Are We Under Any Law? (by Mark Overton)

ARE WE UNDER ANY LAW? (BY MARK OVERTON)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. I highly recommend the NKJV as it’s easy to read and my measurements show it’s exceptionally accurate.

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Are we under any law? In other words, is God imposing any law on us? If not, why should you resist sin? When you are suddenly tempted, do you quickly respond, “No way; it’ll wreck my life!”? Probably not. We Christians have been taught several doctrines that give the impression that we are not under any law. We get the impression that sin will not bring us pain, making it difficult for us to firmly resist temptation. If we believe that we are under no law and that sin will not bring us pain, how can we resist it? Few of us will firmly resist something that brings pleasure with no pain. We are confused about God’s law, making us weak when tempted.

Under the Old Covenant (the Old Testament), God gave many laws to Israel, which we call “the Law of Moses.” Under the New Covenant (brought by Jesus Christ), God split the Law of Moses, keeping the moral portion of it, and discarding the remainder. Also, Jesus and His apostles gave us commands, representing additional moral laws. Thus, we are still under God’s moral laws, and God will punish us for violating them, giving us a strong motivation to resist sin.

Why not?
The Law of Moses
God Split the Law of Moses
Three Levels of the Law
The Law of God
Scriptures Supporting the Split
New Testament Commands
How Can We Keep God’s Laws?
The Process
Rule-book
Laws in your heart
Prayer
Traps
Diabolical Definitions
“Belief”
“Eternal Life”
“Faith”
“Grace”
“Imputation”
“Justification”
“Law”
“Lord”
“Repentance”
“Righteousness”
“Saved”
“Sin”
“Works”
Not Under the Law
Released from What Law?
Bondage
Deliverance
Conclusion
Some Notes
Related Topics
Faith Versus Works
Boasting
Controversial Laws
Conclusion

Why Not?

Suppose you are suddenly tempted to sin. Why not go ahead and sin? Temptations of sex and dishonesty are frequent and strong. What is your quick and effective response to counter the temptation? You probably have no response. Instead, you will probably think something like, “I’m not under law but under grace, so maybe it’s okay to sin.” You thought maybe. That maybe shows that you are confused about God’s law, and this confusion makes you an easy prey to Satan’s temptations. We need something to give us a strong “no way!” when tempted. Your belief about God’s law will make the difference between yielding to sin or living in victory over sin. Your belief about this is crucial.

Much Christian teaching says that we are under no law, despite Jesus saying, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). Other statements in the Bible such as “you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14) and “For by grace you have been saved through faith … not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9) appear to contradict Matthew 19:17. The result of these paradoxes is that Bible teachers usually promote only their misinterpretation of faith/grace and ignore the other verses, instead of prayerfully seeking the underlying understanding needed to resolve these paradoxes. Choosing one and shunning the other is to reject God’s word, leading to deception.

We are confused. Here are three paradoxes that illustrate today’s confusion:

“Keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17) versus “not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
“…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21) versus “his faith is accounted for righteousness … God imputes righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:5-6).
In Galatians 5:18, the apostle Paul states that “you are not under the Law,” and then in the following verses, he lists 16 laws we must keep.

The result of these paradoxes is confusion. Does God require us to obey His laws or not? And if so, what are His laws? We don’t know. I will explain these paradoxes at the end of this article, and I think you will agree that with a proper understanding of faith, grace, and God’s law, these apparent paradoxes are not contradictory, but that these verses actually agree well.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched. (Mark 9:43)

In this verse, Jesus is telling us that if we sin, we will go to hell. That means we are under some laws. Therefore, this topic of God’s law is crucial. Let’s explore it more deeply.

The Loss of Law

Before proceeding, we need to define “law” and “sin”:

Law: A law is a constraint on our behavior, with a penalty for violating it. You should remember the phrase, constraint with penalty. For example, the speed limit is a law because it is a constraint on our behavior, and it carries the penalty of a fine.
Sin: Sin is the violation of God’s law. If you break God’s law, you are sinning.

With those in mind, I’ve noticed that Satan’s deceptive attacks on Christians have two purposes:

To remove the knowledge of God’s laws. Satan does this by having preachers avoid telling people the specific laws of God. As a common example, people are often not told that fornication (sex outside of marriage) is sin. So in their ignorance, they fornicate.
To convince Christians they won’t be punished for sinning. Satan tells Christians “sin won’t bring pain” through many lies which slyly claim that God is imposing no laws on Christians, thus inviting them to sin.

Here are some examples of popular lies that say “sin won’t bring pain”:

False: Grace unconditionally forgives all our sins, past, present, and future, regardless of our behavior. This error is known as “hyper-grace”.
False: We will hear nothing negative at the judgment seat of Christ.
False: The New Covenant is covering and not measuring. The meaning is: it forgives everything and judges nothing.
False: We are under no law but the law of love.
False: We are not under law but under grace. (A misinterpretation based on wrong definitions of “law” and “grace”.)
False: We are saved by faith and not by works. (A misinterpretation based on wrong definitions of “faith” and “works”.)
False: We are constantly sinning and God is constantly forgiving us.
False: Jesus did it all.
False: Once saved, always saved.
False: God sees us through Christ.
False: As long as we are in the flesh, we must sin.
False: The pre-tribulation rapture. This doctrine is a companion of those above, and discourages you from preparing yourself to suffer (I Peter 4:1), making you more likely to sin when in danger or pain.

There are many more. All of these doctrines are false. I refute over 40 such lies in this article: Behavior Matters. They are based on our confusion about what laws God is imposing on us. They are also based on confusion about other topics, such as faith, grace, and works. The teachers and promoters of these doctrines don’t know that God requires that we keep His moral laws, and that if we deliberately break such a law, Christ’s atonement will not help us and we will be facing God’s wrath (Hebrews 10:26-27). Hebrews 10:26-27 is such an important antidote to the above lawless doctrines that I’ll quote it below:

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29)

I also quoted Matthew 5:29 above because it explicitly tells you that sin will put you in hell. I suggest that you memorize these passages because they expose the lie in many modern doctrines. These and similar passages reveal that God is imposing His laws on us. But what are those laws? To find out, we need to start with the Law of Moses.

The Law of Moses

Through the prophet Moses, God gave many laws to ancient Israel. These laws are given in the Old Testament in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and are known as the Law of Moses. I refer to it as the “Law” (capitalized), which is the accepted convention. The Law contains the Ten Commandments. Most of these laws fall into the following categories:

Moral laws. These laws specify how the Jews are to treat God and each other. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 (except for the Sabbath) are in this category, and include laws about not taking God’s name in vain, supporting parents, not being a false witness, and not committing idolatry, adultery, murder, or theft. Additional laws pertain to sexual matters, forbid sorcery and divination, require honesty and merciful treatment of the poor and widows, and specify how justice is to be administered in response to various crimes. The phrase “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” is found in these laws (Exodus 21:24).
In addition to requiring righteous behavior, the moral laws also tell us to fear and worship God, and prohibit sorcery, divination, and idolatry (occult practices). Idolatry includes anything we regard as more important than God, such as money, prestige, or a child.
Ceremonial laws. These laws specify religious observances unrelated to how people treat God and each other. They consist of feast days, rituals, ceremonies, dietary restrictions, etc. Most of these laws symbolize the Jews’ holiness and devotion to God, and some are foreshadows of Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). Included is the fourth of the Ten Commandments, which is the Sabbath (not working on Saturday), which was important to the Jews.
Medical laws. These laws specify how various diseases are to be handled in the nation of Israel. They usually require that a priest determine whether a person should be separated from society based on observable symptoms. Leprosy was always a serious matter, and the Law of Moses contains detailed instructions about its diagnosis and handling. These instructions regarding leprosy and other diseases had the effect of stopping the spread of such diseases without quarantining people unnecessarily, showing us that these laws came from God. They are found in Leviticus chapters 13-15.
Judicial laws. These are moral laws with specified punishments to be meted out by the government. Thus, I regard them as detailed presentations of the moral laws. As an aside, God requires that governments enforce His moral laws.

Most of the moral laws are given in Exodus 20-23 and Leviticus 18. I recommend spending an hour reading these chapters. God regards serving Him as similar to being married to Him, so He refers to sorcery and such as “prostitution” (Leviticus 20:6), making the injunction against sorcery a moral law.

The ceremonial laws are numerous. There are dietary laws specifying what a Jew was allowed and forbidden to eat (the Kosher laws). A major concern with the Jews was pork, as it was forbidden. There were seven major feast days that Jews were expected to participate in, and you have probably heard of one of them: the Passover. There were many regulations regarding the Tabernacle and the temple, most of which symbolize various aspects of God’s program of redemption (Hebrews 9:9).

Circumcision was a ceremonial law given to Abraham, the father of all Jews (thus predating Moses), and symbolized a Jew’s separation from the world. Circumcision was so important that, in New Testament times, people would often say “circumcision” as a shorthand way of referring to all ceremonial laws. You will find several references to “the circumcision” in the New Testament, representing those Christians who valued, obeyed, and promoted the ceremonial laws, stressing circumcision. These people gave the apostle Paul much grief, and Galatians is Paul’s response to a church that was being swayed by these “judaizers”, as we Christians often call them.

The ceremonial laws include many sacrificial laws. The main purpose of the animal sacrifices prescribed in the Law of Moses is to forgive sins. For example, chapters 4 and 5 of Leviticus contain the phrase “and it shall be forgiven him” eight times, all in response to various animal sacrifices. Bible teachers sometimes claim that Christ’s death on the cross achieved a better forgiveness than the animal sacrifices. That is incorrect; repeating “and it shall be forgiven him” eight times shows that the animal sacrifices provided an effective forgiveness. Additional sacrificial laws were called “fellowship offerings,” which provided the Jews with an optional way of drawing closer to God. Sacrifices were administered by the priesthood, and both are specified in the ceremonial laws.

God Split the Law of Moses

The coming of Christ, His atoning death on the cross and His bodily resurrection three days later represent the end of the Old Covenant (contract) with His people, and the beginning of the New Covenant. This change in covenant also caused the laws imposed on people to change (Hebrews 7:12). But what aspects of the Law of Moses were changed? Was all of it dropped? Nowadays, people are ignorant of and confused about what law is being imposed on us. The following rule determines which laws in the Law of Moses apply under the New Covenant. Read this carefully:

God retained only the moral laws because they express His nature.

