In this sermon, I try to show a clear-cut biblical stance on the power of sin and the ways to get out of any sin or win over any sinful lifestyle. Law vs Grace is seldom preached in Christian Churches today even though 75% of the New Testament talks about it.
Preaching against sin is a common theme in the Christian world. Everybody does it. Preachers love to highlight the different colorful ways people sin and then slap the congregation with the gory effects of sin.
But they never tell you the way out of sin. They will put this responsibility on you, tell you to do it yourself, but never actually give the Biblical reason on why we sin and how to get out of sin.
Let us dive right into the word of God
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
~ 1 Corinthians 15:56
Now the part of sin being the sting of death is well known to all of us. People have preached to us about it a million times. But the next statement, the strength of sin being the law we rarely hear about.
What is this Law? Is Paul referring to the Law of the Land or the ceremonial law or the moral law, what is it? And why is this Law the strength of sin?
Watch the full sermon on YouTube
The Law is primarily The Ten Commandments
There are 613 Laws in the Old Testament out of them there are ten commandments given directly by God through Moses on Mount Sinai. Even though the 603 Laws and the five books of Moses are referred to as The Law the primary Title of the Law goes to the Ten Commandments.
The principle of first fruits applies here. Without the Ten commandments there would not be the other 603 Laws ipso facto there would not be the five books of Moses. The Law, Paul was referring to when he talks about them being the strength of sin are the Ten commandments. How do I know this?
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
~ Romans 7:7
What part of the law does “You shall not covet” belong to? Ceremonial or is it the ten commandments?
The Strength of Sin are the Ten Commandments
This is the very fact that the church world is very afraid to preach. Anyone who attempts to be accurate to the Bible will be branded as an Antinomian. Someone who is against the Law of God.
Such branding is a very inaccurate representation of what we believe in. In fact, we are against the misuse of God’s Holy Law.
Using the Ten Commandments for our holiness or right living or morality is the misuse of the Law. Using a thing outside its purpose becomes the abuse of the thing. So, what is the purpose of the Ten Commandments?
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
~ Romans 5:20
The Ten Commandments were not brought in for us to live a moral holy life, on the contrary, they were given so that sin might increase in our flesh. There is a sin principle in our flesh the Ten Commandments arouse the sinful passions already in them.
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
~ Romans 7: 8 – 12
So, when we go back to the Ten commandments, when we try to please God, or when we try to be good Christians by keeping the Ten Commandments, sin revives, and we die spiritually.
We think the Ten commandments bring life to us since we believe by keeping them will make us Holy. Instead, sin takes advantage of the Ten Commandments, deceives us, and by it kills us.
For this reason, Christians commit some of the most disgusting sins even the people of the world do not commit. Priests molesting little children, Pastors running off with their secretaries.
The root cause of the breakout of sin in us is by going back to the law. And it’s time the church understands this 2000-year-old fact. The Gospel that Paul preached, and Christ died to give.
Christians are supposed to be Dead to the Ten Commandments
What then, do we throw away the Ten Commandments if they arouse sin in our flesh? Am I saying that the Ten Commandments are abolished?
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
~ Romans 7:1-6
Paul makes an interesting analogy here. He equates us to a woman and the law to her husband. The woman is bound by the Law to her husband. If the woman leaves her husband (The Law) while he is still alive and marries again, she becomes an adulteress.
But the Law can never die, it can never be destroyed, God’s Holy Law lives forever. But the woman can die and when she does, she is free from her husband and free to marry anyone.
Jesus provided us with that death when Christ died on the cross, we died with him and rose from the dead with him. Now we are free from the ten commandments to marry Christ alone apart from the ten commandments to bear fruit to God.
Notice when we are under the law, we bore fruits to death but now that we married to Jesus apart from the Ten Commandments, we bear fruits to God.
We think when we are no more under the Ten Commandments and under Grace, we become lawless, but the opposite is true. Why?
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
~ Romans 6:14
We have religious folks out there preaching that Grace is a license to sin and that for morality, Christians are still under the Ten Commandment. But the reality is sin loses its power when we are under Grace and dead to the Ten commandments.
Going back to the Ten Commandments is Spiritual Adultery
Knowing this fact, if we still want to be under the Ten Commandments then we are committing spiritual adultery. We are married to Christ alone, what business do we have with our old husband The ten commandments?
