And The
Dire Consequences of Law-mindedness For A Believer

God gave the Law to the Israelites through Moses to reveal the hidden fact that all of mankind is born with Adam’s fallen sin-nature and, therefore, separated from God spiritually.

Our corrupted condition can only be remedied by being reborn of God, not by trying to keep some system of laws. That is why we desperately need Jesus who makes salvation possible.

But now, let’s explore how harsh and harmful the Law is for the believer – God’s child – who still focuses on the old “guardian” (performance-based Law-keeping, Galatians 4:1-7) instead of relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance and sanctification of the outer man, according to the law of faith, love and liberty in God’s Unseen Kingdom.

According to the following scriptures, the LAW:

1. IS THE STRENGTH OF SIN: The strength of sin is the Law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
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2. REVEALS SIN: I would not have known what sin was except through the Law. (Romans 7:7)
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3. AROUSES SIN: … when we were controlled by the flesh (sarx), the sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. (Romans 7:5)
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4. CAUSES SIN-CONSCIOUSNESS: …no human will be justified in God’s sight by observing the Law for through the Law comes consciousness of sin. (Romans 3:20)
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5. BRINGS GOD’S WRATH: … for the Law brings wrath. However, where there is no Law there is no transgression, (Romans 4:15). Note: God’s just wrath was spent on Jesus for believers on Calvary. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
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6. BRINGS DEATH AND CONDEMNATION: The Ten Commandments, which were written on stone, are “the ministry of death and condemnation.”
   (2 Corinthians 3:7, 9 and Romans 7:8-11)
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   1. BRINGS A CURSE: All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do (perfectly) everything written in the Book of the Law.’ (Galatians 3:10)
      
      The Law is Opposed to Faith
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7. THE LAW IS NOT OF FAITH: The law is not based on faith (in God); on the contrary, the man who does these things (relies on the Law) will live by them. (Galatians 3:12)
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   In other words, he will be following the Law of Moses instead of following Jesus. Paul called Jewish believers who did that “Judaizers” – mixing the works of the Law with Jesus’ gift of Grace. The unbeliever and the carnal or “natural-minded” Christian lives by (and therefore, is mentally under) the Law – the things he sees and does in the Seen Realm – not by faith in God’s Unseen, Kingdom Realities. By doing that, the believer “has fallen from Grace” (though he is still saved) (Galatians 5:4)
   
   But, without faith (in God) it is impossible to please God (let alone to be justified).” (Hebrews 11:6)
   
8. WHATEVER IS NOT OF FAITH (in God) IS SIN … for whatever is not of faith is sin, (Romans 14:23b). So, keeping the Law cannot save or justify a sinner, (Galatians 3:11)

(NOTE: From God’s view, a sinner is anyone still in Adam, NOT someone who in Christ and still sometimes sins, Romans 5:19)

The Benefits Of Faith In Jesus’ Finished Work

God supplies the gift of faith to hear of and believe in Jesus’ Finished Work – His whole Gospel of Grace (which is based on how heaven operates) – to fully benefit from His New Creation realities available in Christ – while still here on earth. When a believer accepts just the minimal “bare bones” Gospel of salvation, he is immediately regenerated from being dead in Adam to being alive in Christ. This change in his nature repositions him into heavenly places – even if he does not know about this new, Unseen Reality, according to the revelation from Jesus in Ephesians 2:6.

But discovering and believing in the benefits of the whole Grace Gospel of Jesus, enables the believer to progressively experience Jesus’ abundant life and victory in the Unseen Realm by receiving what Jesus Himself deserves because of the believer’s new, legal position, in Christ. Experiencing the amazing realities of God’s Unseen Kingdom on earth the way Paul learned to walk, comes from knowing about and reckoning as true for you what Jesus has already legally done for you in the Divine Exchange.

That is how what is already true for you legally in Christ, becomes vitally true by personal experience in the Unseen Realm. Focusing on the Law instead of on Jesus, frustrates this whole grace-based process of faith in what Jesus did and it puts the believer (mentally) back under the curse of the Law which points out the believer’s faulty performance which can lead to feelings of guilt and condemnation. But there is something even worse.

The Devil’s Strategy

The devil tries to get the believer to focus back on the Law, rather than on Jesus. If a believer swallows the deception, Satan can then discourage the righteous saint with unfounded “feelings” of guilt and separation from God by lying to his mind, which causes him to think that he is now under a curse and God’s condemnation. Then he thinks he must do some religious works to get back into God’s “good graces.” That deception is Satan’s main strategy against a true Christian, who is, by definition, in constant spiritual union with Christ Jesus by faith alone – apart from his behavior. Knowing about and relying on Jesus’ Divine Exchange by faith alone, equips His saints to discern, resist and defeat the enemy’s deception and attacks.

Law-mindedness can bring grave consequences upon the saved saint who “goes under” the Law (mentally) through accepting a mixture of the two opposing covenants. While his eternal salvation is not at stake, his experience of Jesus’ victory over Darkness and His offer of abundant life – received by letting the Holy Spirit live through him on earth – are minimized. Most importantly, it deprives the saint of enjoying a vital, ongoing, intimate relationship with the Trinity, free of all guilt and condemnation from Father-God. Why? Because a focus on the Law takes away your focus on Jesus and puts it back on your efforts to earn or maintain God’s acceptance and approval. That is religion, not Christianity.

