Seeing the Law Through the Eyes of Jesus 

Want to talk about our view of the law and what is actually written there.  What is the law actually declaring?  You know if a person were to read the law as it was intended what would they see there.  

It's wonderful to be free from trying to be justified through the works of the law.  It's wonderful to see that God has chosen that we be justified and have life by grace and not the works of the law.  

We rejoice that our fellowship with God is through The Spirit; through Jesus and that we no longer try to have fellowship with God through the shadow of the good things that came in Jesus but we have fellowship with God through the substance which is Christ.  

But, that is not to say the law is what was against us or that it is what caused death to reign over mankind.  

What can happen is we can see that under the system of the law we felt pain.  We see it caused sin to abound.  We see it excited the flesh unto the fruit of death.  And because of this we can think the law was the enemy of man; we can think the law is what was punishing us.  As if the dirty old law was the culprit.  Listen man people were dying long before the law.  The gentiles who didn't have the law were dying & sinning just as much as the Jewish people who had the law.  

In romans 5 Paul said by one man Adam sin entered the world and death reigned over all through sin not the law.  Paul never said that death entered the world by the law and he never said that death reigned by the law.  

He goes on to say that the law was added so that sin would abound.

The law was given so man could see that sin was reigning over them and bringing forth death in them.   

Prior to the law mankind could not see what sin was and that it was reigning over them and causing death to reign over them.  They couldnt see that looking to the flesh for life; that looking to the works of their own hands to bring forth the fruit of God's life was causing death to reign over them.  

There was a way that seemed right to man and that way was bringing forth death and the fruit of death in them all the days of their lives.  It was causing them to live by the sweat of their brow.  Man was carnal and because they were carnal they thought it was the right way to try and be justified and have life through the strength of the flesh.  

Now the law came in to teach people what sin was and that it was causing death to reign over them.  It came in so the people could see that looking to the flesh for life was causing death to reign over them.  The law came in so that people could see that trying to be justified and have life by the good you can bring forth was causing death to reign.

In Romans 7 after Paul had seemingly been bashing the law he said what shall we say is the law sin?  Certainly not.  And he goes on to say he would not have known that looking to the flesh for life was sin if the law hadn't told him. 

I think sometimes as we come out from trying to relate to God through the works of the law into grace we can look at the law as if it is the law that is evil.  We can think of it as if the reason Jesus came was to do away with the law.  We can look at all the prophecies and think they all speak of the law being abolished.  As if the law was the enemy of man, or that the law was the problem for man.  

Yes some of the prophecies speak of the law that was given from mt. Sinai passing away.  But, the law was never man's problem.  Sin and death was man's problem.  

If we build our understanding of the gospel and the scriptures around the idea that man's problem was the law we will misunderstand what the scriptures are actually teaching and it will lead to us building on a foundation that isn't Christ.  

If our view of the law is that it is the evil that stood against man & that Jesus' ministry was about destroying the law we are still thinking about the law through the carnal mind.  

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For something to be spiritual means there is a truth contained there as opposed to carnal/external ordinances to perform.  

Jesus said my words are Spirit and they are life.  He was saying my words are spiritual not carnal.   He was saying there is a truth in my words that will animate you with life.  He was saying there is a truth contained in his words that produces life not carnal ordinances to perform in order to have life.  

So Paul is saying there is a truth contained in the law not carnal ordinances to perform.

Because man was carnal sold under sin we interpreted the law carnally instead of spiritually and turned it into a bunch of carnal ordinances instead of seeing it as declaring the Spirit of Truth that points to Gods gift of eternal life through Jesus.  

Before Jesus came mankind knew the law according to the carnal mind.  We looked at the law and saw it as a bunch of carnal ordinances we must perform in order to have the life of God and be justified.

Jesus did not come to destroy the law he came to establish what the law was pointing to all along.  He came to reveal the Spirit of the law to a people who were carnal sold under sin and because they were carnal they read the law according to the letter instead of according to the Spirit.  When they read the law they saw carnal ordinances to perform instead of seeing the Spirit of Truth. 

The purpose of Jesus' ministry was not to abolish the law.  The pharisees thought Jesus came to abolish the law because they read the law with the carnal mind.  But, Jesus said in Matthew 5 think not that I am come to destroy the law.  I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets I am come to bring to realization what the law and the prophets were declaring all along.  Jesus came to reveal the Spirit of the law.  He came to bring to realization the truth in the law that man was blinded to through the carnal mind. 

