8.3 Lawlessness
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
You know that “hear and obey” is the central requirement of the old covenant of death, but that “hear and believe” is the central requirement of the New Covenant of life. The difference is clear. Human effort that always falls short in such fake “obedience” is the result of the old, but Jesus entering into our hearts to be our only life is the result of the New.
If we are to accept Paul’s own testimony, then no human who has ever lived has obeyed the law more explicitly than Saul of Tarsus. This is what destroyed that old “Saul,” turning him into Paul, meaning “little.” Even while “hearing and obeying” more than all his fellows, Saul was still putting Christ to death.
Refusing to Hear the Law. This fact, that his almost perfect effort to keep the law produced no life in him but led only to his open opposition to the Messiah of Israel, changed everything inside of Paul. And years later, he expressed in the deepest frustration, more than once, the huge problem with those who preach, “Keep the law – hear and obey.” That huge problem is that they DON’T. – But if they did, they would become as anti-Christ as Saul of Tarsus had become.
Paul expressed his frustration in this way – “They refuse to hear the law.” All who preach a “gospel of obedience” refuse to hear the law with hardness of heart, and thus, according to Paul, they are LAWLESS.
Sin – Die – That’s It. Here is what the law says, one of two things we must HEAR when we look at the entirety of the covenant of “obey.”
First, the law says: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Galatians 3:10). Or, as James puts it: “For whoever shall keep the entire law, but shall stumble in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). Sin once, fail to keep the law once, fall short of God once, and you are DEAD. There is no recourse; you cannot “try” to do better next time. You are guilty; shut your mouth (no lying or crying) and be executed. – “I AM crucified with Christ.”
But the other hearing of the law is Moses’ injunction that when Christ comes, we are to HEAR Him.
Turning Away from Christ. And what did Christ say about Himself that we are to hear? Two things are of critical importance for us. First, He said, “I can do nothing of Myself” (John 5), and second, He said, “The Father dwelling inside of Me does His works. Believe Me that I am inside of the Father and the Father inside of Me” (John 14).
Living inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of us through “Let it be to me,” is an entirely different life than the world of death built upon “obey.” The problem is not the law; the problem is a Christian attempting to live inside of his or her own doing rather than living inside of Christ. To turn to one’s own “correction” is to turn away from Christ.
Severed from Christ. I testify even more to every man who is being circumcised {that is, observing one preferred element of the law} that he is a debtor to keep ALL of the law. You are severed [separated] from Christ whoever seeks to be justified in law; from grace you have fallen away (Galatians 5:3-4).
But what is law? Law, whether laws of men or the law given to Moses or even New Testament “commandments” treated in the same way, is a series of directives held in the human mind meant to inform a person what conduct is expected of him or her and then to be a just standard for punishment when they fail to obey. For the most part laws are good and work to keep peace among humans.
No Law Gives Life. At no point, however, can any law implanted in the human mind or any attempt to comply with such laws ever produce the life of God as the life of the human. “Hear and obey” will never take anyone out of the tree of knowledge and into the tree of life.
It was never God’s intentions that humans should live by law, that is, by their own “self-control” following their own mental understanding. God gave the law, separate from His Covenant with Abraham, as Paul made clear in Galatians 3, for a clearly stated reason. In order to save us, God had to prove to us that living out of ourselves cannot ever connect us with God, no matter how devoted we are to such living. And by the law, God was justified when He put all creation to death upon the cross of Christ.
God IS Our Energeia. No law, however, raised Jesus out of death, and no law ever implants the life of Christ inside of us.
As you know, LIFE comes only through your faith to become Christ Jesus Himself in Person written upon your heart. And those words are LIFE because you receive them as God Himself, being Himself in and through all that you are. Your confidence, then, has no relationship to the words or to your understanding of what they mean or to your ability to “do” them. Your confidence is in the Person of God Himself, that HE is and HE does what HE means by what HE says.
God is the Energeia inside of you, both as desire and to energeo for the sake of good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).
An Illustration. In order to understand what Paul means in Galatians 5 by his clear delineation that it’s either Christ OR law, but never both, I want to use an example from the human body.
Every cell in your body requires fat molecules from the blood in order to build itself and to operate in a healthy manner. As such, we could picture each cell as having a series of “docking points” in its structure, sort of like a ramp where trucks can line up to discharge their cargo. In modern food there is a man-made substance called “trans-fats.” These are fats in that they are structured as a fat, but they have been “broken,” so to speak, so that they won’t rot. Trans-fats fit perfectly into the spots meant for fat molecules, but they cannot function as fat for the health of the cell.