God discarded the remaining laws, thus splitting the Law of Moses. For an in-depth discussion of the scriptural basis of this split, please refer to sections Scriptures Supporting the Split and Not Under the Law below. Here are the changes to each category of laws:

Moral laws. The moral laws are an expression of God’s nature, so He retained them.
Ceremonial laws. The ceremonial laws have been discarded because their purposes and functions have been fulfilled in the New Covenant.
Medical laws. The medical laws have been quietly discarded, as their purpose was not to reveal God’s nature, but to keep His people healthy. Also, God knew that modern medicine and understanding of bacteria and viruses were coming, and I will speculate that He stopped imposing the medical laws for that reason.

Under the New Covenant, God requires that we obey the moral laws not only in body, but in both body and heart. To make obedience in heart possible, God provides us with this grace: He causes His moral laws to be written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). This additional requirement of heart-level obedience appears in the Sermon on the Mount as a broadening of some laws. For example, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). We see that the law against adultery has been broadened to include lust in the heart. This New Covenant law more fully expresses God’s nature than the corresponding Old Covenant law. Likewise with laws regarding murder and hatred: We must watch our hearts more carefully than was required under the Old Covenant.

For the sake of brevity in the remainder of this article, the phrase “ceremonial laws” is used to represent all non-moral laws.

The ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant are fulfilled in Christ, so we are no longer obligated to keep them. Jesus provided an example of this in Mark 7:1-5, where we see that He neglected the laws regarding various washings, causing some controversy. In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul states, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths…,” revealing that the ceremonial laws were discarded.

The sacrificial laws (a part of the ceremonial laws) were fulfilled forever by Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins, making these laws unnecessary. Consequently, they have been discarded. The Mosaic laws regarding assignment and duties of priests were also discarded for two reasons. (1) They are closely associated with the (discarded) sacrificial laws; (2) Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14), and Christians are called to be priests to mankind (I Peter 2:9), so the Mosaic priesthood is obsolete.

We can casually say that the ceremonial laws were discarded, but the discarding of these laws was the controversial part of the transition to the New Covenant, and the understanding of this transition was given primarily to the apostle Paul. He fought diligently to prevent his churches from trying to be saved by keeping the ceremonial laws, especially circumcision, and it’s in this social context that he wrote Romans 3:20, “…by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight….”

The Sabbath (in the Ten Commandments) has been discarded in the New Covenant. Paul said it is ceremonial (Colossians 2:16-17, quoted above), but it is also an act of consecration. This is also true of the law of the Nazirite (Numbers 6:1-21) and the laws of fellowship offerings, which have likewise been discarded. In the New Covenant, there is a broader replacement for these and similar laws that applies only to Christians. In Romans 12:1, Paul expressed this new law of consecration as, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Paul often referred to himself as a slave (Greek doulos) of Jesus, and I happily regard New Covenant consecration as slavery to God.

The above law applies only to Christians. Why would a law apply only to Christians and not to the world? It’s because there are two levels of salvation, which Jesus clearly revealed in Matthew 19:16-21 when He answered the rich young ruler.

Jesus said to “enter into life,” the young man must “keep the commandments,” resulting in basic salvation, which is the first level.
Then Jesus stated that to be “perfect,” the young man needed to sell everything and give it to the poor, and follow Him, representing the second level of salvation — being a Christian. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus expressed the second level as, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” This is God’s requirement of Christians which replaces the Sabbath and laws of consecration in the Law.

The detailed descriptions above can be summarized as follows:

Category	How These Laws Changed
Moral	Retained, broadened (Matthew 5-7)
Ceremonial Medical	Discarded (most were fulfilled in Christ)

It’s clear that under the New Covenant, God split the Law of Moses by retaining the moral laws (some broadened) and discarding the rest. Plus He added a new law of total consecration for Christians (Matthew 16:24; Romans 12:1).

Dr. Robert B. Thompson explains in his free article, The Eternal Law of God, that “An abridged, covenantal form of the eternal law was given to Moses…” Thompson is saying that the Law of Moses is narrow and incomplete (abridged) and that it was designed for the context of the Old Covenant (covenantal). The broadening and strengthening of these laws in Jesus makes them more fully reflect God’s nature. The ceremonial laws were purely covenantal, and thus were discarded.

In his free article, Not Under Law But Under Grace, Dr. Thompson shows which Old Covenant laws were brought into the New Covenant. His analysis is more detailed than mine in this article.

As an aside, the legal term for discarding or revoking a law is “nullified” or “nullification”.

Three Levels of the Law

The Law of Moses presents God’s laws in three levels of detail:

The two Great Commandments. These two broad laws are the principles underlying all of God’s laws.
The Ten Commandments. The first three commandments express the first Great Commandment (love God) in more detail, the Sabbath (the fourth commandment) was replaced as described above, and the remaining six commandments express the second Great Commandment (love man) in more detail.
Detailed laws in Exodus through Deuteronomy. These four books contain God’s law in great detail. They also contain the ceremonial laws which were discarded under the New Covenant.

Jesus emphasized the importance of the two Great Commandments:

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

These two commandments are the basis of all laws in both covenants, and they have not changed under the New Covenant. However, from the broadenings mentioned above, we see that these two commandments are expressed in fuller form in the New Covenant, more fully reflecting God’s nature and purposes. I suggest memorizing these two commandments because they can help in answering questions about what is and is not sinful.

I believe God limited the number of laws in the Ten Commandments to ten so that people could memorize them. That short list contains only the laws that were most needed for the Jews of that day, and thus it omits less-common sins such as bestiality (Leviticus 20:15-16), cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5), and sodomy (Leviticus 20:13). All less-common sins are in the detailed laws. The Ten Commandments address the top-ten sins of an ancient culture, and because that list is incomplete, the detailed laws are needed.

Now that we understand the three levels of detail in the Law of Moses, we can answer this important question: How do we know that God is imposing the Law of Moses on us under the New Covenant?

We know the two Great Commandments are imposed on us because Jesus presented them as the basis of all of God’s law in Matthew 22:37-40.
We know the Ten Commandments are imposed on us because in Matthew 19:16-19, Jesus said its moral laws must be obeyed (for salvation).
We know the detailed laws are imposed on us because Jesus and the apostles quoted them, revealing that they are still in effect. They quoted Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 11:44, Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, 6:16, 19:15, 24:15, 25:4, and 32:43. Deuteronomy 24:15 and 25:4 were applied twice to Christians. Also, in Matthew 5:18-19, Jesus informed us that even “the least of these commandments” is still in effect.

We conclude that the laws imposed on us are drawn from the entire Law of Moses, and not only the Ten Commandments as is often taught.

A word of warning: The detailed laws must be applied with wisdom and spiritual discernment. This is because God designed some of these laws to fit the culture of the day and/or the Mosaic priesthood, and such laws need to be altered or dropped in today’s culture. Furthermore, some laws don’t fit neatly into the moral/ceremonial categories. Here are some examples:

The law of Jubilee in Leviticus chapter 25 in which sold possessions are to be restored: This law ensures that a family which needed money and was thus forced to sell land or home will eventually get it back. It appears that purchasing a forced-sale property for a low price is a mild form of theft in God’s righteous sight, and therefore must be reversed. In modern times, there is no day of Jubilee, so I suspect God would require us to be generous toward a seller in this miserable situation by haggling down the asking-price little if at all.
Deuteronomy 25:5 states that if a man dies without a son, his brother shall marry his wife, and her firstborn son shall carry on the name of the dead man. Carrying on a fellow’s name is not a concern in western culture, so this law can be dropped.
The law regarding cities of refuge for someone who accidentally kills another. In our culture, justice is handled differently, so this law can be dropped.
Deuteronomy 19:16-20 deals with a false witness in a lawsuit. Both the witness and accused shall stand before “the priests and the judges.” The Mosaic priesthood no longer exists, so we have no such priests. Therefore, in this law about false witnesses, we could substitute priests with prophets or others who are known to be spiritual and can perceive whether a witness is lying.
An example of using the required spiritual discernment is the apostle Paul’s application of Deuteronomy 25:4. He recognized that this detailed law, “do not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain,” represented the following underlying law of God’s righteous nature: “Recompense your workers” (my words). Paul applied this underlying law of God in different ways in I Timothy 5:18 and I Corinthians 9:9.
Exodus 23:19, 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21 forbid boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk. Deuteronomy 22:6 says when taking eggs or chicks from a nest, don’t also take the mother. Leviticus 22:28 forbids slaughtering a cow or sheep and its young on the same day. I believe spiritual discernment tells us that these laws represent the following underlying law of God’s nature: “Don’t needlessly burden the weak” or “Don’t add injury to injury” (my words). An actual example of its violation was a mortgage lender charging an early-repayment penalty to an elderly widow who just sold her house. That angered the real estate agent.

These examples reveal why we must not apply the detailed laws thoughtlessly or mechanically. Remember that the discussion above applies only to moral laws because the other laws were discarded when God split the Law of Moses.

Also, some New Testament laws require spiritual discernment, such as Matthew 5:32 which tells us that whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. I address this and other controversial laws below in section Controversial Laws.

Above, I used the phrase “underlying law of God” three times. The apostle Paul referred to it as “the law of God,” which I discuss next.

The Law of God

In Romans 7:22, 7:25, and 8:7, Paul uses the expression “the law of God”. Based on its context and usage, we see that this expression represents the laws that are intrinsic to and stem from God’s righteous nature. The law of God is God’s righteous personality. Thus, the law of God is not in writing. The law of God is the foundation of the Law of Moses, and of all human law. Due to its great importance, I refer to it several times in this article.

The moral laws in the Law of Moses are the most complete written expression of the law of God that I am aware of, especially after adding the broadenings of Matthew chapter five. The lists of sins in the New Testament also express the law of God, and are thus imposed on us, but they are less complete than the Law.

In fact, any law or group of laws that expresses the law of God is imposed on us. You can write a law in your own words on a piece of scrap paper, and if it expresses part of the law of God, it’s imposed on us. The law of God is imposed on us regardless of its form of expression.

To claim that part or all of the moral portion of the Law of Moses is not being imposed on us would create religious schizophrenia. For example, does bestiality anger God? Obviously yes. Thus, the law of God forbids bestiality. Then to claim that the injunction against bestiality in the Law (Leviticus 20:15-16) does not apply to us creates a contradiction, which can only be resolved by discarding reason and truth. We must conclude that all moral laws in the Law are imposed on us.

It is helpful to diagram the relationship of the moral and ceremonial laws to the law of God.