And if you are still worried about being lawless without the ten commandments a question invariably arises, how low of an opinion do you have for the institute of Marriage?
Will you commit adultery, kill someone, or steal when you are married to Jesus? If you say maybe someone might do it, then I submit you then such person doesn’t know Jesus and his finished works on the cross. Such a person is not married to Christ.
Grace is not a license to sin; Grace is the way out of any sin or sinful lifestyle. Listen carefully now, trying to keep the Ten Commandments is a license to sin. How do I know this?
For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
~ Galatians 5:4
Guess what happens when you try to keep the ten commandments to make yourself right with God? Guess what happens when you are cut off from Christ?
Therefore, trying to keep the ten commandments is a license to sin. Sin becomes attractive when we try to keep the ten commandments.
If you still aren’t convinced, let me ask you this question. Which is greater, you trying to keep the Ten Commandments or the Holy Spirit working through you for God’s good pleasure? Which would produce death, and which will produce fruits to God? Let me know in the comment section below.
Are the Ten Commandments bad? Is the Law Sin? Is the Law Evil?
Certainly not, the law is holy, good, and just but it cannot make us holy, good, or just. Its purpose is to revive the sin already in our flesh. To bring out the sinful passions already in us.
Our flesh principle is that part of our body that wants to try to serve God, that wants to work, that wants to be religious, that wants to be a good person, that wants to try to keep the Ten Commandments to please God instead of resting in the finished work on the cross.
The flesh by its efforts wants to earn righteousness on its merits instead of resting in the righteousness that is given to us through the cross as a gift.
So that sin through the Ten commandments might become exceedingly sinful. But why does this happen? Why is sin aroused in our flesh through the 10 commandments?
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
~ James 2:10
There is common thinking among Christians that they will try their best to keep the Ten Commandments and try to live a good and holy life. And when they don’t keep a commandment, fail, or commit a sin they will ask for forgiveness from Jesus.
Unfortunately, we cannot pick and choose the laws we like to keep. If we break One Law, we are guilty of breaking all the 613 Laws, not just the ten commandments.
So, if you lie you are guilty of being a murderer, an adulterer, and someone who commits idolatry. You are guilty under the very law you are trying to keep.
Worse, now that you were trying to please God by keeping the law, Christ becomes of no effect, and you cannot claim that Jesus forgives your sins. It becomes spiritual adultery.
Now, do you understand the gravity of being under the law, being under the Ten Commandments? Do you understand the yolk Jews could not bear?
Cast Out the Ten Commandments and its Fruits
What relation do we have then with the Ten Commandments? Knowing that trying to keep the law is a license to sin, what do we do with them?
A lot of Christian theologians will agree that the law, the ten commandments cannot save us. Only Christ can save us, but they argue that once we are saved, we need the ten commandments for our morality. Paul begs to differ in his epistle to the Galatian Church.
Paul explains this by an amazing Biblical typology comparing Sarah with Grace and Hagar with the Ten Commandments. Paul is writing the following to the Galatian Christians, not unsaved people.
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
~ Galatians 4: 21-31
Paul starts by questioning the Galatians Christians who desired to be under the Law by bringing out the typology of Law vs Grace with Hagar vs Sarah.
The son of Hagar, Ishmael was born according to the flesh. He was born when Sarah and Abraham did not believe that they will have a child and took matters into their own hands. When Sarah asked her husband to sleep with the bondwoman, Hagar.
While the son of Sarah, Isaac was born through the promise God made with them. Paul calls these two women symbolic, a typology of two covenants.
The first covenant that was cut on Mount Sinai was the giving of the Ten Commandments which brings bondage. Hagar is symbolized here with the Ten Commandments because the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai and her son Ishmael as its fruits.
But Jerusalem typifies Grace, Sarah is symbolized here with Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, and the covenant of Grace was cut and her son Isaac as her fruits. The covenant of Grace brings freedom.
And then Paul talks about the son of the flesh Ishmael persecuting the son of the promise Isaac. When we first Listen to Law vs Grace being preached our flesh always persecutes God’s promise that we are righteous in Christ Jesus apart from the Ten Commandments. Our Flesh does not like Grace.
Our Flesh always questions God’s Grace it says “Yes, we are saved by Grace, But what about morality? What about people who are not saved? Without the ten commandments, how can we show that they are doing wrong?”
