Die to the Law!

Topics ...

What's the Big Fuss?

We Christians like to think that the law is a guide for our own behavior but we're quick to forget the other half of what the law says. We've been taught the Ten Commandments for years and would like very much to be able to say that we keep them --at least most of the time. But the commandments are only the first half of the law ...

Finalize the Cross

"Pick up your cross and follow me." That's what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 16:24. And it's because a believer's cross (denying our own selfish desires) is where the law comes to an end. The law was to lead us to Him for eternal life by showing us our sinful, dead condition. It's a message that He repeats many times, yet we hang on to the law as if it has some additional value for our lives. God has given us His Son Jesus to live in us so that we can be one with Him.

Why Not Just Do Anything We Want?

With everything being permissible, isn't it okay to do anything we desire? There aren't any consequences to worry about. So why not just do whatever is pleasing, even at the expense of hurting others? Paul answered this very same question when he saw it coming from the Roman believers.

Can We Still Use It?

Even if the law is completed (fulfilled), is it all right to at least use it as a guide to correct our behaviors? Sure! It's up to you if you want to put yourself under the law again. But realize that it's not consistent with what God states in His word. Remember, the law was only to bring you to Christ by showing your sinfulness. That's all the law can do --condemn you!

How Are We Supposed to Live?

By faith! ...We're back to the picture of picking up our cross. The penalty for each and every one of our sins has been fully paid by Jesus' death. Now God bases His relationship with you and me as His sons whom He accepts perfectly. There is no sin to stand in the way of our relationship with Him. God counts us as righteous because of our faith in Jesus. And there --at our cross, where we submit to Him and let Jesus take over-- is where we can begin to understand freedom. Until that point, our relationship with God is founded on fear of punishment for our shortcomings.

Are You Guided by the Law or by Faith?

There is no mixing of the law with grace. The law relies on what we do for God; grace relies on what God has done for us. Jesus used two parables to describe what happens when we try to mix them.

What's the Big Fuss?

But the commandments are only the first half of the law; the punishment is the other half. And there is only one punishment for breaking any of them. The law demands that if a person ever breaks even one of these, he is to be taken to the city gates and stoned to death! The wages of sin is death. There is no second chance nor substitution with an animal sacrifice. His death is the only acceptable payment.

The question to ask yourself is: Did Jesus pay for all of our sins or do we need to add to what He has done by His sacrifice?

The purpose of the law was to lead us to Jesus for eternal life (salvation).

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. (Romans 3:19)

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

The law was only a shadow of what God wants us to live by; the reality is in Jesus.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves. (Hebrews 10:1a)

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:17)

The law is weak because of sin.

But now that you know God-- or rather are known by God-- how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? (Galatians 4:9a)

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)


The law is obsolete.	By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)

The law can't cleanse us or make us perfect.

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19)

For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. (Hebrews 10:1a)


The law can't make us righteous; it only shows our sinfulness.	Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20)

The law is not for the righteous (in Christ we are righteous)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers ... (1 Timothy 1:9)


The law brings wrath (death) and those who are under the law are under a curse.	For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. (Romans 4:14) All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." (Galatians 3:10) He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Corinthians 3:6-8) If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (2 Corinthians 3:9)

The law makes us prisoners and enslaves us.	Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. (Galatians 3:23) Do you wish to be enslaved by [the law] all over again? (Galatians 4:9b)

The law gives sin its power!	For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. (Romans 7:5) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)

Did you notice that last verse from 1 Corinthians 15:56? Where does the power of sin in our lives come from? The power of sin is the law! Our fallen human nature is in constant rebellion to anything we think we're told to do or not to do (a law). Don't touch the wet paint. Don't watch that woman in the short skirt. Eat healthy foods, not sweets and especially not chocolate. That's the law at work. And what is our response to those laws? --You know very well: That spiritual battle begins again!

Finalize the Cross

"Pick up your cross and follow me." That's what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 16:24. And it's because a believer's cross (denying our own selfish desires) is where the law comes to an end. The law was to lead us to Him for eternal life by showing us our sinful, dead condition. It's a message that He repeats many times, yet we hang on to the law as if it has some additional value for our lives. The law puts our focus on ourselves with our own human efforts to please God (that's living by the flesh).

