The Law has been done away with????
Conflict in Galatians
Brethren, we have heard this over and over. Most saying it, take it as a snippet of Paul’s teachings. Peter warns us about this, however, as he says: “….our beloved brother Paul…in all his epistles, speaking in themof these things; in which are some things hard to be understood….they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” (2Pet. 5:15-17)
In order to not “fall from our own steadfastness”, we need to increase our understanding of Paul, his position on the law, and his definition of what the law is.
For those not totally initiated into the realm of Torah, we need to define terms. Torah is the universal name for the first five books given by the Father to Moses. The Church has come up with its own name for these: the Pentateuch.
Today, as well as in the time of Jesus/Yeshua, there was/is another Torah embraced by the religious leaders. It is (and was) called the Oral Torah. The teaching is the Oral Torah was given at Mt. Sinai along with the written Torah. The Oral is the interpretation on how to put into action, the written Torah. Paul was a scholar of the Oral Torah.
At this point, it is incumbent on us to note that Paul, after his Damascus Road experience, went to Mt. Sinai. Why? We aren’t told, but when he comes back, he is condemning the Oral Torah (Law of Works) while encouraging the Written Torah (Law of Faith).
When saying “the law has been done away with”, we usually don’t hear the specifics of which law. Could it be that the speaker doesn’t know which law?
The following is a passage from Galatians (5:18-23). Let’s see how Paul defines the law.
“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.”
He continues, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
In this passage, notice he begins by pointing out a person “led by the spirit” doesn’t have to worry about the law, but, in his laundry list of bad things, he implies these are under the law because he then lists good things which are not under the law. Through this, it becomes clear the law is against bad things not good.
Thus, to say the law is done away with is to say it is OK to do all the bad things Paul lists here. The conflict becomes one of salvation when he says “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
(Paul said it, not me. Don’t kill the messenger.)
This brings us the catch all: grace. Believers have grace and so it doesn’t matter how they act. Oh really????
Paul also addresses this in Romans (6:15,20):
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid….For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.”
Words mean something, and let’s look at the definition of sin before examining Paul’s Romans passage. Sin is defined by John (1Jn 3:4): “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Paul says we should not transgress Torah simply because we are under grace. He also contrasts being a “servant of sin” (transgressor of Torah) with living righteously. Therefore, it is clear righteous living is NOT transgressing Torah. And, by the way, this is how righteousness is defined in Deut. 6:25: “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.”
The Word is consistent if we don’t try to twist it (to our own destruction)!
John Holmes