You know the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder

That whether or not a thing has beauty and is desirable is found in what each person believes and sees in their heart as being beautiful.  One man's trash is another man's treasure.  What one person sees as garbage another person sees as treasure.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  

Well the law is also in the eye of the beholder.  What a person sees when they read the law is in the eye of the beholder.  The carnal mind sees one thing when it reads the law and the mind of Christ sees something completely different when it reads the law.  

The apostle Paul said the law is not against the promises of God.  He said the law is not against man; it is not the enemy of man.  He said the law is not evil; the law is not sin; the law is not what brought death into the world.  He said the law reveals what brings death into the world.  In Galatians 4 Paul said the law was our teacher pointing us to Christ for life.  

We talk about the law being the ministration of death.  But, we need a revelation of what that means.   The law didnt minister death to Jesus.  It didn't bring forth sin in him.  You know how the law ministered death to Jesus?  It caused him to consider himself dead to the life he could have through the flesh.  It caused him to consider himself dead to a life of trying to be justified through the flesh.  It caused him to consider himself dead to the life he could have through the strength of the flesh.  

Why didn't the law cause sin to abound in Jesus?  

Jesus was born under the law and he came in the likeness of sinful flesh.  He had the same kind of flesh we have only his flesh never sinned.  Jesus possessed a flesh that still needed to be justified.  He came in a body that was corruptible.  His body hadnt been clothed in immortality yet.  Jesus possessed the ability to sin and yet was without sin.  He was born under the law in a body that possessed the ability to die.  

If Jesus had looked to his flesh as that which can give him life; if he had looked to the works of his hands as that which could justify him and give him life the fruit of death would have manifested in him; the works of the flesh would have come forth in him.  

Paul said the flesh does not possess the ability to bring forth the fruit of God's life.  If a person should look to the flesh to try and produce the fruit of God's life that flesh will only be able to produce the fruit of death.  

What Paul said there is also true of Jesus when he walked the earth.  If Jesus had looked to his flesh; if he had looked to his ability to bring forth life to be justified his flesh would have also brought forth the works of the flesh/thorns and thistles.  

But, when Jesus read the law it didnt cause sin to abound in him.  It didnt excite the passions of the flesh in him.  It didnt make him think he must use the strength of the flesh to perform the carnal ordinances in the law in order to be justified and have God's life.  

The law wasn't against Jesus.  It wasnt against God's promise to Jesus.  It didn't keep him from life.  It was a teacher leading him to Abba and the Holy Spirit for life.  

The law does not minister death or strengthen sin in a person unless they read it with the carnal mind.  If you read the law according to the mind of Christ it will point you to the Spirit of God for life.  If you read the law according to the mind of Christ it will cause you to enter into God's rest.  It wont excite the passions of the flesh but it will put the flesh to rest in certainty of the righteousness of God to save from sin and death and give eternal life as a gift. 

The law will look like the punisher to the carnal mind because the law mixed with the carnal mind produces death and bondage and sin.  

But, the law is not what was punishing man with death.  It's the carnal mind that was punishing man with death.  The law just revealed the carnal mind for what it was.  

You know when Jesus read the law you know what the law told him?  

He saw it describing God as Abba.  He saw something there about Abba, what Abba thought of Him and what Abba intended to do with his life. 

He saw that Abba was at rest with him; that he was the apple of Abba's eye; that Abba's face shined in adoration of him.  He saw that Abba saw no need to add anything to him so he could be His Son and want to spend eternity with him.  He saw that the work to prepare a place for him in Abba's house and life was finished from before the foundation of the world.

When Jesus read the law what he saw was that Abba will not steal from him; Abba will not take life from him; Abba will not abandon him; Abba will not forsake him; Abba will not leave him in the grave; Abba will not suffer his soul to remain in sorrow and death.  

When Jesus looked at the law it put him to rest.  It told him that God is the Good Samaritan.  It told him God loves His enemies.  It told him God would not hide His face from him if He found him with the sin and death of the world on him but He would come to him and claim him as His own and nurture him back to life with oil and wine.  It told him that God would not suffer him to see corruption or leave his soul in hades.  It told him about the resurrection & that God would raise him from the dead.  

When Jesus read the law it told Him life is not found in the flesh but it is found in the Spirit of God.   

