If you accepted the free gift of Salvation then you are not under the Law of Moses. You are under grace.
The Law is a yoke no one can bear nor keep.
“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?“
(Acts 15:10 KJV)
The Law shows us we have sin just like a mirror shows us we have grease on our face. But The Law cannot justify a person. It just shows a person that they have more sin against God’s standard of Holiness than they think.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20 KJV)
For a believer to use the Law to be righteous with God makes their faith of no effect. Faith in Christ saves, not works. This is at the core of the Gospel. If we believe The Law can justify, that means believing that faith is not needed.
“For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:” (Romans 4:14 KJV)
Paul goes one extra leap to this in the very next verse. Before The Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments came, there was no transgression. But once The Law came, everyone has no excuse because they see what God calls sin and that is breaking The Law of Moses. Following The Law is only going to bring wrath on a person because their sins remain.
“Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.” (Romans 4:15 KJV)
Paul continues in Romans 5 and shows the extreme truth of Law following for righteousness. God gave The Law to do something that would shock many believers, even today, who add Law following as a requirement of Salvation. Paul writes that the purpose of the law was to increase sin.
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” (Romans 5:20 KJV)
Thank God that God’s grace much more abounds over our sins as believers! Because of God’s great love and grace bestowed on all who believe on Christ alone for righteousness (John 3), a born again believer is no longer held under the Law. Why? Because Jesus paid for all the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). A born again believer has been delivered from wrath under The Law.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)
“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:5-6 KJV)
The Law, which only brings death through the fact that we all break it; no matter how hard we try. Trying to follow the Law to be, or remain in, righteous standing before our Holy God will only make us SIN MORE; not less.
“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become EXCEEDING sinful.” (Romans 7:13 KJV)
In Paul’s writings he is abundantly clear on this. If we, as believers, try to make or keep ourselves righteous with God , in our own efforts of self righteousness, we will not only fail; it will make us to sin more! Apostle Paul put it this way,
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
(1 Corinthians 15:56 KJV)
How many times have you heard this in church pulpits? Most mainstream Christian church pulpits are actually condemning their own members and using fear that if they do not keep the Ten Commandments, that they will lose salvation even. It is very wrong. Following the Law to keep ourselves righteous with God will cause us to sin more! That is why Jesus came and paid for all sin; to break that yoke of bondage from the Jews living under the Law, which no one can keep perfectly. And God requires perfection to be righteous.
Paul continues in 2 Corinthians and states that The Law is a ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:7) and a ministry of condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7). And Paul was not only talking about the 613 Levitical ceremonial Laws, he mentions the Law ‘written on stones’ and that includes the Ten Commandments as well then! Paul even wrote that “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.” (2 Corinthians 3:11)
Paul wrote to the Galatians because there were Judiazers who were being found in the church, teaching falsely that believing on Christ alone for righteousness was not enough and that they needed to add work of The Law of Moses to remain saved. Paul had some very stern words for these fellas, these Judiazers, that they should be accursed, even repeating it (Galatians 1:8-9). In his rebuking of their false teachings Paul makes these statements about adding ANYTHING to the finished work of Christ on the cross, atoning for the sins of the world and rising from the dead.
- Following The Law will justify no one. (Galatians 2:16)
- Born again believers are DEAD to The Law. (Galatians 2:19)
- The Law and Faith have nothing to do with each other. A stunning truth we need to grasp. (Galatians 3:11-12)
- The Law was a curse. A curse that Christ redeemed us from on that cross 2000 years ago. (Galatians 3:13)
Paul wrote to those Galatians who were bought with a high price by Christ on the cross were being completely FOOLISH! This false belief of adding The Law or good works as a requirement of salvation cuts to the very core of the Gospel. It is nothing more than BOASTING is self righteousness.
“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Galatians 3: 1-6 KJV)
Jesus said that The Law would stand forever and it does. It is God’s absolute truth and what is required to be righteous with God; utter perfection. But it is also something that no one can keep without fault and James tells us that,
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10 KJV)
Writing to his beloved Timothy, who he looked at as a son (though not Paul’s son), Paul wrote,
“But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,” (1 Timothy 1:8-9 KJV)
Who is a righteous man if no one is able to keep all The Law? It is only the person who believes on Christ and HIS once for all blood atoning sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10) for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). By Paul’s own writing n Ephesians 2, a person is not righteous by their works but by faith, belief on Christ’s atonement on the cross and His rising from the dead proving He is God.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV)
The writer of Hebrews tells us straight up that The Law of Moses was only a foreshadowing of what the Messiah would do when He came (Hebrews 10:1). And Jesus is the Messiah that was foretold to Israel in the Old Testament times who would come and be the FINAL once for all blood atoning sacrifice. The Jews needed to shed the blood of innocent, blemish free animals, to cover the sins, each year after year as a temporary covering of the peoples sins, until the Messiah and Christ would come and pay the final price. They BELIEVED in this and that is what saved them. The blood sacrifices did not save anyone. It was their belief on Christ; it is just that for them He had not yet come and for us today, He came and fulfilled this 2000 years ago. The perspectives are different but the Gospel is the same in both dispensations of time.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.” (Hebrews 10:1-6 KJV)
So you see, belief in God’s grace through Christ crucified, died and risen is the only way to be perfected and righteous. It is not by Law following before or after our moment of belief on Christ, the moment of our eternal salvation, that makes a person righteous enough to go to Heaven. Heaven is a perfect place. There is NO SIN there. Jesus paid the full penalty for all sins of the whole world as a gift to be accepted or rejected, BUT NEVER EARNED. Stop believing our good works, no never sinning is required to be righteous with God. We are only righteous by imputation OF GOD through what Christ did on the cross for us.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 KJV)
Christ paid it all for us in great love. The greatest love in all of human history! That is why the Gospel is good news!
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