the hemlines, hairlines, and ticket lines!), while they forget about their lack of witness and lukewarm worship.  Weightier matters of the Law (mercy, faithfulness, and justice)  ought to be addressed first and things the Bible explicitly does condemn.  We have no right to micromanage our brother's lives and tell them what is right and wrong--that is the job description of the Holy Spirit.

In conclusion, you may say the Mormons are good people because they refrain from coffee, of all things,  and are reasonably moral people, but Christ didn't die just to make bad people good, but dead people alive; however, we are not lawless, but live to a higher law:  The law of love.
Soli Deo Gloria!

Are You An Antinomian?

"Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).  We are not free to do what we want, but what we ought! 

A word to the wise is sufficient from Romans 14:1-5 as follows:  "Accept one who is weak in the faith, but don't argue about doubtful issues.  One person believes he may eat anything, but one who is weak in the faith eats only vegetables.  One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not criticize one who does,  because God has accepted him. Who are you to criticize another person's household slave?  Before his own Lord, he stands or falls.  And he will stand.  For the Lord is able to make him stand... Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind"  (HCSB).

My goal is to refute those who have become a "law unto themselves."  I want to emphasize that the unbeliever knows no law in effect, however, the believer needs no law in effect--a paradox.

We should never label our brothers, but for the sake of argument, let's analyze the issue.  Antinomianism refers to "anti-lawism," or being against law.  It is sometimes called libertinism, hedonism, or living by the philosophy that says, "Freed from the law, Oh blessed condition, now I can sin all I want and still have remission." It refers to moral liberty run amuck or moral laxity to the extreme.    We don't have the right to do as we want as believers and we are not a law unto ourselves--the Bible doesn't sanction a license to sin.  We never have the right to do what is wrong, and we believe in absolute right and wrong, defined by the Word of God, not our conscience--we are not lawless!  Certain of the more than 600 laws are now obsolete and don't matter to Christians, such as tithing,  cutting our sideburns,  mixing fabrics, or charging interest, but if it is serious it is reinstated in the New Testament in some manner.  Recall that Paul said love is the fulfillment of the Law.    We don't have to become Old Testament scholars to be good Christians--you can never go wrong by placing emphasis on the New Testament.

When we strive to obey the Law, we have "fallen from grace."  We don't have to become somewhat Jewish to become a Christian.  Neither justification nor sanctification is through the Law; instead, we are subject to the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ (Rom. 8:1-2).  The Pharisees were guilty of obeying the letter of the Law, and not the spirit of the Law--"As many as are led by the Spirit are not under the Law [how clear can the Bible be?]," says Gal. 5:18. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the former needs no law, and the latter knows no law.   Yes, all the Law can be summed up in loving your neighbor as yourself (Gal. 5:14).

There is a question of definition and morality. Some say are obliged to obey the moral law (in fact we are not "lawless", but have an inner law given by God), as opposed to the ceremonial or governmental codes.   There are many moral precepts laid down in the Law that are relevant and are merely addendum's to the Decalogue and are spelled out to a dense nation that didn't know right and wrong.  There are plenty of sins to worry about already, that we don't have to find some obscure one to preach about--we should always keep the main thing the main thing and preach salvation and deliverance from the Law.  

I have heard it said that if we are under the Ten Commandments (except for the Sabbath observance, which is not repeated in the New Testament). and this has not been rescinded.  There are plenty of sins mentioned in the New Testament (see Romans 1 Mark 7,  or Gal 5:20-21), that we don't need a longer "to-do list" or "not-to-do-list," as it were (Christianity isn't a rulebook if you will).

It is a sound interpretation of Scripture that the New Testament trumps the Old and we should interpret each in light of the other.  The fault of legalists is that they see "sins" and not "sin," or the root problem.  The Pharisees strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel!   They neglected the important areas of love, justice, and mercy while being overly legalistic and demanding about the Sabbath, making it a burden to dread, not a joy.

Remember,  Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."  The early church (referring to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15) did not desire to burden the early church with a yoke their fathers couldn't bear and did not require them to follow the Law of Moses.  Christianity is a new faith and the fulfillment of, and not an extension or continuation of Judaism, which the early church struggled about.  Judaizers were an early heresy and Hebrews was written to combat this.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Freed From The Law

"Freed from the Law, Oh blessed condition, now I can sin all I want and still have remission!" What nonsense! Being free form the Mosaic Law doesn't mean we are lawless. This libertine approach to living the Christian life is a dangerous heresy and is also called antinomianism (against "lawism" or justification apart from sanctification). Works do play a part in salvation, but not works done in the energy of the flesh. We do works because we want to, not because we have to. The difference is between legalism and true justification. The formula of the Reformers was:  "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." True faith always produces bona fide works done in the power of the Spirit. "For we are His workmanship." We are a people "zealous of good works" (Tit. 2:14).

"For faith without works is dead." Mere profession or lip service is not enough--without works, faith is bogus.

"Sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14) God didn't give us the Law to keep, but to break. But we don't really break God's Law, we break His heart!  To show us our vulnerability and how exacting His requirements are. We need to be discharged from the Law as well as from sin. The law is but a shadow of things to come (Heb. 10:1) (Col. 2:17) We would not realize our sin and weaknesses if it hadn't been for the Law. (Rom. 7:7).  "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (cf. Rom. 3:23).   When we come to the realization like that of Paul: This anticlimax, "Oh, wretched man that I am ..."(that is music to God's ears).

Law is doing for God, while grace is God doing for us. He gets all the glory. Soli Deo Gloria!  Don't pat yourself on the back! We are no more virtuous because of our faith, which is a gift.
See Rom. 12:3: To each of us is rendered a measure of faith.  Soli Deo Gloria!