"Legalism or Liberalism that is the question..." (PART 2)

In my last blog I wrote on the false notion of having to choose between Legalism or Liberalism( or better known as “Antinomianism”). This article will not serve you best unless you have read the first article. So I recommend to you to read that one first.

Since this last blog, I received much thanks and agreement upon my conclusion on how to properly view our lives and freedom in Christ. However, I have received two very important and good questions from two different people. So, I thought it be best to respond to those questions in two more blog entries (thus, this will end up being a three part series). I will answer the questions in an order that will best make sense to the readers. In other words part two should set the stage for part three as part one did for the other two. My goal is two-fold to glorify God by revealing Him to the reader through the teaching of His word, and therefore, administer grace to the reader of this blog.

The first question I received was, “how does the law relate to the believer under the New Covenant?” This is a crucial question to the discussion. So this question must be dealt with carefully and explained clearly. I pray that I may do that here.

In the first article I explained how the purpose of the Law was to act as a pointer. The law “revealed” or “pointed” to the righteousness of God (Romans 3). In doing this it pointed to two things; the problem (us), and the solution (Jesus). When we see our wickedness and how we fall short of the glory of God and then repent of our filthiness and turn to Jesus, He offers free and full forgiveness of sins and His righteousness to those who believe. When one does this, they are in a New Covenant with God. And in this covenant God gives His people a “new heart” and “His Spirit” to cause them to obey Him (Jeremiah 31:31; Ezekiel 36:22-27).

But herein lies the question, “Since Jesus has ‘fulfilled’ the Law and abolished the Old Covenant and brought in a New Covenant, how should we then view the Law and what is our relation to the Law?”

First, it should be stated that our view of the Law should not change! You see, because the Law was never the problem! WE WERE! We were the ones that needed to be changed. The Law accomplished what it was supposed to do, that is, reveal the “righteousness of God.” We should view the Law as a means for seeing the righteousness of God

However, even though we view the Law of God the same our “relation” to the Law is no longer the same! Our relation to the Law of God changes with the changing of the Covenant (Hebrew 7:12 will explain this later!) . In other words, the Old Covenant was to act as a shadow of greater things, yes, Heavenly things! The sacrifice systems and cleansing process and etc. were all to point God’s people to the coming Messiah, who would fulfill all those things (The whole book of Hebrews shows this best, extensively). So then, those who are in the New Covenant are dead to that Law (Romans7:1-6).

That being said God’s purpose for His people has never changed. Although God has used different means in different dispensations throughout history, His purpose for His people has been the same. So, what is that purpose that God has had for His people from the beginning? This is the $1,000,000 .00 question to the topic at hand.

God’s purpose has always been to: “set apart for Himself a people, who are holy and pure by seeing Jesus as their ALL-SATISFYING TREASURE!” Now this encompasses much more that what is possibly seen at first glance. For example, for one to truly treasure Jesus, one must know who Jesus is. What makes Jesus, Jesus? What does Jesus Love? These are the questions that one must know to LOVE Jesus or to see Jesus as their “ALL-SATISFYING TREASURE!”

Let us just take one aspect of Jesus, so as to know what I mean by all of this. Jesus was fully man, but He was also fully God. That is to say, He possessed all the attributes of God, and He was like us in every way only without sin (referring to His humanity). Jesus is as righteous as God yet manifested in a man. It is on this attribute that we want to spend some time on.

As stated earlier, the Law “reveals” the righteousness of God(Romans 3). However, when Jesus teaches on righteousness He raises the standard from what the Law says. So where the Law states, “Thou shall not murder” Jesus says, “you have heard that it was said to those of old (referring to the Law) but I say to you everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment…” ( Italics and bold added for emphasis) Jesus never lowers the standard but rather raises it! Jesus never lessened the importance of the law! He did otherwise, while increasing the standard by which to be held (Matthew 5:17).

In Romans 3:19-22a Paul states:

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…”

Paul states that the righteousness of God (the standard by which He will judge) has been shown in two forms: revealed in the “Law and Prophets”, and “manifested apart from the law.” This two-fold revealing of the righteousness of God coincides with the Old and New Covenant of God.