Empty Ideas or a Living Person. The problem with trans-fats, then, is that when the good fat comes by in the blood stream, the spots made for it to connect itself with the cell are filled with useless fats doing nothing of value, and there is no place for the true fat molecules to connect.
Think of a line of trucks filling the spots on an offloading ramp, but when their doors are opened, there is nothing inside. Think of the line of loaded trucks out on the road that cannot dock because the ramps are filled with empty trucks.
Think of words in the same way, whether as fat molecules or as trucks filled with cargo. Words coming in are either human ideas held in the brain or Jesus Himself entering our hearts to be every Word God speaks as God means it.
Replacing Christ Jesus. No human idea held in the brain can ever impart life. But what human ideas CAN DO is take the place of Christ Jesus as every Word God speaks. And as these human ideas, in the form of law or even of “hear and obey,” crowd the docks of the human heart, there is no room left for Christ Jesus to be the life of that person.
The one who is concerned with the performance of “keeping the law,” or of “keeping” New Testament word as law, IS relying on his or her own human self for the doings of life. The one who is concerned with Jesus Himself in Person living as every Word God speaks IS relying on Father for all the doings of life.
Living by Flesh. “Hear and obey,” keeping the law, doing what is “right,” are all about the flesh, living according to the flesh, according the energeia of human performance. Christ written upon our fleshy hearts, now our only life, is all about the Spirit, living according to the Spirit.
A heart filled with the obligations of law is a heart not filled with Christ Jesus as Word and as Life. This is why God commanded Adam not to eat of the knowledge of good and evil, his own mental awareness of what is “right” and what is “wrong.” Galatians 5:3-4 is just one more picture in the Bible of the choices of the garden of Eden standing before every Christian. Those who eat of the Bible as word under their own mental control have no room for eating of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Selective “Obedience.” As terrible as such a reality is, however, it is not the worst parts of the lawlessness practiced by those who preach law, and especially, “hear and obey.”
On the one hand, human hearing is ALWAYS selective. The Bible is filled with word, even words that often contradict one another. Yet in the life of Saul of Tarsus, there was only one commandment of any meaning for him in the entirety of Moses’ law. That one commandment was – “Hear Christ.” Saul of Tarsus kept to perfection every other commandment, but because he did not obey the one commandment that counts, he remained entirely inside of the death of Adam’s rebellion.
Refusing to Eat of Life. Every preacher of law and “obedience” will promote one set of laws and ignore others. And every follower of law and “obedience” will obey only those laws that are his or her “favorites,” even while disregarding all the others. Yet no preacher or follower of law ever considers obeying the ONE and ONLY commandment that is life – put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
For that reason, no matter how zealous they are to perform, they remain entirely disobedient and lawless, and thus entirely in rebellion and defiance against God. They refuse to accept their guilt and their just execution. They refuse to eat of life. Preachers of law, of “hear and obey,” are as hardened against God as Adam was.
Living in Sin. Every “obedient” Christian lives in a state of always falling short of God, but only in their imagination. Every “obedient” Christ lives in sin instead of in Christ.
Yet that is not the worst lawlessness of those who promote law and outward human obedience to mental ideas, even words spoken by the Spirit, but received separately from Christ our only life, treating Spirit word as mental knowledge. Preachers of law, of human obedience, of “do what God says,” do not hear the law themselves, they refuse to acknowledge their own absolute guilt and inability to obey, even though they know it. They do not obey, and they know that they do not obey. But they will never admit it, for the law has another purpose for them. The law gives the preacher of “obedience” power over God’s people.
Power over Others. By preaching, “hear and obey,” all the while maintaining the false mask that they are paragons of “obedience,” these bullies and confidence tricksters are able to convince multitudes of Christians who do not know that Christ is already their only life to follow that preacher’s particular version of law. In this way, Paul says, they boast in their own power over the flesh of other Christians.
Preachers of law, of outward human performance, of human effort pretending to be “godly,” not only give to God’s precious people a word that cannot ever bring forth life, but they themselves, then, stand in the place of Christ in the life of the church, boasting in themselves that they have the victory over the very Bride of Christ.
A Show of Appearance. As Paul said – All those who wish to put on a good show of appearance inside of flesh compel you to be circumcised {or whatever might be their selected laws}, but only so that they would not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. And not even these who circumcise themselves guard or watch over the law; but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast in [their victory over] your flesh. For me, however, never may it be that I should boast except inside of the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ {again, referring back to Galatians 2:20, Christ Jesus living now as us} (Galatians 6).
Our concern, however, is not to condemn anyone, but that God’s precious people, including all the preachers, would cease eating of their own knowledge of right and wrong and start eating only of Christ Jesus their only present life.