Moral laws in OT & NT (in effect)	Ceremonial laws (nullified)
Law of God (God’s nature)

The law of God is on the bottom, like the foundation of a building, because it is the foundation of all law. The moral laws are on top of the law of God because they are expressions of the law of God. OT and NT stand for Old Testament and New Testament. The ceremonial laws are separate from the law of God because they do not express the law of God.

As prophesied in Jeremiah 31:33, the law of God is written on our hearts, which is undoubtedly a part of the formation of Christ in us.

Scriptures Supporting the Split

Below are some Bible passages revealing that the Law of Moses has been split into retained moral and nullified ceremonial laws as described above.

Matthew 19:16-19 The following conversation about how to obtain eternal life occurred between Jesus and a rich young man:

Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 19:16-19)

This is a question about salvation, so we would have expected Jesus to tell this man that he must accept Christ, or follow Him. Instead, Jesus tells him that salvation comes by keeping the Law of Moses! Jesus’ reply is a severe violation of modern Protestant doctrines, which is probably why you don’t hear this passage taught in churches. But an intriguing part is Jesus’ response to the question, “Which ones?” Jesus listed only moral laws in the Ten Commandments. He omitted all ceremonial laws, including the socially-important Sabbath. In effect, Jesus was saying that from now on, one can be saved by keeping only the moral laws (and not the ceremonial laws).

Luke 10:25-28 The following is another conversation about how to obtain eternal life:

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28)

In effect, Jesus told the lawyer that to obtain eternal life, he must keep the two great commandments, which are (1) love God first, and (2) love man as himself. Both laws are the foundation of God’s moral laws (Matthew 22:40), so Jesus is telling us again that one can be saved by keeping only the moral laws.

But in this conversation, Jesus included an important law: love God. This is a law of consecration (part of morality toward God), and it forbids you from valuing anything more than God, which is idolatry. For most people, the temptation is to value a child, money, or pleasure more than God. If you do so, you are an idolator. You must be more devoted to God than to anything or anyone else.

As an aside, assuming Antichrist is a “Christian”, I suspect he will swap the two Great Commandments when he begins his programs. He will create programs to help mankind while giving lip-service to God, thus valuing man more than God, and causing many to commit idolatry and to become angry with God when He harms mankind during the Great Tribulation.

Matthew 5:19 In this verse, Jesus says that whoever does and teaches the commandments will be great in the Kingdom. That sounds like Jesus is telling us to keep the entire Law of Moses. But in the next verse, Jesus says that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, telling us that He is discussing righteousness. Righteousness is defined as right behavior toward people, which is morality, so Jesus is referring to only the moral laws (which we must keep), thus nullifying the ceremonial laws.

Acts 15:6-29 Paul’s teaching that we don’t need to keep the Law of Moses caused an uproar in the early church, which culminated in a meeting of apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Acts 15:6-29 records this important council discussion about whether the Jews should require the Gentile (non-Jewish) converts to keep the Law of Moses. Peter makes an important remark in verse 11: “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” Peter is saying that we are saved by grace (I discuss grace below) instead of by keeping the Law of Moses. At the end of the discussion, the apostles write a letter to the Gentiles telling them to not keep the Law of Moses, but to abstain from fornication (a moral law) and some other items. In effect, the apostles agreed to split the Law of Moses, creating an essential moral component and dropping most of the rest. I say “most of” because the council was unable to free itself from a couple of regulations, which it turns out were dropped over time. Their decision was imperfect, but they accomplished the difficult and important job of splitting the moral law from the rest of the Law of Moses.

Romans 2:26, Romans 8:4 Both of these verses describe those who keep the “righteous requirements of the Law.” The contexts of these verses describe pleasing God by keeping the moral laws (the “righteous requirements”), with no mention of the ceremonial laws, telling us they are no longer binding on us.

Romans 7:22, 7:25, 8:7 These verses contain the expression, “the law of God,” which was discussed above. The law of God represents the laws God is imposing on us, and it’s expressed well in the Law. Because the law of God (in the context of these verses) excludes the ceremonial laws, it represents a split in the Law of Moses.

Romans 13:9 Paul lists some moral commands imposed on us, and states that these and the other commandments are all summed up in the saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (like Galatians 5:14 above). By omitting the ceremonial laws in both his list and the love-your-neighbor rule, Paul is saying that we are under only the moral laws.

I Corinthians 7:19 Paul writes, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.” Paul uses circumcision to represent the ceremonial laws, so he is saying the ceremonial laws are nothing (nullified), but keeping the moral laws is essential.

Galatians 3:19-24 Psalm 40:6 (quoted below) tells us God did not desire the ceremonial laws. So why did He impose them? Galatians 3:19 says “It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come,” indicating that these laws were to suppress sin until Christ came. Galatians 3:24 adds “Therefore the law was our tutor [guardian] to bring us to Christ….” These two verses reveal that the ceremonial laws were temporary and would be nullified when Christ came.

Galatians 5:14 This verse says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” As stated in this verse, obeying the moral laws fulfills all the law, not some of it, telling us that the ceremonial laws do not contribute to fulfilling the Law. We see that the Law was split, retaining the moral laws and nullifying the others.

Ephesians 2:15 says Jesus has “abolished in His flesh the enmity [between Jew and Gentile], that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances….” Thus, the ordinances, which were abolished, brought enmity between Jews and Gentiles. In those days, the ceremonial laws, especially circumcision, were causing enmity between Jews and Gentiles. The moral laws would not cause enmity. Why would righteous behavior cause enmity? We see that the (abolished) ordinances are the ceremonial laws, leaving the moral laws in effect, splitting the Law.

Colossians 2:16-17 Paul states, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths ….” This passage, which was quoted earlier, tells us that the given examples of ceremonial laws have been nullified, and by extension, that all ceremonial laws have been nullified.

1 Samuel 15:22 and Proverbs 21:3 The prophet Samual declares that “… to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Proverbs tells us “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.” In both verses, God is telling us that He prefers obedience to Himself and His moral laws over religious rituals. Even in Old Testament days, God valued obedience and cared little about rituals, splitting His own Law.

Psalm 51:16-17 “(16) For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering. (17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart….” Though God imposed the sacrifices and other ceremonial laws, this psalm reveals that God has no interest in them, but values repentance. By not desiring the ceremonial rituals and requiring righteousness, God again split His own law.

Psalm 40:6,8 “(6) Sacrifice and offering you did not desire…. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. (8) I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart.” This psalm is similar to the one above, but verse 8 reveals that God wants people to obey His laws from the heart. Also, David wrote “offering you did not desire” in verse 6, telling us that the law in David’s heart (verse 8) excluded the ceremonial laws.

Note: “Your law is within my heart” in verse 8 is similar to “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts…” (Jeremiah 31:33), which is the foundation of the New Covenant.

Theologians. Although the following is not a scripture passage, it should be mentioned that some theologians are aware that the apostle Paul split the Law into binding moral and nullified ceremonial laws. For example, Charles A. Wanamaker, Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Cape Town, wrote the following in his book, “The Epistles to the Thessalonians”, page 150:

While Paul is said to be the apostle of the “law-free gospel,” this can only accurately refer to his rejection of the Jewish law and in particular the cultic and ritual law as a means of salvation …. Paul maintained the ethical law of Judaism as normative for Christians because, as far as he was concerned, it remained the will of God.

In short, Wanamaker stated that Paul split the Law into (1) the rejected “cultic and ritual” laws, and (2) the “ethical” laws, which “remained the will of God.”

The important result: God requires that everyone, including Christians, keep His moral laws! We will be punished if we don’t. In addition, we Christians are under God’s new law of total consecration. We are not under the remainder of the Law of Moses.

New Testament Commands

In addition to the broadened Law of Moses being imposed on us, God also requires that we obey the commands (laws) in the New Testament. Jesus told us to obey His commands (Matthew 7:24, John 14:15, Luke 6:46), and thus we must obey both His commands (laws) and also the commands He gave through His apostles. Those commands represent an affirmation and broadening of the Law of Moses. There are several lists of laws in the New Testament pertaining to morality. The list below was compiled mostly from Galatians 5:18-21 and Mark 7:21-22. These laws prohibit:

idolatry — valuing a person or thing more than God;
sorcery — obtaining help from demons; some “spiritual principles” are sorcery;
sexual lust — you are lusting if you would have had sex if circumstances had permitted it;
adultery — sex with a married person;
fornication — sex outside of marriage, including premarital sex. This is a huge problem inside and outside the churches;
lewdness — all sexual looseness, including pornography and immodest dress;
sodomy (homosexuality) — includes transsexuality;
uncleanness — includes getting tattoos, in my opinion;
hatred;
contention — includes a spirit of arguing;
jealousy;
envy — closely related to jealousy;
stubbornness — many wives argue with their husbands instead of obeying them;
disobedience — disobeying any authority, God or man;
pride, arrogance;
outburst of anger — the opposite is being good at not getting what you want;
selfish ambition — comes from glory-lust or power-lust;
divisiveness;
heresy — much of what is taught in churches nowadays is heresy, so be careful;
murder — includes backstabbing and violence;
drunkenness — includes drug abuse;
revelry — going wild at a party; the opposite is self-control;
evil intentions;
coveting;
deceiving, lying — any method of giving a false impression is lying;
greed and cheating — includes overcharging;
theft.

The first two laws above (idolatry and sorcery) come from the first Great Commandment, which is love God with all your being. The remaining laws come from the second Great Commandment, which is love your neighbor as yourself.

Pornography is sin. It’s not mentioned in the Bible because making it widely available requires the relatively new technology of photography. But we know it’s sin for three reasons:

It’s addictive.
It tends to cause sexual sins.
Spiritually perceptive people have seen that it attracts demons.

How Can We Keep God’s Laws?

We keep God’s laws by grace!

I define grace as “God’s help in pleasing Him,” or simply “God’s help.” God helps us (i.e., gives us grace) in several ways, including initial forgiveness, and then strength, abilities, and power. The word “grace” means little to modern ears, so you can usually substitute it with “God’s help” or “strength” or “ability” or “power” wherever you see “grace” in the New Testament, and the result will reveal the original meaning. For example, “great grace was upon them” (Acts 4:33) makes no sense to modern ears, but “great power was upon them” reveals the meaning. In the broadest sense, grace is God’s blessing, but that’s vague, so I prefer help/strength/ability/power as they are more specific.

These forms of God’s help are administered by the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Modern false doctrines define grace as primarily forgiveness, but that’s only a small part of grace. Yes, forgiveness gives us a fresh start when we repent (resolve to stop sinning), but the main work of grace is helping us to serve God. We see this in Acts 4:33: “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” The “great grace” here is referring to supernatural power. It does not mean the apostles were having sex with the girls and thus needed constant forgiveness.

