Building the Kingdom: The Law, part 4

All sincere Christians seem to understand that the problem in the world is sin. However, not everyone would affirm that the problem is that men violate the law of God. Somehow many have disconnected sin from the violation of the law, when, in fact, 1 John 3:4 defines sin specifically as “lawlessness.” The KJV reads, “sin is the transgression of the law.”

Many Christians prefer Paul’s definition of sin in Romans 14:23, “whatever is not from faith is sin.” This definition is certainly true, because, as Paul says in Romans 10:17, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” So if a man does not hear the word of Christ, he is in sin. In the Hebrew language, shema means to hear and to obey, and if a man claims to hear but does not obey, he has not truly heard.

Hence, by defining sin in terms of faith, Paul was telling us that whenever a man refuses to hear Christ’s word and respond to it, it is sin to him. John calls this “lawlessness,” because anything Jesus commands us to do is, by definition, His law. This is the problem Jesus pointed out in Matthew 7:21-23 when He spoke of miracle workers who practiced “lawlessness” (anomia). It is not hard to conclude that Jesus was speaking of “faith healers” who had put away the law.

It is clear, then, that Paul’s definition of sin is no different from John’s, though stated in different terms.

Changes in the Law

The book of Hebrews gives us the changes that took place in the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. Hebrews 7:12 says,

¹² For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

The specific law in question was the law of priesthood, which, under the Old Covenant, was restricted to the descendants of Aaron. Under the New Covenant, those restrictions were lifted by a change from the Aaronic Order to the Melchizedek Order. The Aaronic Order had disqualified itself by rejecting the Messiah. No longer were the descendants of Aaron to function as trustees of the Kingdom. Instead, the priesthood passed to Jesus and His children. Hebrews 7:14-17 explains,

¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. ¹⁵ And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, ¹⁶ who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. ¹⁷ For it is attested of Him, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

This change in the law did not alter the basic principle of priesthood but simply brought in a better order of priest—a priesthood that existed long before the birth of Aaron himself. That order had remained in the background for many years while the Aaronic Order had the authority to minister to God. But the Aaronic Order was temporary, while the Melchizedek Order was to endure permanently. Hence, the change of priesthood did not violate the law, because this was a part of God’s plan from the beginning.

The book of Hebrews tells us many other “changes” in the law, such as the change from animal sacrifices to the perfect sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, the change from a physical temple to the temple of our bodies (1 Corinthians 3:16), the change from the earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly, and the change from the Old Covenant to the New.

The change of covenants did not change the basic definition of sin insofar as the moral laws were concerned. The covenants were the manner in which the laws were to be implemented. The Old Covenant implemented the laws as commands, while the New Covenant implements the laws as promises. That is because the Old Covenant was man’s vow to keep the commands of God (Exodus 19:8), while the New Covenant was God’s promise to write the law in our hearts.

The result of this promise is that the Holy Spirit was sent to circumcise our hearts, as even Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 30:6,

⁶ Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

It is, perhaps, ironic that Abraham, the father of the New Covenant, was told to circumcise his family physically, while Moses, the father of the Old Covenant, prophesied of New Covenant heart circumcision. In Deuteronomy 29:1 God made a second covenant with Israel and “with those who are not with us here today” (Deuteronomy 29:15), which was based fully upon God’s oath (Deuteronomy 29:12). This was, therefore, a New Covenant oath, patterned after the oath or promise that God made previously with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deuteronomy 29:13).

Ultimately, this New Covenant oath would supersede the Old Covenant vow that had put the responsibility upon the will of man to bring about salvation. This change of covenant was built into the law itself and in no way represented a departure from the plan of God.

The point is that the law itself prophesies of changes that were to take place later. But the command, “You shall not steal” (Deuteronomy 5:19), did not change. Only the responsibility shifted from man to God, for whoever makes an oath is the one responsible to keep it. Man failed to keep his Old Covenant vow; God cannot fail to keep His New Covenant vow.

