The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Psm

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psm. 19:7). I received a letter in the mail many years ago, that was a response from someone about one of my radio broadcasts. After reading the letter, the holy Ghost impressed three things into my spirit, one at a time. It said, "This guy has a spirit against the law." Then the Spirit immediately said, "He has a spirit against righteousness." Immediately after that it said, "He has a spirit that is against God." A lot of people have the idea somehow that Jesus came to establish something new because there was something wrong with the law that God gave to Moses at Mt. Sinai for Israel. Nothing could in fact be further from the truth. The Bible tells us that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," so that would have to include our text verse which tells us that the old covenant law was and is perfect (II Tim. 3:16). In reality anyone who has something against the law has something against God, even as the man who sent me that letter. The apostle Paul made it clear that faith in Jesus Christ does not nullify the law: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (Rom. 3:31). What the apostle was saying is that faith in Christ which results in being baptized BY Christ with his Spirit, 'empowers' us to live in the law. Jesus made it clear that the new testament was not something that is varied from the old testament: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Mat. 7:12). True empowering faith in Jesus Christ enables us to do and to be what old testament believers could not completely do or be. Again the same apostle explained: "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did" (Heb. 7:19). The law itself was perfect, but it was not able to make those who adhered to it perfect, which is to say complete; because it could not remove the nature of sin from the hearts of men. "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect [complete]... For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10:1,4). So the problem was that nobody could completely or perfectly keep or be like the law because everyone still had sin, and the law provided nothing to take their sins away.

The imperfection therefore was not in the law, but rather in the hearts and souls of men. The apostle Paul explained this as well: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet... Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:7,12). Because the sacrifices of the law were unable to remove sin from the hearts of men, the law was not able to infuse divine, eternal life into the same hearts: "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). In light of the fact that the law could not impart divine life into the hearts and souls of men, consider what Jesus said about his reason for coming: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (Jn. 10:10). That is right, Jesus made the way for us to have divine, eternal life substance dwelling within us; and that divine life DOES make us complete, or perfect in and through him! That divine life is in fact the very Spirit of God that Jesus baptizes honest and humble believing souls with (Mk. 1:7,8 Jn. 7:38,39; I Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:2). To say that we needed that divine life dwelling in us is an understatement of grand proportions, seeing we could not attain unto the resurrection of the dead without it (Rom. 8:11). To be sure that the sacrifice of Christ has accomplished that which the old covenant sacrifices could not, Paul states clearly; "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). If that isn't enough then let's throw this jewel in for good measure: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:13,14). But lest we think that Jesus has reinvented the righteousness of God in the new testament, Paul again has an answer: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his 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).

Jesus fulfilled the law so that we could do the same, and we fulfill the law by being filled with and led by his Spirit, which Spirit is him: "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:14). If we remain free from sin by the renewing empowerment of God's Spirit, we are perfect and complete because we are fully IN him who IS perfect and complete, and he in us (Jn. 14:15-20). That is how the apostle Paul made the following statement: "And ye are COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:10). That is also how Jesus made this statement: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Mat. 5:8). The word 'perfect' and the word 'complete' come from the same Greek word, and they mean the exact same thing. So the law is perfect because it is the righteousness of God, and that righteousness is fulfilled in everyone who is in Christ and follows his Spirit. We of course do not keep the symbolic carnal ceremonies and rituals of the law because those things which were external forms have been brought to life IN us by means of God's "Spirit of life." Again the great apostle to the Gentiles expounded this: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:8). The word of God [truth], or the bread of life, dwelling in a pure [sincere] heart is far more perfect, or complete, than roasting a lamb and eating cakes of unleavened bread; as was the case with the old testament passover. So is the case with all of the natural ceremonies, or 'works,' of the law, which are fulfilled in us by faith in Christ through the power of the holy Ghost. The conclusion of the matter is that the new covenant is actually the old covenant being transferred from an outer form into a spiritual, living form in our hearts. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb. 10:14-16). I believe that's close to the best I can do to explain this topic at the moment without writing a book. Amen.