As a second example, II Corinthians 8:6-7 uses the phrase “this grace” twice in the context of giving money. Why? Because God was giving the Corinthians the ability to donate. Another example is Ephesians 3:8: “To me … this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Here, grace is the God-given ability to preach. One of the clearest verses is Hebrews 4:16: “…that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Grace here is God’s help in the form of strength. I suggest that you examine every occurrence of the word “grace” in the New Testament. In the cases where the context defines grace, it usually refers to God helping us by giving us strength or ability to obey His laws or to serve Him.

Having grace (divine help) is what makes the New Covenant better than the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, the Jews kept the many laws by their own fleshly strength, which was futile, as Paul bemoans in Romans chapter 7. Obtaining this additional grace requires that we “walk in the Spirit”, as Paul states multiple times in his epistles. And with that grace helping us, we need not sin; we are not forced to sin. Paul says this in Romans 8:12: “…we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” He is saying we don’t owe the flesh anything. We are not compelled to obey its lusts. We need not sin. If you are being tempted severely, cry out to God for more grace (strength) to avoid sinning.

I refuse to wreck my future!

Knowing that we are under God’s moral laws is a strong motivation to resist the temptation to sin. But those laws are only the constraints. To be laws, their violation must carry penalties, and the following verses reveal those penalties:

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29)

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:30)

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

For the wages of sin is death…. (Romans 6:23) Note that this was written to Christians summarizing why we must not sin.

…those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:29)

For if you live according to the flesh you will die…. (Romans 8:13)

…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:5)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord…. (II Corinthians 5:10-11)

Here is a blessing that sin will cause you to lose: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

I started this article by asking, “Why not?” Temptation can hit you suddenly and strongly, and you need a quick and strong defense against it. You can respond, “I refuse to wreck my future!”, while keeping the above verses in mind. The first four of the above verses say that sin will put us in hell. All of the popular lies have one logical conclusion: Sin won’t bring you pain. This common feature of those lies tells us that they are demonic. Satan is trying to destroy the Christian Church by removing its resistance to sin, thus causing Christians to sin, knowing they will be disqualified and punished, posing no danger to Satan’s rule.

The Process

Rule-book. The first step is to obey the written laws. Your salvation starts with obeying the rules. As Jesus said, “Keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). If you have been worldly, and have recently repented and started serving God, you don’t know God’s moral laws, because nobody taught them to you. And our conscience is incomplete. For example, the consciences of most people do not warn them against fornication (sex outside of marriage). So you must learn the written laws and obey them. They are the moral laws in the Law of Moses and the New Testament. In addition, Jesus broadened them in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In the New Testament, the apostle Paul says this about sex outside of marriage: “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you” (Ephesians 5:3).

This list above from the New Testament is a good start. Revelation 21:8 (quoted above) lists eight behaviors that will put you in hell. These are eight constraints with a severe penalty, making them laws. Don’t forget that grace is available to help you, so ask God for help in keeping His laws. The apostle Peter says, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (II Peter 1:19). Peter is saying that you must obey the rule-book until the nature of Jesus has grown in you.

Laws in your heart. After obeying the rules a while, they grow in you. You begin to know them by heart, and they become part of your nature, ever deeper as the years go by. You will obey God’s moral laws by nature because these laws express your new nature, as well as God’s nature. At this stage, most of your effort is spent seeking and petitioning God and Jesus in prayer, and you spend little time thinking about the written laws. But you always keep them — by nature. Actually, God is quietly writing the law of God in your heart, in fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.” This passage is saying that the New Covenant is the writing of God’s laws on your heart; it is not “accepting Jesus in your heart,” as is commonly taught nowadays.

Prayer. Prayer is important. I recommend that you get in the habit of praying frequently about everything you do throughout the day. As I Thessalonians 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.” If people are around, you can pray silently in your mind. In addition, you should dedicate some time each day solely to prayer. By immersing your life in prayer with an attitude of seeking God, you will be living in God’s presence, even if you feel no different. As Paul wrote, we are to “live according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:5), and such statements are usually in the context of avoiding sin. A similar Old Testament verse is, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21). God will correct you in this manner when you are veering left or right toward sin, as I have experienced. But you must be praying and obeying His laws to the best of your knowledge. If you are doing these things and God is not talking to you, it probably means you don’t need correction — you’re doing fine.

Also, as part of writing His laws in you, God also removes sin from your nature. Over the years, urges to sin should occur less frequently and more weakly. I don’t know how it works, but I believe that this formation of God’s law in you is part of the growth of the divine nature in you. After all, being born again means that God’s nature was implanted in you. And it grows, provided that you seek Him in prayer and obey His laws. You are becoming like Christ in a deep way, having the same nature. You are becoming a mature son of God, suitable as a companion and servant of God in His kingdom.

Traps

To help people follow God’s laws, some churches have lists of do’s and don’ts. That’s fine, as it helps new Christians, because Step One is obeying the written laws. I once attended a church that had a couple of pages on the board near the entry showing what was acceptable and unacceptable dress. They were needed because many people don’t know what is modest. The trap is that such lists can specify matters with excessive detail and precision, such as depths of necklines on women’s blouses, heights of their dresses, widths of men’s moustaches, and other minutia, measured in inches or millimeters. The danger of having such detailed rules is that they draw our attention off Jesus and onto the rules. Churches with such distractingly detailed rules are said to be “legalistic.” Nonetheless, dress codes are necessary, so we must keep a proper balance, communicating the components of modesty, which is part of the law of God, without being overly detailed.

Another trap is believing the words of a false spirit that’s pretending to be God. When a spirit speaks to you, you will hear words in your mind, or you will recieve an impression or sense or knowledge about something. Test that spirit, especially if it’s ordering you or somebody else to do (or not do) something. Don’t be afraid to challenge it. If the spirit responds with something like, “If you challenge this, you’ll be blaspheming the Holy Spirit,” reject that spirit because it’s avoiding being tested. You might say to yourself in fear, “I can’t reject it; what if it’s God? It might be God!” Reject it. God will not drive you with fear or give you something doubtful. But demons will. The Bible says:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. (I John 4:1)
Test all things; hold fast what is good. (I Thessalonians 5:21)
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. (I Corinthians 14:29)

These verses show us that spirits (and all religious phenomena) need to be tested, so I doubt that God will threaten you or make you feel guilty for testing a spirit that spoke to you. And whatever you do, never say “God told me…” unless others have tested you for years and agree that you are reliable. Otherwise, humble yourself and be truthful about your uncertainty of the spirit by saying, “I think the Lord is saying…”

A similar trap is a false spirit that gives you a false conviction of sin. It will be over something that neither God nor man regards as sin, such as stealing a pen from work or yelling at your child or feeling attracted to the opposite sex. But the false conviction will make you feel guilty and push you away from God, which is Satan’s goal. Reject the guilt; it’s not from God. Bring the issue before God in prayer, and examine it and decide whether it significantly violates any written law. If it doesn’t, it’s probably not sin and you need not be concerned about it. A good record of traps is the unabridged version of War on the Saints, by Jessie Penn Lewis with Evan Roberts available for free and available at amazon.com.

Another trap is Satanic condemnation after you sin. You might sin if you are tempted suddenly in an area in which you are weak but didn’t know it, causing you to be “overtaken in a fault”, as the KJV phrases it in Galatians 6:1. This can happen multiple times while battling a stubborn sin in you. After sinning, Satan might hammer you with condemnation to discourage you enough to give up (he hopes). Instead, memorize I John 1:9 beforehand, as it provides the following procedure for handling sin:

Confess the sin. Implicit in confessing is forsaking it, deciding to never do it again. Although they claim to repent, many people fail at this point because they haven’t resolved against the sin deeply enough. So they sin repeatedly because they are double-minded (James 1:8, 4:8). In their hearts, they’re saying, “I’ve had it rough, and I deserve a little _______.” (Fill in the blank with a sin).
Accept God’s forgiveness of it by rejecting any guilt pressing on you.
God will help you stop sinning, and clean the sin from you, but you also must take sensible (and sometimes drastic) actions to ensure it won’t happen again. Jesus said to cut off your hand if that’s what it takes to avoid sinning. Drastic.

Diabolical Definitions

The apostle Peter mentions “the present truth,” referring to the truth needed at that time. Satan also has what I call “the present lie,” which is what he is promoting at this time. The present lie is this: “Sin will not bring you pain.” Satan teaches this through many doctrines, such as those listed above. You can identify them because they leave the impression that you can sin and not suffer for it. They all imply that you do not need to obey God’s laws.

Some of Satan’s most effective lies consist of redefining biblical words in ways that suggest that sin will not bring pain. Let’s look at some examples. These are in alphabetical order.

“Belief”

Belief is the same as faith, which is defined below (click/tap here to go there). The following verses equate faith and belief:

Romans 3:22 “… through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”

Romans 4:5 “… but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith ….”

Romans 4:20 “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith ….”

Galatians 2:16 “… we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ ….”

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe ….”

In each of the above verses, the words “belief” and “faith” are near each other and refer to the same concept.

“Eternal Life”

Satan tells us that eternal life means going to heaven when we die. He does this in order to get our attention off the important goal of attaining the better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). So when we read John 3:16, we assume it’s referring to heaven. But what does the Bible say?

In Luke 18:18, a man asked Jesus how to “inherit eternal life.” When discussing this topic, Jesus remarked, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” Thus, Jesus equated eternal life with entering the kingdom. Furthermore, in Revelation 21:10, we see that the kingdom (the new Jerusalem) will move out of heaven to the earth. To the earth. That will fulfill the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). The New Jerusalem (by Robert B. Thompson) explains this topic in detail.

In John 6:54, Jesus stated, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” In the nearby verses, Jesus repeats “I will raise him up” three more times, stressing the importance of attaining the resurrection, which can only be the “better resurrection” referred to in Hebrews 11:35. Thus, Jesus is telling us that eternal life is tied to the better resurrection.

We must conclude that eternal life reveals itself as immortality in a good body on Earth, in God’s kingdom. That makes it important for us to attain the better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35; Luke 20:35-36).

Briefly, eternal life is immortality in a good body.

“Faith”

Faith is mentioned three times in Romans 3:21-26, and together they tell us that faith is essential. What is faith? Here are six passages that define it.