But faith puts that focus on Jesus. God has given us His Son Jesus to live in us so that we can be one with Him. According to Colossians 1:27, "Christ in us is our hope of glory." He's the one who has already made us holy, redeemed us, justified us, given us eternal life, given us everything we need for life and godliness and much, much more (that's living by the Spirit).


Jesus fulfilled the law for us.	But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. (Acts 3:18)


God nailed the law to a cross and forgave us all our sins (past, present, and future).	When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)


Christ is the end of the law for believers.	Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)

He abolished the law for believers; yet it remains intact for the lost.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

It's not the law, but God's kindness leads us to a changed way of living.

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? (Romans 2:4)

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ ... (Titus 2:11-13)

We have been released from the law so that we can serve God.

For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:5-6)

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)


There is no condemnation for believers --no penalty at all for our sins from God. (Remember, the only penalty for not following each and every law completely is death.)	Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)

Since Jesus fulfilled the law and became our high priest, he also changed the law.

For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. (Hebrews 7:12)

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need-- one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. (Hebrews 7:22-26)

Although there is no law with a penalty hanging over us anymore, we shouldn't be hurting others.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. "Everything is permissible for me" -- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" -- but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:9-12)

"Everything is permissible" -- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" -- but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)

Then we can do just anything we want to, right? After all, we've been forgiven of all of our sins, made holy, etc. That question was asked when the Roman believers of the first century assembled together. Read on to see how Paul answered this ...

Why Not Just Do Anything We Want?

As an example, saying something bad about someone --even if it is true-- is typically just a way to make us feel good and appear to be better or more important than that other person. And doing that is living a life based on the flesh or fallen human nature. On the contrary, living by faith is remembering that it's better to remain unnoticed by men (the one who is least on earth is greatest in heaven; and the one who is greatest on earth is least in heaven).


The law is to show sinfulness, but grace covers all of our sins.	The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)


So it's okay to do wrongs --isn't it?	What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1)


Of course not!	By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:2-3)


The punishment for each of these sins was death. But that's not the end of it.	We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:4)


The consequences of your sins were death; that has been paid for. With that out of the way, there is a new life possible.	If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:5-7)


Sin can no longer control a person who has received the punishment for it --death.	Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Romans 6:8-10)


Now recognize that you do have a choice. You are no longer under sin's power --it can't kill you again.	In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (Romans 6:12)

Now then, how do you want to live your life? The definition of sin is simple: "Anything that is not of faith is sin." When you follow those fleshly desires --as we do on many occasions-- who do you trust to have taken care of them? (Was His sacrifice sufficient for this latest sin?)

Realizing that you have done something that was hurtful (sinned against your brother or sister), go to them and do your best to make it right with them. And then quit repeating the same thing again and again!

The Law: Can We Still Use It?

Even if the law is completed (fulfilled), is it all right to at least use it as a guide to correct our behaviors? Sure! It's up to you if you want to put yourself under the law again. But realize that it's not consistent with what God states in His word. Remember, the law was only intended to bring you to Christ by showing your sinfulness. That's all the law can do --condemn you!

There are times I think that I'm doing good and other times I'm not. But my opinion is based on how I judge my own actions and thoughts. Those actions and thoughts are either righteous or fall short of what the law demands. And if I really want to judge those actions and attitudes accurately, then I'll have to use God's scale to measure how I'm doing. He says that "Everything that does not come from faith is sin."

Is God still be counting our sins against us (those things we think and do that do not come from faith)? Does He still see them or remember them? If God hasn't dealt with my sins and your sins once and for all, then we are still dead and we don't have eternal life --because the wages of sin is death!

The good news is that God did deal with our sins once and for all through the death of His Son on the cross. He then followed that up with making you and me into new creations! We are now "clothed in Christ" (Galatians 3:27); "our sins are behind His back to never to be seen again" (Isaiah 38:17); and those sins "are as far from us as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12)!

