THE LAW: A GREAT DELUSION
A SPIRITUAL MEDITATION BY MESSIAN DREAD
WWW, December 2007 - WWW, December 2007 - In the Old Testament, you can find several books filled with all kinds of rules. It's called "The Law".
Are we supposed to obey this law?Start reading in Exodus somewhere, and you will see the start of a really long list of commandments and prohibitions that will cover almost every aspect of life.
We call it "The Law". Some also call it simply "Moses", as Moses is widely seen as the writer of the first five books of the Bible.
This law was given to the children of Israel by Moses, when they were in the desert traveling from Egypt to the promised land. It contained a summary in the form of what we know as "The Ten Commandments", but the whole of the law is recorded in four books: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The law is really very strickt. It contains a lot of rules concerning all kinds of things and even the least of all violations could lead to a -painful- death penalty.
Many people will read The Law and shake their heads in unbelief: "who can keep up with the rules in this law?", they ask themselves. Not without reason, because the Law says that if you violate one point, you are a violator of the whole law!
Just an example: if people would have sex without being bound in Holy Marriage, they would have to be stoned to death because of adultery or fornication.
Abut 2000 years ago, a Man walked on the face of the planet. He was not just a man, though. He was born of a virgin and He was JAH Himself: the Creator coming in human form.
His Name was Yesus Kristos, Yeshouah Mashiach, Jesus Christ.
He came to "fulfill the law", as the New Testament explains. He was there, to actually do what was written in the Law. He was there, to do what nobody else could do before or after Him.
Just browse a little bit through the law, my dear reader, and ask yourself: "how many violations have I already done in my life?"...
That's not the question people were asking when Yesus was walking among them, though. They would browse through the law to see what the other one was doing and they would be using that law to downpress people.
The New Testament tells us about an event, in which they took a woman because this woman had sex with a man she was not married with. They did not bother the man, though, but just the woman.
They took the woman to a place to get stoned and it was not a Dutch coffee shop where they took her to. To be stoned meant that you would die because of the many stones people throw at you. A thing which you can still find today in certain countries, by the way.
Yesus was there too, watching the hypocrites who in themselves had violated almost every point of the law already.
When the people were about to stone the woman, He wrote something on the ground. Too much speculation over just what it was that He wrote down. It's not important, otherwise it would have been mentioned. What was mentioned, is Yesus Kristos explaining the law to the stoners.
He said to them: "Let He That Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone".
Obviously, nobody was able to do it....
There was another event, in which a rich young man came to Yesus Kristos and asked Him: "What must I do to get eternal life?"
Yesus answered Him by saying that he had to keep up with the whole law. The rich man then claimed, he was doing exactly that. So the Lord told the rich man some more. He said: "Go and sell everything that you have, give it to the poor and follow Me".
The rich man turned away from Yesus. He knew, he could never do it.
The Bible Teachers of that time were -among other groups- called the Pharisees. They loved to study the bible. They knew every verse by heart and they would even add a few of their own.
Yesus told them: "You study the Bible because you think there is eternal life in that Bible, but you do not know Who is talking to you and you do not want to come to Me".
The Bible in that time was what we now call the Old Testament. The New Testament had still to be written. And there is a huge difference between the two, even though they do not contradict.
Where the OT speaks about orders and condemnation, the New Testament explains to the fullness just why the law was given and how we are supposed to deal with it.
Where the Old Testament starts with the Law, the New Testament starts with Grace!
You see, the law is good and contains nothing but truth.
Still, it is not designed to be obeyed.
It is designed to be broken by all, and fullfilled by One.What Yesus told the rich man, was a thing this rich man was unable to do. He had already fooled himself into thinking how he was somehow a follower of the Law and so he was convinced of his own righteousness, as the law also says: "He who keeps the Law is Perfect".
What Yesus told the people who wanted to stone the woman (and not the man), was a thing these people did not want to know. He showed them how hypocrite they were, thinking they could use the law to kill other people where they themselves were as sinful as the woman they were about to kill so violently.
What Yesus told the Pharisees, was that you could not find eternal life in the Law. In the Books. In the Bible. You can study all you want, and know all there is to know, even "believe it to be true", and still miss out on that eternal life.
Yesus showed the people without the shadow of a doubt, that they (we!) are all unable to do what we are supposed to do according to the Law.
But He showed more!
