agrogersThe following is extracted from “Dead to Law but Living to God”, a collection of messages given by Brother Witness Lee in 1954, published by LSM
God and the law are opposite to each other. Although the law includes ordinances, regulations, resolutions, expectations, and longings, the Scriptures teach us to be dead to law and living to God. This is because the law consists of dead ordinances, while God is the living law. The law and God are always present in our daily living. Just as we cannot escape from the law, so we also cannot escape from God. Therefore, we often put these two opposing things, the law and God, together. For instance, we may decide to be humble and gentle; this is the law. Yet we also discover that there is no way for us to be gentle and that it is also difficult for us to be humble, so we pray, asking for God’s help. Usually we make a law first, and then we ask God to help us fulfill the law. Actually, God does not want this. Rather, God wants us to be dead to law. God wants both us and the law to die.
I suspect that what was originally meant by this passage is quite different to how this quote reads. Although the intent may well be good, the words are bad. The law of God is holy, just, good, spiritual, perfect, right and brings rejoicing to the heart of those who love God.
Psalms 19:7-9. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8. the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9. the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. Romans 7:12-14 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Those who oppose God’s law forget how God exalted it in the Old Testament and ignore how central he has made it in the new. In complete contradiction to “God wants us to be dead to the law”, God has written the law on our very heart and made a centre piece of the New Covenant!
Hebrews 8:10-12. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
