Introduction
The Scriptures present Satan in various ways: he is the Serpent, the
Devil, and the Dragon to name but three. However, there is one guise
in which he appears that is little appreciated by many Christians,
and yet it is most deadly: “And [it is] not wonderful, for Satan
himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11: 14).
An angel, a messenger,
of light! As such
Satan does not oppose the Scriptures, but
uses them to falsify
the truth. “When he speaks falsehood, he speaks of what is his own;
for he is a liar and its father” (John 8: 44). Furthermore, not only
does he employ the Bible for this purpose but his servants are those
who claim the authority of the Lord: “transforming themselves into
apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11: 13). The passage shows that their
claims, like their teaching, is false. Now the most deadly of
Satan’s doctrines are those that are closest to the truth because
these are the hardest to detect. Not only that, but such false
doctrines are even more difficult to deal with when those who teach
them clearly belong to Christ and are
not false ministers.
Satan is not beyond indirectly using genuine servants of Christ as
his unsuspecting tools to promulgate erroneous interpretations of
Scripture. This gives added weight to such teachings in the eyes of
those who are its recipients. For what better agent could Satan have
for the propagation of his lies than one who is known and possibly
revered as a lover of the Lord!?
One Deadly Doctrine
At the Reformation, believers were recovered to the grand truth that
“a man is not justified on the principle of works of law [nor] but
by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2: 16). This was a singular
defeat for Satan. However, as a superb military strategist, Satan
ever seeks to turn such setbacks into victory. This is seen when
many Christians, while realising that they have finished with the
law for justification, are still told to look to the Ten
Commandments as a rule of life. They fail to realise that they have
finished with the
principle of law, not
just in regard to justification,
but in its entirety. This
is a prime example of one the Devil’s deadly doctrines.
I recently saw a sample of such dangerous teaching in the
introductory booklet to a series of Bible studies on the Ten
Commandments. While acknowledging that justification is by faith and
independent of law, the writer stated that the Ten Commandments “are
still relevant today if we are to live Godly lives”. Again, he says,
regarding the
Commandments, “we may apply them in our daily lives as we strive to
live Christ–like lives”. What is expressed in this last sentence,
the reader will not find
anywhere in the Bible. Although both advocates and
recipients may not realise it, this teaching is deadly. Why? Because
it mingles law with grace, even though law and grace are like oil
and water—they do not mix. Taken to its logical conclusion, it is
nothing but a return to the Judaism against which the Epistle to the
Galatians was written.
False Distinctions
Many who insist on the retention of the law as a rule of life,
distinguish between what they call the ‘moral law’ (the Ten
Commandments and similar injunctions) and the ‘ceremonial law’
(circumcision, feasts, sacrifices etc.). They maintain that while
the believer has no relationship to the latter, the former still
applies. Although men may make a distinction between what is moral
and what is ceremonial in the law, Scripture never does. The terms
moral law and
ceremonial law are unknown
in the Book.
Now no one speaks more of the law in the NT than Paul. When Paul
speaks of the law as given to Israel, he
always views it as a single entity, a specific example of law as
an abstract principle. What men class as ceremonial in the law is
always bound to what is moral in the law. Hence in Gal. 5: 3 Paul
says “And I witness again to every man [who is] circumcised,
that he is debtor to do the whole law” (my emphasis). There
is no distinction between what is ceremonial and what is moral. Such
distinctions and divisions are false. “What therefore God has joined
together, let not man separate” (Matt. 19: 6) is a principle that
must never be overturned.
Law–Teachers
There were Judaisors in Paul’s day who wanted to return to the
law—the law–teachers of his first epistle to Timothy. With them in
mind, Paul says “Now we know that the law [is] good if any one uses
it lawfully, knowing this, that law has not its application to a
righteous person, but to [the] lawless and insubordinate, to [the]
impious and sinful … and if any other thing is opposed to sound
teaching, according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed
God, with which I have
been entrusted” (1 Tim. 1: 8–11). Many Bible commentators are all
confused here. The law should be used for the purpose for which it
was designed. Those who would use the law as a rule of life are
seeking to use it unlawfully, applying it to those to whom it does
not apply. Christians are not unrighteous, lawless and
insubordinate. Again, to say that only the ceremonial law is in view
here is nonsense. What has the ceremonial side of the law got to do
with “smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers” (v9)? What causes
the confusion is the failure to see that Paul never divides up the
law into its parts, ceremonial and moral, but always views law as a
single entity, as a principle or system of dealing with men in the
flesh by God.
