Law, death, and sin

Who brings a charge

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Paul’s “who will bring a charge?” is defined by several instances of accusations in the legal sense. It is a severe and conclusive challenge, like the one we hear at weddings, “If anyone knows why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him now speak or forever hold his peace”.  The madness of charging God’s people with liability in the Divine Court will appear as we look further into the meaning of bringing a charge against the elect.

The madness of justice

The disciples appear in their life experience in the court of Roman justice all over Asia. Luke’s witness included repeated hounding by Jewish people of the disciples all along their missionary journeys OUTSIDE OF PALESTINE/JUDEA.

Acts 16:16ff, 17:6ff, 18:11ff, 19:23ff, Acts 19:40, Acts 23:28, Acts 23:29Acts 26:2, Acts 26:7

That they appeared in the Jewish court is no surprise (Acts 4, 5 6, 22 and 23). That the High Priest has a court official punch Paul in the mouth rips the figleaf off the proceedings. Anyone who had so much as spoke kindly about Yeshua of Nazareth when he was here in the flesh  used to be shunned and excluded from synagogue attendance. There is even a word for Jewish person barred from attending synagogue: aposunagogos.

The relevance of charges

The heritage of the sons of Israel is called “law” with good reason. While the written work of Moses is properly instruction, the name Torah means just that, teaching and instruction, it comes with prescriptions for addressing cases brought to the attention of the Levites and priests.  Prescription and proscription are the tools of a prosecutor.  In other words, where the law says “You shall” and “You shall not” there we will find the necessary defence and prosecution.

The terms related to “bring a charge” that we find in Acts are 

  • accuse
  • bring accusation
  • bring charges 

A judicious Messiah

In the Gospels we find Jewish people seeking rulings from Yeshua on common problems and even some hypothetical ones.  While he always had an answer that brings a divine perspective on human affairs the Lord Christ refused to assign punishments to offenders.  He is on the record saying that he came to save people not condemn them.

Knowing that the scrolls of Moses (the book of the law) was an indictment against the sons of Israel, and were placed in close proximity to the ark of the covenant with the tables of stone as a part of the prosecution of the sons of Israel.

It is not extreme therefore for the Lord Christ to have identified Moses (John 5:45) as the one who accuses (katēgoreô, κατηγορεω), or for Paul to identify the law as the article for condemnation (katakrinô, κατακρινω) and to write  “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;” (2 Corinthians 3:7, 9, 11 and Romans 3:19, NASB)

Law, crime, faith, and death

Two  important observations are necessary here. First, that is not because people violate the law that they become guilty before God in the first place, and secondly, the law enters only to magnify or to enlarge the fact of human violation of God’s will, which we will have to admit from antiquity is not the law but the violation of trust.  Let no one dance around the fact that a person is allowed to lie and steal in broad daylight in America if one is not talking to the FBI and is a corporate entity pushing product. Law helps crime and faith is the certain antidote to death.

That is to say, humans are liable to God for not trusting him.  We owe him and live in condemnation for not believing.

He who believes (present tense) in Him is not judged (present tense); he who does not believe has been judged (perfect tense) already, because he has not believed (perfect tense) in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18, NASB)

The significance of the present tense in this verse is that the action continues, and the significance of the perfect tense in this verse is that the action has an ongoing condition related to it.

“ὁ πιστεύων (present tense) εἰς αὐτὸν οὐ κρίνεται (present tense)· ὁ ⸀δὲ μὴ πιστεύων ἤδη κέκριται, ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.” (John 3:18, MorphGNT)

So we can conclude that Paul’s question “Who will bring a charge?” is a necessary Messianic perspective.  How dare anyone accuse the people who Christ has released from judgment and condemnation with law and prophet or visionary?  How dare they indeed? It is time to halt the assault with obedience to law on people who have come to God through Christ.

Transposed transcripts

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How does a collection of prohibitions, judgments, festal statutes, promises, threats and predictions of extirpation become a person’s character transcript?  I cannot tell, except to say that the proponents are either semiliterate nobles or ignoble academics.  Either way, after thousands of years and thousands of scholars neither the content of the tables of stone, nor the hundreds of statutes and judgments in the Pentateuch have produced anything that looks remotely like a healthy set of character traits.  Never mind that God has attributes like mercy, compassion, faithfulness, and goodness which people can appropriate, people choose to pose as privileged recipients of incredible benefits while doing the very things they say they have left behind.  There certainly is some transposing happening with little transcript in the picture because the Law of God has no chance of having anything to do with bringing life to dead humans.

Truth be told, law kills

Sad to say in the 21st century the law is quite literally held responsible for homicide repeatedly on the streets of the United States.  We have to admit that violent homicide was the main reason for which God decreed the flood judgment.  “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. Law did little to reverse the gains of corruption through violence.

“Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-13, NASB)

While the Law serves to make a record of human accountability no one should think that law, as we have it in the Mosaic tradition, is essential to establish the guilt of people everywhere.  Since we have no evidence that God gave the Law to any other people beside the Sons of Israel the idea that the law defines sin for all time is a three legged cat.

“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Romans 3:19-20, NASB

“Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.”

Galatians 3:21, NASB

“But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?” (2 Corinthians 3:7-8, NASB)

Transcript and my foot in my mouth

If learned Jews can admit that the tables of stone were a source of death what can the Gentile do with their alternative facts? All the people who will believe that the law of God – the Ten Commandments in particular – is a transcript of divine character will also tell you that they are trying every day to achieve what is said in that transcript, namely that they should not ever sin. I would much rather have a look at the character of God in his love, mercy, grace, compassion, long suffering and gentleness than to hear the voice that clearly condemns one to death. Once a person has a true encounter with Christ he will no longer be afraid of death, and he or she will feel the right hand of God, and hear his voice assuring them that He has the keys to hell and the grave. That right hand places us far from the reach of death and condemnation. Does not the Christian experience, at the outset, change our transcript from an F to an A?