Reference	Passage	Comment
Hebrews 10:22	let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith …	This verse suggests that faith is “full assurance”.
Hebrews 10:35	Therefore do not cast away your confidence …	Here, “confidence” refers to confidence in God, which can only be faith in God.
Hebrews 11:1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.	Obtaining God’s promises are the things “not seen” but “hoped for”. In the faith-chapter, this statement says faith is confidence that God will keep His promises.
Hebrews 11:6	But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.	This verse defines faith as belief that God exists and rewards diligent seekers, which can be summarized as confidence in God’s faithfulness.
Romans 4:21	and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.	This verse describing Abraham’s faith is a good definition of faith. The phrase “fully convinced” is synonymous with “confident”.
2 Cor 5:6-8	So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident …	Paul writes “confident” before and after “faith” in this passage, thus defining faith as confidence in God.

The conclusion from these scriptures is:

Faith is confidence in God.

Faith in Jesus is confidence in Him: confidence that He is the Son of God; confidence that He will keep His promises; confidence that His teachings are correct.

If you have confidence in Jesus, then you believe in Him. Belief is not merely believing facts about Jesus and the Christian religion. Belief is faith: having enough confidence in Him that you will rely on and obey Him.

Why would confidence in Jesus cause you to obey Him? If you have confidence in the teachings of Jesus, then you believe them, and when He said we must do something, you know it must be done and you do it, obeying Him. When Jesus mentioned consequences, you will obey Him with those consequences in mind.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:30)

Faith in Jesus means you are confident that His statement above is true. Thus, to avoid hell, you will be careful to not sin with your hands. You will forsake your sins; you will stop them. On the other hand, if you say to yourself, “Jesus said those things before He died on the cross, and God surely isn’t that severe, so a little sin isn’t going to put me in hell,” then you are saying Jesus was wrong. You don’t have confidence in His words, so you don’t have confidence in Him. You don’t have faith in Him.

The healing evangelist Smith Wigglesworth defined belief similarly: “What is it to believe? It is to have such confidence in what the Lord said that we take Him at His word, simply because He said it.” (page 58 of Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, © 1948 by Gospel Publishing House).

To clarify what faith is, God gave Dr. Robert B. Thompson the excellent analogy of having faith in your doctor. You might love your doctor, telling your friends that he is wonderful. But suppose he prescribes a costly medication for you, saying that the results of not taking the medication will be dreadful. And suppose you say to yourself, “It won’t be that bad, and that medicine costs a fortune, so I won’t take it.” By disobeying him, you are displaying a lack of confidence by doubting his words. You lack faith in your doctor. The same is true with Doctor Jesus. Faith in Jesus means having confidence in His sayings, causing you to obey them. Faith produces obedience.

Disobedience reveals unbelief, a lack of faith. What can you say about a so-called “faith” that does not bring works of obedience? By my definition, it’s not faith because faith includes confidence in Jesus’ statements about God’s requirements. But the apostle James says that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Can dead faith save you? James asks this rhetorical question in verse 2:14, and the answer is “no”.

Read James 2:14-26. It forcefully tells you that faith must produce good deeds.

The promises of imputed righteousness and eternal life given in the New Testament apply only to those with faith in Jesus. Given that obedience to His words always follows faith in Jesus, we know that if a “believer” is disobeying Jesus, he will not receive eternal life. Therefore, to receive salvation, you must repent; you must stop sinning. This fact is stated in Acts 2:38, James 1:21 and 5:20, and II Corinthians 7:10.

Satan has redefined faith or belief as “agreement with facts about Jesus”. Such facts usually include His virgin birth, being the Son of God, dying for our sins, etc. As James 2:19 points out, even the demons have that kind of faith — and they are destined to hell. Such dead mental “faith” will not save the demons, nor will it save you. Also, many churches teach that all you need to do is “come to Jesus,” which is true in a broad sense, but its vagueness doesn’t tell you that you must have confidence in Jesus, and thus must obey Him.

You can ask God to increase your faith in Him. Romans 12:3 says, “… as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith,” and in its list of gifts of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:9 says, “to another faith by the same Spirit ….” These verses tell us that faith is a gift from God, which tells us we can pray for more of that gift of faith.

Knowing this biblical definition of faith enables you to understand John 5:24, which says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” If you believe God and the words He gave Jesus, then you are confident that those words are true, and thus you know that sin will put you in Hell (Matthew 5:30), causing you to obey God’s laws, bringing you everlasting life.

Remember, faith and belief are confidence in God and His words, so you believe His words about rewards and punishments, causing you to obey God’s moral laws and Jesus’ commands.

“Grace”

I discussed grace earlier, so I’ll add some insights here, starting by repeating the definition of grace:

Grace is “God’s help in pleasing Him”
— or simply —
“God’s help.”

This definition covers most uses of the term “grace” I see in the New Testament. Defining grace as “God’s favor” is more comprehensive, but is too vague to be practical as it doesn’t say how the favor affects us. Defining it as “unmerited favor” is equally vague, and also gives the false impression that the favor is unconditional, when in fact it’s usually conditional upon having faith that produces obedience. “God’s help” is specific (not vague) and covers most of the Bible’s usage of the term “grace” well. In addition, it agrees with the New Testament’s definition of grace:

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “… and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” … (II Corinthians 6:1-2)

This passage tells us that grace is provided in the form of help. As mentioned earlier, God dispenses His grace (help) in several ways:

Forgiveness,
Strength to resist sin,
Abilities and power needed for serving God.

The context of many references to grace in the New Testament does not indicate a particular form of grace, such as “grace to you” and similar salutations. But some verses do indicate a form of grace, and I quote some of those in the discussion below to illustrate some common forms of grace.

⊳ Forgiveness.

That having been justified by His grace … (Titus 3:7)

being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24)

The moment you start having faith in Jesus, God gives you grace in the form of forgiving your past sins (Romans 3:25). There is a limitation on this forgiveness: Faith in Jesus means you are confident in His teachings, including those saying you must stop sinning. So if you don’t stop your known sins, you don’t have faith in Jesus, and the verses quoted above don’t apply to you, leaving you without forgiveness.

⊳ Strength to resist sin.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2)

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Although the word “grace” is only mentioned in the first scripture above, they all describe a form of divine help, which thus qualifies as a form of grace. The Old Covenant did not help you resist sin, but the New Covenant does. Let’s thank God that, because of this form of grace, we cannot be forced to sin.

⊳ Abilities and power needed for serving God.

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. (Luke 2:40)

And great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4:33)

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. [The context is the gifts of the Spirit]. (Ephesians 4:7)

…see that you abound in this grace also [The context refers to giving money]. (2 Corinthians 8:1-6)

To me … this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8)

God helps us to serve Him, including gifts needed for various forms of ministry.

By grace God first draws you to Himself. Then by grace He forgives you when you start having faith in Him. Then by grace you overcome sin. Then by grace you can minister in whatever capacity He desires for you. Thus, we are saved by grace from beginning to end.

Satan has redefined grace to be only forgiveness, and not divine help in pleasing God. You might have even heard that the letters g-r-a-c-e stand for “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” And it’s taught that we are now in a “state of grace.” These doctrines are false. Neither the phrase “state of grace” nor that concept are in the Bible.

Hyper-grace. A similar diabolical doctrine is that grace forgives all our sins, past, present, and future. The only true part of hyper-grace is forgiveness of past sins, and even that part is false for believers who lack the kind of faith that produces obedience. The rest of hyper-grace is false, because the Bible never says God forgives our present and future sins. Remember Hebrews 10:26. But God grants one exception on the condition that (1) the sin was not premeditated (deliberate), and (2) we stop that sin. Teachers of hyper-grace are encouraging Christians to sin by removing their fear of God’s punishment. They “turn the grace of our God into lewdness” (Jude 4). Michael L. Brown wrote the definitive book refuting hyper-grace titled “Hyper-Grace”. Robert B. Thompson wrote two articles refuting it: Grace and Its Perversion and Grace — A Destructive Concept.

A popular diabolical doctrine is the perversion of Ephesians 2:8-9.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Satan has changed this to mean, “by unconditional forgiveness you have been saved through mental belief, not due to any good behavior. Thus, good behavior isn’t necessary, so go ahead and sin.”

Salvation requires repentance (resolving to stop sinning) (Acts 2:38; James 1:21 and 5:20; II Corinthians 7:10). Before our salvation, our good works were mixed with sins, so we cannot be saved by those good works. Knowing this, the true meaning of Ephesians 2:8-9 is, “It was with divine help (grace) that you were saved by repenting and obeying, due to your confidence in Jesus. That was not by your will-power; it is the gift of God, not of deeds (due to past sin), so stop bragging about how righteous you are!”

Apparently, after repenting of their sins, the Ephesians were living righteously and boasting about it. Paul reminded them that they have no grounds for boasting because they were living righteously by divine power instead of their own power; that’s why the conclusion of this verse is “lest anyone should boast.” Satan ignores that conclusion because it doesn’t fit his lie. Ephesians 2:8-9 is an injunction against pride; it is not saying that grace is unconditional forgiveness.

Here is another diabolical doctrine: “God gave us strict laws that we cannot keep, such as the Sermon on the Mount, to show us our need for forgiveness through the Savior’s blood.” This is yet another satanic doctrine that subtly says that it’s okay to sin. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) indeed contains strict laws. Examples include loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, and being perfect as the Father is perfect. Keeping these stricter laws appears hopeless, and it would be hopeless in our own human strength. But God also supplies us with more grace under the New Covenant which empowers us to keep the stricter laws. Thus, we can obey God’s laws with His help (grace).

“Imputation”

“Imputation” is how God regards you. Paul speaks of imputed righteousness, meaning that God regards you as righteous. He also refers to imputing sin, so imputation goes both ways.

When does God impute righteousness? When you believe in Jesus (Romans 4:11, 4:24). But Satan (and most preachers) won’t tell you that belief causes you to obey God and stop sinning (repent). Thus, we can equivalently say that God imputes righteousness to you when you repent.

When does God impute sin? If you sin, God will not always impute that sin to you; He will not always count it against you (Romans 5:13). The Bible tells us that God will impute a sin to you only on these conditions:

You knew the action was wrong — a sin (Romans 5:13).
You did it deliberately, intentionally (Hebrews 10:26).

Satan teaches that imputed righteousness is a perpetual forgiveness of all past, present, and future sins, including deliberate sins, making it an excuse to sin.

Actually, imputed righteousness is a fresh start, the forgiveness of past sins, granted by God after you repent. It clears the guilt of your past when you decide to stop sinning (repent). But then, faith must cause you to obey Jesus’ commands, causing you to live righteously. Remember 1 John 3:7: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous …” (emphasis mine). To keep imputed righteousness, you must keep practicing actual righteousness out of obedience from faith in Jesus.