Our Flesh always persecutes God’s promise by saying “We cannot rely on faith, we have to BE PRACTICAL, they are sinning we have to tell them they are doing wrong or else they won’t change.” Our flesh always goes back and forth with unbelief in this area of God’s promise. Did you know who else wanted to be practical? SARAH.
When she thought God’s promise was not enough that she will bear a son. She wanted to be practical, so she ORDERED Abraham to sleep with the Servant girl, Hagar.
NOTICE Sarah and Abraham tried to have a child for years. Sarah was already old without a Child. But Abraham slept with the servant girl Hagar just once and Ishmael was born. Old man Wow!! That was fast.
So will be the result of preaching the Ten commandments, and there will be quick outward results of morality. Whereas Grace seems impractical.
But to what end? Ishmael was a pain to Sarah; she couldn’t stand him. So will be the end of preaching the Ten commandments. TEMPORARY. So, Galatians 4 says “Cast out the bondwoman and her son” so we must cast out the 10 commandments, seeing it nailed to Jesus on the cross.
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
~ Colossians 2:14
The Ten Commandments which were against us, which were contrary to us were nailed to the cross. This should be our position, cast out the Ten Commandments and see it nailed to the Cross with Jesus.
It is no coincidence during Jesus’s time there was mention of the Holy of Holies when the veil was torn while Jesus was crucified but not the Ark of the covenant that held the Ten Commandments tablets and exactly 40 years after Jesus was crucified the Temple was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans.
The temple is where the Jews performed animal sacrifices and performed the ceremonial laws. It is interesting to note that in the natural both the Moral law and the ceremonial laws were cast out.
I guess that the ark of the covenant will never be found even though many are looking for it all over the world. Not the ten commandments nor the religious rituals, they are no more for the church. Christ has taken the center stage.
Law vs Grace in Jesus and the rich young ruler story
Knowing Paul’s stance on the Ten Commandments, our flesh invariable points to the rich young ruler’s story. Did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to keep the ten commandments?
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”
And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
~ Mark 10:17-22
Notice the rich young ruler asked, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?” Where did he get the confidence to say he has kept all the commandments when Jesus quoted the Ten Commandments to him?
All men have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, then did this man lie? Remember Jesus hates hypocrites if this person was dishonest, Jesus would have called him out.
Then how did this rich young ruler say with such confidence that he has kept all the Ten Commandments since his youth?
Also, even though Jesus is good there is no sin in him and is God himself he called out the rich young ruler for calling him good. It seems like this incident has a whole lot of contradictions from the rest of the bible until you understand a specific Law mentioned in Leviticus.
“If a person commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering. And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
~ Leviticus 5:15-16
Under the law, if you commit intentional sin or otherwise you have to offer a trespass offering (death of ram) plus give back or restore all the damage plus one-fifth extra regarding the Holy things of the Lord.
Remember the ram alone is expensive, the shekels of silver and add to it one-fifth extra, the whole thing becomes a costly affair.
The rich or people with money could do this with ease. But what about the poor? The Rich Young Ruler could sin again and again because he could just bring another trespass offering and be forgiven.
Bear in mind that this is not a gimmick; this is God’s Holy Law and provision mentioned in Leviticus. For this reason, the rich young ruler could proclaim to Jesus that he has kept all the Ten Commandments since his youth.
And rightfully so, when you perform the trespass offering your sins are covered as if you never committed that sin. Therefore, Jesus did not rebuke the rich young ruler for his seemingly to us outlandish proclamation.
But take away his richness, take away his money and you take away his ability to make frequent Trespass offerings. Because of this, the rich young ruler was sad at Jesus’s words and went away sorrowful.
This also explains the disciple’s reaction to Jesus’s answer.
Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
~ Mark 10:23-27
The disciples were greatly astonished and were not gloating. Peter did not go like “Amen Jesus, you are right. Rich people suck”. No, they did not do that because they knew of the law mentioned in Leviticus 5:15-16.
Jesus turned it around showing that even the rich cannot go to heaven by paying their way into trespass offering. For this reason, the disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?”.
Jesus showed them that it was impossible for humans to be saved by our works of keeping the Ten Commandments. The only way for salvation was given to us by God through the finished works of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Did Jesus ask us to keep the Ten Commandments?
Usually when I present to someone the scriptures of Paul showing the difference between being under the Law vs Grace the barrier of disbelief comes down slowly.