So whereas man failed to keep his vow not to steal, God will succeed in implementing His vow to change our hearts so that we will not steal. “You shall not steal” is the promise of God. It is evident that God did not put away His law against theft; He merely put away the Old Covenant method that clearly did not work.

By the same token, the Aaronic priesthood failed through corruption, but the Melchizedek priesthood succeeds. The animal sacrifices failed to bring perfection to those who offered them, but the sacrifice of Jesus succeeded, “for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

The changes in the law did not nullify the law itself, nor did God’s nature suddenly change with the coming of Christ. God says, “I, the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

Reigning in the Coming Kingdom

In the coming Kingdom, Jesus’ Universal Empire, most people will still be in need of the law written on their hearts. Most of these will be new believers, having recognized Jesus as King. But it takes time to write the law upon men’s hearts, as we ourselves know from experience.

Many think that when Christ returns, He will immediately perfect the believers and send all others to “hell,” that is, some place off the earth. But that is simply not how John describes the coming age. The priests of God in that era will “reign with Him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6). Yet if all that remain on earth are perfect in that day, what need will there be for reigning? If everyone knows the will of God and does it always, what need is there for any ruler to command them? If no one sins against his neighbor, what need is there for one to judge disputes?

John tells us in Revelation 20:7, 8 that there will still be unbelievers at the end of that age who will rise up against Christ’s Kingdom. How can this be, if all unbelievers were cast into hell at the coming of Christ a thousand years earlier?

A more accurate way of looking at this is to understand that Christ’s Kingdom will include many new believers who will need to grow to spiritual maturity. No one will come into perfection without being given time to grow. This growth is foreshadowed in the three main feast days. Our Passover experience is our moment of justification by faith. Our Pentecost experience is the longer time of growth, during which time we learn obedience by being led by the Spirit. The overcomers learn the lessons of Pentecost and are changed into His likeness at the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

In the historical picture, there was a Passover Age from Moses to Christ, a Pentecostal Age from the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 until the end of the age, and a Tabernacles Age for the next thousand years.

The overcomers will be perfected in the time of the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5). It will be a resurrection limited to the few who are called as Melchizedek priests to rule in the age to come. A thousand years later, the rest of humanity will be raised from the dead to stand before the great White Throne judgment (Revelation 20:11, 12), where “every knee will bow” and “every tongue will profess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10, 11), and “swear allegiance,” according to God’s New Covenant oath (Isaiah 45:23).

This will be followed by an age of judgment in the metaphorical “lake of fire,” wherein the unbelievers will “learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9) until finally the great Creation Jubilee will free all of creation from its slavery to corruption and bring them “into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Applying the laws of the Kingdom

It is evident, then, that after the second coming of Christ, the laws of the Kingdom will still need to be enforced. The perfected overcomers will enforce the law with their New Covenant perspective. While non-believers will be excluded and will have to move to a non-Kingdom country of their choice, the believers themselves will still have disputes that must be resolved by the overcomers. Crime (sin) will be at a minimum, no doubt, but we know from observation that the church today is yet imperfect, even among genuine believers.

Hence, the laws of the Kingdom are necessary and will remain in force “until heaven and earth pass away” (Matthew 5:18). The law was not put away when Jesus came the first time (Matthew 5:17), nor will it pass away when He comes the second time.

Even if heaven and earth pass away, the law, being the nature of God, will not cease to exist. God is unchangeable in His nature. The only change will be that at some point there will be no need for law enforcement, because “all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” (Hebrews 8:11). When the Holy Spirit sees no more hearts in need of the law being written, the New Covenant promise of God will be fully accomplished.

Every kingdom—to be a kingdom—needs laws to set the standard for behavior by which disputes and disagreements may be settled. Present-day kingdoms utilize the laws of men, but the Kingdom of God utilizes the law of God as its standard.