“Justification”

Justification means that God regards you as just, as righteous. In Romans 4:5-6, one sentence contains the phrases “justifies the ungodly” and “imputes righteousness”, applying them to the same person, suggesting that justification is the same as imputed righteousness. Perhaps theologians can find subtle differences between them, but in practice, you can regard justification and imputed righteousness as synonymous. For more details, refer to Imputation above.

“Law”

Near the beginning of this article, I defined “law” as follows:

A law is a constraint on our behavior, with a penalty for violating it.

The short phrase, constraint with penalty, is easy to remember.

The New Testament’s usage of the word “law” is similar to “works” in that it usually refers to the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament. But it sometimes refers to God’s moral laws as well, so you must determine the kind of law from context.

Satan teaches us that “there is no law but the law of love”, and this is technically true (refer to Romans 13:8-10). The problem is we don’t know what love is. Our western culture thinks that love means good feelings toward others, but with God it means caring for others with our actions. If we care with our actions, then we are fulfilling God’s moral laws. But if we think of love as good feelings, then this doctrine leaves the impression that God doesn’t care about our actions, thus giving the impression that sin won’t bring us pain. The truth is that God requires that our actions obey His moral laws.

Here are two verses in Romans regarding law that are only a few sentences apart, and yet they appear to contradict each other:

the doers of the Law will be justified (Romans 2:13)

by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified (Romans 3:20)

How can you reconcile these two statements? Most Bible teachers don’t. Instead, they fasten on their favorite verse, and ignore the other. This is a path to deception, because such a person is rejecting God’s word. The correct response is to dig deeper and pray. In addition, it helps to realize two things about the writings of the apostle Paul. First, his writings are difficult to understand, as Peter noted when he remarked that “…in which are some things hard to understand…” (II Peter 3:16). Second, as the above two verses reveal, Paul relies heavily on context.

The above two verses can be reconciled by a careful study of their contexts. The first verse refers to the fact that God judges those who are ignorant of His law based on their conscience, which is a form of moral law which can be kept fully. The second verse refers to attempting to be saved by trying to keep the entire Law of Moses, both its ceremonial and moral laws, which cannot be kept fully due to its lack of grace, as Romans chapter 7 explains. We must be very careful and prayerful when studying Paul’s writings.

In fact, II Peter 3:16 (partially quoted above) goes on to say regarding Paul’s writings, “…which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction.” Many of today’s false teachings are based on twisted perversions of Paul’s writings. With diabolical help, theologians have ignored Peter’s warning, to the destruction of both themselves and those who follow today’s doctrines. They are fulfilling this prophesy in I Timothy 4:1: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” Today’s perversions of Paul are the teachings of demons. These demonic perversions include all of the doctrines listed here in the section titled “The Loss of Law” above, as well as the diabolical redefinitions of terms such as grace, faith, belief, etc. described in this section. You are surrounded by cunning lies. Be careful.

Here is a cunning doctrine: “Those verses referring to laws and penalties in the New Testament are for the Jews. They are Jewish ground, and do not apply to us Gentiles (non-Jews). The Jews get laws. We get forgiveness.”

This doctrine is not in the Bible. The New Testament does not differentiate between Jew and Gentile, except when Jesus referred to Gentiles as “dogs.” The Bible states that God is equally willing to graft both Gentiles and Jews into the olive tree (Romans 11:17-24). It also states that God has broken down the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, and made “one new man” out of both (Ephesians 2:14-15). Paul states twice that “There is neither Jew nor Greek…” (Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11). From these verses, we see that God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. There is no Jewish church and Gentile church (that’s another popular error). There is only one church. It consists of Jews and Gentiles, and God does not treat either race differently. So being strict on the Jews and easy on the Gentiles is an antisemitic error. Note that this false doctrine contains the common sign of error that I mentioned earlier: It implies that sin will not bring you pain.

“Lord”

A lord is a man who must be obeyed. He is often a king.

You are probably in the habit of overlooking the word “lord” when you read “Lord Jesus” in the Bible. I suggest mentally changing that to “Jesus, who must be obeyed.” Doing so will remind you and emphasize that He is the lord of lords who must be obeyed.

Satan uses the word “lord” as a meaningless title that’s ignored. But using “lord” correctly reveals the true meaning of some passages, such as Romans 10:9,10, which says, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus … you will be saved.” Using “lord” correctly reveals that Paul is saying, “If you are obeying Jesus and telling people about Him, you’re saved.” But Satan has used “lord” as a title to claim that this verse means you can merely vocally confess Jesus and be saved, without obeying Him.

Truth or title? Satan uses “lord” as an empty title; you must use it as the truth, and live it — by obeying Him.

“Repentance”

Repentance means to change your mind about your behavior. Then your behavior must change, like a car making a U-turn. You must resolutely decide to make a U-turn in your behavior, and then you must do it. Repentance is your firm decision to change, and the change itself. Repentance means reversing your will and behavior. You must decide to stop the sin, and then stop it.

Satan has redefined repentance to mean feeling sorry or regretful about a sin. Even some dictionaries define repentance as a feeling of regret, which it is not. But my 1961 dictionary defines it correctly. Feeling sorry might not help because you can feel sorry about a sin without deciding to change your behavior. The good news is that you can repent of fornication or lying, for example, without any feelings at all. That’s true of me. I never felt sorrowful or regretful; I felt nothing. But I was concerned, so I changed.

Instead of feelings, God requires that you (1) firmly resolve to never again commit the sin, and then (2) do whatever it takes to stop sinning. In Matthew 5:30, Jesus tells you to cut off your hand if necessary to stop sinning, because the alternative is hell. Hence the resolve to never sin again.

“Righteousness”

The word “righteousness” might be distasteful to you because Satan has associated it with the arrogant self-righteous attitude found in some religious people. Try to push that impression out of your mind, because righteousness has this simple meaning:

Right behavior.

That’s all. It refers to common-sense right behavior, such as honesty, truthfulness, sexual faithfulness, and so on.

There are many verses in the Psalms and Proverbs about righteous people, and from them we can determine what righteousness is. Here are some examples:

The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. (Psalm 37:21)

The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. (Psalm 37:30)

A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10)

A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame. (Proverbs 13:5)

The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. (Proverbs 15:28)

Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him who speaks what is right. (Proverbs 16:13)

The righteous man walks in his integrity. (Proverbs 20:7)

From these verses emerge a picture of what a righteous man is. He is generous, merciful, truthful, wise, and has integrity. I summarized these traits as “right behavior”.

Righteousness is obedience to God’s moral law. Most of us love righteousness and want others to treat us righteously.

“Saved”

A word-study of “save”, “saved”, and “salvation” reveals that the New Testament uses this word with the following meanings:

Deliverance: Delivered from harm or God’s punishment;
Reward: Rewarded with eternal life in a resurrected body in the kingdom of God;
Both of the above.

As mentioned above, the reward is not Heaven. Here are examples of the three usages above:

When Jesus was on the cross, the religious leaders said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save” (Matthew 27:42). This taunt referred to #1: deliverance — deliverance from diseases and demons for the “others”, and deliverance from the cross for “Himself”.
Then others said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him” (Matthew 27:49). They also referred to #1: deliverance (from the cross).
Regarding the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom, the disciples replied, “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25). This reply refers to #2: reward (of entering the kingdom).
Paul stated, “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (II Thessalonians 2:10). He referred to both #1 and #2: deliverance from perishing and obtaining the rewards.

As you are reading the New Testament, you can change “saved” to one of “delivered”, “rewarded”, or both, giving you an intuitive sense of the meaning.

I suspect that “saved” broadly meant “success” to the Jews of Jesus’ day. Success in pleasing God by overcoming sin and behaving righteously. Success in thus obtaining God’s rewards. Thus, success was composed of eternal life through the bodily resurrection, and entrance into the kingdom of God.

Salvation is also in the past, in the present (a process), and in the future. All three are true of us.

Past:
For we were saved in this hope… (Romans 8:24)
For by grace you have been saved through faith… (Ephesians 2:8)
When we started serving God, with faith in Jesus, we were imputed as righteous and delivered from committing the sins we repented of, enabling us to live righteously, so that we have been pleasing to God.
Present process:
…but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:18)
…fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved… (II Corinthians 2:15)
Presently, we war against temptations, overcoming them by grace (i.e., God’s help) through prayer, and thus are being strengthened and delivered from sinning.
Future:
But he who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
…we shall be saved in the same manner as they. (Acts 15:11)
At the end of this age, we who overcome will be rewarded by being raised at the resurrection of rulers and enter the kingdom, the culmination of salvation.

“Sin”

Sin is an action or intent that displeases God; that is, it violates His moral law.

Satan makes the standard for our behavior either too low or too high. It’s too low when Satan whispers, “It’s okay because everybody’s doing it, so go ahead.” He is encouraging you to sin by claiming that sin won’t bring you pain. It’s too high when Satan claims that insignificant things are sin. This is the trap of false conviction of sin described earlier.

Also, Satan will claim that temptation is sin. If you are tempted to sin, but don’t commit the physical act, have you sinned? After all, Jesus said that “whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Does that mean that being attracted to the opposite sex is sin? No.

I believe God’s principle is this: If you intended to sin but were blocked by circumstances, then you have sinned in God’s sight because you chose to violate His law. But if that’s not true of you, be at peace, because temptation is not sin. However, don’t foolishly walk into tempting situations. And remember to pray each day, “do not lead us into temptation” (Matthew 6:13).

I have also heard foggy teaching that confuses hurt feelings with sin. Having your feelings hurt is not a sin. Hurting another person’s feelings is not necessarily a sin. In fact, telling someone a painful truth that hurts his feelings might be doing him a favor, and would thus be a righteous act.

“Works”

Note that “works” is often translated as “deeds”, which is its modern synonym. For brevity, I only use the term “works” here. Satan says “works” refers to righteous behavior, and because we are not saved by works, we are not required to behave righteously. I prove otherwise below. My exhaustive examination of the use of the word “works” in the New Testament shows that it is used in the following ways:

“Good works” always refers to righteous actions. An example is Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works ….”
When Paul wrote “works of the Law,” he was always referring to hopelessly trying to keep the entire Law, both the moral and ceremonial laws, by fleshly will-power instead of by grace (God’s help). For example, Paul wrote that, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Romans 3:28, ESV).
If neither case above applies: In a few places in Romans, Paul wrote “works” as a shorthand for “works of the Law.” An example is Romans 3:27, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Whenever Paul contrasts works and faith, the “works” means “works of the Law” (described in the case above).
If no case above applies, then “works” refers to all our actions. For example, in Revelation chapters 2-3, Jesus says “I know your works” to each of the seven churches, referring to their actions.