That's what Jesus saw the law telling him and that law put him to rest.  It caused him to enter into God's rest which is the first part of the law.   And so when Jesus read the law he didnt read it from the carnal mind.  

There's two different ways you can read the law. 

If you read the law from the carnal mind it will bring forth the fruit of death in you.  It will cause you to think you must now cloth yourself in the life of God and through all your laboring and toiling you will only be able to bring forth thorns and thistles.  Mixing a spiritual law with the carnal mind produces death and bondage.

But if you read the law through the spiritual mind the law will not produce the fruit of death in you.  The law will actually cause you to consider yourself dead to the life you can have through the flesh and alive to God and His Spirit of life.

Jesus only had the law and the prophets.  He didnt have the New Testament.  When Jesus read the law it taught him about Abba and partaking of Abba's life through His Spirit of Grace.  It brought forth rest in him when he looked at the law.  

Jesus didnt read the law and say I'm not supposed to steal; I'm not supposed to kill; I'm not supposed to destroy.  

That's not what Jesus saw.  Jesus saw the law telling him something about Abba; he saw it telling him something about what Abba thought of him and something about Abba's righteousness towards him.  That's what he saw. 

Well when he saw all that from the law do you know what that brought forth in him?  Rest.  It caused him to rest; it put his flesh to rest.  

But, if you try to read the law from the carnal mind then it is going to speak to your flesh and its going to cause you to enlist the strength of the flesh to be justified and have life.  

That's why in Romans 8 when Paul gets into romans 8 he doesnt say its the law thats enmity against God he says its the carnal mind thats enmity against God.  

So it isnt the law that is evil.  The law is not evil.  If you read the law with the mind of Christ your going to see grace; thats what you are going to see.  It's going to lead you to Abba and His Spirit for life.  

Listen I know this can try to confuse us because for so long now in just trying to understand our relationship with God is not based on the works of the law we've kind of made it seem as if the law is the devil.  The law is not the devil.  The law was never the devil.  

The Bible again and again says the law was a shadow of Christ.  So everything in the law is actually speaking of something that was revealed in Christ.  So if its a shadow of what was revealed in Christ how we gonna now come and say the law is the evil that was against us?  We cannot say Jesus came to conquer his shadow.  What's evil is the carnal mind.  The carnal mind is what is evil and against us not the law.  Jesus came to bring the law out of the shadows of the carnal mind into the light.  

If you read the law with the carnal mind its going to fill you with laboring and toiling to try and be validated in the eyes of God and man and that will bring forth all death in you.  But, if you read the law from the mind of Christ your going to see Christ everywhere in there and your going to receive grace upon grace because the law was a shadow pointing to Jesus.  Everything in the law was speaking of something concerning the word that was made flesh in Jesus.  

Like the feast of firstfruits.  That's talking about the resurrection.  

When Jesus saw the firstfruits in the law he didnt say my goodness I need to make an offering to God of the firstfruit of my increase so God will bless me.  He said my goodness there is going to be a resurrection.  God is going to raise me up from the dead and cloth upon my mortal body with immortality.  I am going to be the firstfruit unto God.  He is going to come and raise me from the dead.   

Do you see?  Completely different.  He read it from the spiritual mind and when the spiritual mind read about the firstfruit it told him there was going to be new life born and that new life was going to come forth in him and it was going to come from God bringing it forth and raising him up from the dead and he was going to be the firstborn from the dead amongst many brothers and sister.  That's what Jesus saw that put him him to rest.  

But, if I have the carnal mind I'm going to read about the firstfruit and I'm going to think about how I must bring my best gift to God so I can be blessed.  That's going to bring forth death in me.  

Do you see how if you look at it through the Spiritual eyes it brings forth rest and life but if you look at it through the carnal mind it brings forth laboring and toiling unto death.  

So when Jesus read the law he saw something there that caused him to go to rest in the goodness of God to save him from sin and death and to cloth him with eternal life.    And he came to make manifest what he read in the law to a carnal people so they could see the same Spirit of Truth in his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension that he saw in the law.  

Jesus saw a word in the law that said God is the Good Samaritan; that God loves His enemies; that God does not steal, kill, or destroy.  He saw a word that said God would not forsake him if He found him with the sin and death of the world on him but that God would come and claim him as His own; that God would not suffer him to see corruption or leave his soul in hades.  He saw a word in the law about the resurrection & that God would raise him from the dead & give him the kingdom.

