Law and the Truth (edited with ChatGPT)

 

The first law given to human beings was given to Adam when God commanded him, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17, NASB). This is the first law, and when Adam broke it, he committed the first human sin (Romans 5:12).

 

So when Paul says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law” (Romans 5:12–13, ESV), he is not referring to the Law of Moses. This is because even before the Law of Moses, sin existed and was counted as sin (Deuteronomy 9:4–5; Leviticus 18:25).

 

Counting of sin did not begin with the Law of Moses. After all, it is written that even those without the law are judged without the law, as the law is written on their hearts. If they seek the truth, they can find it through reasoning (Romans 2:12–16). That is why those who live by the law without possessing the written law are a law unto the lawless people around them. People who do not know the God of Israel still have a living law written in the lives of those who walk in it without having it written. The ethical, just, holy, and kind—or simply Jesus-kind—of people living in a lawless society are the living law to that society.

 

That is why sin did not begin with the Law of Moses but with the first law given to Adam. Before that command, Adam might have been acting wrongly in other areas, but nothing was counted as sin. Once the law was given, however, and broken, Adam died—and sin came alive. It is not that the law itself was evil, but rather that Adam was incompetent to follow it, especially with the devil nearby to deceive him. If Eve had been faithful to God rather than her apparent personal interest, and if Adam had been more faithful to God than to Eve, they could have resisted that sin. The challenge they faced, however, was not a small one. The most cunning of all created beings—the devil, the ancient serpent—was allowed to deceive a couple of fools ruling over Eden. The only weapons they had against him were the love of God and the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. And they lacked both—just as most of us fail in those very same directions.   

 

That was the first law—and when it was broken, Adam spiritually died. He lost his right to the Holy Spirit and was given a few centuries of fleshly life before returning to dust. In the meantime, no new law was given to him. The period between the fall of Adam and the flood in the time of Noah was a lawless society. There was no law in place except for the ordinance God gave to protect the lawless Cain, who had murdered his brother (Genesis 4:15). That lawless society, however, went on to produce the most sinful generation of human beings (Genesis 6:5–8).

 

That is why, after God destroyed the world with the flood in the time of Noah, He made the first covenant with Noah’s family—and also with all living beings on earth—and gave them the second law: “blood for blood” (Genesis 9:6). Killing implies sinning against your fellow human beings, and this became the foundational law behind the “eye for eye” principle later found in the Law of Moses. This is made clear in the Law of Moses when it declares, “eye for eye” (Deuteronomy 19:21), and it is perfectly expressed in the New Testament to mean lack of love toward brothers and sisters (1 John 3:15; Matthew 5:21–23). So, the law of Noah is clarified further through the Law of Moses, but its truthful and final version—the truth—is preached by the Lord Jesus and His disciples. That is why John says, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Matthew also records that the Lord Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21–23).

 

This law was enforced by angels, who were allowed to judge humanity according to their works, and it was delivered to people through the prophets of God. This is written in Galatians 3:19, which says: “… It [the law] was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.”

 

We know of many intermediary prophets of God who have given us laws, such as Moses, Noah, and all the other prophets, with the angels being those who enforce and ordain them (Ezekiel 1:1-8, Galatians 3:19). In Ezekiel 1, we see four creatures directing four-eyed wheels within wheels, and these wheels follow the creatures, as the spirit of each creature is on each wheel. These wheels symbolize the laws ordained to humanity by the angels, and the eyes on the wheels are there to see whether people live according to these laws. The angels then enforce "blood for blood," "eye for eye," and the principle of "what goes around comes around." They themselves are guided by the spirit of God, moving wherever the spirit leads them.   

 

The problem is that these laws cannot work because man is fighting the same devil that misguides him from the tree of life toward the forbidden fruit, even outside the Garden of Eden. In Jeremiah 10:23, it is written, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.” Before, the devil had to deceive man from the outside, but now the devil deceives humanity from within. If Adam struggled to resist the devil from the outside, now the devil is inside him, making him believe that the devil’s thoughts are his own. Man’s steps are not his own. Human flesh is corrupted because it does not grow in the light – the guidance of God and perfect truth – and has adapted to sin. Even worse, there is another law in his flesh that fights him, keeping him away from the tree of life and toward the forbidden fruit. This is our original enemy: the Devil and his tail – his demons (Romans 7:15-20).

 

After all, Paul did write, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:15-20). There is sin within us that compels us to sin, despite the weakness of our flesh, which, in the first place, is not consistent with the will of our spirit (Romans 8:5-8).

 

Now, there is a law from God, which is holy and was made to reduce sin. Furthermore, with good intentions, there are also condemnations against transgressors in the form of "blood for blood," the Law of Moses, and their perfection expressed in the truth of Jesus. Those early laws, before Jesus, are holy – not in the sense of being the image of God (which is Jesus), but in the sense of being God’s own or accepted as law by God, as a shadow of the truth to come with Jesus. Yet, this was our prison, and it became the path to our death and destruction.  

