Day 14

God’s Law Is Either Good

Or Satan’s Sandbox

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

In the gospel, Paul says to rightly DIVIDE the word of truth, which means the covenants. Instructors say to COMBINE the covenants. The Old Covenant is 180-degrees opposite from the New. We are led to believe a 1 + 1 = 2 theology of man that says they should be combined. It makes good human sense, but if we follow their theology, we are:
(1) disobedient to God, by not obeying the gospel (Rom 10:16),
(2) overcome by Satan, taken captive by him at his will (II Tim 2:25).

We are led to believe, through writers and preachers, that the way to live the Christian life best, — to be in favor with God and to deserve his blessing and answered prayer — is to try to keep the law. The more you live in accordance with God’s law, the more you will live in favor with him, be blessed, and get your prayers answered the way you want. Right? This is great theology of man, but gospel truth says it stinks to high heaven!

Paul actually says the more we live by law, the more we are in bondage. This is because he says we must keep ALL the law if we don’t want to be in bondage (Gal 3:10). There are some points James and Paul agree on, and this is one (see James 2:10). Do you know what these verses are saying, — practically? Sit and think about it — now, or after you read the next truth.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #27

In practical, everyday language what these verses say is that if you fail to keep just ONE of God’s 600-700 commandments in the Old Testament, then you are guilty of breaking ALL of them. Paul puts it this way: “There is none righteous — no, not one.” The law of God nails US to the cross — except for the fact that JESUS took our place! Paul says the purpose of the law is to stop every mouth and to declare ALL the world guilty before God (Rom 3:19).

You must keep ALL the law. If you break one, he sees you as a murderer, a homosexual, an adulterer, a blasphemer, a thief, a liar, and EVERYTHING else bad — even if you never DO these things!

This is what these verses day — as we will discover more later. This is why Paul says it puts us in bondage? This is why I’ve come to view God’s law as ‘Satan’s sandbox.’ Don’t play in it — for the purpose of proving yourself, or finding favor with God! You will fail!

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What do you look to if things don’t go right in your life? If you suddenly find yourself in grief, suffering, ill health, jobless, divorced, etc., WHAT does your mind immediately gravitate to? The questions that immediately come to mind are two: (1) What have I done BAD — or wrong, or (2) What haven’t I done GOOD — or right? Can you see how this is born at The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

The Tree of Knowledge is what gave birth to the law. Before the law, MAN defined what was good and bad. Then the LAW took over and defined The Tree of Knowledge in minute detail. The law of God became the measuring rod for everything. Thus it is Satan’s sandbox.

Again, we cannot combine the Old and New Testaments. Jesus says don’t pour New wine into Old wineskins. Thus, Paul says to be ministers of the New — not the Old (II Cor 3:6). This doesn’t mean we can’t LEARN from the Old. It simply means we can’t APPLY the Old — because we have a better, New Covenant to live in (Heb 11:40).

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GOSPEL TRUTH #28

Now Paul makes it harder! He says we are under bondage if we even try to live by ONE of God’s laws. He digresses from keeping ALL of the law to only trying to keep ONE law. He says if we only try to keep ONE law, we are guilty of all of it, and we’ve fallen from grace.

Falling from grace is not when we do BAD; it is when we try to do GOOD, thinking our goodness earns us favor with God. Plus he says doing this means that Christ profits us nothing! (Read Galatians 5:1-4).

The Old Testament declares us all guilty because it shows us we cannot live by law. Adam and Eve had only ONE law. They couldn’t do it. This grew to 600-700 laws. Of course people couldn’t do it!

Let me ask this question again: what makes US so prideful to think WE can? The answer is Satan — the liar — the deceiver!

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The gospel has lost a lot of its power because of the law. Mixing law and grace causes us to live in darkness, not in the light. When you talk to most Christians about the law having been abolished and replaced by the gospel, they look at you like you’ve got more than just one screw loose. They look at you like you need deliverance. This is because with all those 10,000 instructors in Christ preaching some form of the law, it all seems right. “Children live what they learn.” Paul calls it ‘the ministry of condemnation and death.’

Let’s see what else Paul says about God’s Old Testament law:

The law puts a veil over our minds and hearts (II Cor 3:14-15).

