Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 6
James calls it “the royal law”.
James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
“The royal law”… the most important law in the law… the law on which all other laws hang… is to love others.
James says, if you love your neighbor, “ye do well”. Ye do good works.
The whole law, IS TO DO, fleshly good works. It is a law OF fleshly good works.
So if you are trying to do fleshly good works… then you are trying to do the works of the law.
If you believe Christians must do good works, then you are requiring the works of the law.
You can condemn Israel for falling from grace due to seeking righteousness by the works of the law… but if you say Christians must love God and love their neighbors, then you are seeking righteousness, “by the works of the law”.
If you talk about “good works”, in the flesh, in this world, then you are talking about THE LAW. The OLD law. The same OLD law. “Love your neighbor” is not a new law.
Fleshly good works ARE the law, and the law IS good works in the flesh.
If you believe Christians need to do good works… then you believe they need to do the works of the law.
Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
The “golden rule”, right? The highest “moral law”!
THIS IS the law. That is the WHOLE LAW! That is the Old Testament. That is NOT the New Covenant. It is not NEW at all. That is not a “new law” given by Christ! This is the OLD law! The law of FLESHLY commandments.
Refusing to repent of requiring these works of the law, is exactly why Israel was cut off.
So the false brethren today condemn Israel for going after “the works of the law”, while they justify themselves doing the exact same works as Israel was doing: love God and love your neighbor: the works of the law!
Christ didn’t bring these law down from Heaven. It isn’t new!
This law, these works of the law, are the exact works that the Jews had been trying to do for 1500 years before Christ. Yet not one of them was successful. Not one of them ever did a true good work.
Haggai 2:11-14 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; … If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. 14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
The Israelites… who received the law, the law of Moses, which can be summed up in just two commandments… they could not do a true good work. They NEVER did a true good work.
They could love their neighbor. They could love God. But even those works were UNCLEAN.
Every work of their hands was UNCLEAN to God. Every work of their flesh was UNCLEAN. Even the good ones. Even loving your neighbor.
If it comes from sinful flesh, if it touches the flesh, or the fleshly heart, or the fleshly, sinful spirit that is in mankind, it is UNCLEAN.
Every work of their hands is unclean! You say, “well that’s just Israel they were doing evil at the TIME. There were other times, and other generations, that did go good works.”
Jeremiah 32:30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.
Mankind has only ever done evil, has only ever provoked the Lord to anger with the works of their hands. Mankind is unclean, and they’ve never done produced even one clean thing.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
If it comes out of men’s flesh, then it is unclean. It can be in the form of good. It can look good to man. But it is not TRUE good. Every work of men’s hands is FILTHY. UNCLEAN!
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
If a good work is not eternal, if it doesn’t last forever, then it is not a true good work.
What work have you ever done, what thing have you ever produced in this world, that will last forever?
If none, then you are unprofitable. If you can’t produce a good thing, that will last forever, then you cannot do true good works.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
None… no exceptions. Not Moses. Not David. Not Samuel. Not Daniel. Not Josiah. Not a single Jew who ever tried to love their neighbor as themselves. None of them did good.
Paul says “there IS none that doeth good”. Not, “there WAS none, but now Christians are so thankful that Jesus saved us that now WE do good because we are so appreciative of our salvation.”
You may think you are better than all the OT saints. You may think you succeed where they failed. You may think you are ABLE to do good works, when they weren’t, because your motivation is more sincere.
But that isn’t what Paul said. He said: there IS NONE that doeth good. Present day believers included!
Christians aren’t any more ABLE to do true good works, than anyone else.
Fleshly good works… “love God, love your neighbor”… they are NOT TRUE good works!
You cannot do TRUE good things with your hands/flesh. And that is what Hebrews teaches us.
Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
The works of the law… the “moral law”… love God, love your neighbor… are only a shadow of true good things. The law does not allow a man to do TRUE good works.
The law said they could make various sacrifices and washings to be “clean”. But they were not truly clean. Why? Because the works of the law could never make people PERFECT!
Loving your neighbor, in the flesh, does not MAKE you or your neighbor… PERFECT!
Thus, loving your neighbor in the flesh… is ONLY a SHADOW of true good; a figure of true love.
These false brethren think they are following some NEW law of the New Testament, but it’s the same OLD law: the Old Testament law of Moses, which stood only in FLESHLY things, FLESHLY good works.
FLESHLY good works, are not a “new law”, they are the works of the OLD law.
