If we ask the question outright, 'Is Jesus enough?' we probably feel the answer should be, 'Yes, of course!' However, we can sometimes feel that we are meant to keep the Law as well; or at least parts of it.
In Paul's writings, he sometimes asks the questions his opponents will ask. Today we call this kind of argument a straw-man argument. This means saying something the person didn't say as if they had said it and then attacking that. One of these questions is, 'Is the Law sinful?' (Rom 7:7). I'm sure you can hear his opponents saying, 'So, you're saying the Law is sinful?!'
Paul makes his answer very clear, 'Certainly not!' The problem isn't with the Law at all. The problem is with us. We cannot keep the Law. Remember, if we break the smallest part of the Law we have broken the whole Law, (Mat 5:19 & James 2:10).
'For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them."' Gal 3:10
Misunderstanding the Law
To the religious Jews of Jesus' day and today, they did not see the Law as sin and death, they claimed they saw it as life. They had made the mistake of thinking that they could find salvation and righteousness in keeping the Law.
We can see why someone would consider the Law to be life. Moses literally says that he is laying before them life and blessing, and death and curses (Deut 30:15). But we can't make blanket statements. There are nuances. Moses is talking to the nation of Israel. If they come under the covenant and keep it they will be blessed, but if they break it they will be cursed. Whereas, Paul is speaking as an individual pursuing righteousness and justification:
'Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.' Rom 3:20
'But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction.' Rom 3:21-22
So, our Justification was testified by the Law and the prophets but the justification itself is not from the Law, it comes apart from the Law.
If we want a clear verse where Paul refers to the Law as death, he literally says in Rom 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death."
He also says it in 2 Cor 3:7, 'The ministry of death written on tablets of stone.' Referring to the Ten Commandments.
Hebrews tells us that the sacrifices the Law required could not remove our sins. Under the Law the best they could do was to cover them until Jesus:
'For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.' Heb 10:4
'We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.' Heb 10:10
In simple terms, Christ did for us what the Law could not do.
'For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.' Rom 8:3
'If there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law.' Gal 3:21b
‘But sin, finding occasion because of the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; for sin, finding occasion because of the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.’ Rom 7:8-11
The 'pick n mix' game
We can often ask, what laws do you think still apply to Christians? Is it all of them? Is it the Ten or the Two? Is it tithing? Is it all of them minus the ceremonial laws?
I recently heard a Christian church leader talking to a religious Jewish man named Ben. Ben asked whether the Christian thought he (Ben) would be saved. The Christian answered, 'Well God would look favourably on you because you keep the Ten Commandments.' Ben answered, 'I keep the Ten plus the other 603!'
Where does it say we are saved by keeping the Ten Commandments? We are saved by accepting Jesus and that is it. Can you hear the boast in Ben's Claim? No one has ever kept the Law except Jesus.
There is a kind of hypocrisy here though. The Jews had slowly rejected the preeminence of the Law of Moses in favour of their own traditions. The add-ons that had begun as simply trying to make the Law easier to follow. But then the religious Jews favoured these add-ons over the Law given through Moses.
It was their stubborn belief that they could keep God's Law that caused them to reject Jesus. Why do you need a saviour if you can save yourself? They rejected Jesus as their Messiah even though the Law and the Prophets pointed to Him.
In John 5:39, Jesus says to the Jewish leaders, 'You diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.' Notice how he says it is because they think this, He doesn't say it's because it is there. Many translations then say, 'and these are the scriptures that testify about me.' The NIV leaves out the 'and' and starts a new sentence instead. However, some have the word 'but.' This is because the Greek word used can be translated as "and" or "but", and it is up to the reader to decide whether it is joining two ideas that are the same or contradict one another. Notice what happens if we use 'and' it makes no sense at all. by using 'and' Jesus is saying:
'You diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and you diligently search the scriptures because you think that in them you will find testimony about me!'
The Jewish leaders did not think they would find testimony about Jesus in the scriptures! Therefore, it is clearly a 'but.'
Sorry if that is long-winded, we need to be clear on exactly what Jesus is saying. So, Jesus is saying to the Jews, 'You think you have eternal life in the scriptures (The Old Testament) BUT they testify about me.' Therefore, eternal life is not in the scriptures - it is in Jesus and we find testimony about Jesus in the scriptures.
Rejecting Paul
The Jews especially rejected Paul's teachings that the Law only leads to sin and death. We should no more take the religious Jews' belief regarding the Law, than their belief that Jesus is not the Messiah.
'We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks.' 1 Cor 1:23
1, They don't know the Old Testament well enough to recognise their Messiah.
