The Law Is Not Binding On The Believer

Our last post ended on the note that God made only one covenant with the believer. And that God made that covenant with Abraham and all those who are Abraham’s seed but only by faith. As promised, we now want to consider the covenants that God gave after that Abrahamic covenant. We said then that it has something to do with the law. The main one is the Mosaic covenant, known as the ten commandments. It is now time to state categorically that the law Is not binding on the believer.

The Mosaic Covenant Law Is Not Binding On the Believer

Now, if you have spent all your years trying to obey all the commandments, that last statement is blowing your mind. Your entire Christian life consists of trying to keep to the laws and commandments of God. And that, for you, is an act of faith, seeing as you believe in God and that He is a just God. He is sovereign and therefore, He is to be obeyed, without controversy. Hearing here that the law is not binding on you as a believer sounds almost sacrilegious.

Not so, seeing as the bible makes a clear distinction between faith and law. Jesus said that you cannot have both in the same vessel. Trying to do that leads to catastrophe, both of the old as well as the new. If you think that Christianity is in a state of chaos now, that could be the reason. Faith and the law cannot coexist. We have been trying to amalgamate the law with faith, the old with the new. Scholars call it Judaeo-Christianity – how awful! 

Faith And The Law Cannot Coexist

Explaining the clear difference to His disciples, Jesus employed an analogy from a dressmaker. Patching an old garment with a new piece of cloth will destroy both. He stressed that if you want to make it to heaven via the keeping of the law, you will fail. Because, your legal righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, a clear impossibility. 

To make it even more stark, God sent the prophet Isaiah with a message. attempting to go in by the law lands you in a filthy-garment version of righteousness. And that righteousness is odious to God. Seeing as some in His audience were intent on law rather than faith, He had to make it as clear as daylight. Because you can keep the entire law but that will still not put you in right standing with God.

Keeping The Law Results In Filthy-Rag Righteousness

Why? Because by not going in as a believer, you have counted Jesus’ death as nothing. How that must hurt God, for those He was trying to help to throw his help back in His face. Nevertheless, He did not withdraw the assistance. He only made a demarcation with a “whosoever.”

We have a choice. You can try the filthy-rag path of righteousness, which is the keeping of the law. Or you can be the whosoever who accepts the gift of God – Jesus – by simply believing in Him. No one can be both. Even in politics, you have to choose sides. You cannot function in two political groups at the same time. Similarly, at one point, we were under the law or sold to sin, as the bible says, but now, we have been rescued.

As Believers, We Are Free From The Law

We changed sides, so to speak and now, we are free. Free with the freedom that Jesus obtained for us on the cross. In which party are you? The legal dirty-rag race? Or the faith righteousness. There is a choice to be made. And guess what, as soon as you choose faith in Jesus, the law becomes dead to you. And you become dead to the law, a theme we shall further explore next week.

For now, it is critical to bear in mind that the promise to Abraham of Jesus predates the giving of the ten commandments. And the reason it is critical for us to know that the Abrahamic covenant came before the Mosaic covenant is simple. Man fouled up the good which God did at creation. Therefore, He had to give some ground rules to keep us from destroying ourselves until Jesus could come.

Don’t Conflate The Law Not Being Binding On The Believer With Hyper-Grace

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul refers to the Mosaic covenant of laws as a school master. We are under it until Christ came comes. Once you have faith in Christ, the law is no longer binding on you. What could be sweeter? We graduate from our school master into faith. That immediately frees us from bondage to the law of the Mosaic covenant. You become a faith person and since the law is not binding on the believer, you are free.

That being said, please don’t hear me preaching hyper grace, which is a doctrine straight from hell. Once we graduate from the law and discover the freedom in Jesus, the real work begins. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is like graduating from college. You still have to have a job. Otherwise, you render your very graduation useless.

Put Your Freedom From The Law To Good Use

Similarly, once you graduate from law into faith, you have to put that salvation to good use. God says that unless you do that, He will remove your candlestick from its place. Even in the workplace, if you stop coming to work, your office will clean out your desk. You cannot say that because the law is not binding on the believer, you will simply stay at home.

No, God needs you in His vineyard, sharpening your tools and helping others. There is no place for resting on your oars – no hyper grace of once saved always saved. Somebody’s efforts brought you to graduation after all. Well, go out and bring someone else to graduation from the law into faith.

By letting you know here that the law is not binding on the believer, I am doing my part. You can do your part by tweeting this, posting it on your timeline and encouraging others to subscribe to our weekly blog.

The Palestinian Law Is Not Binding On The Believer

In case you have studied all the covenants, let us just mention the last one that the teachers list. For the sake of completeness, we refer to the lately-introduced Palestinian covenant. It is the most ludicrous of the so-called 9 covenants. Only the book of Deuteronomy writes about it. And you may know that Deuteronomy is simply a summation of the preceding books. It is also a localized covenant, like a few of the other covenants.

Whatever the teachers teach in order to try and impress you, you are free of the law. Since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, all you need do is to accept Jesus. As long as you are that person of faith, the law is not binding on the believer. In his letter to the Romans Paul gives us a great summary. puts it quite well. “You are not under law but under grace.”

Next week, we shall see how you can actually live above the law and still be legal. Ha!

God Bless you,