What Did God Do? part 2 - The Law

I am feeling nudged back into a deeper look at the questions raised about a week ago. I just went back and read that post What Did God Do? and realize that so far I am only scratching the surface. These are not issues that I feel so much compelled to explain as a means to convince others to agree with me as much as they are issues that I feel very compelled to clearly understand myself, and even more importantly to experience their transformational power in my own heart and have them demonstrated more openly in my relationships with others.

What has been circulating in my mind ever since I woke up this morning is the question raised before, “What did God do that the Law could not do?” I only touched on it previously and I need to sit on it much longer and look around in the context to see what the Law was “trying” to accomplish but could not.

As I look back over the previous chapters I find some places where the Law seems to be trying to do something. We have to keep in mind the qualifier from 7:12 that “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”. Therefore, whatever the Law is attempting to accomplish it must be something good and right even though it may not be succeeding.

...They show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. (Romans 2:15)

The Law supplies the conscience with the information it needs to operate. It is implied here that the Law is a natural law just like gravity, heat, or the laws of motion that is governing our very existence.

...You bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth. (Romans 2:17-20)

The Law (the requirements of God) is viewed by some even today to be able to empower them to become “the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.” It is implied here that there is a lot of knowledge and truth about God in the Law.

You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? (Romans 2:23)

God is honored by those who are in conformity with His Law.

For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? (Romans 2:25-26)

The Law here seems to have power to give meaning and value to certain rituals or symbols depending on other factors like perfect obedience.

...(The Jews) were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED." (Romans 3:2-4)

The Law was entrusted to the Jews. It has something to do with the faithfulness of God and it is somehow used to vindicate God's truthfulness.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. (Romans 3:9)

The Law is indiscriminate in exposing sinners. It is the great equalizer.

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:19-23)

The Law silences all mouths (assumed to be those in opposition to it as well as those who try to justify themselves with it) and makes all the world accountable to God (instead of the Law?). It cannot be used to justify any flesh in God's eyes. It is used to produce a knowledge of sin. It is a witness to the righteousness of God. It has something to do with the glory of God.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (Romans 3:28 NAS95)

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31)

The Law has something to do with “works”. While it is not the same thing as faith it is not neutralized by faith but established by it.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. (Romans 4:13-15)

The Law does not produce heirs of God among people on this earth. The Law somehow produces “wrath”. The Law exposes violations.

...For until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. (Romans 5:13)

The external revelation of Law creates the condition in which sin is “imputed” against people.

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Romans 5:20)

Apparently the Law was introduced to accelerate the exposure of sin.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? (Romans 6:14-16)

Being “under law” empowers sin to be a slave-master over you. But that does not mean that not being under law makes you at liberty to sin (transgress the law). When that is done we only demonstrate that we are obedient slaves under our master of sin.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. (Romans 7:1-3)

The Law has something called “jurisdiction”. The Greek word meant “to rule:--have dominion over, lord, be lord of, exercise lordship over.” Not a very loving-sounding disposition conducive for a healthy marriage relationship. The Law identifies categories of sin like adultry.

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. (Romans 7:6-10)

The Law apparently has bonds that cause us to feel bound, restricted, not free. Being under the Law is described as the “oldness of the letter”. Law is definitely not sin, but causes us to know about sin – particularly on the inside when it exposes the thoughts and motives of our heart. The Law is not life-giving but is manipulated by sin to result in death. But it is the sin that produces the death, not the Law.

Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (Romans 7:13-14)

Paul is very careful to point out that the Law is not the cause of death. The Law is good but is diabolically used by sin to effect death. When this is more clearly understood then the Law becomes the means whereby we can become aware of the utter sinfulness of sin. The Law is spiritual, not itself tainted by any sin.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

The Law results in a feeling of condemnation in those who try to live under the Law while trying to please God with conformity through obedience.

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (Romans 8:3)

When we are living in the flesh – as described in chapter 7 as those who make it their first priority to know and keep the Law instead of living by faith – the Law is weak and really helpless to empower our obedience. Therefore, we are always trying to get strength from ourselves to keep the requirements of the Law. What God did through His own Son was provide a different method for fulfilling the Law with a reliable and constant source of power outside of ourselves. That means is called being “in Christ Jesus”. It is spirit-oriented but does not ignore or nullify the requirements of the Law.

...so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

This again makes it very plain that God is not at all attempting to sideline the Law in any way. What He has done is to provide a means whereby the Law can be fulfilled in us if we will walk in the spirit and be led by the true Spirit of God. Then the Law will be demonstrated in our lives, thereby establishing the importance of the Law.

Since the Law is a description of God in a nutshell, it should not surprise us that God does not want to get rid of it. That would be the same as God wanting to commit suicide. He wants us to be restored to His image that He originally created us to reflect, not eliminate His own image that is described in the Law.

The word “salvation” means to restore to an original, pristine condition. That is also the same meaning of the root word for “heal”. The root of salvation/salvage comes from Latin and the root word for “heal” comes from a Germanic background, but they both mean the very same thing.

God is using the healing process to restore our souls and spirits to their original blueprint as created in Eden so that He can restore the family system of relationships that heaven has always been based on. Our relationship to the Law is really a symptom our relationship to God and must be based on love-bonds in place of fear-bonds. That love has to be first received into our hearts by knowing and experiencing God's passionate love for us so that we can exercise that love, and in turn we can respond in a live of joyful obedience – natural obedience – even spontaneous obedience to the requirements of the Law.

That is what God does that the Law cannot do.

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