Mike,

Thank you so much for your website. I have learned so much from your articles, but I do have a question (maybe it’s more like a statement).

I’ve noticed in several of your articles, you use the term ‘Christ contradicts the law’. In my mind, this statement at its ‘face’ value’ is just not true. Christ did not ‘contradict’ the law. He fulfilled the law bringing the ‘new covenant’ of the Spirit and His ‘… but I say…’ were ‘different’ because He is telling us that it’s not what we DO, it’s what is in our hearts (spiritual character).
In other words, the law gives us the ‘letter’ (dos and don’’ts) which is bondage because we cannot keep it! He fulfilled it by revealing the nature, character, LOVE and spiritual capability of our being ONE with Him and our Father that a list of LAWS written in stone could never do. His law, once we are crucifying the ‘old’ man and the Spirit is dwelling in us, is changing our hearts (minds); therefore, we begin to not even THINK to ‘do’ or ‘not do’ as we mature spiritually. That is freedom… no longer slave to sin (not the doing… but the not ‘thinking’ of doing). Of course, it is a constant war, but the battles get much easier as our carnality dies daily with Him and we become ‘overcomers’.
His examples of laboring (in the Jews’ minds) on the Sabbath, etc. were not ‘contradictions’; they were His saying “You no longer have to worry about those ‘lists’ because I have done them all for you – now you let Me live in you and release you from that which enslaved you (the physical do’s and don’ts) that did NOTHING to reveal your Father’s love for you or to open your hearts to loving your neighbor/ enemy. In fact, those ‘lists’ did just the opposite filling your hearts with lust and closing your minds to the true meaning of God’s love!”
I don’t know if I’m explaining myself very well and maybe it’s not even an important point, but using the word ‘contradict’ gives a different perception to me. He could not ‘contradict’ what He fulfilled, but He could show us the SPIRITUAL meaning which is the fulfillment. I hope you understand my objection to the use of that term, and again, it may not be of great importance, but every time I see it I feel the need to offer my objections. If I am wrong, please tell me why.
Thank you so much
B____

Hi B____,

Thank you for your statement and the tone and spirit in which it is presented. You object to me pointing out that Christ’s many “But I say unto you…” statements contradict the “it hath been said by them of old time…” quotations which come straight out of the law of Moses. You say:

Using the word ‘contradict’ gives a different perception to me. He could not ‘contradict’ what He fulfilled, but He could show us the SPIRITUAL meaning which is the fulfillment. I hope you understand my objection to the use of that term, and again, it may not be of great importance, but every time I see it I feel the need to offer my objections. If I am wrong, please tell me why.”

Again, thank you for your entreating spirit. I hope my answer is received in the same spirit.
You say:

He could not ‘contradict’ what He fulfilled, but He could show us the SPIRITUAL meaning which is the fulfillment”

That is the reason I use the word ‘contradict.’ I am attempting to point out that the law of Moses is not spiritual, and we are specifically told that it is “the letter,” and “the letter” is contrasted with “the spirit.”

2Co 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7 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:
2Co 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

This entire third chapter of 2Co emphasizes the “doing away” and the “abolishing” of the law of Moses, which is called the “ministration of death.”

2Co 3:11 For if that which is done away [ was] glorious, much more that which remaineth [ is] glorious.
2Co 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [ vail] is done away in Christ.

It is true that the law is spiritual, but which law is spiritual? The spiritual law is not being “done away” or “abolished.” It is being established. What was once a sin under Moses, is now righteousness, under the spiritual law of Christ. If Israel had failed to “destroy everything that breatheth” under Moses, they would have been sinning. If they had not followed the law demanding and eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a foot for a foot, then they would have been sinning. But under the New Testament of Christ, what was once righteousness is now sin, and it is now a sin to hate your enemy, much less destroy him. It is now a sin to retaliate of demand and eye for an eye, because Christ has changed the law, and the new law teaches us to “turn the other cheek.”

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee [ for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Today, under the precepts of the New Testament, it is as if Christ has “bestowed labor on us in vain,” if we observe days, months, times or years. But under the law of Moses, it was a sin if you did not observe days, months, times and years.

Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Of course, God knew Israel wouldn’t keep the commandments he gave them through Christ, and as a type of this He says that He gave them ‘statutes that were not good and jugments they could not keep’. This chapter is referring to the Babylonian statutes and laws under which Israel was place as captives in Babylon.

Eze 20:25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes [ that were] not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

If you did not prepare twice as much on the sixth day, it was a sin. Yet Christ and His disciples went through the fields eating the corn which they had failed to gather the day before.

Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw [ it], they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

Was that breaking the law of the sabbath? What say the scriptures?

Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

I simply point out that the letter contradicts the spirit. I have never said the law now has no use. It is still a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and in that capacity we can understand that Christ’s “But I say unto you…” words which simply and clearly do contradict the law of Moses as much as “save nothing alive of your enemy that breaths” contradicts “love your enemy,” and as much as “eye for and eye” contradicts “turn the other cheek.”
“Eye for an eye” does not “show us the SPIRITUAL meaning which is the fulfillment” of “turn the other cheek.”
The two are completely different spirits!
“Save nothing alive that breaths” does not “show us the SPIRITUAL meaning which is the fulfillment” of “love thine enemies.” It is the exact opposite of “love thine enemies,” and it is a completely different spirit. It is the spirit of the law of Moses, and this is what Christ said of that spirit:

Luk 9:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
Luk 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw [ this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Luk 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Luk 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Here is what “Elias did.”

2Ki 1:10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I [ be] a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

That is the spirit that was in the law of Moses which told a carnal people to “save alive nothing that breaths.”

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee [ for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

Having pointed out that these two spirits are not compatible, and that Christ Himself told His own disciples, “You know not what spirit you are of,” because they wanted to do things the way it was done under the law of Moses, I now need to make the point that perhaps you are trying to make. While they are two different spirits in these two different and contradictory laws, the law of Moses, is nevertheless a shadow of “the law of Christ.”

Gal 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ

This law of Christ tells us that physical lambs, calves and goats are no longer needed to cleanse us of our sins, and this law of Christ also tells us that those who thought that the blood of animals could cleanse them were never really cleansed of their sins. It is actually a slap in Christ’s face to sacrifice and animal with the thought of purging or purifying one of His sins. It makes the blood of Christ of no effect. Nevertheless, all those animals which have been sacrificed still serve as a type and a shadow of the true sacrifice of Christ’s life for our sins. That is the function of the law of Moses to this day. That is the “lawful use of the law.” That is how verse 17 of Mat 5 does not contradict the rest of Mat 5.

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [ and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
1Ti 1:8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9 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,
Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

The law is fulfilled in every jot and tittle, in Christ. Once it is fulfilled it serves lawfully as a type and “a shadow of good things to come.”
But it is “not for a righteous man” because it simply does contradict the law of Christ, as much as hate contradicts love and the darkness contradicts the light.
What is so inconceivable is the truth that the cloud which led Israel through the wilderness for forty years and which gave Mose “a carnal commandment” for a carnal nation, was both bright as the sun on one side and dark as the darkest night on the other side. What this tells us is that the Word of Christ and the law of Christ is light to one person and darkness to the other.

Exo 14:19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

So it is the Word of God itself that separates those in the light from those in the darkness, “so that the one comes not near the other” when His people are being threatened.
I hope this helps you to understand why I say that the “carnal commandments” for a carnal nation contradict the spiritual law of Christ, for His spiritual nation. Both were given by Christ, but the one was “a carnal commandment” given to a carnal nation, and the other was a spiritual law given to a spiritual kingdom.

Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

This is no small change. These are “the times of reformation,” and Levi and Aaron are no longer outwardly relevant.

Heb 7:13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
Heb 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
Heb 7:15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
Heb 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
Heb 9:10 [ Which stood] only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed [ on them] until the time of reformation.

If you have not yet done so please read The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit in the Essential Reading section in the upper left corner of the home page on iswasandwillbe. com.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Mike,

Thank you so much, Mike, for your response and the spirit with which you presented it.
I can’t count the many times I’ve read and studied your paper on Moses Law vs. The Law of The Spirit along with, of ourse, the associated scriptures! Is it not absolutely amazing how often one can read the wonderful Word of God before being given ‘eyes to see’? I have often prayed about this and asked for understanding, and no doubt, the Spirit led me to email you with my questions!
I believe the ‘stumbling block’ for me has always been the word fulfill when our Lord said: “I come not to destroy but to fulfill…” I have had no problem understanding the ‘new covenant replacing the old’ but, for some reason, the concept of ‘ fulfillment’ (of the old) has always been a source of confusion for me. I did see now why you use the word ‘contradict’ (eye for an eye vs. turn the other cheek, etc.). Of course, the answer I’ve searched for is actually so very simple: “I needed the law until faith came, but NOW it is fulfilled IN CHRIST”… period! Like so many ‘blind eyes’, it seems I’ve searched for a more complicated answer.
Again, I thank you for your love and wisdom of the Word. I thank Him daily for leading me to your website. You have helped so much in peeling the layers of a lifetime of orthodox teachings from these old ‘eyes’! I still have a ways to go but every day brings a new understanding, and, God willing, that will continue.

Your sister in Christ,
B_____