“The law which came on tablets of stone is the dispensation of death.”
“Christ is the end of the law for all those who have faith”
“The law was our custodian until Christ came.”
” We are not children of the slave (the Law), but of the free woman (Grace).”
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…”
“For freedom, Christ has set us free.”
There are many verses in the Bible that constrict, and suffocate, and eventually kill (law verses). And there is a good purpose for those passages. For we need to die to ourselves.
And then there are verses in the Bible that bring life (gospel verses). Gospel verses destroy the condemnation and death that comes from law verses. Gospel verses give us the new life that we need. Gospel verses give us freedom.
When I hear verses like the ones highlighted above, I feel the chains of the law falling from me, and I can breathe again, freely.
“Biblical principles”, or any “guides for living”, in the context of the Christian faith are formulas for death…for they are the law. There is no life in them. It is dangerous to tell someone that there is nothing they can do to justify themselves and that they are free in Christ, and then slip the law in the backdoor by calling it a “guide”, or “principles for living”.
There is nothing wrong with guides, and there is nothing wrong with principles, and there is nothing wrong with the law in the context of our creaturely existence. But mixed with our Christian faith they steal the freedom and spontaneity that the Spirit inspires by grace, and replace it with fear and bondage.
Thanks be to God for the freedom He has won for us on that bloody cross. May God bless and keep all those who proclaim and defend this unpopular, but gospel truth.
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The Old Adam Lives! 