When apostle Paul saw the amazing turnaround of how righteousness is obtained under the Gospel of Jesus Christ – righteousness which is acceptable by God, and which is a must-have if one is to be saved – he went to Arabia. In seclusion of the desert he searched and studied the Scriptures for three years, until all the evidences lined up to reveal the Amazing Awesome God whom he knew. And whom he loved.
‘It’s true’ he said to himself. Now I’m ready. ‘If You are willing to use me’, he said to God, ‘please do so’.
Knowing full well, that what he was embarking on will cost him his life, he dismissed it as an unworthy thought, and asked God: ‘What do You want me to do, Lord?’
Arriving to Damascus, he went to his countrymen and preached Jesus Christ – that He is indeed their long awaited Messiah.
“Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”
Acts 9:20-22 NKJV
But what I wish to bring out is his understanding of God’s righteousness as relating to the Ten Commandments and to the willing self sacrifice of their Messiah and ours.
About the Ten Commandments he said:
“I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.”
Galatians 2:21 NLT
This is a very big statement by Paul. I see it as a self evident truth.
“The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
Romans 8:3-4 NLT
This is an amazing statement. What the law of Moses could not do because we were too weak due to our sinful nature, God did it through the sacrifice of Jesus. He broke the power of sin over us, and He satisfied the just requirement of the law for us – and by that He enabled God to give Christ’s righteousness freely to all who believe in Jesus. Oh our wonderful God, we thank You. Please accept our love dear Jesus.
That is why our Salvation is by faith. Our righteousness now comes by faith in Jesus and not by keeping the law.
“Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”
Romans 3:27-28 NLT
Is that righteousness which we receive by faith a real thing? It certainly is so! Would one who receives it feel free to break any of the Ten Commandments because we did not ‘earn’ it the hard way – by keeping the law? Because we received it as a free gift through faith in Jesus? Think. This is a gift of God. This is what came under the New Covenant. Under God’s Solution to the sin problem. God was waiting to implement this since the fall of Adam and Eve. Would God work so long and so hard and then give us a gift which is not real? Absurd. God doesn’t play games. Just as Jesus is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God – just so are all the gifts purchased by His precious blood. Christ’s righteousness is His clean sinless life – lived in full harmony with the Grand Law of God, which is a comprehensive revelation of God’s perfect righteousness. God’s perfect character. And now we are the blessed recipients of this amazing, priceless gift! Thank You dear Jesus. Thank You holy God.
Can we squander it? Yes. Because God does not force the will. We are always free to turn our backs on God. But who in their right mind would do that? Have we come this far, and endured so much – to now just throw it away. Please Save us dear Jesus.
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Letter of the law Scriptures
There are few scriptures which talk about this. Keeping the letter of the law in this New Covenant era is pointless, because we now know that even the very best of human effort was not able to come even close to what is needed. God has resolved this impossibility by giving His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins, and to live a pure and sinless and spotless life in a body like we sinners have. That pure and holy life has demonstrated the only perfect righteousness ever found among men. Now through the accomplishments of that life and sacrifice of Jesus we are accepted and counted as righteous by our faith in Him. God has given Christ’s Righteousness freely to those who believe in Jesus. That righteousness comes from the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Can a sinner such as you or I in any way improve on that righteousness, or add anything to its value – by our obedience or our good works? I am ashamed even to ask that demeaning question. Anyone entertaining such a thought is despising the blood of Christ and the unimaginable cost of our Redemption granted by the Amazing Grace of God. Christ’s Righteousness is perfect and complete. By the will of our gracious God, that righteousness is given as a free gift to all who believe in Jesus. If it was not for that – no one would be Saved. That is the only righteousness which will stand the scrutiny on the Judgment Day.
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“… This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6 NLT
“But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”
Romans 7:6 NLT
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”
Romans 6:14 NLT
“For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.”
Romans 10:4 NLT
“The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.”
2 Corinthians 3:7 NLT
“If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!”
2 Corinthians 3:9 NLT
“Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 7:18-19 NLT
“So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.”
Colossians 2:16-17 NLT
“The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.”
Galatians 3:24-25 NLT
“So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.”
Romans 7:4 NLT
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Now that you have seen these letter-of-the-law Scriptures – be very careful. These Scriptures were given to those who believe in Christ. Jesus came to be the sacrifice and die the death demanded by the law against those who broke its Commandments. By that act, Jesus has freed us from the penalty demanded by the law against us.
“He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”
Colossians 2:14-15 NLT
For as long as we remain under the grace of God, and are covered by the powerful blood of Jesus – we are safe from the power of the law. The law’s demands against us was fully absorbed by Jesus when He hung on the cross and suffered in our stead. When He died, we were set free from the power of the law over us. The just demands of the law were comprehensively dealt with by what Jesus did – and is good for all time.
“But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.”
Hebrews 10:12-14 NLT
What Jesus has done is “good for all time”. This Scripture is saying that for as long as we choose to belong to Jesus and accept the atonement His blood procured for us, and for as long as we are covered by Christ’s righteousness – the law’s jurisdiction over us no longer applies. But beware. Should we step outside the perfect will of God, should we step outside that righteousness God gave us when we believed – guess what?! The full power of the law is waiting there for us. Be not mistaken in this. “The wages of sin is death”. God does not change. The law does not change.