The purpose of the Mosaic Law – For Unbelievers Only

So again, since God nailed the Law to the cross for believers (according to Colossians 2:14 and Ephesians 2:15), does the Law principle have any use today? Yes, absolutely! It is to be used properly, as needed, in ministering to those who are still in Adam to:

1. help them realize, by grace, their true, fallen condition before God in the Unseen Realm,
   
2. help them come to recognize their desperate need for Jesus as their only hope for salvation, and then
   
3. receive Him by faith. This process is in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, who convicts the unbeliever of his sin of unbelief in Jesus, the world’s only true Lord and Savior, who arose from the dead (see John 16:8-9).

Before this (gift of) faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the Law. (Galatians 3:23-26)

In short, the Law was given to arouse sin, bring guilt and to trigger condemnation for those in Adam in order to bring them to the end of themselves so that they surrender to Jesus’ gift of salvation by grace through faith in the Finished Work of His Divine Exchange!

Jesus Christ Is The End Of The Law For His Righteous Ones,
Which Are All Reborn Believers

Paul revealed to his disciple Timothy that the Law is not for the righteous saint in Christ. Let’s let Jesus’ whole Gospel to Paul tell the wonderful story of our freedom in Christ:

But we know that the law is good, if a man uses it properly, knowing this, that the Law is not made for a righteous man (those in Christ), but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners … (1 Timothy 1:8-9)

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. (Romans 10:4)

Christ Jesus fulfilled the just requirements of the Law and, thereby, He became “the end of the Law” for those who receive His gift of justification/righteousness through being reborn of God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Like tutors and babysitters, the Law is only to be a temporary trainer for the in Adam sinner until he becomes a born-again saint in Christ. So, if he flirts with Mr. Law after being married to Christ, he is committing spiritual adultery, which is the warning Paul gave to the believing Jews who were still under Moses (mentally) in Romans 7:1-6. Again, this is the dangerous heresy of Galatianism – mixing the Mosaic Covenant of Law with the New Covenant of total Grace.

So again, because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, God legally “nailed the Law to the cross” for it was “weak and unprofitable” (useless) in making anyone perfect (see Colossians 2:14 and Hebrews 7:18-19). Therefore, Jesus’ crucifixion accomplished, in effect, “the believer’s crucifixion” (association by faith) and also “the crucifixion of the Law” for the believer (Ephesians 2:15). Consequently, where there is no demands of Law, sin is not imputed, according to Romans 5:13. That is awesome news.

By now it should be crystal clear that life in Christ – true Christianity – is not about us working to gain or maintain right-standing with God by law-keeping but about believing in and receiving His free Gift of salvation through Jesus’ Finished Work. That is counter-intuitive to the world’s system of “no pain, no gain.” The difference is because of Adam’s rebellion – which changed how things work in the Seen Realm. Before that fatal fall, Adam experienced nothing but God’s free gifts of love, acceptance, provision and pleasure – abundantly – by believing, receiving and enjoying them, not by striving for and earning them.

This distinction brings us to one last major point. Obviously, Adam was not under the Mosaic Law – which came about 2,500 years later. But, unfortunately, he put his faith in Satan’s word instead of in God’s loving warning about eating of the only Tree in the garden that represented Law. This was the introduction of the general “principle of law” that put the human race under the curse of law-mindedness. God did not put it there for Adam to eat but as a test of trusting faith – because knowing good and evil, per se, was not “good for him” – or for us – in the Big Picture.

He and Eve had to be removed from the garden for their own, long-term protection. His unbelief led to rebellious disobedience which lost the blessings of living in a perfect world. Instead, he had to strive and toil to provide food for Eve and their family. Wrong believing and mistrusting God’s direction leads to wrong living. This is the first instance of the law causing the spiritual death of a man and a woman.

The Letter Kills But The Spirit Gives Life

In other words, he fell from the lofty experience of depending on a loving God’s continuously perfect supply – His divine welfare – down to slaving under the dominion of the devil, forcing him to depend on his own imperfect efforts to meet his family’s needs. That is the essence of switching from a grace-based life of authority and power in Christ – which depends on God’s love and provision – to the curse of a law-based focus on morality and independent self-effort, consumed with meeting one’s needs and wants.

Jesus is the only man that ever lived totally free of that bondage because He was not born in Adam. He lived by the higher law of faith in His Father’s loving care through the Holy Spirit, who kept Him in the freedom of righteousness, peace and joy. He knew that the Mosaic Law was only a shadow of the liberating New Covenant He was soon to make with His Father for us on Calvary. That made it possible for His Father to now be our Father, by faith in Jesus’ Finished Work.

So the drama of mankind’s salvation has come full circle, back to Jesus, our Tree of Life. He is the central figure of our New Covenant of total Grace. But we can still spoil His offer of abundant life and blessings, here and now in the Seen Realm, by continuing to choose the “elephant of Galatianism” – instead of resting in the Finished Work of His Divine Exchange as He intends. So, keep your eyes on Jesus, not on Moses!

Our next Post will be by a “guest blogger,” Paul Ellis on Seven Signs That You May Be Living Under Law.

Go Deeper into this topic ….