Victory in Jesus… hidden in the Law.

1 John 5.2-5.

In the Council of Jerusalem, Simon Peter got up and rebuked the Pharisees among the Christians—those who insisted before gentiles become Christian, they gotta first become Pharisees, follow the Law of Moses, and undergo ritual circumcision if they’re male.

In his rebuke, he said something which is traditionally translated,

Acts 15.10 NASB

“Since this is the case, why are you putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?”

The assumption many Christians make is Peter was speaking of the Law: Yeah, you silly Pharisees, why are you making these gentiles follow the Law to be saved, when the Law never did save anyone?

But in context, that’s not what Peter meant. The “yoke” he meant was Pharisaism. The “traditions of the elders,” the interpretations of the Law which Pharisees upheld—and which Jesus regularly violated—were the yoke both Peter, his parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and a few more generations back, had been obliged to bear. But not too many generations back: Contrary what you might’ve been expecting, Pharisaism wasn’t that old. They claimed they went all the way back to Moses himself, but nah; more like 150BC or so.

Pharisaism is the yoke. Not the Law. Jesus upheld the Law. Y’know how we Christians say Jesus never sinned? He 4.15 Sin is when you transgress the Law. 1Jn 3.4 Jesus never did. He transgressed the heck out of Pharisee traditions, but never the Law. It is, he said, not passing away; not even after heaven and earth do. Mt 5.18 I should quote him more:

Matthew 5.19-20 NASB

19“Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20“For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Christians were always meant to uphold the Law, same as Jesus did. But upholding it before turning to Jesus, as if being Law-abiding facilitates our salvation, is putting the cart before the horse. We’re not saved by following Law, but by following Jesus. We don’t lose our salvation by Law-breaking, by sin. Yep, even great big deadly sins. God saves us by his grace. Nothing else.

But now that we’re saved, now what are we to do? Duh; follow Jesus. And part of following him is doing God’s will. And part of God’s will is obeying his commands. You know, the Law.

1 John 5.2-5 KWL

2This is how we know we love God’s children:

When the we love the Father,

we also do his commands.

3For this the love of God:

We should keep his commands.

His commands aren’t hard!

4Since everyone fathered by God

wins against the world,

this is the win which conquers the world:

Our trust in God.

5Who’s the winner over the world,

if not one who trusts

that Jesus is God’s son?

Obviously plenty of Christians don’t wanna follow the Law, and have come up with every excuse they can to ignore it. And teach others to do the same. Me, I’d recommend we not follow those people who are gonna be the very lowest in God’s kingdom. Stick to Jesus.

No really: They aren’t hard.

Many a Christian imagines when Jesus fulfilled the Law, it means he did away with it. And okay, a few commands are moot now:

• As our sacrifice, Jesus did away with the need for regular ritual sacrifices.
• And he did away with the need for priests to administrate them.
• Since the Holy Spirit indwells every Christian, we don’t have to worry about ritual cleanliness before we can worship.
• Since the kingdom of Israel no longer exists (and no, the current state of Israel
is not its continuation; it is a successor state which regularly doesn’t follow the Law), the commands regarding its governance are likewise moot.

That still leaves a bunch of commands we oughta follow. And again: Anyone who teaches people to disregard it, is the least in Jesus’s kingdom. They’ll still be in the kingdom, but fire-scorched. 1Co 3.13

But much like the Pharisees, these Christians have largely put aside the commands in the scriptures, and instead follow “biblical principles” which they’re pretty sure are based on bible, which they use to govern life in the present-day United States. Nevermind that most of these “principles” are actually based on the social decorum of upper-class white southerners during the Jim Crow era, which southerners justified as best they could by cherry-picking proof texts which supported them. They’re quite convinced they’re following God’s will and “God’s word”—as they regularly ignore Old Testament commands and the apostles’ teachings in favor of their “principles.”

Yeah, we’re repeating the Pharisees’ errors all over again.

Consequently we have a lot of Christians who regularly violate God’s commands, and wonder why on earth their lives suck. They’re not experiencing any of that “victory in Jesus” we sing about in our worship songs. In many cases, they’re trying to reinterpret “victory in Jesus” to only refer to end-times events, when Jesus takes over the world… because right now they have no victory in Jesus. They’re miserable.

This isn’t what the scriptures teach! Nor is it the attitude of faith. Nor is it what God wants to give his kids. It’s not even Christianity.

John points out in this passage: If you love the Father, you obey his commands. If you trust God, you obey his commands. God loves and forgives and saved us so that we can follow his commands. The victory in Jesus we sing about?—it’s the result of obeying God’s commands. You wanna see victory? Start obeying!

God makes us winners.

Every single time I write such things, or teach ’em, I get accused of legalism. Of course my critics are using that word wrong. To them, anyone who says we have to follow the Law, is a legalist. Anyone who encourages people to actually obey God is a legalist—although they’ll never ever phrase it that way.

They try to divorce Jesus from his Law, and say the Law is something distinct and separate from God’s will. They forget Jesus is the LORD God who brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt. He’s the one who had Moses write all that stuff down. It’s his Law.

Properly a legalist is one who claims our relationship with God is dependent upon obeying the Law. Or, as we typically see in Christendom, dependent upon obeying the pastor’s favorite biblical principles; dependent upon adhering to certain church rules, customs, and doctrines. Legalists will threaten you with hellfire if you fall out of line. Legalists tend to create cults.

Problem is, every last human on earth sucks at obeying the Law. If any relationship with God were dependent upon obeying the Law, we’d all be dead meat. But God saves us entirely based on his grace. Following the Law, or not, doesn’t affect our standing with God, ’cause God forgives. Humans and human societies don’t, and any grace we practice is usually arbitrary and compromised. God’s isn’t. Our failures don’t mean we’re out of the contest. They mean we get up, brush ourselves off, and try again.

You want that victory in Jesus? Fine. Follow him. First, accept God’s forgiveness—realize you’re free to do as you like, but God doesn’t make us free so we can sin. He makes us free so we can follow him without stressing out about how much we suck at following him. We don’t need to worry about whether we follow the Law right, or perfectly enough, or whether God’ll get angry at us when we make mistakes. He’s not; he won’t be. He loves you. That’s what his love is for: So when we fall down, we always know he’s still there. 1Jn 2.1

When we trust God—when we trust he’s not gonna smack us around whenever you botch the Law—then we don’t have to suffer and be miserable when our consciences, when other people, when the universe, condemns us for sin. We’re free of that crushing guilt. We trust God defeats all these things. We win.

There’s that victory in Jesus. That’s where it’s been hiding all this time: In his Law.