It causes the gospel to be hidden from us, and we let the god of this world cause us to miss the glory of God (II Cor 4:3-4).

It really appeals to our flesh, and traps us into living by it in all aspects of life. This gives us a zeal for God, but robs us of the knowledge of God (Rom 10:2, 6).

It causes preachers to miss the truth of God, thus not understanding what they say, or the things about which they make confident assertions (I Tim 1:7).

The law is not made for God’s righteous man, which is you and me if we are born again in Christ (I Tim 1:9).

The law does not justify us in anything we do (Rom 3:20).

We are only justified outside of the law (Rom 3:28).

If we live by the law, doing good works and deeds to gain a reward or favor, we are not living in the grace of the gospel (Rom 4:4-5).

He quotes David, who knew more gospel truth 1,000 years before Jesus than most Christians do today, 2,000 years after Jesus. David knew the blessedness of a man apart from his works: he knew we are blessed by knowing our iniquities are forgiven, and our sins are dealt with, knowing God will not impute sin to us (Rom 4:6-8).

Christ is the end of the law if we believe in him (Rom 10:4).

The law was only intended to exist until Jesus came (Gal 3:19).

We are ‘bewitched’ if we try to live by the law (Gal 3:1-2). NOTE: this is the strongest word I can find in the New Testament for demonic control and influence.

He says we are stupid if we begin in the Spirit (the gospel of salvation), and then try to work out our salvation by our deeds (Gal 3:3-4).

He says Jesus came to redeem us from the law’s curse (Gal 3:13).

The law was added to things (it wasn’t in the beginning) until Jesus came and brought the promise of life in God (Gal 3:19).

Jesus blotted out (erased) the handwriting of ordinances and laws that were against us — that were contrary to us. He took them out of the way, and crucified them on his cross (Col 2:14).

When Jesus cancelled the law that was against us, this is how he defeated Satan, made a public show of him, triumphing over him (Col 2:15). Without the law, Satan can no longer be ‘our accuser,’ because he has no basis to accuse us.

The law has NO authority over us. It was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. After we come into faith, we are no longer under the law (Gal 3:24-25).

Paul says if we live by only one law, Jesus is no profit to us (Gal 5:2).

He says if we live by only one law, then we are a debtor to God to live by ALL of his law, — or Christ’s death has no effect for us (Gal 5:4).

The law is the strength of sin. It is what causes us to sin more than we would otherwise (I Cor 15:56).

The law is the law of a carnal command, which means it affects our flesh, our self, our bodies — not our spirit (Heb 7:16).

The law is what causes enmity between us and God. Jesus abolished the law by his death (Eph 2:15).

Jesus came to do the will of God by taking away the Old Covenant law, replacing it with the New Covenant gospel (Heb 10:9).

Sin has NO dominion over us in the gospel of grace (Rom 6:14).

We should live like we’re DEAD to the law, realizing this causes us to be married to Christ, who delivered us from it (Rom 7:4-5).

Our old man was crucified with Christ, and this caused ‘the body of sin’ to be destroyed. This means that the BAD part of us has already died: we are dead! Only the good part of us lives (Rom 6:6).

ChriThe law put us in sin, but not if we’re in Christ (Gal 4:22).

The New Covenant gospel made the Old Covenant law obsolete. The New rescinded and replaced the Old (Heb 8:13).

He says to awake to our righteousness, not to our sin (I Cor 15:34).

Paul says Jesus became sin for us, and we have God’s righteousness imparted to us (II Cor 5:21).

He says the gospel is the revelation of this righteousness (Rom 1:16).

The question that is often asked is this:
“If God’s law doesn’t constrain and control us, then what does?”
Paul says it is the love of God that constrains us,
not the law of God (II Cor 5:14).

The problem is you cannot know God’s love,
at least experientially, if you are living by his law.
Law has the power to exclude love —
whether it be with God, in a family, or anywhere.
The more RULES you have, the less the RELATIONSHIP.

God is described as love, light and life.
If you live in his love, you also have his light and his life.
If you live in his law, you cannot experience
his love, his light, or his life.

Don’t miss how this day flows with the prior day: self righteousness vs. God’s righteousness. As with the law of the Old Covenant vs. the gospel of the New Covenant, it is our CHOICE how we live. When we make the right choice, his mercies are new every morning.