2, They have additional traditions they cling to, which Jesus rebuked them for.
3, They do not have the Holy Spirit, and scripture tells us that without the Spirit the truth of God's word is foolishness:
'The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.' 1 Cor 2:14
'Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.' 2 Pet 3:16
On top of that, look at what Paul says concerning the Jews:
'My heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes' Rom 10:1-4
Are the Jews bad?
I'm sure, writing like this concerning the Jews some will want to assume I am against the Jews. I am absolutely not. We are to love and pray for the Jews. I personally believe the Jews still hold a special place with God. I believe God still has a plan for the Jews and unfulfilled prophecies concerning them. But again, this is not because the Jews are special in themselves. They are special because God chose them.
We have that strange mix, the same as we have with the Law. We are to love and pray for the Jews, but not to put them on a pedestal and hang on their every word. We are to pray for their protection and that they will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. In the same way, the Law is good, but not for us.
Who is the Law for?
'Desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor about what they strongly affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a person uses it lawfully. As knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine' 1 Tim 1:7-10.
The law is for the lawless, not the righteous. We have been made righteous by Jesus. As Jesus said, the Law will not pass away, but that doesn't mean we are under the Law. Jesus fulfilled the Law, and in Him, we receive that benefit.
But for those who are not in Him, the Law stands to convict them of their sins and of their need for a saviour. Before I came to Jesus, I felt a condemnation on myself and humanity as a whole. We elect politicians to run the country and yet they are constantly being called into question about their morality. We have scientists playing with things that prove dangerous to us all. If ever I felt like I couldn't do right for doing wrong, I could see we all suffer from the same affliction. No one is perfect.
It was at this point that a man came from the other side of the world and sat next to me at work. He eventually was able to open the gospel to me. The realisation of sin and failure led me to Christ. Of course, we still struggle and stumble. But we struggle and stumble in Christ, not under the Law. We are in His hand and He gently guides us.
A common question
This answers the question that often comes up, "If we are not under the Law, then why are nine of the ten commandments repeated in the New Testament?" Firstly, we can see clearly that scripture tells us that we are not under the Law. Secondly, scripture tells us that the Law is for the unholy. Whereas, those in Christ are made holy.
So, there's the answer! If I asked you whether you need the commandment to tell you that murder is wrong, you'd hopefully say "no." However, the Gospel has gone out to places where murder and even cannibalism were normalised. It is in these instances where the "commandment" is needed. The Law is required within the church to settle disputes. For example, let's say someone thinks it is OK to steal paper clips from work. Such a one is untrained in the will of God. The Law can be used to show them that it is not God's will for them. That doesn't mean that we are justified by the Law.
The Law helps to reveal to us the nature of the God we worship. Once we agree with the Law that it is good, then it is God's grace that is at work in us to produce the fruits of righteousness. The fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of the Law.
Another way of saying it is that the Law helps us to see the difference between what we think is OK and what the Holy Spirit in us thinks is OK. Once we see the difference we can walk by the Spirit rather than by our misguided belief. It is a matter of a course correction. Or "repentance" if you prefer.
In Romans 12:2, Paul expresses it as "Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God."
"Renew your mind", "Change one's mind" and "Accept God's will" are all the definition of the word repent.
Does God help us to keep the Law?
For years, I had been taught that although it is impossible for us to keep God's Law through our own efforts, God's grace helps us to keep His Law. As I went on, I never found this to be true in my own life. Then I realised that scripture says the opposite. Far from telling us that God helps us to keep His Law, it tells us that we are not even to try to live by His Law. In fact, it goes as far as to say that if we try to be right with God by the Law we fall from grace! Galatians tells us that trying to live by the Law rather than by the Gospel is a false Gospel, which is no Gospel at all. It even says that anyone who tells us to do that is to be cursed.
God's character
The Law isn't sinful, it is a reflection of God's character. Throughout the Old Testament, we get the idea that God is so righteous that we would die if we saw Him as He is. This is because we are sinful. The Law is therefore no more sinful than God. But as much as we cannot stand before God we cannot stand before His Law either. God's Law could not save us, therefore God had to provide a saviour.
'For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.' Rom 8:3
The Law was weak, not in itself, but rather because we are weak in the flesh. The Law could not save us. The Law could not remove our sin and make us righteous. Only Jesus could do that.
The one who truly respects the Law realises that it is beyond us. We accept that we are not Law keepers if we manage to keep one part of it. But rather we are lawbreakers unless we keep all of it. We cannot pick and mix, we cannot flirt with it. We have to accept that without God's free gift of salvation, we would have no hope at all.
It comes down to this: Are you besotted with Jesus or is He not enough for you?
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