I never cease to marvel at the unbelief that continuously rears its head from among those who proclaim we are to return to the Law of Moses in some form or fashion in order to “show our love for God”—whether among gentile believers or Messianic believers in Christ. (It seems every few months I am approached regarding this.) We are repeatedly told by such “believers” that we are to believe in Christ for salvation yet also “believe” in the Law for holiness. The problem is, you cannot believe in both together for either salvation or holiness. You can only believe in Christ or believe in the Law, whether for salvation or for holiness.
Our problem is that we live with a divided mind pertaining to our relationship with Christ and our concept of righteousness. We hold a silent divorce in our hearts between our sense of “relationship” directly with the Lord and a separate objective, distant sense of “righteousness” as a concept. This double minded divorce is what allows for the perpetuation of the idea that we are to “believe in Christ” yet “follow the Law.”
The truth however is that in Christ, relationship and righteousness are one and the same. To believe in relationship with Christ is to believe in righteousness only in Christ. For He is our Righteousness (Heb: Jehovah Tsidkenu).
Thus, whenever Christ speaks of “keeping my commandments,” He is not at all talking about the Law of Moses, He is talking about keeping and conforming to His own immediate Words and Voice through His indwelling Spirit. Righteousness in Christ is not about keeping precepts written down on either pieces of sacred paper or stone tablets. It is about keeping the words of the Indwelling Lord and Savior spoken into our hearts.The natural question arises, “Then what is the paper for?” Why the Bible with its commands, including its New Covenant injunctions?
The “paper” is a medium for our mortal benefit in recognizing one another in the same faith. It helps us know among one another that we are “on the same page” (as we say it) in worshipping of the same God through the same spirit, as well as to help us come into corporate alignment relative to what has been laid before us in past generations of corporate building. It is also there for the infirmity of our own minds for confirming that what we are following in the Spirit is indeed of righteousness.
Our minds want to know that our sense of indwelling righteousness is confirmable and consistent with the evidences of righteousness God has proclaimed across generations and centuries of faith. But the ancient commands we read on paper are not a direct medium for the conducting and establishing of our personal righteousness which is indwelling. This distinction is critical to grasp.John 1:1 tells us point blank that Christ is the Word. He is the Logos. The Logos (Word) is the root from which the lesser Nomos (Law) is derived, including both the Law of Moses and all other injunctions God has penned through His chosen scripture writers.
But in the reality of New Covenant life and being, the Logos comes to indwell us. The Logos is the ultimate expression of the living will of God. It is not a mediated reflection as the Nomos is. When we use the term “word of God” with respect to the Scripture, we are speaking of a mediated reflection of the Eternal Logos. But the actual Word of God by which we live, and in turn by which our righteousness is woven and worked out and conducted in practical daily life, is the Eternal Logos indwelling us.
In other words, Christ is my Law. Not only so, but the Logos is the actual substance of our new man. We are born again of the Logos (I Pt. 1:23). And it is because of this truth that Paul is able to say “We are the righteousness of God in Christ” (II Cor. 5:21). As we therefore mature in this reality of union between relationship with and righteousness through the same indwelling Logos, that’s how deep our sense of inherent righteousness is intended to become.
As long as we remain mortal and contend with remaining sin in the flesh, the dance will always continue between our relationship to the Indwelling Law and our need for confirmation of the expression of that righteousness through us by the Scriptures. We really do want a common sense with our brothers and sisters that we are on the same page when it comes to what expressed righteousness looks like. There is no room in the kingdom for an arrogant isolated “do-your-own-thing” sense of righteousness that trashes the scriptures or hints of condescension toward those who endeavor to live in accord with the image of righteousness the scriptures project to us.
However, in no way is our righteousness established or ultimately proven by our conformity to Nomos of any kind. And anyone who is teaching obedience to Nomos in any form for establishing and proving righteousness, whether to the Mosaic Law or to “Biblical principles” or to naked “discipleship commands” is missing the mark and needs to be avoided.
There can be no real unity with those who teach us to believe in Logos for relationship while teaching us to believe in Nomos for righteousness.
Chris Anderson
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org03/11
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