Replies

Observations on the Relationship
between the Law and Christ.

Diamond, I appreciate your reply to my concerns regarding one of our most important heros in Christian cosmology, the Prophet Moses, who is known as the Lawgiver.

First, I would note that you did not quote the words of the Master Jesus Christ whose sayings, as we have them, are dispositive when trying to resolve all doctrinal disagreements among believers. If an interpretation of the writing of a particular Apostle produces a conclusion that contradicts the words of Jesus Christ himself, which appears to be the case here, then that interpretation cannot be correct. That does not mean the Apostle is wrong. It means that the reader is not understanding what the Apostle was trying to say, or the meaning the Apostle was trying to convey. In my opinion, what Jesus Christ actually said about Moses does not allow us to give any amount of short shrift to Mosaic Law, and it was not the intent of the Apostle Paul to do that. And I will try to explain why.

Second, in many cases, the Writing of the Apostle Paul does not ring with great clarity, and this is especially true in areas where he is trying to express inner spiritual realities, which have no previously established physical lexicon. I want to take a close look at the quote from Romans 7 that you provided.

Romans 7
7 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. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

When I read this, I say in my own mind, yes, I understand verse 7, it is congruent with everything Jesus Christ taught about the importance of obedience before the law. When I read verse 12, I say in my own mind, yes, I fully undersrand that, it is perfectly congruent with everything Jesus Christ taught about the importance of obedience before the law. But the verses in between, i.e. 8 through 11, appear to contradict verses 7 and 12. So the mind of the reader is left confused.

Paul begins by saying the law is good. Then he appears to say the law was the means by which he was deceived into sinning. Then he says again the law is good. If I was Paul's editor, I would say, please go back and straighten this out.

In the contradictory parts he seems to be saying the law is bad, but this is not what he was trying to get across. He was trying to say, I believe, that the law by itself cannot save you. You need to be obedient to the law AND you must allow Christ to wash your feet. In other words, you must be obedient to the law AND you must allow the intercession of Christ in your world to wash the origins of sin away.

Now, the Jews believed that the law was sufficient for their salvation. If they just obeyed the law, they did not need Christ. (But of course, as I will discuss below, it is delusion to believe one can be obedient to the law, without the intercession of Christ. It is impossible.) It was the Apostle Paul's job to explain to them why the law by itself was not the whole story, that they needed the intercession of Christ as well. They needed both. And in verses 8 through 11, he was trying to give a rationale to this end, which is not a very good rationale. It is not very good, because it is not clear. It does not readily dovetail with the experience of the average person. The average person does not read that and say, "O I know what he Means!" The average person will be completely confused.

The truth is, that you must be obedient to the law if you are to be saved. Jesus Christ spoke to that exact point. But this is also true, it is impossible to be obedient to the law, without the intercession of Christ. And Jesus Christ speaks directly to that point as well. These two points always go together, two parts of one whole.

It is impossible to be obedient to the law, without the intercession of Christ, because, as we behave in sinful ways, the power of sin will build up a momentum of habit in us, a habit that will then drag us along in the same direction, day by day, a habit composed of all of the thoughts and feelings we have experienced within that sinful pattern over weeks, months, and even years. The soul does not have any power to step out of these habit patterns. The soul is bound by iron chains in the habit patterns that it has created for itself.

Take for example the women who make their living as prostitutes in the State of Nevada. This is the life they live, they do it every day, and it becomes a binding habit upon them, which they cannot escape by their own power. Only the Power of Christ can break that habit pattern.

However, the person needs to know the law before they can understand that their behavior is not pleasing in the Sight of God, and has consequences that lead in the opposite direction than that of salvation. They need someone to stand before them to be an advocate for the law, and an advocate for Christ as the means by which obedience to the law can be achieved. The advocate must give them the knowledge of the Law first. Having the law, and the spirit of repentance in their heart, then they can reach out to Christ for help.