Fleshly good works are only a SHADOW of true good works.
It is impossible for men to do true good works, but the false brethren require SHADOWS of true good works. False brethren REQUIRE the old, vain, shadows of true good works, in the life of every Christian.
“Good works are the fruit of salvation. So if you don’t love God and love your neighbor, you aren’t really saved.”
Those fleshly works ARE the works of the law. So, you’re no different than the false brethren in Acts 15…
Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. … 5 … saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
If I can take the liberty to rearrange the bolded words a bit, these false brethren…“taught the brethren…except ye…keep the law…ye cannot be saved”.
This is what a false prophet, a false Christian does… they put men under the bondage of the works of the law. Under the yoke of FLESHLY good works, which bring forth no eternal profit, thus deserve no eternal reward, because they are only vain SHADOWS of true good things.
Some of the false brethren will outright teach that Jesus didn’t abolish the law; that the whole law still applies. But others will be much more subtle, and teach that… “Jesus took away the ceremonial and sacrificial laws, but the moral laws still apply.” Or, “The Ten Commandments still apply.”
Well let me tell you a little something about the Ten Commandments…. The Ten Commandments… they ARE the OLD covenant.
Exodus 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
That covenant… the OLD covenant… the law of carnal COMMANDMENTS… IS the covenant that Christ fulfilled, and abolished, and made OLD, and disannulled.
Hebrews 8:7-13 For if that first covenant [The 10 fleshly commandments – or even just the 2!] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: … 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
So trying to keep the Ten Commandments… trying to just keep the two: love God and love your neighbor… is rejecting the liberty of the New Law, and remaining in the bondage of the Old Law; a FAULTY law. A faulty covenant that decays and waxes OLD, and ultimately DIES… just like the FLESH that it applies to. A faulty covenant, that could never give men eternal life.
The ten commandments were faulty. Even just the two greatest commandments are faulty. They were “holy and just and good”. But yet, faulty. Why?
- Because they were FLESHLY. Thus they were not TRUE good things. They were only a FIGURE of true good works.
- Because they were NOT SPIRITUAL. So they could not make people PERFECT, and they could not give ETERNAL LIFE.
Hebrews 7:16-19 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. 17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. 19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
The Old Testament was fleshly. Carnal. The works of that law were fleshly. Carnal. Earthly.
The commandments were carnal. They were applicable and fulfillable in the flesh.
But the Old Covenant was faulty. You could keep the whole law, and NOT PROFIT. Not produce even one perfect and eternal thing.
The New Testament is spiritual. It has no fault, and it cannot be broken. There are no sinners in it, there are only PERFECT people in it, and it gives eternal life to all those that are in it.
The New Covenant is NOT made up of (the same old) carnal/fleshly commandments.
The Ten Commandments… the Old Testament… was weak and unprofitable. It did not PROFIT.
Doing the works of the law… doing fleshly good works like “loving your neighbor”… is unprofitable.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
It doesn’t matter whether you think you are under the law of Moses, or just under a general “moral law”. All flesh, and every fleshly work, is UNPROFITABLE.
To truly PROFIT is to give (the words of) eternal LIFE.
Fleshly good works produce NO ETERNAL PROFIT. Thus they are vain and worthless to God.
Works are not fruit. Much more then, fleshly good works are DEFINITELY NOT the spiritual good fruit of a saved person.
Luke 6:44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
I’ve wondered a number of times, “why did the Lord appear in a BUSH in the Old Testament”?
Bushes, the few times they appear, are not good in the Bible. They are associated with famine and wilderness, with thorns and nettles. See Job 30:6-8, Isa 7:19, and Isa 34:13 as cross-references.
Bushes are not said to have good fruit. They are said to have evil fruit.
So why was the Lord in mount Sinai, in a bush??
I can’t say that I’m 100 sure about this, but what I think is, the reason that He appeared in a bush in mount Sinai, was because the law, the old covenant, was like a bush – it had NO GOOD FRUIT.
That mountain, and that bush on that mountain, was the very start of the giving of the law, by the lawgiver, from mount Sinai. And God associated the law, the Old Testament… which can be summarized as, love thy neighbor, and love God… He associated it with a fruitless, burning BUSH.
I think that that bush was a picture of exactly what we are learning here: that the works of the law, the very best good works of the flesh, do not produce good fruit.
The law produced only death. Paul calls it: “the ministration of death”. All the works of the law could give to people, was death. It could not give eternal life… it could not make people perfect.
