Paul's Passing Thoughts

Yes, I have worked very hard to distance myself from the under-law crowd; specifically, church. According to church, under-law and under-grace are not two different realities; under-grace is the saved version of being under-law, but you are yet under-law. This is an overt denial of the new birth which transforms you from under-law to under-grace.

Now, under-grace according to justification by new birth doesn’t mean you are not under any law; it means the law serves a different purpose for the new creature in Christ. There are two uses of the law: the Spirit’s use of the law to convict the world of sin and the judgment to come, and the Spirit’s use of the law to sanctify (set apart) born-again believers. They are not set apart with a greater amount of salvation, they are set apart with a greater amount of obedience to God’s law. It’s important to qualify that according to motive. The believer doesn’t obey to avert punishment from God because in under-grace ALL condemnation has been removed from the law. The only motive for obedience in under-grace is love, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” So, the born-again believer does not obey out of fear, but out of a desire to love God and others. The goal is not…to not sin, the goal is to love. The goal is to do something (love), not some agonizing struggle to not sin. While the believer will fail to love perfectly because of mortality’s weakness, the believer need not fear the judgement to come or God’s condemnation.

Because of this truth, my inclination has been to avoid under-law thinking at any cost. What is that, exactly? It is the focus on failure and sin to “magnify the cross.” According to church orthodoxy, the goal of church is condemnation for enhancing a return to the cross for more Jesus. In case you haven’t noticed, Church is all about sin. This orthodoxy leads to a, as Jesus put it, “relaxing of the law.” Stated another way, the relaxing of love. Why? Because while stating that it is impossible for any person, lost or saved, to obey the law in a way that pleases God, the sole purpose of the law is to self-condemn for aiding one in returning to the cross over and over again for more salvation or “re-justification.” Obviously, the goal isn’t any attempt to keep the law or use the law to love God and others, but rather using the law to find more and more sin for purposes of perpetual repentance. Again, the goal isn’t using the law to love God and others, the goal is using the law to self-condemn. This makes you, “humble” and acceptable before God.  It also leads to a relaxing of the law regarding the obedience of love.

Nevertheless, my ratcheting back on the judgment issue has always been in response to rampant condemnation and I didn’t want to pile on. “Don’t make me a condemner, what you do is between you and God.” What I have missed follows: under-law soteriology is absolutely synonymous with antinomianism because its use of the law is errant while circumventing the law’s use for love. This is why sin is rampant in the church. Actually, the more sin, the better, because that magnifies the cross. If you are looking for justice in the church, don’t try holding your breath while you wait; justice implies sin prevention and a deserving of something other than hell.

But there is a problem with sin in general: it will eventually bring down the unfettered wrath of God upon the world. When this wrath comes, according to the Bible, people’s hearts will fail from fear, and others will beg to be buried alive to hide from God’s wrath. In our day, people in general are inoculated from the repugnance of sin. Abortion is a debate topic, not something that horrifies us. Homosexuality is now a societal norm.

Some large pillars define sin, and one I emphasize a lot follows: sin seeks to use the law to condemn for purposes of controlling people. Sin is a slave master. But sin has another large pillar, or, if you will, a major attribute: it loves to malign what God has created by distorting it or calling it evil. Homosexuality is a distortion of God’s created order, not normal, or a preference, and abortion is not a choice, it’s murder. And, overall, whether in the secular realm, or the religious realm, there seems to be an overall indifference to sin in general.

I would suggest that those of us involved in the ekklesia of God would make a conscious effort to once again hate sin in the same way God hates sin. We must give serious thought to God’s attitude toward sin. While He is the God of love, and the Bible says He IS love, what shall we think of sin knowing that the full force of His wrath will break out against it?

paul