When the spirit of repentance is expressed, only then can the Power of Christ break that habit pattern. The role of the advocate is really important in this regard, as the advocate must help to fan up into a conflagration the fire of repentance in the heart of the one bound by sin.

However, even after the person has repented, and received the first installments of freedom, temptations along those same lines will reappear. The person needs to keep the law before them, to understand that they cannot return to the life of sin. Thus the law remains important. And thus, each new day, they must reach out to Christ anew, for the power that will set them free to be sin free in that day. As they do this day by day, the Power of Christ comes to live in them, a power that keeps them free, and eventually will become so strong, that they will be temptation free as well in that particular area.

But we sin in many areas, and each area must be cleaned up, brought into alignment with the law, by the same process of repentance and Christ's intercession. The goal that Christ set before us is perfection. Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. The Lord Christ is empowered to help us achieve this goal.

Even though it might be technically true, that the written law appears to be of no use to a person that has achieved this state of freedom from sin, by the intercession of Christ, it nevertheless remains true, that the person who has actually been set free from sin, in a particular area, by Christ, will never be tempted to express this sentiment, in as much as in this process of becoming the law, by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and by the Grace of God, they have gained a greater appreciation of the law, a greater appreciation than they ever had before, and have a greater appreciation of their duty therefore to always shine the light of respect upon the written law, as it remains the doorway to freedom for all people who are yet trapped by the habit patterns of sin.

The written law as given to us by God, should never be disparaged, as it always remains the essential doorway to freedom.

For people who live in sin, they must have the law as the doorway to exit the life of sin. And the doorway of the law must shine with respect and goodness, if they are to approach it. The door knob is the Promise of Freedom in Christ. They must reach for that doorknob, of the law, and turn it, and pull, for the door to open, wherein the Power of Christ can then stream through to set them free. As it is written, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

The Law must always be respected as the doorway that leads to the state of freedom that only Christ can give.

The effort to know the law, and the effort to be obedient to it, that is the doorway through which the individual draws the Power of Christ into their lives.

Clearly, the Master Jesus Christ taught respect for the Lawgiver Moses, and that is because Moses framed the doorway that would lead the people to the Heart of Christ.

Against this backdrop, we see that one of the goals therefore, of the darkside, which is to say, the demonic realm, especially as it expresses itself through the homosexual rights movement, is to cast mockery upon the Law of Moses, and in that way, block the soul from reaching the doorway of the Law that leads to their Freedom in Christ.

The scope of destructivity that the homosexual rights movement represents can only be accurrately evalulated in this framework, as we see a vast shadow cast across the minds of the whole people, as they are persuaded to turn a cold shoulder in the direction of the Law of Moses, and in this way, their own path to the doorway of the law, that leads to their own salvation in Christ is blocked.

The situation is made the more egregious, as the vast apparatus of the U.S. Govenrment is now being used to cast this shadow upon the minds of the people, not just of our own nation, but that of the whole world. This is one of the prime reasons that America's access to the resources of Divine Providence have been cut off.

The machinery of the American government is now being used to destroy the people's faith in the veracity of the law, and in that manner, cut off the path of salvation.

Thanks Diamond, for giving me the opportunity to discuss this issue in more depth.

I have strayed off topic in this thread too far already but I would like to ask you another question. You state:

In my opinion, what Jesus Christ actually said about Moses does not allow us to give any amount of short shrift to Mosaic Law...

The underlined emphasis is yours. Ok then, here is a requirement of the Law of Moses:

Exodus 23:
¹⁴“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.
¹⁵“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
¹⁶“Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
¹⁷“Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.
Deuteronomy 16:
¹⁶Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed: ¹⁷Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.

GoldenEagles, if you bother to study these, they involve offering sacrifices at the only place authorized for such - at the temple, and the only temple was in Jerusalem. All the men of Israel were to assemble as commanded by God at the location specified by God on those three feasts. The Law of Moses included all the sacrifices throughout the year at the temple.

My question to you is this; do you offer those same sacrifices Golden Eagle? If not, why not, as they are codified in the the Law of Moses?

Cordially,