If you take the law off Christians, then what is left to restrain them? Won’t they just run off into sin and selfish living? The fact people even ask this question reveals they don’t know about the “new nature!”
For the believer, there is now a new force inside of us that is far more effective than that old external law!
It’s called the new creation nature!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Do you know that when you were born again a miracle took place inside of you? God recreated you anew! Your old self, that was dead to God and under the power of sin and death, died and passed away! God then recreated you as a new being in Christ! You have been supernaturally transformed in the inside.
Your spirit is now alive to God and has a new nature – God’s nature!
Ephesians 4:24 (ESV) “…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
You have been created after the likeness of God!
The new nature is better than the law!
That old inferior way of trying to be restrained by the law has given way to the superior way of the new man! No longer do we need the law telling us what to do and not to do. Now we have the life force of Christ on the inside of us. And He just wants to live through us!
Galatians 2: 19 & 20 (ESV) “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Shadow vs. Substance
The Law was just a shadow of the true substance that was to be imparted to us through Christ (Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1). What the law was powerless to do, Christ has done for us (Romans 8: 3 & 4). In other words, the law represented God’s nature but it could not impart God’s nature to us. The law was powerless to get rid of our old fallen nature and give us a perfect nature. But in Christ, our old self dies and passes away and we are raised into new life as a brand new person – full of God!
Colossians 2:9,10 (NIV 1984) “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,10 and you have been given fullness in Christ,”
1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV) “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
Inside your re-born spirit you have all the fullness of God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control and so much more (Galatians 5: 22 &23). God is no longer trying to get you to live up to a certain set of rules. He’s simply trying to get you to be yourself, your true self!
Your new nature doesn’t want to sin. It wants to do everything that is in Gods nature. Sin is foreign to your new nature. You new nature wants to live for God in total righteousness, love and obedience. It’s not even a sacrifice for your new nature.
It’s now your new natural tendencies and desires.
Simply behave according to your new nature
The Gospel is not a message of how Jesus came to make people behave better. It’s a message about how Jesus came to make dead people alive! He didn’t come to bring more law into our lives. He came to exchange our old fallen nature with His perfect nature! A nature empowered by God with all His desires, His passions and His holiness.
God’s nature in us is the reason we do things for Him. It’s our new motivation. That’s why we love, give, are passionate about the things He is passionate about. It’s why we can have true joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It’s the reason we don’t lie, cheat, steal, gossip, slander, lust, covet and so on.
Our new nature is our new inner moral guide. It’s far greater than the law. Under the law if you could get away with something you’d do it. But when you have a new nature you don’t want to do it, even if you could get away with it!
Does this mean there’s no more temptation?
Of course not! Temptation will be around till the day we go to be with the Lord. It will always be trying to get you to sin. It appeals to your body and to your mind, not your spirit. Your spirit is perfect and cannot sin. But your body and mind are still a part of the old creation and subject to the frailties of this fallen world. You mind and body will one day become part of the new creation. Yet only when you go to be with the Lord, according to 1 Corinthians 13, 15. This is why, for now, the Bible says in Romans 12:1 & 2 that we are to offer our body as a living sacrifice, and to renew our mind. Essentially this means we need to learn how to surrender our body and mind to our new creation nature.
So if we’re not under Law, is it then ok to just keep sinning?
Now obviously it’s not ok to just keep sinning. Firstly, sin is no longer your master! You are no longer a slave to sin! You have dominion. You just need to exercise it! Secondly, sin is distracting and destructive. Most Christians I find though aren’t asking the question “How can I get away with sin?” They’re asking the question “How can I get sin away from me?” The truth is your new nature is not ok with sin. It against sin! It doesn’t want to sin. It wants you to walk in victory. The answer is not more law, it’s more grace!
Titus 2:11 & 12 (NIV) “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,”
It’s a relationship with God and a revelation of who you are in Christ, that will cause you to overcome sin and walk in victory!
So the original question, “If you take the law off believers then what will serve as their moral guide?” finds it’s answer in the new nature!
Now, while the new nature is our moral guide, there are some other things that serve to guide us as Christians that are also valid and important.
Here are some of those guides:
Common sense and wisdom: For instance if you go to bed at 3am every night and wake up at 6am for work eventually you are going to get extremely tired and exhausted. You won’t be able to function properly. You’ll begin to lose your motivation and focus. You’ll lose your passion and drive. Everything will become too hard. Depression will set in. You can go to doctors and psychiatrists to try get answers as to why you’ve lost all motivation, drive and passion. But common sense simply says go to sleep earlier! Common sense generally gets better through experience!
Character and discipline: this is where you’ve developed your inner life to respond to what is the right thing to do regardless of feelings. For instance if you want to get fit you have to run, swim or cycle. Your body screams out to you, “What are you doing! Stop this at once! This hurts!” But in order to get fit you need to tell you body, “Shut up and keep going!” When sin is pressing in and your body is screaming out, “Yes, do this. It will feel good!” You need to have the discipline to tell your body, “Shut up! You will not do this. Now run!” And that’s why you got yourself fit, so you could run away from sin as far as you can get! Ha ha.
Your conscience: Every human being is born with a conscience. It’s that innate sense of knowing what is right and wrong. In fact if you studied every culture in the world, even ones that are remote and completely isolated from the outside world, you will find there’s a common moral code that’s universal. Of course there are variations from culture to culture but the fundamentals are always there. Common sense says go with your conscience! Most times when you ignore your conscience you get yourself into trouble or do things you regret.
The law of the land: though we are released from vertical law between man and God, we are not released from the horizontal law of the land that is citizen to citizen. We don’t keep this law to stay right with God, but we do keep this law to stay right with man. The law of the land is good because it protects its citizens and provides equal opportunity for all. The law of God and the law of the land are two completely different things. We are released from the system of Gods law as a means of righteousness and walking with God, but it would be insane for Christians to think we’re free from the law of the land.
Spiritual parents, mentors and coaches: These are people who help bring out the best in us. They challenge us and keep us on track when we’re wavering or giving up. It may be a spiritual father or mother or brother or sister. It may be your pastor or a close friend. They’re not there to point out your faults in a way that’s discouraging but helpful. They’re also there to believe in you and push you to be and do your best!
1 Corinthians 4: 15-17 (ESV) “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”
The Holy Spirit: The Bible says the Holy Spirit is the one who comes along side us to be our comforter, our helper and our counselor (John 14: 16 & 17). He’s our closest friend and our greatest coach. He moves us with an inward witness. He is also called the Spirit of Truth and He reveals to us what is true and what is a lie. He’s always declaring over us our perfect righteousness in Christ and testifying that we are children of God and that the Father believes in us. He warns us when we’re heading down the wrong track and encourages us on the right track. He empowers us with supernatural advantages in life, gives us knowledge, insight, discernment, wisdom and courage. He’s a gentleman and won’t force himself on us, but the more we invite him into our life, the more he will guide and lead us into victory and the perfect will of God. (John 14-16; Acts.)
The Word of God: 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV) “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Conclusion:
But your best moral guide is your new nature. God’s nature is now your nature. And all you need to do to be like God is to be yourself – your true self!
Colossians 3: 1- 14 (ESV) “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming (for those not in Christ).7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
