THE NATURE OF LAW

Genesis chapter 1













Today we are walking in: The Nature Of Law













Exodus 16:4



Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law H2706, or no.





LAW





Today we look to the word LAW-- H2706-choq-- statute, ordinance, limit, something prescribed, due, prescribed task, prescribed portion, action prescribed (for oneself), resolve, prescribed due, prescribed limit, boundary, enactment, decree, ordinance, specific decree, law in general, enactments, statutes, conditions, enactments, decrees, civil enactments prescribed by Yah










The Torah testifies...............



Genesis 26:5




Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. H8451







Exodus 16:28




And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? H8451







Exodus 24:12



And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law H2706, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.















The prophets proclaim..................



Ezekiel 22:26




Her priests have violated my law H2706, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.







Hosea 8:1




Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. H8451







Micah 4:2




And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law H8451 shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.


















The writings bear witness............




2 Chronicles 33:8




Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law H2706 and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.




Psalm 78:5




For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law H8451 in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:







Proverbs 29:18




Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, H8451 happy is he.












The Nature Of Law

There is a universal battle cry for those who embrace Yahashua HaMaschiach as The Most High and yet at the same time deny His words. "We are no longer under the law, but under grace." I meant what I just said. This has been the banner under which millions of Christians for hundreds of years have flown. Humankind, since the days of Adam, have turned away from the word of The Most High. It is a central part of our fallen nature. There are really three kinds of people in the world. Those who disobey the commands of The Most High because they do not acknowledge His existence, those who disobey Him and do it in His name, and those who claim His name and obey Him. Which one are you? When reading the Scriptures, it becomes quite evident that no matter what "dispensation" you are cruising through, disobedience is rampant, and so is chaos and moral decay. I hope and pray that this teaching will begin to open your eyes to the commonly accepted interpretation of being under the law. Like many of the Hebrew words we have defined, this phrase has a background and an Old Testament meaning that is imperative in understanding it's New Testament use. This will take a few lessons to get through, but I believe it is very important. Yahashua, Paul, and all the writers of the New Testament would have used the concept of law in the framework of it's previously established use. This word, or for that matter, the idea of being under the law, was not created in a vacuum. However, the use or misuse of this idea was so misunderstood by many Nations, that Paul spends an incredible amount of time to make it clearly understood. Why so much attention to this word? Well, it is because one cannot draw the two usual conclusions to this matter. There seems to be a very fine line between obedience and what we call legalism. The phrase under the law is found ten times in the New Testament. If you are familiar with scriptural numerics, then you will quickly notice that the number ten usually speaks of law or judgement for disobeying (10 commandments, 10 plagues, the tithe, etc. I intend to discuss these ten occurrences. First, we must take the time to define what we mean by the law. As I have said many times before, the New Testament writers would have used this word as it has always been understood and defined. Simply put, if law was evil or bad in the Old Testament then it would continue to be understood as evil or bad in the New Testament. If The Most High's laws were understood as righteous and set apart and holy in the Old Testament, then they would continue to be defined as righteous and set apart in the New Testament. If The Most High is constantly changing the meaning of these words, then there is no solid rock on which we can stand. Hebrews 13:8 says that Our Most High is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Most High does not change and you must read Malachi 3:6 to get that understanding. There is no explanation of the phrase under the law because it was already understood! The church approaches the Scriptures by beginning in the New Testament, forming an understanding of its teachings, and then going back to the Old Testament to understand its meaning. Interpreting the Scriptures backwards produces a message that is backwards. You can not justify a New Testament teaching by quoting the New Testament! The English word law is translated from the Greek word nomos. It is very important to see how this word evolved because the defining of words changes our image and perception of the full meaning of a sentence when it is formed. The translation process from Greek to English has already changed the meaning of law. In Greek society, the concept of law still held a positive, honorable, and instructive substance. In the Old Testament, we see that the law was reverently esteemed, and was given many other titles to describe its place in the lives of The Most High's people. We will discuss those titles later. As the western culture progressed, the concept of law grew more and more negative. The whole scriptural concept of law and bondage was reversed. Law was taught as bondage, not sin. Certain phrases were adapted to express this bondage. What began in The Most High's word as light, life, righteousness, the Way, the walk, truth, goodness, and holiness, soon became disdained, loathed, and despised. The law has become the enemy. Today, in many movies the handsome bank robber or Jewel thief is actually applauded over the bumbling representatives of the law, the police. Iniquity is actually portrayed as good and the law as bad! Law is no longer seen as good and righteous but is seen as nothing but fear and punishment. This is because the scriptural concept of law has been so twisted and redefined that it is virtually unrecognizable. According to Colossians chapter 1, all things were created by the Word of The Most High. The Scriptures are full of expressions to verify this. The Word is The Most High in John 1:1. The Word is life in Deuteronomy 32:1 and John 1:1. The Word is light in Psalms 119:105. The Word is the way in Psalms 119:9. The Word is righteousness in Deuteronomy 6 and Romans 6. The Word is wisdom in Proverbs 4:5. The Word is truth in Psalms 119:142. All things were created by this Word, says Paul. The Word is a general term to describe what is spoken and written down. An essential part of the Word is commands, ordinances, statutes, and laws. These are placed under the term laws. In the English, the word law is translated from the Greek word nomos, which comes from the first 5 books of the Bible known as the Big 5 or the Torah. Torah does not mean law. It means teaching or instruction. Torah is a term that refers to all teaching. Contained within Torah are commands. These are commands from The Most High to His creation. Teaching, instructions, and commands are given by The Most High to creation for its welfare and good. The very laws that brought all creation into existence are also to sustain it, whether it be man or beast, so to speak. The Scriptures begin with laws or commands. "... let there be light ... let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters ... let the earth bring forth vegetation ... let there be