Avoiding the Bondage of Lawlessness

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Jesus and His apostles viewed lawlessness as the greatest sin, forsaking God and bringing endless problems. 

 

It is scary how deceptive peoples' hearts can be. In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus tells us exactly what He meant when He introduced this topic. He told them, I have not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Then He spends a few chapters going through the Ten Commandments and laws, showing us what it means to keep the law in its fullness.

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"Fulfill" in the Greek language means to 'cram to the full'. It's what we do with our luggage when we go on a trip. It fits perfectly with what He does in this sermon. He brings the deeper meaning of the laws to the surface, showing how they cram full life's luggage! Yet we somehow create a definition to 'fulfill' so that when it happens it disappears. It's history, gone.

 

And we say it is it's 'prophetic' nature to magically disappear. But that is not how prophecy works. When prophecy comes into fulfillment, it's fullness, it brings a new reality on the scene. And the new reality tends to go through 'coming to fullness of life' and sticks around. In Daniel God prophesied four empires coming to life, each replacing the former one. But we still have aspects of these cultures embedded in Western Civilization. The Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman cultures are still with us in a multiplicity of ways. 

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It really is scary how deceptive peoples' hearts can be. Jesus was asked a question about, what are the GREATEST Commandments? He answered that question with two core summaries of the heart of ALL of God's Commandments: love God and love people. He did not add to or take away the value of the rest of the laws of God! He did not put in a new correction to God's kingdom dynamic. He did not say anything was being replaced or removed. He honored God and exalted His law. 

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And later on, after His resurrection, the law of God vanished? the Church now teaches this somehow did away with God's law. There are many convoluted twisted word arguments designed to make it 'disappear', but they ignore the plain reality that the word 'Commandment' is used in NT Scripture, and used the example of the Ten Commandments to show its clear definition. It's not just two definitions of love. It has depth of meaning, significance and value. Law is the core of a culture's meaning. The law giver communicates His worldview through Law. It organizes all the dynamics of life by integrating it with the depths of life! It has substantial purpose!

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During the early Church, with the destruction of the nation of Israel, the Jewish culture fell into the background. The Church lost the true sense of what some core Scriptures meant, because it was interpreting them out of context. 

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This also happened deeper when the Greek and Roman empires died and their cultures also fell into the background. New replaced old as the Dark Ages gave way to the Middle Ages and then the Renaissance cultural dynamics. And there has been a few more revolutionary rearrangements of our world since then. Now we have continuous exploration of history, developments and cultural influences. 

 

What does this mean for us? We now have the tools to see that part of the the early Church was busy reinterpreting the Roman culture into a cohesive context for the dynamics of Christian life. They were exploring the issues of the atonement and finding rich applications in the complexities of Roman law. We need to get honest with the definitions of the legal terms used in Scripture, since the church leaders were creating a new view of how the atonement's legalities expanded under Christ's sacrifice.

 

The apostle Peter made in interesting observation of the early Church. In 2 Peter 3:15-18:

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15 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.

16 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.

17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.

18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

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NT Lawlessness Scriptures

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Matthew 7:21-

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21 Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'

23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!

 

Matthew 13:41

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The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.

 

Matthew 23:27-28

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

 

Matthew 24:11-13

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11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

 

Romans 6:19

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I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

 

2 Corinthians 6:14

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Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

 

Hebrews 1:8-9

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8 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

 

1 John 3:4

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Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

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Isaiah 2:1-5

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1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

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