It produced NO PROFIT. Thus Hebrews says it was disannulled. And Paul says it was “done away” and “abolished”.
2 Corinthians 3:7-13 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones [that is not just the ceremonial law… that is the Ten Commandments!!!], was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
The law… the very ten commandments… are ABOLISHED in Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish all the other laws, but leave men with just the ten commandments.
He abolished them ALL… the ten commandments included.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish all the other laws, but leave men with just two commandments.
He abolished the whole old law… including the two commandments that the whole law hangs on.
Just those two laws… are bondage! The ministration of death. The ministration of condemnation.
They don’t make anyone perfect, or give anyone life. They don’t make anyone righteous. They ONLY condemned men and gave them death. That is all that fleshly good works can produce: death!
So WHY? WHY… would the works of the law, which have been disannulled, abolished and done away, be required to be saved? Or, WHY would one’s doing of works in the flesh, which works are unprofitable, and produce ONLY condemnation and death, why would those DEAD WORKS, be proof of one’s eternal LIFE in the Spirit??? How are dead things, PROOF of LIFE?
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
If a Christian is dead, and his life is hidden away in Christ, then why are you expecting the proof of his life, to be present in his DEAD FLESH, visible through his FLESH’s DEAD WORKS?
How is someone’s dead FLESH, proof of their eternal LIFE in Christ? How is dead flesh, working works that produce death, how is that proof of eternal life?
God made the first covenant OLD… and gave men eternal life by a New Covenant.
He did away with the Old, and brought in the New. Why?
You think God did that so that after they were given ETERNAL LIFE in the New Covenant, that men would then go back to the Old, now DEAD Covenant, and be better motivated and better able to do its works? The works of the law? The fleshly works that produce DEATH? And that is how we are supposed to know whether men are alive, in the New Covenant? By whether or not they do the dead works of the OLD Covenant?
WHY? HOW? How can you think that the Old Covenant matters anymore?
These two laws… love God, and love your neighbor… they ARE the law. They are the OLD covenant.
Just trying to keep just those two laws… IS the works of the law.
The works of the law are not true good works BECAUSE they …
Hebrews 10:1 …can never… make the comers thereunto perfect.
The works of the law… are an imperfect shadow of true good works. But now they have been done away. And the new law, is a law that makes people PERFECT, and gives them ENDLESS LIFE.
This is what Hebrews is teaching! That is the gospel that Hebrews teaches. It is not a different gospel!
Hebrews 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
They served the DIVINE… They served God, in the world. They loved God in their fleshly, worldly service.
Their motivation wasn’t the problem. Their ABILITY was the problem. They could not serve in truth, in the Spirit, in Christ. They could only serve in the flesh. And fleshly service is not TRUE service.
Hebrews 9:9-10 Which [the first covenant, the worldly temple, the sacrifices, the law, the works of the law, the loving, divine service of God in the law, the ten commandments, and the two commandments on which all the law hangs… it all…] was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
The old testament law, the moral law of “love your neighbor”, was only a figure of good things. It was TEMPORARY, and it stood only in carnal works. Worldly, fleshly, service!
The works of the law are not true good works because they can’t make those that do them PERFECT.
If you were able to do one TRUE good thing… one true good work… then you would be PERFECT. You would be just as righteous as Jesus Christ. And you would live forever! You would be DONE, and you would know that you NEVER had to do another good work again.
That is the gospel that Hebrews preaches! The New Covenant which makes men PERFECT.
Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
Because there was no FLESHLY law that could make men perfect and give them eternal life, Jesus came to do away with the Old Law, and give men a new, SPIRITUAL law.
Hebrews 7:16 Who is made [Jesus is made a Priest], not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
The Old Testament law is a law of CARNAL commandments. Love thy neighbor, feed the hungry, give to the poor. The New Testament law is completely different. It is not carnal. It is ETERNAL.
A true good work, under the New Law, is eternal and endless. The new law, the new covenant gives “an endless life” to those that obey it.
Now if you give to the poor on Earth… they don’t get an endless life, do they? And neither do you!
So if you are doing fleshly good works, then there is absolutely no way that you are doing the works of the New law. You are doing the works of the OLD law.
If you give to a poor man on earth… you both die! But, if you give to the poor, in spirit and in truth, you live forever, and that poor man lives forever too.
The works of the law are carnal commandments. Carnal commandments applicable in fleshly things. They are temporal and temporary. They can be seen. And are not eternal.
