One of the Scriptural passages used by the all-faith-no-Law contingent to “prove” the death of the Law is Galatians 2:16. At first (“headline”) glance, they would be right. But a Scripture-commanded “fine print” approach to the verse (Isa. 28:9-13) enables us to determine God’s whole message to salvation seekers. The passage reads: “Knowing that a man is not JUSTIFIED by the works of the Law, but by the faith OF Jesus Christ, we who believe in Jesus are not JUSTIFIED by the works of the Law, for by the works of the Law shall no man be JUSTIFIED” (Gal. 2:16). Note that the subject is JUSTIFICATION, not salvation or conversion. Note also that the translators used the word “IN” relative to faith instead of the correct word–“OF,” meaning the faith OF Jesus–His level of faith. God’s people operate with the faith OF Christ based on their faith in Him. In John 14:12 Jesus said that he who believes in Him would do what He did and greater things than those he (the believer) would do. One cannot do the things He did, and certainly not greater things than He did, without His level of faith–“the faith of Jesus.”

We must have the same faith that Jesus had as a man in order to be justified and converted in this life and, upon His return, to receive salvation and rebirth. Read Born Again. That faith comes to us when we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit following baptism. This level of faith is SAVING FAITH which is accompanied by WORKS–OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD/LAW. Read John 14:15 and 23 . Note that Jesus equates His LAW (vs 15) with His WORDS (vs 23). This is true throughout the Holy Scriptures. Lawlessness (iniquity)=dead faith=spiritually dead believer. Paul knew that some within the Galatian churches were using faith to get around obeying God’s Law. Sound familiar? For this reason he clarified verse 16 in verse 17. “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, WE ourselves are found to be SINNERS, WE have made CHRITST OUR MINISTER OF SIN. GOD FORBED!” In other words, after accepting the blood of Jesus Christ to remove all of our PAST SINS, if we then do away with the sin-defining Law, and believe that we are already saved and therefore have no need of the Law, thereby making sin a legitimate part of our lives, WE HAVE MADE CHRIST OUR SIN ENABLER.

Paul continues in order to clarify his statements: “For if I bring back to life that which I have previously put to death (the old sinful man), I make myself a transgressor” (sinner-vs 18). By returning to sin following justification (removal of all past sins) we become like the sow that returns to the mire and the dog that returns to its vomit. We knowingly and deliberately return to what we were: SINNERS. Christ did not remove our PAST sins so that we can sin with His blessing in the future. This is one of Satan’s most deadly, and most cherished, deceptions (Rev. 12:9).

“Christ in you, the HOPE of glory” is referring to His and the Father’s Holy Spirit living within the true saint. The saint (son of God) is led by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14). To continue to sin means that Christ, through His Spirit, is leading the believer to sin–has become the sinner’s enabler. Like a parent who provides his child with drugs, thereby aiding the child’s addiction, Jesus allowing a believer to sin would be encouraging him to sin, which is what the sin-and-win theology embraced by the church. That would make Jesus equally guilty of the sinner’s sin. Recently the parents of a mentally ill boy bought him a gun. He used it to commit murder. Both parents were found guilty of aiding and abetting their son in his murders. All three are now in prison. If, as sinners saved by grace assure us, we can continue to sin after receiving Christ in our hearts in the form of His Spirit, the One who died to erase our past sins becomes equally guilty with us as we, with His help, commit more sins. This act of sin encouragement the church accuses Jesus of is heresy at its highest level. Jesus Christ does not manifest Himself in us contrary to His Father’s Law. The true saint lives in such as way that he can say, “If you have seen me, you have seen Christ.” Our sins would be a reflection of His life being lived out through our words, thoughts and actions, which He, through His Holy Spirit, enables the true saint to do. Painting Christ as our sin encourager and enabler is religious idiocy at its idiotic apex.

We are saved by living Christ’s Law-keeping life as He lives His holy life in and through us by the power and leadership of His Holy Spirit within us. Sinners saved by grace do not have Him living within them. For this reason He commands Truth seekers to separate from them, to come out of “the church” and have nothing more to do with her. Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. Only those who separate themselves from that two-headed, multi-bodied religious beast can be God’s children (6:17,18). Those who remain within her are being deceived by Satan (Rev. 12:9).

