The End of Law

 

Last week our pastor shared a teaching on the last few verses of Romans 9 through the first few verses of Romans 10.  After church he, my youngest son, and I spent some time talking and going a bit deeper than the sermon covered.  It was a great discussion that we then continued moving into the other night when he and his family came over to celebrate Sukkot with us at my home.  During the Sukkot celebration my oldest son joined the pastor and I as we again went a bit deeper.  Over the last few days, I have been considering a few things that I felt would be profitable to share. 

The first thing is the love and respect that was shared between all of us as we shared and discussed.  In all reality, for me, this is the big realization of the time we shared.  The funny thing was that we never really talked about it.  It just was. 

Over the years I have come to understand that one of the greatest indications of spiritual maturity is exhibited in how we share our theological views and/or how we respond to others when they share theirs.  Undoubtedly, we all believe that what we see in scripture is “obviously” what the scripture is intended to communicate. 

When discussing issues such as the application of God’s Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances to this dispensation and beyond, eschatology & prophecy, the mystical aspects of spirituality (the spirit realm and how it specifically interacts with humans), what makes something clean or unclean, what is holy and what is profane, and how God may be specifically acting or allowing circumstances to unfold we must accept that these are all areas of ambiguity.  Moving beyond the limitations of the Word we have issues like politics, foreign policy, and how we should respond in day to day life given particular circumstance. 

We must learn to share how we see and understand as a summary of “what I see”, “what I believe God has shown me”, and “from how I interpret what I am reading”.  At the same time, we must allow others to share their views and understandings in a like manner.  It is so easy to become so extreme in our views that other views appear as “obviously” wrong.  But, what would we discover if we gave the people sharing those views the respect of sharing what lead them to believing what they believe?  

The bottom line is, if all we ever do is surround ourselves with people who see and believe in the same way we do, and if when challenged with a different perspective, shut those people down before giving them an opportunity to share, we leave little room for growth and new understanding.  When we live this way, what opportunities do we have to see things in a new way?  What opportunities for growth have we shut down before they ever got started?  And what damage may have we done to another person’s journey with the Holy Spirit and the commission that God has on their lives?  What if that person is fragile, looking for confirmation in something that God really has given them, and respects us enough to trust us with our response?  What if there are other people listening and the very thing that this person is sharing is being brought up through the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all those present?  How might our definitive response impact the ability for those people to ever overcome the setback caused by our overzealous and self-righteous response. 

The truth is, I am working toward being strong enough in my faith that I don’t need to argue with people.  I don’t need to defend my perspectives and my views to such an extent that proving my view correct overshadows my desire to love others and provide them the opportunity to bring new and relevant understandings into my life.  I want to trust my relationship with the Holy Spirit enough to know that if someone brings a perspective that is different from where the Spirit is leading me, He will make it clear and I will not be led astray.  I want to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead people into my life to help me move beyond my blinders, and to the point where I value growth more than victory.  How much different would the world look if we could all listen to each other enough to really understand why others believe what they do?  How much more insight could we gain?  How much more could the Holy Spirit use us?

This leads me back to the discussion that the pastor and my sons and I were having.  During this conversation the concept of Jesus being the “end” of the law came up (Romans 10:4).  This took us to the concept of the Law being a “tutor” as shared in Galatians 3:24. What we began to see is that the word “end” can have two different meanings in this context.  Using a race as an example, the race has two ends.  The end of the race is when all the competitors have finished competing and the race is over.  At the same time, the finish line is the “end” of the race.  It is a physical thing that defines where the competitors are racing to.   

Now let’s take a look at Galatians 3:24-25 (NASB) “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” 

These two scriptures really support each other in a beautiful way.  In one way, we could argue that according to the Galatians scripture, the tutor has been done away with because the point of the Tutor is to lead us to Jesus.  In this case, the “end” in Romans 10 would indicate that the Law is no longer applicable to the Christian faith and that Christ did away with or replaced it. 

But, is this the only way of seeing things?  If we choose to take on the vantage point of the Law being good, the very definition of life, and a gift from God, it is difficult for me to understand why God would take something so wonderful away.  From this perspective the scriptures noted above take on a completely new meaning that also fit into the context of what Paul may be attempting to communicate in both Romans and Galatians. 

Maybe what Paul is attempting to communicate is that Jesus is the end of the law like the finish line is the end of a race.  Maybe what Paul is saying in Galatians is that we need to understand what is unholy, unclean, and profane so that we have something to mediate on to grow us in a deeper understanding of the world around us.  In other words, without an understanding of what is and is not acceptable we can’t ponder why it would or would not be acceptable.  Going even deeper, we would have no reason to ponder why we choose to do what is not acceptable while avoiding those things that are. 

From this perspective, I can see that any physical law of righteousness (be it the Law of Moses or whatever level of righteous behavior is preached in our churches on any given Sunday) is simply a tutor that leads us into a deeper pursuit of truth.  This pursuit of truth investigates the unseen laws that govern our world and the motives of our heart.  This pursuit ultimately reveals if we are truly loving God and loving others as we love ourselves.  It is in this investigation that we come to see the root of our behavior, how our flesh nature, old hurts, or poor influences have led us into self-destructive patters of living.  In this we come to understand why we eat foods that are damaging to our health, why we struggle against activities that we know will damage our relationships with others, and why we chose to do things that will make us feel separate and apart from God. 

In John chapter 8 Jesus is talking to a group of religious teachers and He is telling them that they are slaves to sin and that Satan is their father.  In verses 31-32 He tells them that if they come to know Him, they will come to know the truth, and the truth will make them free. 

From the second perspective I just shared we can go back to Romans and come to see an entirely new meaning to Romans 9:31-32 (NASB) “but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.  Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 

Putting things together, here is what I believe Paul is getting at.  Regardless as to what “law of righteousness” we are embracing, if we are seeing that our righteousness in God’s eyes comes when we are able to walk in accordance with that law, we are stumbling over Christ.  All of the physical definitions and images of what righteous living looks like are only provided so that we know when we are living apart from Him.  Knowing that we are living apart from Him should force us to ask the question “why have I chosen to live apart from God?”  When we ask that question, He will answer us and the answer will be the truth because the truth is at the end of every question just as there is a finish line at the end of every race. 

No matter what area of morality or righteous living we may be struggling with, ultimately there is a truth that when looked at, listened to, repented for, and turned over to Him will set us free.  He is standing at the finish line of every battle we face, He is calling out to us, and He is willing to supernaturally bring us to where He is.  It doesn’t matter where we are on the track, how many times we have gone around and around.  He is the end of the battle, the end of the struggle, and the end of the fight.  He is our rest, our comfort, and our shield. 

I pray that maybe this blog has helped some of us see where we too are making the same mistakes as those that came before us, that we too can pursue a law of righteousness by works instead of faith, and that we too can trip over the stumbling stone (Christ).  I pray that in the areas that this has been revealed that we have the strength and courage to move deeper into self-reflection and seek the truth that awaits us at the end of our own race.  I pray that we seek that truth, and that as He has promised, in that truth we find Him, His love, His peace, His rest, and the freedom that can only be found in Him.  Amen Amen.