For Christians “the
grace of God … has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously
in the present course of things, awaiting the blessed hope and
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ;
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for
good works” (Tit. 2: 11–14).
Law or Grace
In Rom. 6: 14 we have these words: “For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under law but under grace”. The emphatic “you”
shows that Paul is addressing Christians,
as Christians, distinct from other men. Any argument that this
verse is limited to the Gospel is totally wrong, for the subject of
the Gospel is not in Romans 6. Again, limiting the concept of law in
this verse by saying that it only means that you are not under law
for justification will not stand. We have the subject of
justification in chapters three, four and five, but not in chapter
six. The subject in chapter six is the power of sin in a believer’s
life, not justification by faith in the Gospel. There is no thought
here of not being under the law in one way (for justification) but
under it in another (for rule of life). The words “ye are not under
law but under grace” form an absolute statement with no exceptions.
Law and grace are presented as two
opposing principles.
The verse shows that throughout his teaching Paul uses law to
express a principle, a manner or means of dealing on the part of
God, contrasted with grace. If you put yourself under law as a rule
of life, you have effectively “fallen from grace” (Gal. 5: 4).
One final thought from Rom. 6: 14: it may be justly inferred from
the Apostle’s argument that if sin does not have dominion over one
who is under grace, then it does have dominion over one who is under
law. This inference is born out from Paul’s teaching in the next
chapter of the experience of one under law.
The Argument of Romans Seven
The apostle’s first point is universal and fundamental: “law rules
over a man as long as he lives” (Rom. 7: 1). Law has nothing to say
to a dead man. When a man is alive, it may exert its claims, but
when he is dead it has no further rights. (If a man receives a
prison sentence, but dies before he is taken to prison, then the
claims of law over that man are ended—he will never go to prison.)
In chapter six, Paul used the figure of the master and the slave to
illustrate his argument. The believer was once the bondman (Greek
doulos:
slave) of sin, but having got his freedom from sin, he is now the
bondman of righteousness. There has been a change of master.
In chapter seven a different figure is employed, that of marriage.
Only death breaks the bond of the law of marriage (divorce is not
contemplated). If a woman’s husband is still alive and she marries
another, then she becomes an adulteress; but if the husband dies,
she is free to marry another. Paul now applies this figure to the
believer’s relationship to the law. (If the example of marriage were
applied rigidly, then the law would be the one who would die—but the
law is not dead.) These are his words: “So that, my brethren,
ye also have been made
dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has
been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear
fruit to God” (v4).
These words are fatal to the
delusion of the law as a rule of life. Let us consider them
with great care.
The old husband was the law, and the wife, the believer, rightly
desired to meet her obligations in the bond—“how she shall please
her husband” (1 Cor. 7: 34)—for “the law indeed [is] holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7: 12). Now just as
death alone can rightly break the marriage bond, so the bond between
the believer and the law has also been broken by death—“ye
also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ” (v4).
The action was not ours. We have been put in that state whether we
realise it or not. What placed us in that position? The answer is
“the body of the Christ”. It is not the blood of Christ as in
previous chapters, for justification, forgiveness or redemption are
not the subjects here. It is not the sacrifice of Christ of which
the blood is the evidence. It is the
body of the Christ. The word
body expresses the visible public evidence of a dead Christ. It is
His death, not in its sacrificial character, but the solemn fact of
it. When Christ hung dead on the cross, the law had nothing further
to say to him. The bond with the law was broken. But His death broke
the bond for us as well. Our marriage bond to the law has been
broken so that we can “be to another, who has been raised up from
among [the] dead” (v4). Our bond is now to a risen Christ. We had no
link with Him when He was alive on earth (see John 12: 24). Our link
with Him is as risen from the dead. So why was all this done? It was
done “in order that we
might bear fruit to God”. This is God’s way and
the only way for us to bear
fruit to God. There is no fruit to God from obedience to the
law. You will not bring forth fruit to God if you apply the law as a
rule of life. The teaching of Scripture is that a believer is dead
to sin (see Rom. 6) and dead to the law (see Rom. 7). A dead man
having the law as a rule of life is just one of the Devil’s
delusions!
In Rom. 7: 7–25 we have the practical experience, personified by
Paul, of one who has not realised the truth of the teaching of Rom.
7: 1–6. It is not Christian experience,
although it may be the experience of many Christians. It is the
experience of one who is using the principle of law for a rule of
life. Hence when someone says of the Ten Commandments of the law “we
may apply them in our daily lives as we strive to live Christ–like
lives”, his striving is that of the man in Romans 7. Yes, our lives
should be Christ–like but such legalistic striving is not the way.
