Laying Down the Law

Joseph Herrin (01-08-2018)

Did you ever try to explain the Law to another? I tried to from the time I was a teenager. I found that I had more questions than answers. I delved into the Scriptures on the Law for a long, long time until I had Yahweh’s thoughts on it. Early on in my ministry I wrote a book on it (I didn’t start writing until I was in my forties). I prayed repeatedly for understanding. It took years of prayer and searching to find an answer.

At first I wrote a lengthy article on the Law. After a couple of years I expanded the article into a book of the same name. It was 2002. After nine years I went and revised my books, not because I had stated anything wrong, but because I had better ways to explain things. In 2011 I wrote the present copy of the book. In the years since I first wrote the book in 2002 I had dozens of conversations on the Law. I learned how to explain things better and better. I also learned more intimately what people’s attachment to the Law was.

Laying Down the Law. There is a lot of symbolism in the name. Even as Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets of stone in his hands to find that the people were already breaking the Law, so too is the Law broken by all fleshly men. We are all born into this world as fleshly men.

John 3:6
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

It has troubled me greatly why so many men want to perpetuate the Law by placing all Christians under it. It was given to the Israelites as a temporal covering. We have a much better reality now that Yahshua the Messiah has come.

Galatians 3:21-25
For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Yahshua Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

We as Christians have now been born again of something that can bring new life. We have been born of the Spirit “that whoever believes in Him (Yahshua) should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:15. Why is it that Christians cannot see that life with and in Christ is so much better than life as a fleshly man, following some shadow of the Law?

It is revealed through numerous Scriptures that the Law has a role of limited duration. It was not intended to hold sway over man forever. Those who look too narrowly at God’s work are hindered from perceiving the end of the Law. They are unable to perceive it in the larger scope of Yahweh’s master plan. Many Christians are returning to an observance of feast days, new moons, sabbath days, and dietary regulations. They are seeking to become more “Jewish,” believing that this constitutes a return to authentic Christianity. Concomitant with adopting Jewish culture is a return to the rule of the Law. This does not lead to authentic Christianity, but rather away from Christ.

Galatians 5:4
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

The following Scriptures proclaim the Law’s limited duration.

Galatians 3:19
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.

This is the truth that many will not receive in this hour. The Law was given to fulfill a purpose UNTIL the Seed should come. Yahshua is the Seed of the Father. He has come. The Law has fulfilled its role of judge. It is no longer the arbiter of righteous and unrighteous behavior for those who have been born of the Spirit. Following are more Scriptures announcing the limited duration of the Law.

Romans 7:1-4
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

Paul is speaking here to Jews (those who know the Law). We were made to die to the Law that we might be joined to another, who is Christ, if we were Jews. If we weren’t Jews, we simply were joined to Christ. There never was any Law for us. Can you think of any time before you came to Christ that you were taught the Law of God? I wasn’t. The Law as given to the Jews is a great instructor, however. We can learn much from it, but it is not given to us as a starting ground. That is, we are not supposed to keep the shadow of the Law and live as Christ. To do so is to fail. We cannot keep the Law unless our legal code supports the Law. Ours does not. Answer the following questions to know whether your legal code is the same as that of the Old Testament.

Do you kill people for working on the Sabbath?
Do you stone your sons if they rebel against their parents?
Do you stone your daughters if they act like a harlot?
Do you tear down your house if it has a mold that comes back in it?
Do you go to Jerusalem three times a year for Yahweh’s holy days, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles?

There are hundreds of other laws that we do not keep, for we don’t live in a country that shares the legal code of the Old Testament. How can we say we keep the Law if we ignore such a large portion of it.

James 2:10
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

What is it that Romans 7 said? If you were a Jew, you were made to die to the Law that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. Did you get that? You died with Christ to the Law. You were joined with Christ. His mind became you mind. His words became your words. The shadow of the Law became the fulness of Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Moses was the man who gave the Law to the Israelites, yet Moses could not set foot in the promised land. It was Yahshua (Joshua) who led the people in. This was a type of the Son of God leading the people in, but Yahshua (Son of God) had to finish the Law. Then multitudes could follow where He led them.

Do you wish you could explain to Christians that the Law does not apply to them? Just remember, you have died to the Law that you can be joined to another. Read the book. I have explained it a lot better than my stroke will let me do so now.

http://www.heart4god.ws/laying-down-the-law.htm

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Joseph Herrin
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Montezuma, GA 31063