I want to talk to you about something that has been stolen from you. Stolen from you, stolen from me, stolen from us as Christians. But before it can be restored to us, we must first take back something that has been hijacked by some in our own ranks, many of whom are seen as Christian leaders.
We must take back the law.
If you see those words and immediately your defenses go up, I completely understand. If you were in my living room, I'd pray over you to release the wound to Christ and receive healing. But the reason you have this wound is because you experienced the hijacked version of these words. Perhaps you grew up in church and were controlled by those who weaponized the law to manipulate and control you. Perhaps you had parents who focused more on the law than on love. Perhaps they created fear in you to control and manipulate you. Perhaps they themselves were controlled and manipulated.
Or, perhaps, like me, you grew up in a good family home. You knew the laws. You kept them—for the most part. But other leaders mangled the law for their own purposes, leaving you with a complicated relationship with the law because you also know the love of Jesus Christ, but aren't sure where the law begins and the love ends or the law ends and the love begins.
Every former and current Christian I have ever had a conversation with has had a run-in with the law (and I don't mean speeding tickets).
When we talk about the law, we're actually talking about three different things. First, there are man's laws. Second, Mosaic Laws. Third, God's Law(s). Man's laws attempt to restrain dangerous behavior but are limited in their impact. For example, seatbelt laws or speeding laws may force you to keep your children safe or even to keep yourself safe, but they don't change hearts. They can't make you care about the other drivers on the road enough to take other precautions such as slowing down. They are only so useful when it comes to modifying behavior and not the heart.
In both Mark and Luke's Gospels, Christ refers to the immense burden of thousands of man-made laws that had accumulated over time as the Israelites attempted to live out the 613 Mosaic Laws given to them in the desert:
Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. - Luke 11:46 (NIV)
Interpretations and extrapolations and loopholes and so on created thousands of laws, some of which, in fact, contradicted the original Mosaic laws. (Christ gives some specific examples such as the Law of Corban in Mark 7.) We should note that at least one of the 613 laws given to Israelites by Moses was added because of their hard hearts (Matthew 19:8).
What we learn from history is that man's laws are limited in the management of people's hearts. At this time, there are over 30,000 laws in the US. Laws stack up because lawmakers rarely remove laws from the records, most likely because they see their "job" as making more laws. Unfortunately, as we add more laws, it becomes more difficult to enforce them all, some of which inevitably begin to conflict with the letter and spirit of other laws. This ever-growing body of man-made laws cannot save us: It is inevitable that man's laws will eventually conflict with one law, God's Law.
I've written about God's Law previously when I answered the controversial question: "Is Christ the Law of Moses?" In reality, not only is Christ the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, including the prophecies and the feasts, but the law is an emanation of his own holy character. All 613 Mosaic Laws are the Ten Commandments—God's Laws—applied to specific situations. Christ summarized the Ten Commandments into two laws, which stem from one law, the original law: Be holy for I am holy. God's law and his holiness are inseparable.
Here's where the law gets hijacked. Leaders, such as those in Jesus' day, hijacked the law and used it as a weapon to demand the outward appearance of holiness, blind to the truth that the law could never make anyone holy. They quickly condemned others who could not keep certain laws but excused their own failures by keeping up a form of godliness while they rotted inside (2 Timothy 3:5-7).
Our times are no different. Anyone who lays the burden of the law on your shoulders with the promise that keeping the law is holiness or that the law can bring you holiness is lying. It is only by the transformational power of the Holy Spirit provided by Christ, that we are made holy.
God's laws were supposed to be given directly to the Israelites when they arrived to meet with God on his mountain. However, when God descended on the mountain to dwell with them they recognized their unholiness (which they unfortunately forgot less than 40 days later). With great fear and trembling, they refused to meet with God and sent the leaders up instead. God's throne descended and he ate with those leaders...get this...most of whom died later in a series of never-ending rebellions in the desert.
Israel's story proves unequivocally that no one is ever going to be able to keep the law. If we learn anything from the Old Testament, it's that we cannot be holy on our own.
Now, you can remain under the law, as Paul says, and be judged by the law. The person on the remote island who has never heard the Gospel will be judged by the law that was written on his conscience (see notes below)—and it will judge him rightly. If he is honest with himself, he knows that he cannot wake up and do only the good he knows to do but, instead, he follows the rotted desires of his fallen nature. That is, unless he reaches for God and cries out "Help!"
From ten to 613 to thousands of laws—all of which cannot be kept. So then, what is the purpose of the law if we cannot keep it? The law was meant to be a mirror to show us that we could NEVER be holy. The law was always a guardian to keep us on the path to recognize the one who could keep the law when he came and fulfilled the law. All the 613 laws and the rising of the smoke of the constant sacrifices and the smell of burnt animal flesh permeating the air was a witness to the unmitigated mess humans are and the clear impossibility of us eliminating the perversity within us that drives us to seek that which will kill us.
You cannot be holy without going through Jesus Christ. The law teaches you this and that is its purpose (Galatians 3). The law is holy because it emanates from God who is holy. It was a standard of holiness but it never had the power to make us holy. Again, the laws God gave Moses held up a mirror not only to show how unholy we are but also held up the image of holiness so we could recognize him when he walked the earth.
And this is why the Psalmist can say that he loves God's laws (Psalm 119). It's why we too can love the law: because it reveals our need and God's astonishing plan for the holy lawgiver to come and fulfill his holy law so we could finally be reunited in his holy presence.
Christ fulfilled God's Law, becoming the door through which we enter HOLINESS. Motivated by love, Jesus calls us out of darkness and into his glorious light, his holy presence. This is the revelation that changes our relationship to the law and the lawgiver. And this is the reason we must take back the law from those who have hijacked it.
Be holy for I am holy is an invitation to stay, not a weapon to control or manipulate. We love the Law of God because it calls us to him. This is the revelation of Perfect Love and his invitation to abide in his holy life.
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Additional Notes:
How many of you have ever wondered how a loving God could condemn someone to hell who has never heard the good news of Jesus Christ in the remotest of remote villages on an island, simply because they haven't heard the good news of Jesus Christ? Or how a loving, good God would set up Adam and Eve to fail? He creates a beautiful, paradise of a world. Sets two unique people—two good people (he says it himself)—and while they walked and talked with him because they fellowshipped with him, they were holy. Until they were not. When they gave in to the rebellion within they separated from God's holiness. God could no longer dwell with them, but, he had a plan.
How many of you have ever doubted the goodness of God to set Adam and Eve up by giving them the law—do not eat—which you and I know they could never keep? And, how do we know we know they could never have kept it? Because we know we could never have kept it. Eventually, all of us would taste the very thing that we are commanded not to taste. It is the flaw in humanity—the perversity within us that demands we taste the thing we have been told will kill us. We know we would do the same unless we are delusional. However, instead of picturing ourselves as Adam and Eve, we'd rather delight in picturing ourselves as God. We do the very thing Adam and Eve did by wanting to be God! We say "Oh! If I were God I could think of a dozen ways to do it differently so they would not fail." Really?!
The first story of the Bible is a story of God setting us up so that, in the end, regardless of their choice, he would have us in the end. He knew they would fail! He knew the flaw in their nature. And you cannot blame God for the flaw: he made them and stamped them with his own perfect image. When the very thing he creates is very nearly perfect or "good" decides to melt itself down and become something ugly and grotesque, it is not the Creator's fault. Unfortunately, the story makes us doubt the goodness of God, but it should not. He knew the flaw and planned to win us in the end.