The How-to for the Thou-shalt

“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” (Acts15:10,11).

The inability to bear the Law of Moses was not a dismissal of the Law. It was a rebuke to the idea that the Law can be kept without the Spirit of God filling the soul and impelling the soul to obedience.

“And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. 

When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 

And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. 

And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. 

But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” (Acts 15:1-5). 

Paul had revealed to the world the science of sanctification.

“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Rom. 7:4-6). 

He had explained his misadventures in obedience and the solution to his inability to keep the Law. He contrasted the law of sin and the law of the Spirit of Christ. The first was a law of death, and the second was a law of life. The life was in the knowledge of divine love seen in the Father and Son at the cross. The death was in the absence of the knowledge of divine love seen in the Father and Son at the cross.

The divine love was seen in the Father’s hatred of sin being as strong as death; but the His love for sinners being stronger than death. God’s hatred of sin was seen in how the Son would rather die than sin. And His love of sinners was seen in how both He and His Son would rather die than have sinners die. Learning of such love in the Godhead for appalling sinners, and the sinner receiving it and believing it, the Spirit of God through Christ enters the soul and causes trust in God to be born in the saint’s heart. Then the desire to obey God’s Law happens spontaneously, naturally. And they do obey.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:1,2). 

The Judaizers did not have this experience. All they had was a carnal attempt at obedience, an obedience that was motivated by their will power, and was fanatical hypocrisy. It was faked. It was forced out by only sinful, human power. It was filthy, unacceptable to the most holy God. He reads the heart, the mind, the soul. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).

Paul’s gospel was the science of obedience. The Law was not given so that we could get busy with obeying it. It was given to create offense, wrath, a disconcerting humbling from a veiled rebuke. Paul found that when conviction of sin presented itself to his conscience, getting down to business and keeping what he knew to be expected of him, didn’t bring forth obedience. It, rather, brought frustration, despair, anger, and worse disobedience than before he began his effort to keep the commandments.

This is every person's experience when he is confronted with a sin. The one not trusting in the love of God can never satisfactorily find success at obeying God. And such a sinner even knows his great attempt at obedience was a disaster, if he has any honesty. He has to be blind to not see that the spiritual aspect to obeying a holy commandment must result in a blessing to those who were recipients of his obedience.

“Jesus increased in ... favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52). Jesus was the most perfect example for righteousness and obedience. How did the Son of God find the power to overcome His mother’s sinful nature? Through “the bosom of the Father.” (John 1:18). Christ’s power to obey came through the endless, eternal embrace of God His Father. And He came to give us that example for us to have the same power to obey and be purified.

Paul learned this lesson in the school of hard knocks. We all must learn in the same school because no one can know this extremely evasive lesson except by responding to conviction with blind obedience, ignorant of the need of love from God in order to have obedience, and then falling on our face. We weren’t born with this knowledge, as Adam and Eve were, and like Jesus was. We all must gain that knowledge by the bumps and bruises we get by attempting to obey God's Law by our own effort and from our own fallen nature, which is an impossibility. And this knowledge is available to everyone who will put forth the effort to obey all that is plainly set before them when they look into the perfect Law of liberty.

And once stumbled and humbled by the letter of the Law, and healed and sealed by the Spirit of Christ, they are enclosed in the bosom of their reconciled God where the Son always was, is and will be. They are liberated from sin. So long as they are in the bosom of God with Christ, they are happy and they rule their lives. Individually, so long as they are in the bosom of God with Christ, they rule their own life and the life around them. So long as..., collectively, they rule the world. 

“So long as” is a very important aspect to this whole science of salvation. We often forget this, even while we are walking by faith. Our faith can disappear unannounced. Bells may not go off. The old nature then springs up again. Old habits and idols come back without our knowledge of their return. “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” (Heb. 12:15). That’s when trouble begins.

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto.” (Matt. 12:43-45).

Praying always is the only prevention for backsliding into to our old life, likened to a dog returning to its own vomit and a sow to its wallowing in the muck. Vigilance in prayer to keep Jesus’ love and care ever before us, and to maintain His grace on us, is our only hope to survive this world of demon-laid traps that can hold us prisoner all the way until the day of the Lord. No one, men or angels, can take us out of the Father’s and His Son’s hands, except ourselves. We need only to end our thoughts of Jesus, and Satan starts taking back his lost captives. He never sleeps. He is ever on the prowl. Life can be hectic, work can be busy and stressful. But, while the Spirit has our minds nothing can ruin our work day or the work we produce for our employer. Satan can’t take us back unless we allow business to take our souls away from Jesus, and our thoughts from our Father’s goodness. The “exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7) are our hope and stay.

“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7). While the Christian is remembering Christ’s oath to forgive penitent sinners and His everlasting covenant with them, then Jesus will give him the desires of his heart. “His delight is in the law of the LORD and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Psa. 1:2,3).