The apostle Paul who was mightily used by God in the ministry unto the gentiles experienced such controversy on the laws against the Jews and even against the apostles James, John and Peter themselves early in his ministry. He was the persecutor of the Christian church beforehand.
Acts 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak
blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
1 Kings 22:13 And
the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now,
the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one
of them, and speak that which is good.
Revelations 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.In like manner, the prophet Jeremiah was kept in the dungeon filled with mire for prophesying words against the king and for declaring laws that are contrary to what the people know, then present, that the sons of Jehonadab the son of Rechab would drink wine (see the whole story on Jeremiah chapter 35).
Moses himself broke the law on graven and molten images by making the brasen serpent which was later named Nehushtan and worshipped by the people of Israel until the days of king Hezekiah. One has to ask will a man commit sin against God when the thing he is doing is a command of God like this story of Moses making a Brasen Serpent? This same image was destroyed by King Hezekiah when he was moved by the Spirit to rid off all forms of idols. In short, there is a time for the application of the laws of God and this is superseded by a command which is present and not the past. So, aptly, it is written that Christ is the end of the law.
2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
The same Moses married an Ethiopian woman which was against the law which he declared, saying, that none of Israel should marry strange women.
Numbers 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Numbers 12:2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
The story of Moses, Aaron and Miriam confrontation above reveals a truth to the ways of God. Laws do change when God is among the living (when he is come in the flesh or, simply, when his Spirit dwells in a man) for He will command anytime what he pleases to do. As a Man-cum-God, he will do things according to the will, purpose, intent, time, judgment, and counsel of God the Father as is required and not as what was written on the laws because there is a unique plan to execute everytime He comes down. The death of Jesus on the cross is one perfect example of this record his name in a particular place. As the Man-cum-God executes the commands given to him by the Father his works are become a fulfillment of the laws written his the laws and the prophets, hence, the righteousness of faith.
Everything is by a command and not by what is read, as written. He commands the blessings and he commands the promise to be fulfilled. He makes exceeding great promises to a man that man may become a partaker of His divine nature. So we can clearly see Paul performing his missions as dictated by the Spirit, and laws as dictated and commanded by the spirit without blame, blemish, spot and wrinkle. Yea, even in sharing the word of God was by the command of the spirit and not by what he wants by his own freewill.
The kind of work which the Spirit does upon the man with his spirit is practically unpredictable. The New Testament would later call this experience as being Born in the Spirit.
1 Kings 18: 11 And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
1 Kings 18:12 And it came to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.
So, when a man is in Christ and is perfected he becomes the prisoner of Jesus Christ and he is no longer doing things by his own knowledge and freewill. He will rest from his own works. This is the teaching and doctrine on perfection. Perfection is possible only when a man would fully obey the voice of the Lord, meaning, the man with the spirit of God.
Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me.
So then, similarly, the men who are with the man of God in the church will eventually have the spirit of faith as it comes by hearing from him whom God has sent. By hearing, then it is by the voice and not the letters.
On this note, the written law will no longer be the potent law of God but a latent one. Moreover, the scriptures will affirm the testimony of the man of God that he is indeed of God and not of men, that is, if anyone will hear and do his will.
John 7:17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
This is what is meant by a man no longer under the law, whether it be the law which is of Moses or even of the New Testament by Jesus: Man will be Walking in the Spirit.
In the spirit, man will become the Lord's freeman because God will give commands by the voice (He is in the flesh: the Man of God).
Isaiah 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
This was, and is, the reason why Jesus was also misunderstood; when his teaching was misconstrued as heresy and blasphemy by the Pharisees, Sadducees, and even among the Jews themselves.
As if it were not enough, Jesus did not only change the laws but the name of God, too! No one ever called on the name of God as Jesus that time.
Isaiah 45:5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, thou thou hast not known me:
In similar situation, Moses had to call on the name of his God, to much of the annoyance of the people, even nowadays, he changed the name of God in so many occasions in his lifetime: from I AM THAT I AM, to JEHOVAH, then to JEALOUS, among other names.
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exodus 23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
Exodus 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
To make the issue clearer that the law of God is with his anointed one, let us hear what Paul has said to the Colossians in his attempt to make them fully understand this mystery.
Paul said that the law of Moses and the prophets (the new Testament was not yet accepted but were in a form of letters) were a shadow of the things to come which thing coming is the body who is Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:16 Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days:
Colossians 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Nevertheless, if a man will obey the commandments of Christ then a man will know that the same will bring forth the holy spirit to come and dwell in a man making no difference from the experience of Elisha receiving the double portion of Elijah's spirit.
The law of God is never the written ones but the things which he will declare when he comes. This is the mystery in that obeying his commands the things written in the holy bible will eventually be fulfilled which Paul calls as the righteousness of the law. Yea, even the coming of the spirit to dwell upon man.
This is the reason why we see the church of God, or the Christian churches, and the other religion would split even fighting over which law to assimilate. What is actually happening is that people tends to relive what was already in the past and reject what is at hand at present.
This is the reason why the people of old have rejected Christ and as Jesus obeyed his Father's will the words written were manifested or fulfilled as it is written that he will be despised and rejected of men.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Even so, when a man will reject his commands at his coming the words written for the disobedient will also happen or be fulfilled.
Jeremiah 6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
The chosen and elect children of God has nowhere to go whether they obey or disobey. He will only live a miserable life on earth if he will not obey as the words will surely come to pass: which is the curse to them who disobey and the blessing to them who will obey.
God never changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. God is angry with the wicked everyday. What the whole world perceive about God in the old testament, saying, that God was harsh while in the new testament God changed into being kind is never true but a BIG LIE. God drowned the whole world because of the evil of their imaginations which was only continually. In the times of Jesus Christ this mandate never changed in that he said, if a man looks at a woman with lust then he is already committing adultery. If a man hates his brother he is already a murderer.
The fact is that God is always kind, and good, and merciful to his creation but he is also severe to the disobedient. I suggest you read the whole chapter of Psalms 107.
Romans 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
The Christians today teaches the doctrine of love under the spell of the lying spirit: for God said, he will chasten whom he love just like a father unto his son. This is where the fear of the Lord will set inside a man and perfection will come. Remember, Jesus was perfected through sufferings and learned obedience through the things which he suffered.
Rarely, will a man nowadays teach the fear of the Lord and the sufferings which is the true gospel and the glory of God.
Truly, I have yet so many things to say but you cannot bear them now. Continue to follow the lead and watch and pray. Be sure to be clean at heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.
Now, do not commit a mistake by, saying, to what profit are we then headed by reading the scriptures? Well, this I will have to say, that the scriptures is our schoolmaster unto the faith that we shall have, therefore, search the scriptures with a clean heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.
Had I not sought God by the scriptures then I should have been an atheist now. Had I not seen the work of God in me then I should have been an atheist now. Had not the Spirit manifested in me then I should have been an atheist now. Amen.
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