But if the Law given by Moses is linked with the Old Covenant and revealing of the righteousness of God what is the new or greater revealing of the righteousness of God linked to? Paul goes on to say,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified (declared righteous in the court of God) by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” ( Romans 3:23-26, Parenthetical not scripture but brief commentary on the word justified, Italics and bold was added for emphasis)

This hardly needs any explanation! Did you see it?! Jesus is the greater revelation of the Righteousness of God! His incarnation, perfect lived life, death on the cross bearing the wrath of God for the sins of those who would have “faith” in Him, resurrection, and ascension is the greatest manifestation of the righteousness of God because it is the righteousness of God being acted out in real-time (now history but was “present time”).

Thus, when Jesus is in the upper room having “The Last Supper” with His disciples He tells them, “This cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20b, Italic and bold added for emphasis) So just as the Old Covenant is linked to the Law given by Moses to reveal God’s righteousness so too The New Covenant brings in a new giver of the Law Jesus to reveal the righteousness of God more clearly.



The best way I can think of how to explain the difference between the Law in the Old Testament and Jesus as they relate to the righteousness of God is like this, imagine yourself looking up on a beautiful clear sunny day. And as you look up you see these glowing bright glorious rays coming out from the sun which are too bright for you to even look at. Those rays of light are similar to the Law. They reflect and come from the source which is the sun. But here lies within the difference. Where as light rays from the sun are the Law, the sun itself is Jesus. Jesus is the righteousness of God! Whereas the law is a reflection of God’s righteousness.

Jesus brings in a New Covenant which is His body, those who are in His body died to the Law with Him and were raised with Him to new life (Romans 6-7:6). Jesus is the Great High Priest with this coming in of a New Covenant. With this coming of a new age comes all new things! I cannot begin to touch on all those things, but what I will deal with is what is the new law or standard that comes with the New Covenant.

As stated earlier Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it! He came not to lower the standard so that we could get in to heaven but raised it so that all are judged. By doing this Jesus becomes the only way to salvation. Salvation can only come by the accomplished work of Christ and be received by faith in His work. In other words, our new law is to place our faith in Christ Jesus!

By finding our salvation in Jesus Christ by faith we fulfill the Law of God. This is what Paul means when he says, “the just shall live by faith.” Think with me for a moment, what was the first commandment? To have no other gods before the One true God. Here God states that He just delivered them from Egypt and that He will provide for them! So that, they would go to no other gods because He alone is their God and will provide for them. In other words, the first commandment God gives to Israel is that they are to trust (believe) and find their everything in YAHWEH!

Now if you are finding your everything (i.e. your life) in YAHWEH are you going to even covet someone else’s things? If find yourself absolutely full in all the joy, peace, and satisfaction of Christ Jesus there is no desire left to be found wanting!

Let me attempt to use an illustration though it has it weaknesses. Say you walk into a restaurant absolutely starving and you look at the counter and it is absolutely full of delicious dishes. Your mouth is going to be watering like crazy and the temptation to be found ungrateful and covet what is there will be undefeatable! Now if I walk up to you and tell you, “God says, ‘you shall not covet!’” That does not solve the problem that only reveals the sin that was already there to be sin or wrong. But if the owner comes to you while starving and says, “come follow me” and brings you into a banquet hall filled with the most exquisite and delicious dishes of the greatest variety and tells you to, “eat whatever and as much as your heart can be full of delight for as long as you wish!” Once you have eaten your full and you leave the banquet hall you stumble across the same counter that had your mouth watering and you realize that the dishes filled with delicious foods was actually the dishes that came off the used tables and the food was the defiled leftovers. Your temptation to lust for the leftovers will have been removed by finding your needs and desires met in the banquet given to you freely!

This is essentially what God was telling Israel! I command you to find me giver of every good gift and to go to no other to seek or find your wants and needs! The Old Covenant Law did reveal a great amount about who God is and how He is able to be our source of delight our “ALL-SATISFYING TREASURE.” But it did so dimly and it did not change the real problem but rather exposed it (which was it’s purpose)! So this brings about the need for a greater covenant! With the New Covenant God reveals himself fully so as to show the “ALL-SATISFYING TREASURE” clearly and removes the problem (our hearts) by changes those in the New Covenant so that the delight of their heart is to see and obey God!

