946 - Breaking the Law
Friends: There is an eternal benefit to breaking the Law by dying in Christ … now. Publishing early this holiday weekend! Blessings and much happiness in the New Year. – Bob
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Spirituality Column #946
December 31, 2024
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Breaking the Law
By Bob Walters
“The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.”
Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:6
My favorite thing in Bible study is when a light switches on
illuminating an entirely fresh dimension to a familiar passage or theme.
I experienced one of those Friday listening to Colin Smith (Link)
on Moody Radio.
Smith was preaching from Romans 7:1-6, where Paul uses the
illustration of marriage lasting until death, the way the Law has authority
over us only as long as a person lives. “Do you not know … that the law has
authority over a man only as long as he lives? … by law a married woman is
bound to her husband … but if her husband dies, is released from the law of
marriage.” (Romans 7:1-2)
Smith pointed out that Paul, here, is not talking about
marriage, but about death and new life. And while the rest of the passage,
through verse 6, is plain as day about “dying to the law through the body of
Christ that you might belong to another” (v4), I had never considered my
own “death” in baptism, in the Spirit of Christ, as a death that broke
the Law and freed me from death. Hallelujah! That is the New Covenant in
Christ.
This was a “Eureka!” moment for me, settling a common – and one
of my earliest – questions about Jesus: “Why did He have to die?” Who hasn’t
wondered why God didn’t just wave his hand and “solve” sin, sparing Jesus and
mankind the pain of death?
Smith preached his message using the language of “nomos,”
the Greek word for the body of law governing human behavior. Nomos
(Romans 7:2) can refer to human government, but usually refers to God’s written
law, the law of Moses, etc., the laws that “bring death” (2 Corinthians
3:6). The authority of nomos lasts until we die … in Christ.
Jesus, in his perfect sacrifice and death, was freed from nomos
and rose to new life. The Gospel, the heart of Christianity, is that when we
are baptized into Christ, we first “die to sin” – i.e., break the Law/nomos
– and then “all who believe” (John 3:16) are fully “alive in
Christ.” Jesus died not to “pay a
price,” but to break our chains of death.
I know, I know. “Pay the price” is the controlling lingua
franca of modern Western, American, Reformed, and Dispensational
Christology. We can’t imagine a “free”
gift devoid of guilt but full of truth and promise. Culture says good requires a reward, bad
requires condemnation, and everything has a price. I.e., Jesus had to pay to
play. Oy.
Jesus brought a new game that relies on knowing Him in faith,
not owing the economy of an impossible nomos. Jesus does for us what we
cannot do for ourselves.
We all know that the Law was not abolished; it says so in
Matthew 5:17. That Jesus “fulfilled the law” doesn’t mean God was wrong.
It means that man was wrong about thinking he had no way of living except for
the Law/nomos. Then God sent Jesus.
The New Covenant in Jesus Christ is that His death doesn’t
erase the Law; it frees believers from it. Are we “new creations in Christ”?
Yes; we have His peace, truth, and are recommitted to and rejoined with the
Father in eternal life. The condemnation
and purposeless guilt tangled in the web of unfulfillable demands of nomos
are gone.
The lingering question of course is: What happens to nomos
for those who die an unsaved, mortal death?
Are they freed from it? Or, eternally absent from God? Yikes.
As for me, I’m thankful Christ’s Spirit breaks the law of
death and assures life.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
loves this annual time of renewal. Happy New Year.