(An Excerpt from Chapter Eight of the Elephant Book)

God Gave the Law to Reveal Man’s True Nature In Adam

Why did God give an inferior covenant to the Israelites in the first place? Such a good question deserves His wise answer. First, they rejected the Grace-based covenant that He offered to Abraham – which was legally theirs. Second, He did that to show them (and all mankind) what was evident to Him since Adam’s fall but what was not yet evident to them. It was the fundamental fact that mankind’s “troubles” are, ultimately, not the result of “law-breaking behavior” but of a fallen, prideful nature – the result of being descended from and, therefore, in Adam, mankind’s original parent. Since this root cause of evil is hidden in the unseen realm of each person’s spirit-self, (not just in the soul) it is impossible for mankind to detect it apart from God’s divine revelation.

Consequently, it is also impossible for mankind to fix that corrupted nature by any human effort such as “behavior modification.” Therefore, God mercifully established this performance-based covenant only with the Israelites to unequivocally reveal the root cause of mankind’s wrong behavior. And what is that? An evil, rebellious nature, caused when Adam, as mankind’s representative, rejected God’s truth and perfection by choosing to believe the devil’s lies. The Old Testament talks much about man’s evil heart. Jesus not only explained the root cause of that to Paul in 42 AD but also how His Divine Exchange provides believers with a totally new nature – a reborn spirit being, compatible with God Himself. (Chapter Sixteen presents the details of this incomparable revelation.)

Not even the apostles, who had lived and travelled with Jesus as His disciples, pre-cross, understood the true cause of evil, human behavior and so they continued to try to keep some aspects of the Law to “stay right” with God, post-cross. Ironically, such law-keeping does the exact opposite, according to Jesus’ whole Gospel: “… when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death” (Romans 7:9b-10). Remember, “The Law is not of faith” (Galatians 3:12). Therefore, “anything not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:13). (See the next chapter for a more complete overview of the hazards of law-based “Jewish Christianity,” the elephant in the church).

So God gave the Israelites a law system that they could not keep perfectly because, otherwise, they (and we) could never come to know mankind’s desperate need for God’s only solution for man’s root problem – the coming Savior, Jesus Christ. (Jesus used the Law to reveal this to the “rich young ruler” and their conversation will be explored in Chapter Twelve.)

Again, Jesus is the only one that could and did make possible the total removal of every believer’s old, in Adam nature when it is crucified with Jesus – through identification by faith. Then he or she is regenerated – reborn of God – as a totally new creation in Christ Jesus. Astoundingly, the sinless Jesus became mankind’s sin so that each and every unbeliever, by believing in and receiving Jesus’ Divine Exchange, instantly becomes a “partaker of His divine nature” and then able to love God wholeheartedly from his new, unseen spirit-self (see 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 2 Peter 1:4).

The Divine Exchange

How awesome is that? This transformation “from being a caterpillar to becoming an all new butterfly” spiritually speaking, is preposterous foolishness to the natural mind of man, yet that is the essence of the total grace Gospel. Through rebirth by faith, Jesus:

1) gives His perfect righteous nature in exchange for the unbeliever’s evil, unrighteous nature in Adam (by replacing the old spirit-self, accomplished instantly through rebirth),

2) exchanges His abundant life for the unbeliever’s death on the cross by faith and

3) exchanges His earned blessings and favor with God for the unbeliever’s sins, curses and rejection.

That is why it is called by its Greek superlative “euaggelion” which means “nearly too-good-to-be-true-news.” We will explore the depths of this glorious revelation much more fully, starting in Chapter Sixteen.

Any “Gospel” which adds any mixture of law-keeping with Jesus’ perfect, comprehensive, Finished Work on Calvary to attain or maintain righteousness is no Gospel at all. This revelation from Jesus becomes clear once you comprehend the details of our initial, unseen condition as in Adam sinners the way God does. Again, the Bible reveals that all humans are sinners because of being in Adam. They can become “saints who still sometimes sin” only through rebirth as a new spirit-being in Christ Jesus.

Righteousness under the Mosaic Law Covenant required an impossible lifelong, sinless performance. Righteousness under Jesus’ New Covenant in His blood requires 1) His perfect performance on earth, then 2) Him giving Himself as a gift to all who believe and receive Him by faith. Mercifully, New Covenant righteousness is not based on a saint’s fallible performance but only on accepting and being united with God’s free gift of Jesus, Who then instantly becomes the believer’s wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption in God’s eyes, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30. ***

The Ultimate Goal of Jesus’ Gospel – Relationship with God Himself

To put it another way, in His mercy, God sent His own Son, whose sacrifice of His perfect self on Calvary made it possible to become what we could never, ever accomplish by ourselves – united with a perfect God. Jesus made that request at the Last Supper when He prayed for us to His Father: “that they all may be one as you, Father, are in Me, and I am in you, that they also may be one in Us …” (John 17:21).

