The Righteousness of the Law Fulfilled in us

Romans 8:3-4  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard believers say, “Oh, I’m not under the law, but under grace!” Aside from the matter that Romans 6:14 is being taken out of context when it’s used this way – the “law” referred to here is not specifically the law of Moses, but rather the law of sin & death which came through Adam; see my explanation here — does that mean we are to disregard the law? I think, somewhat unfortunately, that too many believers come to that conclusion, whether they realize it or not. They similarly take another verse, Romans 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes, to reinforce the notion that Christ somehow did away with the law. Never mind that He himself said that he came to do no such thing. And please take no notice of the fact that the word “end” in this verse, or “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17 mean not to terminate but to consummate. Is a marriage terminated because it’s consummated? Of course not!

So then what are we to do with the law? Even if we were to keep it, that would not make us righteous, so what’s the point?

I think we’re missing the point entirely when we say things like that. The law was given so that we can know right from wrong. Or more importantly, from the viewpoint of restoring the love relationship between us and our Creator — which is what our salvation is really all about — the law was given so that we would know what our Lover likes and dislikes, loves and hates, accepts or rejects.

This is basic salvation 101 to say that we all needed Jesus to come to take away our sin, since we were completely incapable of doing so ourselves. You won’t find many Christians arguing that point. But what we do seem to miss a great deal of the time is that this isn’t just so we can be forgiven, but so we can have an opportunity to come into communion with a holy God. God cannot have communion was ungodliness. And we were incapable of godliness until Jesus came and removed the barrier. And now that the barrier is removed, we have to know what constitutes godliness in order to live in it. And there’s where we stumble. We tend at this point to wander off into some nebulous – or worse, religious — idea of what that is. Most of us have a pretty good idea of the basics — the nine* commandments are a good starting point – but most of us also carry a sense around with us that that’s not all there is.

And we’re right. That isn’t all there is. He wrote us a big, thick Book, and we ought to read it to discover what He wants, what He likes, and what He hates. And, if we’re honest, we’ll admit that we haven’t exactly done that either. Even if we are careful to do the basics, we always feel like there’s something missing. But – thanks be to God – He doesn’t leave us there, any more than He leaves us in utter sin. After we come through the Door, Jesus, into the sheep pen, the Shepherd begins to raise us up into what He wants us to be, day by day. But we lose track of what He’s doing when we don’t go back to the Book He wrote to see what’s next. And we miss most of the Book when we throw out huge chunks of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy because we think that’s just “the law of Moses.” Which brings me back to the title of this post: if we walk day by day in the way God leads us, we can fulfill all of His desire. Not just the basics, but the “righteousness which is of the law” — the whole enchilada.

—————————————————————————

* I know; it’s supposed to be ten commandments, but most of Christianity (as far as I can tell) kind of skips # 4: remember the seventh day to keep it holy, so that leaves nine. Most of us are OK, though, with thou shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal, etc.

Perfection

That’s a big word. And it’s talked about a lot in Christianity, since it’s a major topic in the Bible. But most of the time, you hear the great preachers saying it doesn’t really mean that.

So then – it means what? Some say “maturity.” Some say “completion.” Some say “equipping.” What the!?! You can take all the Greek you want & turn it inside out & backwards, but when Messiah himself defines it as simply being perfect as the Father is perfect, you just can’t wriggle out of it.

(Yeshua sat down with his talmidim and had a nice, long talk with them, outlining his requirements for their behavior. His talmid Matityahu recorded it in his book of the gospel – see the end of chapter 5.)

I’ve been putting off this post for a long time, trying to think of some wonderfully erudite way of expressing this, but then I realized it’s really just as simple as Yeshua said it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of learned scholars saying that parts of the Bible don’t mean what they say, simply because they don’t want to deal with it. Accepting what the Bible says entails a great deal of personal responsibility, and if you don’t like that – too late!

And then the other comeback is something like, “Well, look at you – you’re not perfect.” Yes, I am not, but that doesn’t excuse either one of us, does it?

Now, if you will please excuse me while I go and deal with it.