Usually, people go from calling me a false prophet someone who encourages people to break the Ten Commandments to there is some truth in your preaching.
While someone with a religious spirit would continue calling me a false teacher while others with a melted heart will ask some very interesting questions. One such question, what about Jesus saying, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”?
Isn’t Jesus asking us to keep the 10 commandments? Let’s find out
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
~ John 14: 15-18
Because of the word “commandments”, people assume Jesus is talking about the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. But the context of this verse in John 13 makes it clearer.
Keep in mind that this is the last night Jesus is spending with the disciples and Jesus is consoling them. Getting them ready for what is about to happen. Jesus knows that after he is crucified the disciples will be alone and confused.
So, he is preparing them by giving them four commandments to equip them until the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples after he is resurrected.
So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
~ John 13:31-35
Things are going to get very chaotic after this event so Jesus is going to show them who his true disciples would be and not be discouraged when Judas betrays Jesus.
Even during this chaos, confusion, disappointment, and pain Jesus wants to feed his disciples and take care of them. So, he asks his disciples love each other just as he loves them so that everyone would know that they are his disciples.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
~ John 14: 1-4
The second commandment Jesus gives is “Let not your heart be troubled”. The disciples are going to be orphaned for a while until the Holy Spirit comes on them.
They will be scattered and hunted. Lots of troubles are ahead for the disciples. Jesus comforts them and commands them to not let their heart be troubled.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
~ John 14: 5 – 7
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Only through Jesus Christ do we have access to God and there is no other way. This is the third commandment Jesus gives to the disciples.
This commandment is the most profound because in the next couple of hours Jesus will suffer and die on the cross for the sins of the world. I believe the disciples did not fully comprehend Jesus’s words.
After all, they did not receive the Holy Spirit yet, they did not fully understand why Jesus must die and rise again. These commandments of Jesus must have been very confusing to the disciples.v
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
~ John 14:12-14
And the final commandment, if we ask anything in the name of Jesus, he himself will do it for us so that the father may be glorified in the Son.
Now let’s reiterate, the four commandments Jesus bestowed on the disciples are
- That his disciples would love each other just as Jesus loved them
- Let not your heart be troubled
- Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life.
- If we ask anything in the name of Jesus, he himself will do it for us.
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
~ John 14: 19-21
Jesus tried to encourage his disciples to stay strong till the Holy Spirit would come on them but sadly all the disciples broke Jesus’s commandments when he was crucified.
Nevertheless, God was merciful and when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples, they were able to keep all of Jesus’s four commandments.
Everyone hates Paul and his teaching on Law vs Grace
Much of the Christian world does not like Paul’s teaching. His letters are the constitution of the Christian faith, and yet many twist the teachings to support their man-made theology. End up avoiding Law vs Grace in their preaching.
People cannot comprehend the awesome light found in Law vs Grace, the 10 commandments vs Jesus, or The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil versus The Tree of Life, so they end up balancing Paul’s words with their own understanding and theology.
“I only read the portion written in red” is a common phrase among religious Christians today. They are saying that they ONLY recognize the words of Jesus as scripture.
Paul boldly explains that the ten commandments are the power of sin and that we ought to be dead to the 10 commandments, but many Christians cannot handle this truth.
The light is too bright. The easiest way out would be to go back to the dispensation before the finished work of Jesus on the cross and put Christ’s words above Paul’s. Many Christians seem to forget that the letters of Paul are the words of our risen Christ.
But Peter has something to say on this matter:
Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
~ II Peter 3:15-16
People would twist Paul’s words and accuse him of being an antinomian, someone who is against the Law of God even though he was not. Law vs Grace is very irritating to them.
Paul warned us of such people coming into the church encouraging Christians to go back to the law, back to the ten commandments. Paul called them false prophets.
Notice, that Peter calls Paul’s words HARD TO UNDERSTAND and declares them as scriptures. And do you remember what Jesus said to Peter?
I promise you God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth, but God will not allow anything you don’t allow.
~ Matthew 18:18
Some people use this verse to make Peter a Pope. But Jesus wanted Peter himself to bear witness and declare boldly Paul’s writings as scriptures.
If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.
~ 1 Corinthians 14:37
The key to having a uniform interpretation of the Bible in the body of Christ is acknowledging the letters of Paul as the Lord’s command.