He showed Himself. Everything we cannot do, is what He did!
Now, obviously, this is the very heart of the Gospel Message. Yesus lived the life we should live, and died the death we should have died. He became our Substitute and in Him, we are obedient to the Law and declared justified.
And we did so, legally, 2000 years ago!
One would assume, that every sinner will jump for joy when they hear the blessed message of redemption. But unfortunately, this is not the case.
Within what might loosely be called "Christianity", there is a growing number of people who expose the very same mentality as the ones described in the previous paragraphs.
They will claim that Yesus is not JAH, they will claim that "Christianity" really is a form of Judaism, they will claim that the Law is still in effect and supposed to be obeyed by all. They will even claim it is possible to obey the law and become perfect in this body.
How is it possible that people can claim to be "Christian" and not see Who Yesus really is and what He has actually done for us?
In my opinion, this has to do with something the Bible calls "A Great Delusion".
Somewhere in the New Testament, you can read how the apostle Paulus writes about it. He says something to the effect of "If you do not love the Truth, JAH will send you a Great Delusion which will make you believe the lie":
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2Th 2:8-12
The apostle reveals a very important principal here.
At first glance, it might sound kind of logical: if you do not believe the Truth you will believe a lie. But the principal goes deep, as Paulus basically says that Jah will amplify (y)our love.
When you love the Truth, Jah will give you more love for the Truth. He will guide you higher and deeper and will even grow His fruits in you so that you will do good things.
When you love the lie, that says "you can do what Yesus did", Jah will also give you more love for the lie. Just like the Antichrist who sets himself in the temple (that is the human body) and proclaims himself to be god, you will also think of yourself as on the same position as Yesus.
And because Yesus is Jah, when you claim you can obey the law you are actually claiming a place that only Jah can take. You will believe the exact same lie as Lucifer who said to himself he would rise above the Most High and become god.
Now, how can the law be a Great Delusion? Was that law not sent by Jah Himself, and is not Satan the father-of-lies? Is the law a lie?
Well, the apostle makes it clear that the Delusion we speak about here, does not originate from Satan. No, this is a thing that comes from Jah Himself and therefore it is a serious thing.
You can fight against attacks and misleadings from Satan, but when the Lord God Jah Himself is behind it, there is not much you can do.
You can not fight Yesus Kristos, Who is JAH!
You can not fight Yesus Kristos, Who is the Truth Incarnate!
It is an undeniable fact, that the Old Testament law is given by Jah Himself. The rules and regulations recorded in the first books of the Old Testament are all good, and if everyone would live according to that law the world would really be a better place!
But, as said, there is only One Who was able to keep up with the law. Only One, Who could live it up. Only One, Who... fulfilled the law!
Yes, Yesus fulfilled the law. The book of Hebrews explains this to the fullness. It even says: "What Is Fulfilled is Not Far From Vanishing".
Yes, the law had a place and a function, until it would be fulfilled. Just like a prophecy: it is valid until the time in which it was fulfilled. But when it is fulfilled, it has lost it's function and will only have a historical relevance so that we can understand/overstand the times we are living in.
Yesus fulfilled many prophecies, Yesus also fulfilled the law. He showed, that He is the Only One Who is able to Live it Up. This means, that Yesus is really JAH Himself, for Who Is Righteous But JAH alone?
The law was given to us, so that we would see just how big our sins are. So that we shall see, that we are completely unable to live it up, even if we want to. So that we shall see, that there is really not one who is righteous but Jah only.
We can, as some do, try to keep up with as many rules as possible. We can fool ourselves into thinking that Jah somehow will "balance" our good and bad deeds and make a decision based on that balance. We can... believe a lie!
But we can better decide to love the Truth. And the Truth is, that the law is fulfilled. What we are unable to do, Yesus has done for us. And when we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, when we acknowledge that He is really JAH HIMSELF, He will make us born again.
We must be born again, not try to live up to a law that has already been fulfilled and "try to make the best of it". We must be born again, because our state shows that we are unable to live it up.
If we do not acknowledge that Yesus is really Jah, we are saying that people can actually become perfect without Jah. When we claim, that Yesus is not Jah and that "Christianity" is some sort of "Judaism 2.0", we are taking the place of Jah for we claim we can do what only Jah can do.
For Who is righteous but JAH?
Give Thanks, One Love,
Messian Dread