And the word of what he saw in the law was made flesh in him so a carnal people could behold the Spirit of what the law always said in him.  Jesus came to interpret what the law really said to a people who couldn't see that the law was spiritual and because of that couldn't see what the law really said.  And the way he interpreted the law for them was through the body of his death, resurrection, and ascension.

Example of needing a translator:  You know its like if there is a language barrier because two parties dont speak the same language you will need an interpreter.  I remember when I taught at a bible college in NJ there were students from all over the world there and many of them didnt speak English.  There had to be an interpreter there translating what I said so the people could understand.

We needed a translator so we could understand the law.  Because the law was spiritual and we were carnal sold under sin its like it was written in a different language than the one we were speaking.  And because of this we were blinded to what it really said.  

Jesus came to heal mankinds blindness and to give them eyes to see the law the way he saw it.  He came to restore our sight that the eyes of our understanding of the what the law actually said could be enlightened.  

Jesus said man when I read this law my heart rejoices.  It just fills my heart with the oil of gladness.  I just feel it strengthening me in my inner man.  I feel so much abundance in my soul.  I feel such peace, and love, and joy, and trust towards God coming forth in me.  

Man, I want everyone to see what I see.  Jesus, the original hippy, Man your sins are forgiven you!  

Man do you see what I see.  He came to show us what he saw in the law through his birth, death, buriel, resurrection, and ascension.  He came to heal our blindness and to give us eyes to see the law the way he saw it so our hearts could rejoice with him and be filled with the oil of gladness!  

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Rom 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Rom 7:10  And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Rom 7:11  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Rom 7:12  Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Explain why law had to pass away if not against us.  
Greg ... Here is a summary of what I promised to send you from our discussion the other day about the Law being our Teacher and what happens when we avoid the Teacher and try to live our life in our own understanding and effort.

The Law is our teacher to lead us to Jesus. We are like a child who leaves home to go to school, but on the way hears some lies that he believes. As a result he begins to believe that the law, a.k.a., the teacher is bad or evil and must be avoided. So he chooses to not go to school. He becomes a truant child avoiding the teacher. He leaves the good life that God intended and ultimately becomes a street urchin stealing, killing and lying to sustain himself in this life. He begins to believe that he is living the good life because he is able to survive in his own strength. He continues to believe that knowing the law is not living the good life. This is a lie that robs him of having the good life that God always intended, i.e., the good life is where God supplies all his needs, he learns that God is trustable, that God has a good report and opinion about him, that God wants to supply all his needs, that God wants to have a relationship with him, that God wants to walk with him and be with him in all the circumstances that he will encounter in life. This is the good life that God wants him to have. This the life the teacher (i.e., the Holy Spirit) wants him to know about and have for himself. Since he chose to avoid the teacher he continues to live the life that can only lead to death. 

If the law was the punisher why did God tell Moses tell the people to fear not when He gave it to them.

Jesus did not come to destroy the law he came to establish himself as the law of God.  He came to reveal that the law was always speaking of in him and what God would do to conquer death and bring to light the promise of eternal life.  

******Jesus came to a people who couldnt understand Spirit because they were carnal minded & revealed what he saw when He looked at the law in his birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension.  The word of what Jesus saw when he read the law was made flesh in him so that a people who were carnal could behold the Spirit of Truth; the Spirit of the law in him*****

****If you read the law through the Spirit it will cause your heart to consider yourself dead to life through the flesh.  It will cause your heart to lay down the life you can have from the world.  Continue to expound.****

*****If you read the law with the carnal mind it will bring forth death in you.  If you read it with the mind of Christ it will cause you to consider yourself dead to the life you can have through the flesh & cause you to rest in God to give you life free from your works.****

Sin abound:  I think we read this and think it means sin increased.  Listen people weren't sinning more after the law was given than they were in the days of Noah when there was no law.  

Jesus also called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth.  He was saying within the Holy Spirit is contained a Truth.  

****When Paul said the law is spiritual he is saying there is a truth being declared in the law & that the law is not talking about the fruit we must bring forth to be justified.*******

Paul didnt see that as a commandment to perform he saw it as something telling him that you cannot have life through the flesh.  He saw that seeking life through the strength of the flesh to bring forth good could never justify him or make him a parta

You see Paul was looking to his flesh to be justified and have God's life and he saw that caused him to lust after life through the flesh.  When Paul saw thou shalt not covet in the law he saw that coveting life through your flesh was the fruit of death and not the fruit of God's life.