This is the reason I came out of the Roman Catholic Church. A Roman Catholic Priest would never be caught dead quoting these scriptures from the Bible let alone expound them and bring them to light.
Doing so would crumble the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Religion. They have about 91 pages dedicated to the Ten Commandment in the Catechism of the Catholic Church but not one time does it mention the Ten commandments arousing the sinful passions in our flesh.
Similarly, early Protestant theologians continued to take the Ten Commandments as the starting point of Christian moral life. Martin Luther taught about not being saved by our works but failed to teach the root of Sola Gratia. He wasn’t brave enough to expound from the Bible that Christians are supposed to be dead to the Ten commandments.
The Eastern Orthodox Church holds its moral truths to be chiefly contained in the Ten Commandments. An Orthodox confession begins with the Confessor reciting the Ten Commandments and asking the penitent which of them he has broken.
It takes a special kind of religious flesh to twist the teaching into something else while it’s so plainly written for us in the Bible. Our religious flesh loves to hate Paul for this. Religion would rather proclaim Paul to be a great Saint but would not acknowledge his epistles as the Gospel.
When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”
~ Acts 18:12-13
It feels like everybody hates Paul. The Jews condemn Paul for teaching contrary to the Law as seen in Acts.
Islamic apologists accuse Paul of corrupting Christianity. Hindu scholars consider Paul to be idiotic because it goes against the Karma belief system. Atheists simply find Paul nonsensical and see him as problematic to the humanistic viewpoint.
Every religion on the face of the earth including all the Christian denominations holds a position contrary to what Paul preached. Plato once said, “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth”. I believe this is the root cause behind the unreasonable hate towards Paul from religion.
Come on folks, you are reading the same verses I am reading. In its proper context and in full color, then why do we Christians still believe we are under the ten commandments for our morality?
In all his letters, Paul talks about Law vs Grace
This gives us a blueprint on how to go about rightly dividing the word of God. Paul’s letters show us the difference between Law vs Grace, which produces the right theology.
For example, Under the law (10 commandments), if you keep the laws perfectly you will be blessed. If you break even one of the commandments, then you are guilty of breaking all of them. God’s fierce anger rests on you and His wrath will hunt your bloodline to the third and fourth generation.
Under the new covenant of Grace God has promised that when we put our trust in Jesus, He will never get angry with us nor rebuke us. Because of the perfect work, Jesus did on the Cross, and on account of Him being our advocate at the Father’s right hand, we may enter boldly before His Throne.
For this is like the waters of Noah to Me;
For as I have sworn
That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth,
So have I sworn
That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.~ Isaiah 54:9
Preaching that God is still angry at believers is going back to the Ten commandments and is teaching heresy according to Paul. Discerning Law vs Grace is crucial in understanding the Bible.
While 70% of the New Testament deals with the issue of Law and Grace we rarely hear about it being preached in the churches today. It’s time for the regular people to open the bible and put to shame the clergy, the theologians, and every religious spirit that comes against the Grace of God.
Conclusion: The Secret of having more Faith
God’s system of getting out of a sin or a sinful lifestyle is different from human ways. Man’s ways depend on a spiritually bankrupt person trying to live a holy life while God’s way is being dead to the Ten Commandments, marrying Jesus, and bearing fruit to God.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
~ Romans 7:4-6
If you still believe being under Grace and being dead to the law is a license to sin, I ask you this question again. Which is greater, which is more effective, you trying to lead a holy life by keeping the Ten Commandments or Christ working through you for God’s good pleasure?
Do you want to learn to trust God more? Do you want to have more faith? Remember Jesus called only two people of having Great faith, the Centurion and the Syrophoenician woman.
Both gentiles, both not under the law, both focused only on Jesus.
Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
~ Galatians 3:12-14
When the Bible promises that sin shall not have dominion over us when we are under Grace and not under the law we have to hold on to that promise. Saying we need the Ten commandments for our morality or holiness is our flesh rising in unbelief.
In Christ alone is not just a cool phrase to show off our theology. In Christ alone means in Christ Alone, even the Ten commandments do not have a place in it. Learn to let go of the Ten commandments and trust in Christ alone.
Seeing how Christ is enough for your holiness without the need for the 10 commandments, without religion, without rituals or your works, you will truly start to understand that God is in control of everything in your life. Understanding Law vs Grace will truly set you free from the clutches of religion.