How do we know that “works of the Law” in Paul’s writings refers to the entire Law? In Galatians 2:16-3:10, Paul provides the following specific examples of “works of the Law”: observing special days (Galatians 4:10), and circumcision (Galatians 5:2). These are ceremonial laws that the Galatians were observing in order to be saved, and that Paul was objecting to. And the Galatians were certainly attempting to keep the moral laws as well, because they were trying to keep the entire Law. Notice the use of this expression in Romans:

Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)

The phrase “for by the Law is the knowledge of sin” refers to the hopelessness of keeping the moral laws without divine help (grace). The Galatians were using the ceremonial laws as a substitute for grace, and thus breaking some moral laws due to the lack of grace in the Law. We conclude that “works of the Law” refers to vainly trying to keep the entire Law.

A good example of faith versus works starts with Romans 3:27-28. Verse 27 asks “Of works?” Verse 28 states “…one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law,” associating “works” in verse 27 with “works of the Law” in verse 28, telling us that “works” refers to obeying the entire Law. This context of “works” extends into chapter four. In Romans 4:2-3, Paul states that “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” Because “works” signifies the entire Law in this context, Paul is saying that Abraham was justified by faith (and the resulting obedience) and not by keeping the Law.

Both Jesus and Paul used the rhetorical technique of making extreme or impossible statements to emphasize a point, making me suspect that this technique was common in their day. I use Abraham in the last example below.

In Luke 9:25, Jesus asked, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” It’s impossible to gain the whole world. His point was that gaining wealth is not worth the resulting damnation.
In Romans 3:10, Paul quoted from the Old Testament, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” followed by supporting quotations. That was true of Israel at that time in history, but Paul applied it to everyone, overlooking the fact that many people were righteous, such as the parents of John the Baptist. Paul’s extreme language stressed the point that everyone has sinned.
In I Corinthians 7:18, Paul wrote, “Let him not become uncircumcised.” But it’s impossible to become uncircumcised. His point to the Corinthians was to remain as they are.
Regarding the discussion in this section, the Law of Moses did not exist in Abraham’s day, so Abraham could not have been justified by works of the Law. That fact strengthens Paul’s point to the Romans — that we are saved by faith and not by observing the entire Law.

Some Gentile Christians in Paul’s day were trying to obtain salvation by obeying the entire Law (“works” in the context of Romans chapters 3-4), and Paul emphatically taught that that’s not possible; we must instead have faith in Christ.

Remember, faith is confidence in Christ and in His words that causes us to obey them. Therefore, if we lack the works of obedience to Jesus, we are not saved. God requires these works, but not the works of the ceremonial laws. Above, I mentioned that God said “I know your works” to all seven churches addressed in Revelation, referring to their actions. God requires works of righteous behavior by obedience to the moral laws.

Now that we have the proper definitions of faith and works, we can understand the difference between them.

Satan teaches that we are saved by a mental belief in facts (faith), and not by righteous behavior (works).
The Bible teaches that we are saved by obeying Christ out of confidence in Him (faith), and not by trying to obey the Law (works) by will-power.

Satan’s doctrine implies that sin won’t bring you pain, whereas the scary truth in the Bible pushes you into righteous behavior.

Not Under the Law

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

¹⁷…so that you do not do the things that you wish.
¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. (Galatians 5:17-18)

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the Law were working in us to bear fruit for death.
⁶But now we have been released from the Law … so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the Law. (Romans 7:5-6, CSB)

Christians often use the underlined phrases above as an excuse to sin, believing that God is imposing no laws on them. When Paul wrote these phrases, he was not referring to the moral laws; he was not saying the moral laws were nullified.

Released from What Law?

In the passages above, exactly what law are we released from? What law are we not under? Three facts give us the answer:

1: These passages cannot be referring to the moral laws because release from them would mean God approves of sin, which would violate many scriptures such as those listed in Scriptures Supporting the Split and I refuse to wreck my future. Without the moral laws, most of the remainder of the Law is the ceremonial laws, which is what Paul would have had in mind when he wrote “not under Law” and “released from the Law.”

2: Paul provided examples of laws Christians were released from. They include circumcision (Galatians 5:2), observing special days (Galatians 4:10), and foods, drinks, festivals, new moons, and sabbaths (Colossians 2:16). All of these rituals are ceremonial laws, revealing that the ceremonial laws have been nullified.

3: The cultural aspect leads us to the same conclusion. In the vision of the great sheet with animals (Acts 10:10-16), Peter three times objected to eating ceremonially unclean animals, revealing that Peter was devoted to observing the ceremonial laws. In today’s terminology, he was an orthodox Jew. This and other clues, such as the riot at the temple, tell us that Jewish society of that day was largely orthodox. In an orthodox culture, the most conspicuous feature of the Law of Moses would be its ceremonial laws. Sacrificing animals and observing the Sabbath and other special days are conspicuous activities. Thus, when people in that culture heard the phrase “not under the Law,” it would have brought to mind the ceremonial laws and not the moral laws.

Paul used the phrases “released from the Law” and “not under the Law” in his epistles to the Christians in Rome and Galatia, which were Gentile (non-Jewish) cities. So we would not expect them to be familiar with Jewish culture. However, in Romans, Paul wrote “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the Law…” (Romans 2:17) and “I speak to those who know the Law” (Romans 7:1), and chapters 2-7 are devoted to explaining the differences between the two covenants. In addition, the purpose of the entire epistle to the Galatians was to convince them to be justified by faith in Christ instead of by ceremonial observances. Thus, we know that both the Roman and Galatian Christians had learned about and were influenced by orthodox Judaism. So in their minds, the phrase “not under the Law” would mean the ceremonial laws.

Based on the above three facts that (1) nullifying the moral laws would permit sin, (2) all of Paul’s examples of nullified laws are ceremonial, and (3) orthodox culture focused on the ceremonial laws, we must conclude that the phrases “released from the Law” and “not under the Law” referred to only the ceremonial laws in the minds of both Paul and his readers. So the moral laws are still in effect under the New Covenant, and the above passages do not excuse sin.

The same root Greek word for “Law” (nomos) is used in Romans 6:14, Romans 7:6, Romans 8:4, and Galatians 5:18. But Romans 6:14 and 7:6 exclude the moral laws whereas Romans 8:4 includes them. Furthermore, Romans 2:15 refers to only the moral laws. Thus, Paul’s use of the word “Law” can refer to:

only the ceremonial laws;
only the moral laws;
both (the entire Law).

So when we see the word “Law” in Paul’s epistles, we must examine the context to determine which he was referring to.

The context of the passages quoted above indicate that the word “Law” in them refers to the ceremonial laws. Why would Paul emphasize our freedom from the ceremonial laws?

Bondage

In all three passages quoted above, Paul was addressing the problem of bondage to sin in which a person sins when overpowered by temptation. In Romans 6:14, the phrase “sin shall not have dominion over you” reveals that dominion (bondage) of sin is the problem. In Galatians 5:17, the phrase “you do not do the things that you wish” is a description of sinning against one’s will, which is bondage to sin. In Romans 7:5, the phrase “sinful passions … bear fruit for death” describes bondage to sin.

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
³For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did … He condemned sin in the flesh
⁴that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:2-4)

Romans 8:3 says the Law was “weak through the flesh.” It was weak because the Old Covenant (contract) requires that the laws be kept by fleshly will-power without divine help (grace). But our will-power is too weak to overcome the powerful pull of sin, resulting in bondage to sin. The Law is a synonym of the Old Covenant, so Paul stated that the Law is weak.

Romans 8:3 contains the phrase, “For what the Law could not do.” What could the Law not do? Based on Romans 8:2 (the prior verse), we know that it could not free us from bondage to sin because the phrase “the law of sin and death” in that verse refers to bondage to sin, the sad result of trying and failing to obey the moral laws by fleshly will-power. Romans 7:7-24 describe this hopeless failure using the example of the law against coveting, calling this principle “the law of sin and death.” Romans 3:20 and 4:15 also imply that the Law leaves us in bondage to sin.

Deliverance

In contrast, the New Covenant provides divine help for overcoming sin. This help is called “grace” in Romans 6:14, and is administered through the Holy Spirit, as suggested in Galatians 5:18 and as stated in Romans 8:2. This grace allows us to keep “the righteous requirement of the Law” (Romans 8:4), meaning we have the power to obey the moral laws. Paul’s joyous conclusion in Romans 8:2 is that the Spirit has freed him from bondage to sin, so now he is able to obey the law against coveting, referring to his example in Romans chapter 7. Note that Paul is not rejoicing that he no longer needs to obey the moral laws in the Law. He is rejoicing that the New Covenant breaks bondage to sin, giving him the power to obey those laws.

But there are conditions on obtaining grace to overcome sin: We must walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:18), and we must have faith in Jesus (Acts 26:18; Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16) — the kind of faith that produces obedience (description of it).

¹⁸For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness,
¹⁹for the Law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope …. (Hebrews 7:18-19)

In addition to Romans, the above passage in Hebrews testifies of the “weakness” of the Law, and that it has been “annulled” because it “made nothing perfect.” The context of this passage is the mosaic priesthood, telling us the ceremonial laws were annulled and not the entire Law. “Made nothing perfect” and “on the other hand” both indicate that the “better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22) can make us perfect — perfect in the sense of delivering us from sinning and not merely forgiving it as the ceremonial Law did.

²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
³But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (Hebrews 10:2-4)

The phrase “take away sins” in Hebrews 10:4 is used as a restatement of “no more consciousness of sins” in verse two, and they mean just that — removal of bondage to sin.

Conclusion

The above discussion reveals what Paul meant by “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). He meant that:

To avoid sinning, we need not (hopelessly) try to obey both the ceremonial and moral laws by will-power, because the New Covenant discarded the ceremonial laws and provides divine power to keep the moral laws.

Note that (1) both covenants require that we keep the moral laws, and (2) the broader context indicates we must have faith in Christ and follow the Spirit.

Summarizing, Romans 6:14, Romans 7:6, and Galatians 5:18 tell us two important things:

We are still under the moral laws, but are not under the ceremonial laws. Thus, these passages cannot be used as an excuse for sin.
The Old Covenant leaves us in bondage to sin because it must be kept by flesh-power, and the New Covenant liberates us from sin because we keep the moral laws by Spirit-power.

