The Resolution of the Seeming Contradiction

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. (I John 3:4—NIV)

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. (Romans 7:2-4—NIV)

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20—NIV)

And so we have a seeming contradiction. On the one hand we are not under the jurisdiction of the Law of Moses because we have taken our place with the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. On the other hand it is the Law that tells us when we are sinning. Sin is the breaking of the Law.

The resolution is found in the eighth chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Hebrews 8:10—NIV)

God has made a new covenant with the house of Israel. Every person who has become part of Jesus Christ is a member of the house of Israel.

Under the old covenant the Ten Commandments were binding on Israel.

Under the new covenant the Ten Commandments are binding on Israel, with two differences. The Ten Commandments are greatly amplified in application to our life. Also, the Ten Commandments are written on our mind and heart rather than on tables of stone. Thus the Ten Commandments have been rendered obsolete, in the form in which they were given under Moses, and then are greatly amplified and applied in fuller force under the new covenant.

It is God who writes the commandments on our mind and heart. He writes them on our mind so we can comprehend them. He writes them on our heart so we delight to do them. This is another way of saying God forms Christ in us.

It was never contemplated that the Ten Commandments would effectively transform the moral nature of the Israelites. Moral transformation must await the coming of the promised Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. (Galatians 3:19—NIV)

The Law was added to guide the Israelites and it provided animal sacrifice so they could maintain righteous fellowship with the Lord.

The difference under the new covenant is that Divine provision has been made, now that the Seed has come, to actually take away our sins—not just forgive them but take them away. It is a superior covenant for this reason.

When Christ is formed in us we shall keep perfectly the fullest implications of the Law. That which is in us that is of Christ cannot sin because it has been born of God. This is the new covenant.

But Christ is formed in us only as we keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

The Apostles commanded us to refrain from sexual immorality. When we sin sexually we absolutely must come to God and confess our sin. We are to pray mightily, denouncing and renouncing this wickedness. God then is faithful to forgive our sin and to begin the process of cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

We engage in this program of deliverance, of redemption, of salvation from sin, while yet afflicted by our fallen nature. It is our fallen nature that sins and it is our fallen nature that must cooperate with the Spirit of God in the program of deliverance from sin. We are enabled to be successful because of the assistance given us by the Holy Spirit, but we must make the effort. The Lord does not do it all for us.

The cleansing may include suffering. The cleansing always includes adding to our personality a portion of the body and blood of Christ, for this is our eternal life. It is the body and blood of Christ that will raise us in the Day of Resurrection.

On and on the process continues as we labor to enter the rest of God, that is, into the fullness of moral transformation such that we keep all of God’s commandments by nature.

Believe it or not, we are not an endless cavern of sin. There shall come a time when the work of redemption has been completed in our personality. The Lord Jesus is the Finisher as well as the Author of our salvation.

Sin is nothing more than a group of lawless behaviors in our personality. The Lord is well able to furnish us with His Divine Nature until we are totally free from the compulsions to sin. And He—always with our cooperation and in response to our faith—performs the work of transformation in the present world. He sets a table before us in the very presence of our enemies.

I cannot tell you what will happen to us when we get to Heaven. But I do know from the Scripture that deliverance comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, not from going to Heaven.

Any transgression of the Ten Commandments is sin. This is what sin is. The Spirit of God will lead us in battle against all the lawless traits of our personality until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

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