J____ wrote:
Hello Mike,
I read the article entitled, “The Law of Moses versus the Law of the Spirit” and am still unclear about works and grace and how they should interact.
From reading your article, I sense that you feel that we need to completely eschew works of the law.  You have stated that the Old Covenant (Ten Commandments) have been completely done away with, and there are definitely a plethora of texts that would support this.  There are also a lot of texts that continue to stress works.
Paul said, “Faith without works is dead.” You seem to intimate, “Faith WITH works is DEAD.”
You stated that the term “faith” in the Bible refers to Jesus’ faith.  We have misunderstood this to mean OUR faith, when in reality it is the faith of Jesus that is given to us as a gift in the same manner as grace.  So how could WE render death to Jesus’ faith by our works, or lack thereof?
It seems from your article that the biggest sin is the sin of observing the Ten Commandments.  Most people attempt to observe the law (albeit, to no avail) in an effort to abstain from sin, so as to bring themselves in better favor with God.  So, ultimately, it seems that you are saying that the ultimate sin is to try and not to sin.
The only thing the sermon on the mount “changed” about the Ten Commandments, was the realization that they are impossible to keep.  “Thou shalt not murder” has not been negated– it has just been shown that it is exponentially harder to “keep” that commandement because it can be shattered by a mere thought. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” has not been negated, it has been shown to be impossible to keep because it too can be shattered by a transient thought crossing one’s mind.
The new “Law of the Spirit” is exponentially harder to “keep” than the old Law.  It is not as if we are now freed from the Law!  On the contrary, the new Law is infinitely harder to keep.
I’d love to hear your thoughts,
J___

Hi J____,
Thank you for your question.
My thoughts are that “faith without works is dead as the scripture says.” Reread that paper and then write back to me quoting anything that says otherwise. To say that “we are not under the law but under grace” is entirely scriptural:

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Under the law of Moses one could lust after women in their hearts and hate and even kill their enemies, and it was completely lawful so long as you could refrain from committing physical adultery. Under the law of the spirit of Jesus Christ, you could not even hate your brother or lust after a woman in your heart. That is how “we are no longer under the law but under [ God’s chastening] grace. Go back and reread that paper. You will get much more out of it the second time around. All the scriptures on that subject simply cannot sink in the first time you read that paper.

For you to come to the conclusions you draw in this e- mail, I am forced to the conclusion that you need to reread that paper or else you simply have not read the entire paper. How is it possible to read that the law of Christ is as high above the law of Moses “as the heavens are above the earth,” and conclude that being in the heavens means that there is no place for the earth? How is it possible to conclude that because the law of Christ goes beyond physical adultery and deals with the heart and spirit telling us that we are not even to lust after a woman, that therefore it is all right to commit physical adultery? Where did I ever even hint at such a thing? The whole emphasis in that paper is that the ten commandments are for carnal men while the “but I say unto you… commandments of Christ… are for a righteous man.”

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,

‘Where sin abounds grace much more abounds’ means that when we sin God will chasten us to “forsake ungodliness and to live godly lives in this present age.”

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [ Greek- paideuo – same Greek word translated ‘ chasten’] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

That paper on the law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit demonstrates that “the times of reformation” which Christ brought in, subjects us all to a “change also of the law” which puts obedience to Moses on the par of remaining a toddler who is no more than a slave:

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law , shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ , that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

A “schoolmaster” and a “tutor” are both governors who tell us, as mere toddlers, what to do, as Paul points out in the very next chapter which is a continuation of his thought in chapter three:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, [ That] the heir, as long as he is a child [ Greek- nepios- toddler], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [ Greek – nepios – toddlers], were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons a different Greek word. [ This Greek word is ‘huios,’ a mature son] God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son [ Greek – huios] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son [ not a nepios, still under the law of Moses but a huios under the “law of the spirit”] ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Where in any of that can you deduce that I have said we should have other Gods before us, take God’s name in vain, worship idols, not enter into the rest which is Christ [Heb 4], hate our parents, cheat on our wives, lie, steal and covet? Of course there is nowhere in that paper which even lends itself to your conclusion, “ultimately, it seems that you are saying that the ultimate sin is to try and not to sin.” But that is exactly what Paul was also  accused of doing, so I am in good company.
I’m not accusing you of being argumentative, but what I am saying to you is that you have missed the point. The “ultimate sin” is to think that we can do anything of ourselves:

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Every word in that paper demonstrates the superior nature of the “but I say unto you… reformed… and changed law of the spirit.”
I hope you will take the time to reread that paper and ask God only to show you what is in His word. Put God’s words in His Bible ahead of what is taught in Babylon, and you, too, will have to conclude that the law is not for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient.”
Like most people in Babylon, you must not believe that Christ was a reformer, but believe that he came to make the ten commandments clearer. That is not the case. There is not nor was there ever any spirit in the ten commandments. “The law is spiritual” refers to that to which the law of Moses was “added.” But it does take “the sum of thy Word” to see that fact. The mere context of Rom 7 hides the Truth that Paul really believed that the glory of the law of Moses “had no glory at all by reason of that which excels,” not ‘by reason of that which explains better.’ In a Biblical, holy spirit inspired, “pattern of sound words” the law of commandments contained in ordinances is being abolished.”

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:
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

I do hope to hear from you again.
Mike