In verse 20 Paul continues: “I am crucified with Christ (I have put the old sinning man to death); nevertheless I live (in newness of righteous life). Yet it is not I, but Christ (in the form of His Spirit) that lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” JESUS DID NOT GIVE HIS LIFE TO ERASE MY PAST SINS SO THAT I COULD THEN CONTINUE TO SIN, as we are told repeatedly by Satan’s false prophets and their disciples. Their so-called savior is one of those “other Jesus'” Paul warned the Corinthian church about in Second Corinthians 11:4. Each church has its own christ, its own god and its own plan of salvation. Though they are all different, they do share one “truth”–the right to sin and get away with it. And Satan laughs.

When asked what they must do to be accepted by Jesus Christ, people were told to “Repent and be baptized for the remission (removal/forgiveness) of your (past) sins”–be justified (Acts 2:38; 10:43). Though these two acts are essential to being saved, they are not enough affect salvation. We must also have the faith OF (the same as) Jesus Christ which comes with the receiving of the Holy Spirit at baptism. It is by this faith that we “walk as Jesus walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) and “overcome (Satan’s temptations to sin) as I (Jesus) overcame” (Rev. 3:21). It is only by that faith that we can retain our holiness until the end of our lives (Mat. 10:22) and receive salvation at the time of Christ’s return to earth and the resurrection of the Very Elect. All others will find themselves in the middle of hell on earth known Biblically as the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Read Hope and Salvation. Key word–Hope.

To avoid this catastrophe we must make the man Jesus of Nazareth our example for the walk we are called to walk. Christ suffered temptations, tests, rejection, persecution, etc, LEAVING US AN EXAMPLE SO TO FOLLOW IN OUR RESISTANCE AND OVERCOMING (1 Pet. 2:21). The prevailing argument is that no one can possibly imitate Christ. But this is exactly what He commands us to do. As a man, He wa s our EXAMPLE. Unless, as the serpent told Eve and as we are told repeatedly by Satan’s ministers, the One who said of Himself: “I am the Lord, I lie not” actually lied about being our example. If that is so, perhaps John 3:16 is also a lie. And if that is a lie, ….

Relative to Christ being our example, Paul noted that Jesus “was in all points (ways) tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Like us, He was tempted to break God’s Law–to sin. But He refused. He kept God’s commandments perfectly (Jn 15:10). Only as we live this life HAVING “Christ in you, the hope of glory” can we resist Satan’s temptations as He did and earn the right to live with the Father forever in paradise. He set the standard. In order to join Him, we must follow His example, using the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Hebrews 13:8 we are told: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” If Jesus is our example, and if He lives in us in the form of His Holy Spirit, there is only one way we can believe that He would not be keeping God’s Law through us? By listening to Satan’s voice of reason. Adam and Eve are perfect examples of this level of reasoning. After hearing God (the Word Who became Jesus of Nazareth) tell them what they could and could not do, they then listened to Satan tell them that God had lied to them, that sin was no problem. They belonged to God (aka “saved”). They could eat of the tree and “YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE.” Like them, the modern day (Laodicean) church has bought what the serpent is selling. Read Christ’s description of her in Revelation 3:14-18. Obey Him and come out–now.

I will end this posting with a Word from the supposedly anti-Law Apostle Paul. “As sin has ruled you, bringing death upon you, even so, grace can now rule you through righteousness unto eternal life by (following the example of) Jesus Christ your LORD/MASTER.” “For when you WERE the servants of sin (Satan), you WERE free from (lacking) righteousness … the end of which (sin) is death. But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you bear the fruit of (manifest) holiness, THE END RESULT OF WHICH IS ETERNAL LIFE” (Rom. 5:21; 6:20-22). With God there are two options: holiness (Lawfulness) leading to eternal life or sin (Lawlessness) leading to eternal death. Believing in Jesus does not make one holy and does not produce salvation. So says the Lord in His Holy Scriptures. L.J.