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
Hebrews 10:23 NLT
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
Romans 8:1-2 NLT
““I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.”
John 5:24 NLT
For those who accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, the law has successfully accomplished its mandate by bringing us safely to Jesus.
“Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.”
Galatians 3:23-24 NLT
For all others, who reject Jesus – the law exercises its full authority as received directly from God – and condemns the law-breakers to death. “The wages of sin is death”. ‘If you step outside the perfect will of God, you shall surely die’.
The Ten Commandments are the law of God. Just as God is eternal – so is His law. It isn’t hard to see it. That law was given us some 3500 years ago. But have a look at it: what was right or wrong 3500 years ago – is just as right or wrong today. Nothing has changed. It will never be right to kill or steal or lie or fornicate. It will never be right to break the Seventh Day Sabbath. Why? Because God said:
““Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Exodus 20:8 NLT
If we want to fight the Sabbath Commandment, we first need to find something wrong with it. Look. God has given us this one day each week for worship. A day to spend in closer fellowship with Him. A day to remember His mighty acts in Creation and Redemption. To remember and be grateful for His care and blessings during the past week. On top of that, He abundantly blessed the essence of the seventh day – and made it holy! Can we find anything wrong with any of this – No. Can we find anything wrong with: Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not lie… – No.
Be very careful. If any of us would deliberately turn away from the grace of Christ, and would blatantly and rebelliously engage in sinful acts which are contrary to the perfect will of God – the full force of the law would be back upon us – and would judge us justly as we deserve.
“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.”
Hebrews 6:4-6 NLT
By such cowardly act of rejecting the Son of God, the just penalty of the law is back in full force. “The wages of sin is death”. ‘If we deliberately step outside the known will of God, we shall surely die.’
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The mission of the law.
The law keeping, as it was usually done – by reading the letter of the law, and then applying a lot of human effort and human will to turn that information into a righteous life – didn’t work.
“… No one is righteous— not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.””
Romans 3:10-12 NLT
But God’s own actions show that He has introduced His own ways whereby this may be accomplished. Salvation through Jesus is bringing His children to a place where they delight in the law of God. Where they are filled with God’s righteousness as expressed in the Grand Law of the universe. That is the righteousness which Jesus lived without a single flow. Without a single mistake. That perfect righteousness is now freely shared with God’s children – not on the basis of their merit, but on the basis of their faith in Jesus as their Saviour. As their Redeemer.
The mission of the law, the mission of the Ten Commandments was to protect us from the excesses of our sinful natures. It demanded restraint and check on our evil tendencies. This was set in place by God Himself until Christ would come and comprehensively deal with the power of sin over us.
“The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.”
Romans 8:3 NLT
This perfectly fits into God’s designs for focus. It was necessary to focus on the actual acts of sin in the Ten Commandments. We needed to see clearly the destructive powers of sin. “If you taste of this forbidden fruit, you shall surely die”. We needed to experience our weakness when actually fighting the sin. Everyone realised sooner or later that we are no match in this fight with sin. Everyone finds out that it cannot be done. Left to our own resources, we would surely die. God has given us a chance to discover it on our own. The only way out of this predicament was to follow the provisions God prepared in the sacrificial system – and sacrifice an innocent lamb. That lamb was pointing forward to God’s solution to the sin problem in the Deliverer. That is why there is a marked shift in focus when Jesus came. The sin Solution is what matters. Focusing on the sin problem brought only death. Focusing on the innocent lamb dying instead of us – brings life. It was the willing self sacrifice of Jesus that comprehensively defeated the issues of sin. That is why Paul is saying: don’t focus on the letter of the law any more. Focus on Spirit. Focus on righteousness. Focus on forgiveness. Focus on the love of God who invites us to become His children. Focus on faith. Focus on the manifold grace of God who prepared a way of escape for us through Jesus. That escape was to be from the clutches of sin and evil which kept us in slavery.
That deliverance by God through Jesus Christ is to be in full view of men and angels and demons – in defiance of what the evil forces thought would never come. They thought that nothing and nobody can snatch the captives out from their wicked hands. But we hear the exuberant song of joy and defiance as the redeemed welcomed the moment of their deliverance:
““This is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!””
Isaiah 25:9 NLT
This was foreshadowed by the moment of Israel’s defiant departure from the Egyptian bondage – in full view of the Egyptians.
“They set out from the city of Rameses in early spring—on the fifteenth day of the first month—on the morning after the first Passover celebration. The people of Israel left defiantly, in full view of all the Egyptians. Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn sons, whom the Lord had killed the night before. The Lord had defeated the gods of Egypt that night with great acts of judgment!”
Numbers 33:3-4 NLT
For those who are acquainted with the details from the time of Exodus, we see that there was only one thing asked of Israelites to do – which was to prepare them and include them for the imminent deliverance by their All-powerful God. That one thing necessary for them to do was to sacrifice and eat the Passover lamb (and be fully dressed up and ready for the immediate departure). That is a wonderful illustration of what we are looking at in the New Covenant. By the will of God we are to focus on the Lamb of God.
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. …”
Hebrews 12:2 NLT
“…Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”
1 Corinthians 5:7 NLT
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT