{"id":3322,"date":"2018-07-06T18:08:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T18:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2024-03-13T16:28:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T16:28:22","slug":"love-letter-or-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3322","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Love Letter&#8221; or Law?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 2<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note:\u00a0<\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our\u00a0<strong>Brief Articles 1\u00a0<\/strong>page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is the New Testament merely a collection of \u201clove letters\u201d containing nothing more than polite suggestions of behavior? None can deny that this portion of the Bible reveals the incomparable (and all but incomprehensible) love of God and His Son for sinful man. John 3:16 truly constitutes the New Testament (yea, of the Bible as a whole) in summary: \u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many professed believers parrot the view that the New Testament pertains exclusively to grace and love, in contrast with God\u2019s Old Testament wrath. Liberal theologians have helped millions conceive of the latter portion of the Bible as utterly bereft of rules, commandments, or regulations. A mere avowed faith in and a mushy \u201clove\u201d for Jesus allow great freedom of worship and daily behavior. To liberals, it is \u201cunlawful\u201d to speak of \u201cthe law of Christ\u201d; they like to remind us that \u201cwe are saved by grace\u201d rather than by law. What shall we say to this averment?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>First<\/strong>, the concept of sin does not exist apart from law, \u201cfor sin is the transgression of the law\u201d (1 John 3:4). Therefore, \u201cwhere there is no law, neither is there transgression\u201d (Rom. 4:15), and \u201csin is not imputed when there is no law\u201d (5:13). If the New Testament\u2014which became effective at the death of Christ (Col. 2:14; Heb. 9:15\u201317)\u2014is \u201call grace and no law\u201d (as liberals insist), then it has been impossible for anyone to sin since Calvary.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second<\/strong>, the concept of grace presupposes the existence of sin. We have redemption and forgiveness of sins \u201caccording to the riches of his grace\u201d (Eph. 1:7). In the absence of sin, therefore, grace is irrelevant, even as in the absence of law, sin is impossible. To deny that the New Testament is the law of Christ is to obviate the very purpose of and need for grace.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Third<\/strong>, the concept of spiritual death, eternal condemnation in Hell, rests upon sin: \u201cFor the wages of sin is death\u201d (Rom. 6:23). If there is no law, there is no sin; if there is no sin, there is no condemnation. Denial that the Gospel is the Law of Christ implies universal salvation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fourth<\/strong>, Paul called the New Testament \u201cthe law of the spirit of life in Christ\u201d (Rom. 8:2), and he said he was \u201cunder law to Christ\u201d (1 Cor. 9:21). We are urged to fulfill \u201cthe law of Christ\u201d (Gal. 6:2), which James describes as a \u201cperfect law\u201d (Jam. 1: 25).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The spiritual song, \u201cGive Me the Bible,\u201d describes the Gospel correctly: \u201cPrecept and promise, <strong>law and love<\/strong> <strong>combining<\/strong>. (emph. DM).\u201d Jesus said, \u201cIf ye love me, ye will keep my commandments,\u201d not \u201cmy suggestions\u201d (John 14:15).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong>I wrote this article for and it appeared in the\u00a0<em>Denton Record-Chronicle,\u00a0<\/em>Denton, TX, September 7, 2012.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong>From\u00a0<em>TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 2[Note:\u00a0This MS is available in larger font on our\u00a0Brief Articles 1\u00a0page.] Is the New Testament merely a collection of \u201clove letters\u201d containing nothing more than polite suggestions of behavior? None can deny that this portion of the Bible reveals the incomparable (and all but&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3322\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  &#8220;Love Letter&#8221; or Law?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,89,68,36,44,105,45,173,23,102,42,72,51,164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antinomianism","category-change-agents","category-christ-authority","category-faith","category-grace","category-hell","category-law","category-law-of","category-liberalism","category-love","category-obedience","category-salvation","category-sin","category-traditions-of-men","wpcat-131-id","wpcat-89-id","wpcat-68-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-44-id","wpcat-105-id","wpcat-45-id","wpcat-173-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-102-id","wpcat-42-id","wpcat-72-id","wpcat-51-id","wpcat-164-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23620,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/23620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}