America’s Balding Cult of Death

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  • Alaska, sexual assault capital
  • Washington, DC, crime capital

First of all, let us cut the fat.  Judeo-Christian principles are not so sophisticated that we cannot say “Moses said” or “Christ said” and know with certainty that they can be on opposite sides of an issue. If a thing is Christian it has Christ as source. I have learned that the buck stops at Christ’s desk.

Where exactly is the Judeo-Christian contribution to the system of government that calls a 200k death count “what it is” and tries to remove health care coverage from the poor and middle class, and stacks the supreme court with right-wing neo-Nazis? Are people supposed to believe that supreme court justices only interpret the law and never break new ground? The fact that US law contains amendments tells us that it is not a monolith. It is a deceptive and idolatrous gambit to talk about simply interpreting the law as written.

We understand covenant and legislation well enough to reject the popular belief that any nation that has laws against theft, murder and covetousness is a moral entity.

The cues from the Sinai covenant

  • Refusing counsel
  • Saying yes and meaning no

Alaska, the land of the pioneering lover of   freedom and independence, has little character and performance that is impressive.  Its rugged beauty and spacious skies were not sufficient to create a haven or refuge for people loving daylight and a quiet and peaceful environment.

With the law in hand, judges and executioners

Any Jew, Aboriginal, Black, or person with an accent is at risk of losing life and limb for no crime at all.  How many of us have been judged by Americans with the law in their hands we may never know but the sea will give up its dead in the exposé of the ages.

Every known prison yields to investigation

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Revelation 20:13

All kinds of homicide cover the walls of research and the happening news.

Shades of the great Babylon!

ALL NATIONS CONTRIBUTE TO THE INMATE POPULATION

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

Revelation of John 18:3

ONE MASSIVE PRISON

And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

Revelation of John 18:2

Chief of the assassins

It does not help anyone to have law-enforcement operatives solving problems with fatal violence nor does having unscrupulous heads in the departments of state, justice, urban development and the executive mansion. All the democratic hedges have not prevented nations with sizable Christian populations from allowing Christianity has no official political preference.

Remembering Saul of Tarsus and the Risen Lamb who arrested him renders the error of putting anyone to death an utterly inconsistent refuge for an enlightened society.

Witchcraft and worship’s wasteland

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People trained in being saved, whether one is in peril at sea, on the busy highways, or just walking in one’s neighbourhood, are rare indeed, especially when the sun is recently risen to light up the dark places of the human heart.

Christ everywhere is light in a dark place

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Matthew 4:16

When Christ was born sages came from outside of Judea to worship him and God warned them to avoid the local king who wanted to kill the newborn king. They must have wondered how Judeans could have been so disinterested in a person of Christ’s stature. I do.

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Matthew 2:12

Ancient spellbinding selftalk

The practices they had followed were obviously focused on human things that did not make a person acceptable to God. Both Jew and Gentile has to jump through hoops to get any where close to the suburbs of fellowship with God. It was all human because if God was in it would it would mean salvation, not the types and symbols of salvation. What one said to oneself in ancient Israel did not change common things into sacred or make the physical things into spiritual ones.

It is common to see law and life connected in what seems to be a causative relationship. The Psalms and the Proverbs seem to make that connection.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Proverbs 6:23

We know that no such arrangement ever existed. No one ever got saved because they kept the law. The matter is out in the open. It hardly needs interpretation.

The prison is no longer a threat

Let no one bully you about the law. It was written to deal with sin. It is not a tool for righteousness. It does not serve or belong to the faith journey. The righteous need no law.

This is not a lamp

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

Galatians 3:21

We know no law that ever gave life or righteousness.

It is hard to see how faith and law are related, and we can see how faith had nothing to do with Lazarus waking from his sleep, or law with person dead in trespasses coming to life.

If you like prison and juvenile discipline (tutors and nannies) you will be a law lover. Pity!

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Galatians 3:22

Things Unchangeable You Bought

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God wrote ten words! That’s it, folks. The rest of sacred literature is the product thievery and robbery, temporary and subject to human whims. This is part of a mantra belonging to people in death’s shadow who think they are God’s exclusive lamp.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Isaiah 45:22

God did not write Isaiah 45:22 with his finger but if one does not “look and be saved” one’s condemnation and perishing is assured apart from a thousand violations of law and prophetic judgments.

No one Needs to stare Perpetual Condemnation in the Face to be Saved

Who wants to be condemned? Certainly not the saved. Proof that all people are victims is readily available before we read or hear what the law and the prophets say.

Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgement of God. For ‘no human being will be pronounced righteous before God’ as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

Romans 3:19-20

Fingerprinted and blinded

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

2 Corinthians 3:7-8

Spotlighting and sighted

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

The contrary handwriting

So you love the handwriting more than you love God? You do not know what parts of Scripture are hostile, and bring condemnation and death? That’s incredible. You do not know what parts of Scripture are beneficial and bring hope and life? That’s incredible too. No child of God needs to hear “not”, “not”, “not” to stay alive. Who wrote what is no secret and who gets life is not rocket science.

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Colossians 2:14-15

The stone inscribed handwriting gets eclipsed by a person. The Messiah does not turn things over to Moses and the prophets. Yeshua’s face is light, but Moses’ face is a dim ember that points to blindness. Handwriting will never trump atonement.

Whaddya know! Look what you bought!

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

1 Timothy 1:9

Are you stealing?

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God knows the answer and you who teach others to stop doing whatever the law says we should never do should either say what God says or do what the law requires. Plead guilty.

“Guilty as charged” suffices

Now we know that what things whatsoever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Romans 3:19