The Spirit of the Law - Part 8

The Law Has Been Magnified

The Scriptures directly address the assertion that Christians must keep the law.

"But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

The Spirit of the Law - Part 7

Love, the Fulfillment of the Commandment

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." John 15:12

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:36-40

"And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31

The Spirit of the Law - Part 6

All of God's Commandments

I am taking time with this topic because I fear it is so misunderstood and perverted. There are those who simply want to convert you to their belief system, but that is not the way to find truth. We cannot be more beholden to our own personal views than we are to what the Scriptures say.

When faced with the many Scriptures indicating that the law has been abolished in Christ, many will simply refer to one of the texts about keeping the commandments.

Yet, God is not the author of confusion. He does NOT say one thing and then contradict it by saying another.

So then what does He mean by saying that the law has been done away with in Christ and at the same time telling us to keep the commandments? The answer is found in Scripture.

The Spirit of the Law - Part 5

God Says, "Keep My Commandments"

Although there are a number of New Testament Scriptures which say that the law has been done away with in Christ, many will ask, "What about all of the New Testament admonishments to keep the commandments? Don't these refer to the Ten Commandments?"

Let's examine the text and see what the Scriptures have to say.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." John 14:21

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." I Corinthians 7:19

The Spirit of the Law - Part 4

Christians Must Follow the Ten Commandments

Some claim that New Testament references to the "law" being done away with, taken away, abolished, and disanulled are references to the laws in the Book of Moses only and not the Ten Commandments.

Yet is this true?

When speaking with the rich man in Matthew 19, Jesus acknowledged that obeying the ten commandments was not enough to make man perfect.

The Spirit of the Law - Part 3

Jesus Fulfilled the Law

We are no longer under the law because Jesus came to fulfill the law and He stated that once the law was fulfilled, it would pass away.

"Think not that I AM COME to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but TO FULFILL. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till ALL BE FULFILLED." Matthew 5:17-18

"For Christ is the END OF THE LAW for righteousness to every one that believeth." Romans 10:4

"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to VANISH AWAY." Hebrews 8:13

"Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He TAKETH AWAY THE FIRST, that he may establish the second." Hebrews 10:9

"For there is verily A DISANNULLING OF THE COMMANDMENT going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof." Hebrews 7:18

The Spirit of the Law - Part 2

What the New Testament Says About the Law

There were some questions from the previous post on this topic which I want to address.

Since I previously laid out the overall understanding of how the law applies to Christians, I want to go in-depth to review this topic so that there is no misunderstanding.

This may be a tedious exercise, but I believe it will be fruitful for those who take the time to read. In order to find the truth in this topic, we must search for it diligently.

I will not just throw up some Scriptures and claim they prove my point. I want everyone to think critically and for themselves to evaluate what the Scriptures are really saying...ALL of them.

In the previous article, we saw how the Scriptures indicate that we are NOT under the Old Covenant law, but we are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

The Spirit of the Law

Are Christians Under the Law?

One day when my oldest child was about 2 years old, we were sitting together on the floor and there was an electrical cord nearby. She reached out her hand, put it on top of the cord and made moves to play with it.

I said, "Lauren, don't put your hand on that." She promptly removed her hand and sat back to look at me.

Then a few seconds later, she lifted up her foot, plopped it with a thud on top of the electrical cord, and looked to see my reaction.

All I could do was burst into laughter. At 2 years old, she was able to figure out a way to obey what I said yet still do what she wanted to do.

Had she obeyed the letter of my command? Yes, she had removed her "hand" from the cord. But she had not obeyed the spirit of my command. If she had followed the spirit behind my command, then she wouldn't have touched it again at all.

The Evil Letter "J"

A Conspiracy to Hide the Name of God's Son

I hear "arguments" about Christianity sometimes which make me wonder about the condition of the man's mind. It is increasingly apparent that people hear what someone says is "knowledge" and they just run with it. Forget about researching these new found "truths", they don't even seem to apply simple logic to evaluate such claims.

One example is the whole debate about whether Jesus is REALLY the name of the Son of God when the letter "J" didn't exist until hundreds of years later. I am left shaking my head in astonishment at such statements. I would not even spend time addressing such assertions but for the fact that they seem to be becoming much more popular.

These claims demonstrate a lack of understanding in three areas:

1. The Process of Language Translation
2. The origins of New Testament Scripture
3. The authority of God
   

A Call to Anguish

Someone shared this with me. It is a message from David Wilkerson.

May God have mercy and may His people seek His face.




If you want to hear the whole message, you can find it here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

What is the Cross of Jesus Christ?

Trusting in the "Finished Work"

I had a conversation today with someone who was talking about trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Yet, their description of what this meant seemed to have no resemblance to Scripture.

People say things like "Faith is just us believing and receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished in the Cross of Calvary." But is that really a solid definition of faith? Is faith passive (receiving) only or is real faith also active (evidenced by something)?

There is much debate about what some call "works salvation", where a person tries to earn their way into God's acceptance. This is of course false and a grave deception. Yet, just as erroneous is the other extreme where we have no obligations or responsibilities before God, but simply get to point to Jesus' sacrifice and say, "Thank God Jesus did it all!"

It makes me wonder, do we really understand what was accomplished at Calvary? Do we really appreciate what the cross represents? Have we hearkened unto Jesus' instructions about what it really means to trust in His finished work?

Whom have I in heaven but thee?

Psalm 73 spoke to me this morning, and I thought I would share it. Be encouraged in the Lord today!!

"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

I, Nobot

Evolving Beyond What Is Human

I recently saw a movie called "I, Robot" and (perhaps because we don't watch movies often) I was struck by how subtly anti-Christ it was. Given the times we are in, I am sure this is the case more times than not with many forms of entertainment. The media just never seems to miss an opportunity to mock the things of God.

So, I started doing a video on the proliferation of this robotics agenda in the media and how that related to the end times. Then a friend forwarded me an interview that really helps put this all into perspective. Not only does it go into some detail about the objectives of this robotics movement, it ties it all to the broader search for higher intelligence such as extraterrestrials, the nephilim, stargates, and transhumanism.