Love and the Law
April 30, 2008 by Deborah
There is no argument between Law and Love.
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him . . .
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it . . .
This is the end of our faith, not a sky-hook to glory (otherwise known as the pre-trib rapture).
And they overcame him (Satan), by the blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. [Rev. 12:11]
We have already shown in a previous post that if you love God, you will do His commandments. There is no argument with God between Law or Love, for both are the same in His eyes. Consider: how could He give a set of laws to guide us that were less than righteous, less than the epitomy of love? To do so would to have been to withhold, to sell short, to mislead. To do so would have been to sin. God cannot sin. If therefore, the evidence of the love of God lies in the righteousness of His commandments, how can we possibly call something that contradicts His commandments ‘love’?
How can it be said that we love God or others, when we continue to leave them wallowing in their sins and trespasses, free to terrorize, intimidate, humiliate, shame and otherwise abuse and shame themselves and their neighbors, because we will not tell them about the righteous commandments of the Law of God. Things would not have come to this pass if we had not substituted ‘love’ for obedience to God.
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying Peace, peace; when there is no peace. [Jer. 6:14]
Obedience to God and His commandments is the sole, and only way to walk in the love of God. Many Jewish prayers begin:
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments . . .
We are sanctified, set apart, made holy, by and through the commandments of God.
Keep therefore and do them (the commandments); for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? [Deut. 4:6-8]
The great promise of God in Jeremiah is this:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. [Jer. 31:33]
We stand and proclaim that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and then we turn around reject the Law of God for some sort of grace that stands in direct opposition to His commandments!~ a grace that justifies the wicked, the lawless, the idolatrous and rebellious and condemns the prophet and the righteous. When will we come to understand that Jesus and the Law are One. The Holy Spirit and the Law are One. God and the Law are One. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are One!!! The Law and the Spirit are One. It is their administration that differs.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. [1 John 5:7-8]
It isn’t without cause or reason that these particular verses are missing from almost every modern version of the Scriptures. Christ’s own prayer in the Garden, before His crucifixion, the prayer of our Lord is this:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in thee, THAT THEY ALSO MAY BE ONE IN US: that the world may believe that thou hast sent Me. AND THE GLORY WHICH THOU GAVEST ME I have given them; THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE: I in them, and thou in Me, THAT THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT IN ONE; and that the world may know that thou hast sent ME, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved Me. [John 17:20-23]
That is the true ‘unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace’, not this cultish, sentimental and teary-eyed hug-fest in the name of grace that constitutes the Church today.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The same who speak of this love are the very same that deny or reject the Law of God, either as His laws, or as the Holy Spirit HImself, or the bringing us into the obedience to the Law as the ministry of the Holy Spirit. These are the blasphemers who even now stand in peril and jeopardy of committing the unforgiveable sin.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all this is called God, or that is worshipped; SO THAT HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD. [2 Thess. 2:3-4]
Lawlessness means to be without law. Those who are without the law of God written in their inward parts are lawless. It is the lawless that are destined to perdition. It is the lawless who are the proud boasters of a grace that is no grace. It is the lawless who love their own lives. It is the lawless who are covetous, who have made righteousness a pursuit for prosperity instead of a pursuit for truth in the inward parts.
Repent and renounce the lawlessness of your ways, for it will serve you no purpose to call upon the name of the Lord for your salvation and then reject and deny Him when He attempts to exercise that Lordship over you. Worse even, if you consider that exercise to be the work of Satan, to be rebuked and bound. Woe unto you, for you are reaping the rewards of your ignorance even now, except ye repent.
And behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they THAT DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, THAT THEY MAY HAVE RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE, AND MAY ENTER IN THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. [Rev. 22:12-15]
REPENT, FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND! REPENT, AND MAKE YOUR WAY STRAIGHT BEFORE HIM, FOR THE DAY OF HIS VENGEANCE IS CLOSE AT HAND!
In Deut. 5:1-3 God says he gave the law to the Children of Israel. Most of us are not Jews so it doesn’t apply to us.
In Lev 23:1-8 God includes the Sabbath along with all the Feasts. Are you keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath as well as the rest of the Feast Days?
In Romans 2:14 Paul writes that the Gentiles were not given the Law.
Galations 3:19 says the Law was added UNTIL the Seed should come. and In Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus says that he came to FULFILL the Law. He accomplished that!
We are saved by the Grace of Jesus Christ who died for our sins. One sacrifice for ALL sins. Once I have accepted his gift there is no sin imputed to me. Hallelujah!!
Hebrews chapters 7 & 8 will be very enlightening. Put away your bondage of the Law and live in his Grace!!
Shalom
You have said, most of us are not Jews so it doesn’t apply to us.
Romans 11:7 says that you were grafted into this Jewish root.
It is written in Romans 2:29 that he is a true Jew who is circumcised in heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. If you are circumcised in heart, then you are a spiritual Jew.
Ephesians 2:12 declares that we were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Christ brought us into that commonwealth, and made us a part of those covenants.
If you want your own brand and flavour of faith, why did you choose a Jewish Christ, who brought us into a Jewish root, and made us part of the inheritance of a Jewish nation, to reap the mercy and grace of a Jewish covenant of redemption?
As to keeping the Sabbath day, yes, I do keep it, treasure it, and it has become the very heart of my week, a joy to me and to the Lord.
You have said that Gentiles were not given the law. That is the good news of Ephesians 2:12, that we have now been brought into the commonwealth of Israel. What do you think that commonwealth is? The commandments of God are the only thing that separates them from what the rest of the world has.
To fulfill the law means to fill up what was missing, what was lacking in it. It is said plain and straightforward in Romans 8:4 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not contrary to the Law.
You think you have made a point, but all you have done is give a bunch of scriptures that you believe substantiate your rejection of the law as applying to your life.
Why not answer the questions, or is it because you cannot.
Keep your cheap grace if you want. But as it is written:
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? [Jer. 5:31]
You will be judged according to the Word of God. I would suggest you make the most of your time understanding what it really says, for you will be judged according to the law of liberty, which is a much harder and tougher judgment ~ because you have not excuse.
Christ is your judge, but He will not tolerate in you that which is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to others who don’t buy your cheap grace, and God will not suffer you to do despite to the Spirit of grace.
As it is written in Hebrews 12: If you be without chastisement you are a bastard and not a son. If you will not receive the corrections of the Law as ministered through the Holy Spirit, you are no son.
Salvation is freely given, but it is far from free. It will cost you all that you are to obtain the righteousness and salvation that Christ died to give you.
Glory on with your cheap grace and your cheap salvation. You’re not at the end of your road yet.