 

It’s not only that we are unaccustomed to the perfection of the law and prophets – though most of the failures of the children of Jacob are simply because they are foolish goats who never understand what they have, and that is why God was so angry with them – but also, now the devil has been given a target to destroy us. In Eden, the target was to make us eat the forbidden fruit, and after that, it became about making us break the law of God and the truth of God. That is why the law became our prison, and Jesus had to free us, not only from the devil but also from the law itself (Galatians 3:13). That’s why if you seek the truth (Jesus), you will be free from both the law of "blood for blood" and the chains of the devil (John 8:32). Did not even Jesus say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34)? This is because your destiny is freer the holier you are, and your destiny is more predetermined toward failure the more sinful you are. This is so, as the wheels of destiny keep turning, judging you (Ezekiel 1).   

 

So what is the solution? First, God, as a good father, needs to remove the snakes and scorpions from our lives and give us what we need the most. What we need is the Holy Spirit, not the eggs we ask for – the earthly desires of the flesh (Luke 11:11-13).

 

For this purpose, Jesus, the God in heaven, had to come to earth first to make the law void by application, so that people could be freed from the bondage of the law (Galatians 3:13). To understand this, we need to look at the Law of Moses. To free people from the slavery of sin (John 8:34), God first decided that the blood payment of human beings should be made by animals (Leviticus 4, 5). The high priest, the elders, and others who had this responsibility needed to lay their hands on the sacrificial animal to transfer the sin of the person or people into the animal (Leviticus 4:4, 15, 24, 29; Leviticus 4:33; Leviticus 16:21). Yet, this created well-fattened priests and rulers who were hypocritical about holiness and justice (Ezekiel 34), rather than holy people, because it addressed the symptom of the problem (sin), not the cause of the problem (the work of the flesh and the devil).

 

That is why all of humanity needed to be classified for what it is: sinners under the Law of Moses, the law of Noah, and the truth of the Lord Jesus (Romans 3:9-24). As sinners, all needed sacrificial animals, and all sins were paid by the blood of God. That’s why Jesus was born in an animal barn, as a sacrificial animal (Luke 2:7). The blood of Jesus fulfilled the law by application and made it void (Colossians 2:14). In doing so, God avoided the fat shepherds who scatter the sheep, as prophesied (Ezekiel 34), and disarmed the dark forces that were impressing humanity with sin (Colossians 2:14).    

 

Yet, sin is still alive in our flesh, and the devil resides within us. That’s why the power of the Holy Spirit is given to us—not only to free us from the bondage of the devil (Luke 10:19), which makes us do things we should never do on our own (Jeremiah 10:23, Romans 7:15-20), but also to give us the guidance of God in our hearts (John 16:13, Romans 8:14, Galatians 5:18-24, John 14:26-27), replacing the deception of the devil and the rule of the devil. That’s why the only one who can conquer the world is the born-again faithful (1 John 5:4-5). A person who is born again of the Spirit is like the wind—no one knows where he is coming from or where he is going because he has the heart of the Lord (John 3:8). A born-again faithful can analyze everything as he sees it, through the eye of the Lord, the ear of the Lord, the heart of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord—the all-knowing, almighty Lord who created everything by His words. Yet, nobody can analyze him, for who can know the heart of the all-knowing God? (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).    

 

What Jesus did was blind the devils who used to play us and give us sight, as the Lord came to blind those who see and open the eyes of the blind—us (John 9:39). That’s why, even though we ask for eggs (earthly things), because we don’t know better, God will not give us snakes and scorpions (the devils), but the Holy Spirit, which will solve all our problems (Luke 11:11-13). The Holy Spirit will give us the knowledge of truth (Jesus the Christ) that sets us free (Galatians 3:13, John 8:32, 34), will empower us with supernatural powers (Acts 1:8), will empower us to cast out devils (Matthew 12:27-28), and will blind the devils (John 9:39) by making us live by the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:15-16). Now, we may ask, what is the purpose of all this drama? It is so that sin should be known as sin and the devil should be known as the devil (Romans 7:13), for what it truly is. That’s why the whole world is under the dominance of the devil (1 John 5:19), and Jesus comes to save us from this bondage (John 3:16) and give us His peace (John 14:27).

 

This is the good news (the gospel) that we are not ashamed to preach to the whole world because the gospel is for the salvation of all (Romans 1:16). It is better to teach you, now, how to save yourself than to cry in heaven while we watch you burn in eternal hell. After all, it is written in Romans 1:16-21: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” That is why we cry aloud, saying let us reconcile you with God (2 Corinthians 5:20), so you can have eternal heaven under the Lord Jesus rather than burning in hellfire with the devils who will be cooked alive with you. Choose life and accept the Lord Jesus as Lord (God) and Christ of God.