You must have heard from somewhere that as a Christian you are free from the law. Whether from the bad preachers that preach lawlessness or your good pastor that just drove by it while teaching. It’s very important to trust GOD to grant us insight as we study the beauty of what CHRIST has done for us on the cross.
Does the Bible try to tell us as the bad preachers say that we are free to do whatever we like? Is the Bible saying ‘don’t worry, Christ has paid for all your punishments so it doesn’t matter what you do’? are some people using their weaknesses as standpoint to interpret the holy Scriptures? Is the Bible saying ‘CHRSIT has become your holiness so it's not important that you live holy in all you do? Or is it that we don’t have complete understanding of the sacred word of GOD and therefore distort IT as we do the other scriptures unto our own destruction? Let us trust GOD to open our hearts that we may understand the scriptures.
We see from 1Timothy 1:8 that the law is not as bad as people paint it to be. The law is good if anyone uses it properly is what the Bible says. What then was the purpose of the law? Verse 9 of 1Timothy 1 says:
“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers — and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (NIV)
This verse helps us to see that the law was actually to keep wicked men from being wicked, sinful men from being sinful, those who can kill their fathers and mothers from killing their parents, the unholy from being unholy, the irreligious from being irreligious, the murderers from murdering, the impure from being impure, the sexually immoral from being sexually immoral, the homosexuals from being homosexuals and those who have hearts have been darkened towards whatever is contrary to the sound doctrine from going in that direction. The law was to make bad people do good. In summary, the law was to cage sinners not to save them.
So, eventually, in the law system, it’s the actions that are changed, the people are not. It made bad people do good. So, the people were called righteous according to how they had obeyed the righteous commandments, not because they are righteous by thoughts, mindsets, orientation, and what they would have done had there been no law. Men like Simeon in Luke 2:22. So, the law was actually good to make people’s actions, deeds, behavior right but only the blood of JESUS could change the person to live right without been told. To do well without been told. To not murder without been told, to not kill their parents without been told, to not be wicked without been told, to live holy without been told, to live righteous without been told, to be godly without been told, and to do everything GOD wants us to do without a written rule or law.
Hebrews 8:10-11
“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. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” NIV
The law was thus referred to as the teacher before CHRIST came, died, rose, and GOD sent the HOLYSPIRIT as an answer to JESUS’ prayer.
Hebrews 9:11-14
“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (NIV)
The law made men outwardly clean but inwardly filthy and depraved but CHRIST made men inwardly clean and pure that they may be outwardly clean and pure without anybody teaching them. But a lot of people have misunderstood the putting away of the law as the way of GOD saying, ‘you guys can now live however you want, CHRIST has paid the punishment of any sin you can ever commit’. But no, CHRIST did not only redeem us from the punishment of falling short of the law but from the nature that made us need the law. For the law is good, it’s the people that are not. Romans 7:14 "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin".
Without the law, man will only manifest the evil of his mind and the desperate wickedness of HIS heart. Romans 3:31 “well then, if we are saved by GOD’S laws, does this mean that we no longer need obey GOD’S laws? Just the opposite, in fact, only when we trust JESUS can we truly obey HIM” (TLB)