In other words, our law that we are to conform to is the righteousness of God! We know what the righteousness of God is by reading the scriptures. We understand that though the Old Testament revealed the righteousness of God, that it did so dimly, and that we can see the righteousness of God most clearly in Jesus including: his life and accomplished work.

The means of how we do this is most important to the discussion! This is the second question that was asked and will be dealt with in Part 3 of this topic. I am praying and preparing for this and hope to have it done soon, hopefully no longer than a week! I apologize for the wait and want all to know that I am praying for you! God bless!

"Legalism or Liberalism that is the question".....

Monday morning I was meditating upon Psalm 119 Verses 1-8. However, as the morning progressed I was praying and pondering what pearls could be seen in these verses and I found my mind enlightened to particularly the first couple of verse in Psalm 119. Which says,

"Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD,
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.
"Psalm 119:2(Italics added)

Did you catch it? You see, I titled my blog "Legalism or Liberalism that is the question." Because, although most astute Christians recognize that is not our only choices, we LIVE as though those were our only choices. At least that is what I seem to see in my own life, as well as, pick up on from others in their conversation.

So how do we look at this topic in light of Scripture? Does the Bible tell us we may live our lives free from these two extremes? I believe God has spoken on this topic! And it is our responsibility to know and live according to this revealed will of God. So allow me to take some of your time and I hope at the end of this blog, you will leave blessed because of what the Word of God says.

Lets start with the passage in Psalm 119:1-8 which says,

"Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways!

You have commanded Your precepts to be kept diligently.

Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes!

Then I shall not be put to shame,
Having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments.

I will praise You with an upright heart,
when I learn Your righteous rules.

I will keep Your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me!" Psalm 119:1-8

Perhaps one of the most important eye openers to the text is when the reader recognizes the Hebrew poetic style being used by the psalmist. For instance if you look at the first three verses the Psalmist is using what is called Hebrew parallelism. So in the first verse the writer states that a particular person is blessed. The first stanza then states it is those who are "blameless", while the second stanza still dealing with the same person and even same attribute states it in another form, in this case "who walk in the Law of the LORD."

This is significant because of what the writer says in verse two using the same parallelism. In verse two we see that those who keep God's testimonies are those who are blessed. But notice with me how the writer defines those who "keep His testimonies". Who is the one who keeps God's testimonies? It is the one who is seeking God with his whole heart! Do you see the irony? Rules and laws are the very same thing that act as a stumbling block to some leading to legalism. And yet, it is the rules and laws that act as a means by which some are able to pursue and love the LORD with their whole heart!

It is with this foundation set that I would like to point out some obvious truths from what we have now established.

FIRST, rules and laws are not bad! What I mean is, we typically look at rules and laws as the problem to the dilemma at hand. But if rules and laws can act as a form of worship for one then the source of the problem cannot be the law! Indeed this is even what Paul states in Romans 7. The LAW (as all laws do) is to act as a pointer to the problem and to the solution. In other words rules and laws function in twofold. This leads us to the next point.

SECOND, the problem is OUR heart or indwelling sin. The "or" is dependent upon whether the individual is regenerate or not. But in either case the real problem to the legalism and liberalism is us! If the keeping of the law is a reflection of our heart, which is what verse two of this Psalm says, then this confirms my argument that the problem is us. This is further proved when we look upon verses 5-6.

The writer is broken and zealous to keep the laws of God, so that, he not be put to shame! What does the writer mean? I think the reason is clear in light of the second point. If keeping the law is a reflection of my heart towards God, then the reverse of it is true. In other words, when the writer does not keep the laws of God it reflects His lack of love in His heart towards God. The writer recognizes two things! First, the laws represent the giver of them. So how we treat the laws is how we are treating the LORD in our hearts. Second, because the true problem is us not the law it is he or "I" who is the one being put to shame and not the law!

