Under Law?

Letter 183 (under law)                                                                            25/05/03

At the end of last week’s letter I quoted a scripture from Galatians which included the following: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).  As I was reviewing the letter before sending it out, the little phrase at the end “against such there is no law”, captivated my attention.  I’m sure all of us are acquainted with the overused idiom “being under the law”.   As I was contemplating it, I had come to the realization that I better study this out and discover for myself what this really means. I have heard this expression used many times in different contexts. One time, for example, I was invited for breakfast in a Jerusalem hotel with a pastor of a very large church, who also had satellite churches, and with some of his elders. Being with this man was very special, as I could see that he really had a father’s heart for the people whom he was serving.  In the course of discussing different matters I happened to mention, quite innocently and inadvertently, the word “Torah”. Suddenly the pleasant atmosphere took a turn; it became charged…  The pastor turned beet red, picked up his plate with half of the scrambled egg shaking like jelly upon its surface, and glared down at me as if I were the devil in disguise. With a shrill voice he said: “We are not under the law!”  I was surprised and shocked at the reaction that one such little word could produce.  I found myself putting my hand on his arm, and suggesting that perhaps we needed to define our terminology.  Things settled down a little, but I knew that our fellowship had been disrupted, and that we were on two sides of a fence. 

For those of us who have returned to Torah for instruction and for learning more about the kingdom of YHVH, these reactions from fellow believers is a much too common occurrence.  However, what does it mean to be “under the law”?  The Apostle Paul, using himself as the example, says something very interesting: “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Messiah,) that I might gain them that are without law (1 Cor. 9:20-21).  I have a feeling that if Paul were to walk around today, as he did then, dressed like a Rabbi, he would immediately be accused of being “under the law” and would not be allowed in most “churches”. As a matter of fact, it is most likely that in such places he and his writings would be considered heretical.  Paul enjoyed the freedom of identifying with the various groups, because he understood what it meant to be “under the law of God”, in Messiah.  He knew that justification and righteousness were through faith and personal identity with the death, burial and resurrected life of his Messiah. “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Torah and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Yeshua the Messiah, to all and on all who believe” (Rom. 3:21-22). 

From the above scripture we can deduce that Rav Shaul was referring to two separate and distinct “laws”, if you will – the law of liberty in Messiah, and the law of sin and death, the latter being augmented and explained upon Israel’s sin and rebellion at Mount Sinai.  Through the commandments YHVH gave a complete picture of the law of sin and death from His perspective, and what His requirements were for the redemption and restoration of Israel, and all mankind, from the consequences of the rebellion against His Word: “For all have sinned an fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). That is, after eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man came under the power of the kingdom of darkness and was subject to the law (sin and death) that governs it.  “And YHVH commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). However, up until the time of Moses and the giving of the Law, man seemed to be blind to, or ignorant of the law of sin and death, which is the broken relationship with the Creator and the effect thereof. Thus the Apostle explains to us the mystery that “apart from the law [of Moses] sin was dead and I was alive once without the law but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died” (Rom. 7:9).  “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire” (Rom. 7:7-8).

This is a very radical statement, one which we need to understand so that we can be totally and completely set free and transformed into the image and likeness of the new creation man, through revelation knowledge of Yeshua the Son.  What we were while being unbelievers, was simply an expression of the nature and power of sin.  Sin was being personified in and through us as sons of disobedience.   We must come to realize that what is still in us, which is not of the nature of our heavenly Father, is actually ‘not of us’ either.  If we continue to allow the power of sin to actively live in us, we will still be subject to, or be under, the law of sin, death and disease (the curse).  Paul points this out in his testimony: “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom 7:22-23).  But if we yield to the Spirit, we will personify Yeshua in and through our very being.  We will manifest His nature in the freedom, or liberty, of the law of life in Messiah, which is not the law that states, “thou shall not…eat of the tree… or steal… or covet” etc.  It is a law that works through faith and brings us to the knowledge of the Son of YHVH.  It works by grace through faith and revelation knowledge of who He is.  Peter states it this way: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Yeshua our Lord… as His divine power [the Spirit of Holiness] has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and moral excellence, [purity]…through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust [the power of sin]… For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord [shepherd- king] Yeshua Ha Mashiach” (2 Pet. 1:2-4,8).

What are the “things” that reveal to us the divine nature, or the knowledge of our Father and Yeshua?  Peter lists these “things” in this order: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly love, and unconditional love”.  Paul defines them as fruit of the divine nature: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23).   Personifying these “things” manifests the person of Yeshua, and when we see Him we know who we are as sons of YHVH: “For when He appears [is revealed to us through revelation knowledge] then we also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).  In other words, because we have died and our spirit man, or life, is hidden in Him, He now becomes our spirit man (or life). But in order for the nature of that life to be made evident through us our soul must be yielded in obedience and depend totally dependant on Him, who is the epitome of the “things” mentioned above.  Let us not try to pursue or strive to gain them as if they were virtues, as they are the very person of Yeshua Himself.  I have heard many teachers and preachers say, “You must become Christ like”.  Little do they know that they are echoing Satan’s words to Eve, as she stood before the tree of knowledge of good [virtues] and evil: “You can become like God” (Gen 3:5).  

Adam was created in the Creator’s image and likeness, so how could he become something that he already was?    So it is again with our new life in the Second Adam.  We ought to recognize ourselves as an expression of the divine nature through revelation knowledge of who Yeshua is, and not by trying to be “like” Him. When you know Him to be your life and nature, it is “foolishness having begun by the Spirit, to try now to be perfected by the flesh” (Gal. 3:3).

Abundant grace and peace are given so that this metamorphosis may come to full completion.

Ephraim    

“We pray that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is [His] the width, length, depth and height; and to know the love of Messiah which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19), Amen.