lights ... let us make man ..." These commands brought forth all of His creation. This is the beginning of The Most High's Torah or instructions to creation. Adam, the first man, was created by laws and was given instructions. "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it ... of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat ..." Why did ’The Most High tell Adam not to eat of this tree? Because you are what you eat? In other words, disobedience will result in a separation from ’The Most High, and man will be accountable to choose between good and evil, and because of his now fallen nature, he will generally choose evil over good. This will perpetuate a decline into disorder and the eventual extinction of man. So what does The Most High do? He loves man. So, to sustain man, He gives him instructions or laws, not only for man but for all of His creation. All of creation is created by Torah and sustained by Torah. But how is man reconciled back to The Most High if we all break those laws? How could man ever be redeemed? Well, not by the law. Why? Because law, instructions contained within the Word, was not designed to redeem man, but rather to create, sustain, and prosper man. When The Most High's instructions are obeyed, they separate and distinguish the obedient from the disobedient. The instructions in Exodus 19 separate The Most High's people as a peculiar treasure above all other people. In Deuteronomy 30, it prospers and causes long life to those who obey. In Deuteronomy 11, it blesses the obedient and curses the disobedient. All mankind was created by law, and blessed or cursed by it. Since commandments do not redeem man, The Most High had to redeem him another way. By grace! If man rejects grace, then he is by nature under the law. Lets read Romans 3:9-19 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way: for we have before proved both Hebrews and Greeks, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after The Most High. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of The Most High before their eyes. Now we know that whatever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before The Most High. Many times I have heard these verses used to show the condition of Israel, as they are under the law and the church is under grace. But this series of verses begins by stating that all are under sin. All of these verses point to the condition of all of mankind, and that when the law speaks it speaks to every mouth, and that all the world is guilty before The Most High. The law tells us that we are all guilty before The Most High. The law in this verse, Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law teaches us what is right and wrong. We all are guilty of breaking the law, so we are all doomed unless The Most High provides another way to be redeemed. When we are placed under grace by faith, the law still teaches us what is right and wrong. That is its designed function and its lawful use when you look at 1 Timothy 1:8. To be under the law is to be without grace and therefore subject to the law, and therefore guilty. There is no teaching here that law was for Old Testament Hebrews or that they were redeemed by it. Remember that when Paul taught, the Bereans checked out everything he spoke by searching the Old Testament that these things were so. There was no New Testament to verify his words! Let’s look at Romans 6:14-16 For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? The Most High forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Verse 14 is probably quoted more often than not to explain the doctrine that Yahashua died to free the church from the Old Testament laws. This is absurd. This is where a working knowledge of Hebrew idioms are imperative to understanding the text. But even without that knowledge, you will begin to see that the focus of the next two chapters is the old man of Romans 6:6. Paul begins chapter 6 by telling his listeners that they are now dead to sin in verse 2. This was accomplished by identification with the baptism of Yahashua, which was the death of the sinful nature, the body of sin, also called the old man. Here, the body of sin was crucified, not the law. If you are not under grace, then you only have law which produces sin when disobeyed. You then become a servant to sin and under its dominion. Not because you obey it, but because you do not obey it. It becomes your only master. This old man is the old nature, the Adamic nature. This old man must serve the law because he has no other master, and therefore he is under the dominion of sin because he breaks the law. In other words, he is using the law for what it was not intended to be used. So the context here is the crucifying of the old man or the body of sin, and therefore being "dead to sin". In verses 11 through 13 Paul teaches us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies anymore. Remember sin, in 1 John 3:4, is transgression of Old Testament. He also tells us that we are to yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto The Most High. When we get to verse 14 we see that being under the law is synonymous with being under the dominion of sin, not the Old Testament. Again, the Old Testament teaches us what sin is. Torah is not sin. To be under grace is to be a servant of that which is righteous and that you are now freed from sin Romans 6:18. We have the power to serve The Most High now rather than sin! In chapter 7, Paul begins by telling us that he is now addressing those who know the Old Testament. To these brethren, it would consist of written and oral law, which is a subject for another time. He says, "Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? He is going to relate this teaching now to those who understand the culture. He then begins by using a story common in Hebrew parables. For the woman who hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. The Old Testament teaches that a marriage contract is forever or until her husband dies. The law states that when she chooses to marry a man that she must stay married to whom she chose. The law also states that when he dies she is freed from him. Now who is the man? The law? NO! Paul just explained to us in chapter 6 that the old man is the body of sin. So, let's interpret the parable as understood by the ones who knew the law. The husband is the body of sin, under the law, which can never be pleased. According to the law, she must stay married to him. If she tries to marry another, grace, while still married to her first husband, the body of sin, she is an adulteress, for she cannot serve two masters. If she, according to the law, dies to sin, the old man dies, then she is free to marry another. The law, when disobeyed, is a curse and produces the body of sin, an old man which can never be pleased. To be under the law is to be without grace and under the constant dominion of sin, the old man. To them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to the Most High, but under the law to HaMashiach), that I might gain them that are without law. Paul begins by stating that he is not controlled or led by any man, but rather he is a servant to all men that he might gain them. His purpose is to win their trust. He will do this by empathizing with them. He will approach them from their perspective and from their point of view and needs. This in no way teaches that he will take on their behavior or even mystically become them. I believe that it is a foundational phrase used by modern Christian teaching, ‘being under the law,’ that has ultimately led to the current moral collapse of our culture. As I have stated, there are ten occurrences of this phrase in the New Testament. We have covered three, (Romans 3:19, 6:14-15) and now we will go to a slightly different context in 1 Corinthians 9:20. First, keep in mind that Romans 3 and 6 showed us two clear insights. We are ALL under the law until we are under grace, and to be under the law is to be under the dominion of sin.