Christ or Law
Those who seek to present the law in the Ten Commandments as a rule
of life should consider well the
Scriptures: “For Christ is [the] end of law for righteousness
to every one that believes” (Rom. 10: 4) and “for if righteousness
[is] by law, then Christ has died for nothing” (Gal 2: 21). Notice
the absence of the definite article before the word
law. It is not just the ten words of Sinai but the whole principle
of law as a system—not just the end of law for this or for that, but
the end of that principle in its entirety. Again, it is not just a
question of justification for it does not say ‘if justification come
by law’—it is wider than that—it is the whole question of
righteousness.
But what is practically wrong with the law as a rule of life? Surely
no believer should steal, lie, etc.? Of course not! Again, did not
Christ keep the law? Certainly! Then surely, if a person keeps the
law, he will be like Christ and exhibit His life. Will he? Did not
Christ show compassion in His life? Find me a particle of compassion
in the Ten Commandments! Did not Christ forgive men? Those same laws
know nothing of forgiveness! The legal injunction was “Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22: 39). Was that the limit of
Christ’s love? Thus the law was never the measure of Christ!
If I put myself under law as a rule of life, then law and hence self
become the vision before me. Law makes demands on me: “Thou shalt
…”. It gives me to become occupied with myself: Am I meeting its
standards? Have I failed in this or that today? It is all I, I, and
I. Read the experience outlined in Rom. 7: 7–25 where you will find
the words I,
me,
my, and
myself occur about fifty
times in total. By contrast, how many times do you read of the Lord
in that passage? You can have the law before you without Christ but
you cannot have Christ before you without meeting all the moral
obligations of the law. Law turns me in on myself and what do I find
when I look there? Continual failure! Under law, I expect something
of myself. In grace God expects nothing of me for He has found
everything expected of man in Christ. God’s way is Christ.
God’s Way
We are to be like Christ and
we
are to walk “even as
he walked” (1 John 2: 6)
but how is this done? We find the desired result in 2 Cor. 4: 11:
“for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of
Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal
flesh” (2 Cor. 4: 11). How is this effected? To get the answer we
must go back to the previous chapter.
Paul contrasts his ministry, which was new covenant in character,
with that of the old covenant, the law. But the contrast is drawn,
not with Ex. 20 which was law, pure and simple, but with Ex. 34—law
brought in
after grace has been
experienced—the very teaching of those who would bring in the law as
a rule of life. For Moses had gone up the mount a
second time to plead
mediatorally for the people in grace (see Ex. 32: 30–35; 33: 17–23).
See how Paul contrasts the two ministries! Even though the law was
introduced with glory, referring to Moses’ face, it was
still a “ministry of
death” (2 Cor. 3: 7) and a “ministry of condemnation” (v9) in
contrast to the “ministry of the Spirit” (v8) and the “ministry of
righteousness” (v9). All this culminates with v18 “But
we all, looking on the
glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to
the same image from glory to glory, even as by [the] Lord [the]
Spirit”.
This is how persons are changed—by looking on Christ as He is, not
as He was. It is not occupation with the Lord as He was in suffering
here, but occupation with Him in glory there. This is what
transforms and forms the likeness or image of Christ in the
believer. To be like Him where He was, I must contemplate Him as He
is. Men study Christ’s life here and seek to copy it. It is just the
legalistic effort of the flesh—the “striving to be like Christ” of
the author of the booklet I referred to earlier.
Our predestination is “[to be] conformed to the image of his Son”
(Rom. 8: 29) and 2 Cor. 3: 18 is God’s way. When Moses came down
from the mountain having been in the presence of God, his face
shone.
He did not know it but
the people saw it, and such was its radiancy that Moses had to cover
his face. How much more for us “with unveiled face”! There is no
thought of effort or of trying here. If we spend time in the
presence of God and look on the Lord’s glory we shall be changed
without knowing it. Like Moses, we may not notice any change, but
others will. Stephen is the great example of this. He began his
final address by speaking of “the God of glory … “ (Acts 7: 2) and
men “saw his face as [the] face of an angel” (Acts 6: 15). After its
close he saw “[the] glory of God, and Jesus” (Acts 7: 55). What was
the result? The display of “the life also of Jesus” (2 Cor. 4: 10).
For his last words “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:
60) are but an echo of the dying words of his Master “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34).
A
Final Word from Paul
“For if the things I have thrown down, these I build again, I
constitute myself a transgressor. For
I, through law, have died
to law, that I may live to God” (Gal 2: 18, 19).