Some Notes

The table below shows the law-related differences between the Old Covenent and the New Covenant, including the fact that the ceremonial laws were nullified under the New Covenant. This is the split in the Law discussed at length earlier, and verses supporting it are provided in section Scriptures Supporting the Split.

	Old	New
Must have faith in whom?	God	Jesus
Must obey moral laws?	Yes	Yes
Must obey ceremonial laws?	Yes	No
Source of power for obeying	Flesh (weak)	Spirit (strong)

Prominent ceremonial laws include the keeping of the Sabbath and special days, and circumcision. The Galatians were observing these, revealing that they were relying on the Old Covenant (Law) for justification and had abandoned the New Covenant (Christ), which is why Paul wrote the following rebuke:

² Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
³ And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole Law.
⁴ You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

Hebrews 7:18 states “there is an annulling of the former commandment,” which could be interpreted to mean the entire Law of Moses has been nullified. However, the discussion above tells us that only the ceremonial laws in the Law were nullified.

I John 3:5 says that Jesus “was manifested to take away our sins.” The context of this verse is discussing actual sin, so this verse is referring not to forgiveness, but to the removal of sin — sin is actually taken away and not merely forgiven — so that we need not and will not sin. Also, I John 3:8 tells us that Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil.” These works consist of sins committed by people. These works are destroyed when we obey God’s moral laws by the power of grace, which is possible only under the New Covenant.

Faith Versus Works

Earlier, I discussed this topic of faith and works as part of the definition of “works” click/tap here, but it’s a source of so much confusion in the churches that it deserves more explanation. Consider the following passage which is central to the confusion:

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” (Romans 4:5-8)

As discussed earlier, Romans 3:27-28 tells us that “work” in this discussion in Romans refers to keeping the entire Law. So this passage is telling us that we are saved by faith, starting with forgiveness of all past sins, instead of hopelessly trying to be justified by keeping (by our weak will-power) both the moral laws and the ceremonial laws such as the Sabbath, circumcision, dietary restrictions, feast days, etc.

Faith requires that we obey all the moral laws we know about. Otherwise, we are knowingly sinning, so the wrath of Hebrews 10:26-27 applies to us and not the forgiveness of Romans 4:5-8. We need divine help (grace) to keep the moral laws. Thus we cannot boast that we saved ourselves.

Boasting

We see that boasting is an issue with God because Paul mentions it three times in the discussion leading to Romans 4:5-8, in the following verses: Romans 4:2, Romans 3:27, and in Romans 3:19 which states “that every mouth may be stopped.” Ephesians 2:9 also mentions the issue of boasting, and all of these verses mention it in the context of grace and our behavior. I will speculate that such self-righteous boasting is related to Satan’s rebellion against God which he expressed by saying, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). I suspect that Satan and other high-ranking spirits have been boasting against God, and that they are trying to get man to join them in their rebellion. By boasting, you might be making yourself a god in competition with God, which He won’t tolerate.

Perhaps part of the reason that God allowed man to sin was to humble us and prevent us from boasting like Satan. We will never be able to boast about our righteous life, because we would have failed if God had not pulled us out of the sinful mud and helped us along the narrow path. So all of our righteous behavior in life was done by His grace (i.e., with His help, starting with forgiveness), eliminating boasting.

Always remember that God requires righteous behavior from us, and that we will suffer if we sin deliberately. Don’t fall into the trap of using a perversion of Romans 4:5-8 or any other passage as an excuse to sin.

Controversial Laws

A few laws given in the New Testament are controversial because they violate the norms of today’s western culture. For each controversial law discussed below, I discern whether its basis is culture or the law of God, including appropriate scriptures. That basis determines whether the given law applies in our day.

Does God forbid homosexual activity? Yes. Note that homosexual activity is properly called “sodomy”, and that transgender is sodomy plus mutilation. Sodomy is illegal under the Law of Moses, and carries the death penalty (Leviticus 20:13). This is a moral law, therefore God is still imposing it. In the New Testament, sodomy is condemned in Romans 1:26-27 and other verses. Clearly, God hates homosexual activity.

May a Man Marry a Divorced Woman? Yes and no. Jesus says in Matthew 5:32, “… whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” I believe God’s law underlying this rule is, “Take marriage seriously” (my words). Thus, if a woman divorced her husband for a minor reason, such as wanting more excitement, then marrying her will be the sin of adultery. On the other hand, if her husband was unfaithful, abusive, or abandoned her, then she is not at fault in God’s sight, and it’s acceptable to marry her.

Must wives submit to their husbands? Yes. Such submission is part of the curse God placed on mankind due to his sin, and the curse has not been lifted. Genesis 3:16 says to the woman, “… he shall rule over you.” Thus, God has decreed that a husband shall rule his wife.
In addition, I Peter 3:7 tells each husband to treat his wife well, otherwise God will not hear his prayers. Thus, husbands must not be selfish or abusive toward their wives.

May a woman manage men at work? Yes. Genesis 3:16 says that a woman’s husband rules her; it does not suggest that all men rule her. Thus, she may rule men outside the family. An example is Abigail, the wife of Nabal, commanding the family’s servants in I Samuel 25:19.

May a woman teach in church? Yes. Yet Paul wrote in I Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.” I was informed that in the culture of that day, a teacher ruled his students, so a teacher was actually a teacher-ruler. This would explain why the disciples and others called Jesus “Lord” early-on. Today, teaching and ruling are unrelated, so a teacher can convey information to people without ruling them. I suspect Paul did not object to a woman teaching per se, but objected to her ruling a man. If so, it’s acceptable for a woman to teach a man in the church.

May a woman pastor a church? No. Pastoring is a form of ruling, so a female pastor would be ruling the men in her church, violating I Timothy 2:12. And I see nothing in the context of I Timothy 2:12 suggesting that its injunction against women ruling men in church is cultural. In fact, Paul’s basis for forbidding women to rule men is given in I Timothy 2:13-14, which is that (1) Adam was created first, suggesting men are rulers, and (2) Eve was deceived and sinned, suggesting women are more prone to deception (which agrees with my observations). The facts given above are compelling enough to forbid women from pastoring. A woman may be a manager over a man in a company because she affects only his paycheck. But in church, a woman pastor could affect his eternal destiny. Paul says “no” to that.

Must a woman wear a head covering when praying in church? No. In I Corinthians 11:5-10, Paul strongly states that a woman must wear a head covering in church. But in I Corinthians 11:13, Paul asks, “Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?” The word “proper” is an appeal to the culture of the day, revealing that the basis of this rule is culture and not God’s law. Paul’s unwavering insistance on head coverings can be explained by his remark in I Corinthians 11:10, “… because of the angels.” This statement suggests that angels overseeing an assembly follow the culture of their day, and thus would regard an uncovered woman back then as a rebel. In our culture, neither people nor angels require head coverings.

May a man have long hair? Yes and no. Two notable examples in the Old Testament are Samuel and Samson. Hannah vowed that if God would give her a child (Samuel), then “no razor shall come upon his head” (I Samuel 1:11). An angel told the mother of Samson in Judges 13:5 that “no razor shall come upon his head.” Thus, God dictated that the man Samson would have long hair, and honored Hannah’s promise that Samuel would have long hair. Yet Paul wrote in I Corinthians 11:14, “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?” Thus, Paul’s basis is nature and culture, and not God’s law. This fact, plus God’s approval of the long hair of Samuel and Samson, makes us conclude that God does not mind long hair on a man.

However, today’s immoral and ignorant culture is confused about the two sexes (erroneously called “gender”), so we need to make the difference between male and female clear in our lives. Long hair on a man or short hair on a woman reduces the visual difference between male and female, so I recommend that men have short hair and women have long hair.

Must we pray the Lord’s Prayer by rote? No. The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew 6:9-13, and Jesus tells us to “Pray in this manner,” so some people parrot His words exactly. But two verses earlier, Jesus said “do not use vain repetitions,” so vain repetition violates the law of God. Rote prayers become vain repetition. Thus, in the Lord’s Prayer, I believe Jesus is giving us topics to pray about, and not a formula for rote prayer.

Nonetheless, God expects you to persist in prayer about something that bothers you, which requires repetition. Refer to the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:2-8) and the friend at night (Luke 11:5-8). Such prayer is not vain because your mind is active and your attention is on God.

Conclusion

Are we under any law? We Christians are often taught (or given the impression) that we are under no law. It is widely believed that God discarded the entire Law of Moses. That’s wrong. God discarded only part of that Law, nullifying only the laws that don’t concern morality. He retained and broadened the parts of the Law that express His nature, which are the laws of morality toward God and man. Thus, God split the Law. He requires that we keep the laws of morality in the Old Testament, and all the laws in the New Testament. If we deliberately break one, we will suffer God’s wrath (Hebrews 10:26-27), perhaps eternally.

To keep from overwhelming new Christians with a long list of laws, experienced Christians need to pare the list down to a reasonable length that includes all common sins. This list of New Testament laws given above is a good example.

Near the beginning of this article, I presented three paradoxes in the Bible that illustrate today’s confusion about God’s law. Before proceeding, I suggest that you scroll up and try to resolve those paradoxes yourself. Here are their resolutions:

Paradox: “Keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17) versus “not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
Resolution: Matthew 19:17 is referring to only the moral laws in the Law, and Romans 6:14 is referring only to the ceremonial laws. Those are different sets of laws.
Paradox: “…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21) versus “his faith is accounted for righteousness … God imputes righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:5-6).
Resolution: The “such things” in Galatians 5:21 refers to violations of God’s moral laws. Faith produces obedience to the moral laws, in contrast with “works” (of the Law) which refers to the ceremonial laws and the futility of keeping the entire Law, resulting in sin.
Paradox: In Galatians 5:18, the apostle Paul states that “you are not under the Law,” and then in the following verses he gives us a list of 16 laws we must keep.
Resolution: Galatians 5:18 is referring to only the ceremonial laws, but the list consists solely of moral laws.

Further reading. I have identified over 40 satanic lies regarding our behavior that are commonly taught in Christian churches, and I have exposed and refuted them in this article: Behavior Matters. In addition, Dr. Robert B. Thompson has written hundreds of books and articles based on the many Bible-truths that God revealed to him. All are available for free download here.

(“Are We Under Any Law?”, 4353, 20241115)

Romans 3:22	“… through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”
Romans 4:5	“… but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith ….”
Romans 4:20	“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith ….”
Galatians 2:16	“… we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ ….”
Hebrews 11:6	“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe ….”