The Daily Word of Righteousness

Not Under the Law but Under Grace

But this {shall be} the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inner parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33)

The Christians are fond of saying that God has done away with the Law of Moses. They are correct in one sense but incorrect in another sense. The new covenant is not a doing away with the Law (the Torah) but the writing of the Law in our heart.

God never will do away with the moral law. The moral law is eternal, being of the Divine Nature of God. To alter the moral law in the smallest part would be to bring the worst of all calamities on the universe.

The Ten Commandments are a limited expression of the eternal moral law of God. The Ten Commandments are spiritual and perfect. Our adamic nature was born in sin and shaped in lawlessness and in no manner can conform to that perfect, spiritual law of God—the Ten Commandments.

How does God write His law in our hearts and minds? Christ is the Word, the Law of God. As we submit to the crucifixion through which the Lord guides us, Christ is formed in us. The Word is formed in us. The new covenant is formed in us. The eternal moral law, of which the Ten Commandments are a limited expression, is formed in us.

As death and life work in the Christian he begins to reveal the deeds of the law in his personality. It is not a case of escaping the law of God. Rather, it is a case of dying to Moses, being married to Christ, and bringing forth the fruit of union with Christ, which is righteous, holy, obedient behavior. The intent of the Law of Moses is righteous, holy, obedient behavior.

If a Gentile believer says to the Jewish person, I am not under the Law but under grace, he is not conveying the truth of the new covenant although he is quoting a verse from the Book of Romans.

The believer ought to be saying something like the following: "I am not attempting to keep the Ten Commandments in my own strength. I am submitting to death and resurrection so Christ, who is the Law, the Word made flesh, may be formed in me. I am not without law or else Christ would be the minister of sin. Rather, Christ, who Himself is the Law of God, is bringing forth a new creation in me—a creation that by nature keeps the eternal moral law of God."

The new covenant is not a doing away with the law of God but a bringing forth in us of Christ who Himself is God's eternal law. (from The Christian and the Ten Commandments)