That has always been Their desire for all of mankind. Everything that Jesus said and did had that unfathomable goal in mind, agreed upon with His Father before Jesus left heaven to come here as a man. Since the Mosaic Law system could only reveal (not fix) man’s perverted nature in Adam, the Law was nailed to the cross for believers and a completely new, grace-based covenant was given to God’s reborn children, thanks to Jesus’ Divine Exchange (see Colossians 2:14 and Ephesians 2:15).

In Summary

In simple terms, what is God’s purpose for giving a standard that a sinner can’t keep? It is to reveal man’s true nature of Darkness in Adam in order to bring him to the end of depending on himself. And why is this necessary? So that he will come to believe and depend on Christ Jesus alone as God’s only trustworthy provision for salvation and true life. Only then will a prideful, self-sufficient person be willing to admit his core problem and accept the only true answer for his depraved nature in Adam – Jesus’ gift of a new, righteous nature, available only by rebirth through Christ Jesus, the last Adam.

And, unfortunately, sometimes things have to get pretty bad before some people get desperate enough to wake up to their intrinsic need for God. For example, when I do prison ministry locally, the women often testify that incarceration was the best thing that ever happened to them. Why? No, not because of the free room and board but because it was the only time in their lives that they 1) slowed down long enough to see the mess their bad choices had made for themselves externally and 2) to allow God to reveal how bad off spiritually they were in Adam. It was an important wake-up call to give up the “games” and get serious with God, their loving Creator and Savior. “He who keeps his life shall lose it; he who loses it for my (Jesus’) sake and for the whole Gospel of grace will find it,” according to Mark 8:35. He alone is the Tree of Life.

“But what about good people who keep the Law,” you ask? “Even Jesus said only the sick need a doctor.” True, but He also clarified that when He said, “Only God is good” in Luke 18:19. By revealing this unseen fact of man’s depravity in Adam, He was putting His finger on the same core problem. Because of Adam, everyone’s core, which is his spirit-self, was “unplugged” from God, the only source of true “goodness” and life. Adam was still enjoying “bios” life physically but was dead to God spiritually by becoming one with Darkness. Only when we humans get plugged back into God, through rebirth, and, thereby, receive His gift of righteousness, will we fulfill the purpose for which He created us originally, which is to be in joyful union with Him and His family of new creation saints forever – in Christ Jesus.

Only Perfect People Are Welcome In Heaven

Here is yet another way to see this very important matter. We know from the Bible that God is perfect, heaven is perfect and God even made a perfect garden for Adam and Eve to live in and be in daily fellowship with Him. That is no fairy tale. God would not kid around with such an important indicator of how really good He is. So, heaven is perfect yet mankind automatically became complicit with Adam’s treachery when he rebelled as mankind’s representative from God’s viewpoint. Therefore, what must happen for any person to become compatible with perfection again so that he or she can be one with God? Now you know the answer – give up trying to earn heaven and simply receive the Finished Work of Jesus’ Divine Exchange by believing He did it all for you. In Chapter Nineteen, we will explore the practicalities of this new freedom of “walking in the Spirit,” just like Jesus Himself walked.

In this chapter, we examined the main purpose and function of the Law Covenant in God’s grand scheme of His salvation process for mankind from various angles. In doing so, we can now understand what Paul meant in Romans 3:31: “Do we nullify the Law by this faith (in Jesus)? Absolutely not! Rather we uphold the Law.” Jesus upheld the law by keeping the spirit of the Law perfectly for our sakes so that He could give us His “earned” righteousness as a gift.

Then the Law was abolished in His flesh (for believers) when He became sin and then paid for and removed all the sin from mankind, according to 2 Corinthians 5:19. Now we are to uphold the Law only to do what God intended it to do – to bring the Jews (and all mankind) to see their need for mankind’s Savior, Christ Jesus. The law principle can do the same for unbelievers today if it is used properly. But it should never be used to punish, browbeat or control any believer. Why? Jesus made this clear to Paul who wrote 1 Timothy 1:8-9 to set the record straight:

We know that the Law is good if one uses it correctly, by knowing this that the law is not meant for a righteous one (justified in Christ) but the law is laid down for the lawless, rebellious, ungodly and sinful ones … .

In other words, the law principle of the knowledge of good and evil and its consequences (condemnation) is for the unrighteous – for those still in Adam. Now it is time to explore, in much greater detail, why and how the Law is hazardous to a believer’s spiritual health and maturity whenever it is mixed with Jesus’ whole Gospel of grace.

*** In another chapter, I explained that the New Covenant was not made between God and each of us – individually or corporately. Rather, it was made by Father-God with Jesus, our perfect Representative before God. We enter into it by accepting His grace through faith in His wonderful promises and free offer of rebirth.

One of the primary benefits is that, since we did not make this covenant with God (like the foolish Israelites did) we can’t break the covenant that Jesus keeps for us. It is another win-win blessing of God’s magnanimous Gospel of total Grace. In other words, He has guaranteed ultimate success for every one of His children through the Divine Exchange! It is the reason you are seated in Christ in heaven right now, Ephesians 2:6.