Jim,

             That was really a great letter that you wrote.

As you pointed out, from Hebrews 7:12, the law changed, when the priesthood also changed.

Good thing, too, for us Gentiles, otherwise we would have been required to abstain from pork, get circumcised & worship only on the sabbath.

If Israel failed at keeping the law, even when it was fully integrated into their culture & civil laws, how then could Gentiles?

Also, we failed to keep the law, and knew we needed to be saved – not one of us was able to keep the law, we all fall short.

Imagine the burden someone has, who thinks that they need to keep the law to be saved, if they are honest, they are frustrated, because they know they can’t.

Then someone brings the gospel to them, and they see that salvation is by grace, through faith in Jesus, and not by the works of the law.

Then when they are saved, someone else brings the law back to them, like had happened to the Galatians.

First they show them where Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Then they tell them if they are not truly keeping the commandments, then they don’t love Jesus.

The new Christian is then devastated.

They know now, like they also knew then, when they were trying to be saved by keeping the commandments, that they fall short.

But now, that other person has convinced them that they don’t love Jesus.

So now, to them, falling short of the commandments, is proof that they don’t love Jesus.

Then another teaches them, not only do they need to keep the law, but that if they don’t maintain the commandments, they will lose their salvation.

Now the new believer is terrified.

Who would want to lose their salvation?

What can they do now? They don’t want to lose their salvation.

They already called on the LORD and believed, so what do they do now?

The only thing left for them now to do, is to try to keep the same law, that they couldn’t keep before.

Of course, they also realize that they still cannot measure up to the law.

If they are honest, then they would have to admit that they are losing, or have already lost their salvation.

But since that is such a dreadful thought, considering Hebrews 6:4-6 shows them if they lose their salvation, it is impossible to get it back, they lie to themselves.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

We, as Christians, far too often lie to ourselves.

So, faced with the prospect of losing our salvation, & knowing it would be impossible to get it back, what would any of us say to ourselves?

Could I say to myself, “Gino, you didn’t keep the law, and now you have lost your salvation!”

“And, Gino, you can never be saved again, so you are damned for sure, now!”

“Gino, you are now in the same boat as those who blaspheme the Holy Ghost or take the mark of the beast – you’re damned for sure!”

How many of us could be honest with ourselves, like that?

No, we would end up lying to ourselves, like the Pharisees had lied to themselves.

We would convince ourselves, like they did, that we are keeping the law.

 

Well, anyway, that is the burden that the new believer had escaped from when they were saved in the first place.

Now, they have let people place them back under that same burden again, like the Galatians had done.

Now again, it’s no more grace & no more faith, but it’s back to law!, law!, law!

There is no joy in that. That is not “good news”. That is bondage, and the burden which no man can carry.

Then someone reminds them that the gospel is about grace & faith, not about keeping the law.

Then their joy in the gospel is rekindled.

But then another tells them that they have turned salvation into a license to sin.

So again, by fear & guilt, back under the law they go.

Will there be great rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, for those of us who have convinced new believers to get back under the law?

I really don’t think so.

 

Grace does not cheapen the gospel.

Even the apostle Paul, like you pointed out, was accused of giving people a license to sin.

Who would have thought such a thing about what Paul was writing?

Those who brought the Galatians back under the bondage of the law, that’s who, and those who taught like them.

The gospel was as much an offense to them as it was to the Pharisees.

The gospel proved that their works salvation, to either get saved or stay saved by the works of the law, was nor more than pride & flesh.

They responded to that like a boy being told that his mother wears army boots, pride struck out at the offense.

Anger, rejection, or persecution followed.

During church history, those who preached the gospel of grace, typically did not persecute, or become enraged at those who preached a gospel of works.

However, it was quite common, the other way around, because pride defends its turf.

 

Thank you for being bold enough to write what you did.

Perhaps to some, you have become a marked man, one who propagates licentious antinomianism.

But, Brother, to the LORD & his word, be true.

                          God bless you,

                                       Gino