THIRD, the law should NOT be removed! Because the function of the law is to point to the problem and to the solution. In other words, the law forever serves us in while we seek to keep the law we find we fail (the first pointer) and that we need One who has kept the law (the second pointer).

But you may say to me, "Stephen, you are making a major hermeneutical mistake because this book is written in the Old Testament, when the people of God were under a different Covenant AND under the Law. And Paul says, we are no longer under the Law but dead to it!"

This is a reasonable response. In fact, it is a situation that needs to be dealt with, so I am glad you asked ;-)! I will deal with this dilemma now.

I would like to state that though this is a legitimate question, it should be noted that if this response is right it would only disprove the third point made and half the second. In other words, if this statement is true it would not change the fact that the Law is not bad or that the real problem is us. It would only change our relation to the law. So it is only with this aspect I will deal with in my response.

Is this same relationship to the Law taught anew in the New Testament under the New Covenant of which we who are in Christ are under? "Yes" AND "No"! I will deal with the "no" first.

The New Testament never states that we are to keep the ceremonial laws of the Old. In fact, some of the books go so far as to exclude them, such as, Hebrews, Galatians, Acts, etc. So when we speak of the law we are not dealing with the sacrifices and cleanliness of the law, or the Ceremonial Law.

However, the principles of the laws in the Old should be continued over into the New. This is the pattern that we see continually throughout the whole New Testament, concerning this I do not have the time to refer to all of them.

But I will show in a brief sense what I mean by this. The Law of the Old dealt with, for the most part, outward conformity to God. So what happened is the people of God honored Him with their mouths (outward) but their hearts (inward) were far from Him. When Jesus comes upon the seen He exposes this. For a clear example of this go to Matthew 5-7. Jesus teaches that it is the principles of the Law that should be kept, because they deal with the heart. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Lets say you are counseling a person who has committed murder. In this case the Law of God has been broken. But now that it has been broken, how do we deal with this person. Do we say, "the Bible clearly says 'thou shalt not murder' and you have so now you must be punished." To do so would not be dealing with it in its fullness. I say so because you have only dealt with the outward problem and not the heart of it. The person is not just a murderer with his hands, but he is a murderer in His heart! So we should deal with the principle of the law and the heart of the problem, that is, the heart of the man. Point the man to the problem, namely, his heart. And point him to the solution, namely, Jesus who fulfilled the Law.

In the first case, the person was dealt with like a legalist. If the person simply let the murderer off the hook that would be liberalism. This is more often than not our sin, only we do this with so-called "smaller sins". But if we deal with the person from the heart then we deal with it as Jesus would have. (see Matthew 5:17-26)

Secondly, we see in the New Testament that the Apostle John deals with our relation to the law in a similar manner as we have been speaking of in I John 5:2-3 which says,

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. AND His commandments are not burdensome." (Capitalization added for emphasis)

Did you see the parallelism between Psalm 119, Matthew 5-7, and now I John 5? John states that this is HOW we can KNOW we love God! Not that we JUST keep His commandments but that they are not burdensome! In other words, doing the law of God is the delight of those who love Him, of those who are His children!

If keeping the Law of God is a burden to you, then you love not God! That is what John is saying! But Stephen how can I be free from this hatred against God and His Law! How can I be set free?! How can I be saved?! Hear what Jesus has to say to you!

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
-"Jesus the Messiah" who takes away the sins of the World in Matthew 11:28-30

This is how Jesus saves us. Because the problem is us, our hearts, He gives us new ones and seals us with His Spirit so that we are freed from our hatred against the Law and Him, and are given a real and genuine love for Him and His revealed will for our lives with this "new heart" (See Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-27). Because the problem is us, we can't solve the problem, because we have dug ourselves in a hole we cannot dig ourselves out of. And if we do not call upon the name of the LORD, who is Jesus, to save us; then we will continue to dig our own graves and make our bed in the Lake of Fire.

Look to Jesus who is the spotless and sinless lamb who fulfilled the Law of God, He is the blessed One. For He bore our sins on the cross for us! He suffered the wrath for the sins of His people! And He promises full forgiveness and eternal life to ALL those who turn away from their sins and to Him! For all find themselves recipients of all the blessings of God, in Him! Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!