The penalty of sin was death (not an animal sacrifice or a measly prayer asking for His forgiveness) and Jesus took that penalty on Himself. At the time He came to live in you, you were joined with Him in His death so that you now have also joined in His eternal life --not life that only lasts until you sin again, but eternal life. Again, let's look into the Scriptures to see what God has to say about the law in a Christian's life.

The law is like the slave woman --cast her out of your life! And her son is like the works done under the law --cast him out too!

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar... But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:24, 30-31)

Die to the law in order to be fruitful and serve God!

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. (Romans 7:4)

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)

The law is contrary to faith --so die to it!

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. (Galatians 2:19)

The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." (Galatians 3:12)


Trying to keep the law alienates us from Jesus.	You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)

Now we are led by Spirit; we are no longer under the law.

Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (Galatians 3:25)

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:18)

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. (Romans 3:28)

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Do you see the choice? It's one or the other; there isn't a mixing of the two. Either live with your life's choices based on the law or based on faith. Which is it you are choosing to do?

How Are We Supposed to Live?

If we don't use the law to determine how to live, then how should we live? By faith! Galatians 2:20 says it so well: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

We're back to the picture of picking up our cross. The penalty for each and every one of our sins has been fully paid by Jesus' death. Now God bases His relationship with you and with me as His sons whom He accepts perfectly. There is no sin to stand in the way of our relationship with Him. God counts us as righteous because of our faith in Jesus. And there --at our cross, where we submit to Him and let Jesus take over-- is where we can begin to understand freedom. Until that point, our relationship with God is founded on fear of punishment for our shortcomings.

Living by faith, as expressed in the following passages, depicts a new way of life. It's trusting God to have made us righteous (completely pleasing to him) because we are "in Christ" and nothing else.


Faith brings forth the fruit of the Spirit.	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Faith in Jesus is what makes us righteous.	This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference ... (Romans 3:22) For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:17)

Faith brings grace and peace with God.	Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

It's by faith that we draw near to God.	The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19)

Now love is our new way of life; and it can only be accomplished when we abide in Christ.	Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10) So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

And that love unites us with Him and with one another.	"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Living by faith is the only thing that pleases God or even matters to Him.	Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." (Galatians 3:11) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6b) "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

Are You Guided by the Law or by Faith?

There is no mixing of the law with grace. The law relies on what we do for God; grace relies on what God has done for us. Jesus used two parables to describe what happens when we try to mix them. One dealt with a wineskin in Matthew 9:17 (also Mark 2:22, Luke 5:37-38). New wine was put into a wineskin to ferment, the skin stretched to accommodate both the wine and the expanding gas. However, that skin could only stretch a limited amount before breaking, so repeating the process by putting new wine in that same wineskin which had already been stretched would be destructive to both the skin and the wine --the skin would break and the wine would be lost!

He frequently used wine to symbolize His own blood --that is His life. So the analogy of the wineskin is so appropriate to show us about our relationship with Him. We are the wineskins and the law shows us our need for Him. After recognizing that need, we accepted His offer of new life and then He stretched us with Spirit's influence as that life matures. Having filled and stretched us, we have no need for the law to show us that we need Jesus. We have Him; salvation has already been accomplished --"It is finished!"

The second parable comes from Matthew 9:16 (also Mark 2:21, Luke 5:36) and is about a new piece of cloth used as a patch on an old garment. This one also describes our relationship with God. The garment, that's us again, starts out made from new cloth. As dirt became apparent on it and the need for washing became clear (the law pointed out our uncleanliness). We accepted Jesus as savior and He washed, sanctified and justified us (1 Corinthians 6:11). When we use the law to show our faults, then we think we need new patches (rededicating, rewashing, recommitting) every time that we sin. That one washing was sufficient because it was done by the Lord Jesus Christ. Continuing to use the law in a Christian's life is destructive --that patch will come loose and tear us apart.

The law is not based on faith. The law and faith are contrary to one another. Adding even the slightest bit of the law to a Christian's faith is like adding a bit of leaven to a batch of dough. It works its way through the whole thing ruining it all. Trying to keep the simplest part of the law destroys a life of faith! Serving God --bearing fruit for Him-- can only be accomplished when a Christian lives by faith.