Of the Law, or of Grace?

"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" (Gal. 4:21). Just what was it that the apostle Paul wanted the Galatians to understand about the law, and what it meant to be under it? First let’s understand that these Spirit baptized believers had been influenced by Jewish men in the body of Christ who claimed to be apostles, who told Gentile believers that they had to keep the ceremonial works, or ordinances of the law (Acts 15:1). The apostle Paul had no small problem with this issue and the Galatians were the people who had been the most affected by these false apostles. So I would like for us to see just what the problem was for Gentile believers to be brought under subjection to the carnal ordinances of the law. “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine” (I Tim. 1:9,10). Now let’s punctuate that point with another quote from the great apostle of the Gentiles: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them WHO ARE UNDER THE LAW: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:10-19). So there is the problem; whoever is giving heed to the ceremonial law is acknowledging themselves to be a sinner, because as both of these passages have shown, the law was for sinners. The devil was busy then, as he is today, convincing God’s people to be in an old covenant mindset, because to be in that mindset is synonymous with being in sin. Many who seem to be ministers of the Gospel of Christ today teach that the apostle Paul was a sinner, and that he advocated that believers could not overcome the sinful nature altogether, or cease from sin. If that is true then he must have gotten confused with the following statement: “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? GOD FORBID” (Rom. 6:15).

Paul even rebuked the apostle Peter over this issue when Peter was in Antioch, where Paul was establishing Gentiles in the faith of Christ: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? GOD FORBID” (Gal. 2:1). It also is quite interesting to note that none of the false apostles who troubled the Gentile congregations that Paul established, were teaching these congregations to “love their neighbor as themselves.” No, they weren’t teaching anyone to observe the moral law, which is still in effect and even magnified by walking in the Spirit; but rather to observe and regard the ceremonial law, which never took away sin or imparted divine life (Rom. 5:5; Rom. 13:10; Gal. 3:21; Gal. 4:9,10; Gal. 6:12,13). Paul taught that Jesus came to make a way for those who believe on him to be DELIVERED from, and have power over the very inner nature of sin, which power he said was the FULFILLMENT of the ceremonial law: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE from the law [nature] of sin and death. 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. 8:2-4). He also taught the Gentiles, who were never under the law to begin with, that the law served only to bring Israel to Christ; and that a believer is “complete” simply by being “in Christ” (Gal. 3:24; Col. 2:10). He confirmed these things emphatically by saying to those in Rome, “For Christ is the END of the [ceremonial] law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). This is why he asked the Galatians the following: “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having BEGUN in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:2,3). In other words, he was asking them how ceremonial ordinances that never did anything for the souls of those who had been under them during the law, could possibly ADD any righteousness to them after they had come clean before God and been baptized BY JESUS with “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [which] had made [them] free from the law [nature] of sin and death.” Good question. He also made certain that they understood that in being made to observe these carnal ordinances, they not only had not been added to, but rather they had been TAKEN AWAY FROM greatly: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4).

This great apostle faithfully taught the Gentile believers that receiving the Spirit of God and walking therein was all in all, and that there was no other way to truly serve Christ (I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:16,18; Col. 2:10). He emphasized this total devotion to Christ through living after the power of his Spirit, and having no godly regard for the natural ordinances of the law that only pertained to the flesh, to the Philippians: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God IN THE SPIRIT, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH” (Philip. 3:3). He also clearly taught that Jesus abolished all of the ceremonies of the law at the cross, and that they are no longer in effect (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). So that brings us to the fact that the same perverse spirit is still convincing Gentile believers today to observe carnal ordinances that were clearly of the law, and to be under an old covenant type of mindset thereby. In doing so that spirit has also kept God’s people largely under dominion to sin, and believing that they have to be so. No wonder, seeing that Paul made it clear that Christ would become “of no effect” to those who observe and have godly regard for these carnal ordinances. Water baptism and what is known as “communion” were both ordinances that were under the law, and to observe these ceremonies is to acknowledge one’s self to be under the law, and thereby a sinner (Mat. 3:15; Mat. 5:17; Mat. 26:26-29; Lk. 22:15-20). Now please, read these reference scriptures slowly and honestly before bursting at the seams to leave me a fruitless comment. These passages clearly show that these ordinances were of the law, AND that JESUS SAID that he was going to FULFILL them! We simply cannot give due regard to the suffering, the death, or the resurrection of Jesus by continuing to observe things that he “nailed to his cross,” and died and rose to fulfill, that we might have something FAR BETTER IN HIM! (Col. 2:14; Heb. 7:19,22; Heb. 8:6; Heb. 11:40) Neither can we be under the old covenant and the new covenant at the same time. That is what Paul called “frustrating the grace of God,” explaining that “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:19). We need to let go of the things that cannot purify the heart, and avail ourselves of the true liberty that is IN CHRIST, that can only be had by giving full regard to what Jesus lived, suffered, died, and rose again to establish for us; namely “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men” (Rom. 14:17,18; Mat. 5:8; I Cor. 12:13; II Cor. 3:17; I Jn. 3:2,3). Amen.