Fleshly good works. Fleshly laws. That is what the modern false Christians seek after… And that is what the Moses-following Jews sought after too. That is how they all establish their OWN righteousness; this is how they “prove” that they are righteous, prove that they are saved: by the same carnal works. Love your neighbor, serve the Lord, don’t do this, don’t touch that, don’t eat there, don’t drink that. Keep the sabbath. Stay in church. Turn from your sins. Don’t company with sinners. Keep yourself clean.
Jan 12 2025
Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 6
Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 6
James calls it “the royal law”.
James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
“The royal law”… the most important law in the law… the law on which all other laws hang… is to love others.
James says, if you love your neighbor, “ye do well”. Ye do good works.
The whole law, IS TO DO, fleshly good works. It is a law OF fleshly good works.
So if you are trying to do fleshly good works… then you are trying to do the works of the law.
If you believe Christians must do good works, then you are requiring the works of the law.
You can condemn Israel for falling from grace due to seeking righteousness by the works of the law… but if you say Christians must love God and love their neighbors, then you are seeking righteousness, “by the works of the law”.
If you talk about “good works”, in the flesh, in this world, then you are talking about THE LAW. The OLD law. The same OLD law. “Love your neighbor” is not a new law.
Fleshly good works ARE the law, and the law IS good works in the flesh.
If you believe Christians need to do good works… then you believe they need to do the works of the law.
Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
The “golden rule”, right? The highest “moral law”!
THIS IS the law. That is the WHOLE LAW! That is the Old Testament. That is NOT the New Covenant. It is not NEW at all. That is not a “new law” given by Christ! This is the OLD law! The law of FLESHLY commandments.
Refusing to repent of requiring these works of the law, is exactly why Israel was cut off.
So the false brethren today condemn Israel for going after “the works of the law”, while they justify themselves doing the exact same works as Israel was doing: love God and love your neighbor: the works of the law!
Christ didn’t bring these law down from Heaven. It isn’t new!
This law, these works of the law, are the exact works that the Jews had been trying to do for 1500 years before Christ. Yet not one of them was successful. Not one of them ever did a true good work.
Haggai 2:11-14 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; … If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. 14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
The Israelites… who received the law, the law of Moses, which can be summed up in just two commandments… they could not do a true good work. They NEVER did a true good work.
They could love their neighbor. They could love God. But even those works were UNCLEAN.
Every work of their hands was UNCLEAN to God. Every work of their flesh was UNCLEAN. Even the good ones. Even loving your neighbor.
If it comes from sinful flesh, if it touches the flesh, or the fleshly heart, or the fleshly, sinful spirit that is in mankind, it is UNCLEAN.
Every work of their hands is unclean! You say, “well that’s just Israel they were doing evil at the TIME. There were other times, and other generations, that did go good works.”
Jeremiah 32:30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.
Mankind has only ever done evil, has only ever provoked the Lord to anger with the works of their hands. Mankind is unclean, and they’ve never done produced even one clean thing.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
If it comes out of men’s flesh, then it is unclean. It can be in the form of good. It can look good to man. But it is not TRUE good. Every work of men’s hands is FILTHY. UNCLEAN!
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
If a good work is not eternal, if it doesn’t last forever, then it is not a true good work.
What work have you ever done, what thing have you ever produced in this world, that will last forever?
If none, then you are unprofitable. If you can’t produce a good thing, that will last forever, then you cannot do true good works.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
None… no exceptions. Not Moses. Not David. Not Samuel. Not Daniel. Not Josiah. Not a single Jew who ever tried to love their neighbor as themselves. None of them did good.
Paul says “there IS none that doeth good”. Not, “there WAS none, but now Christians are so thankful that Jesus saved us that now WE do good because we are so appreciative of our salvation.”
You may think you are better than all the OT saints. You may think you succeed where they failed. You may think you are ABLE to do good works, when they weren’t, because your motivation is more sincere.
But that isn’t what Paul said. He said: there IS NONE that doeth good. Present day believers included!
Christians aren’t any more ABLE to do true good works, than anyone else.
Fleshly good works… “love God, love your neighbor”… they are NOT TRUE good works!
You cannot do TRUE good things with your hands/flesh. And that is what Hebrews teaches us.
Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
The works of the law… the “moral law”… love God, love your neighbor… are only a shadow of true good things. The law does not allow a man to do TRUE good works.
The law said they could make various sacrifices and washings to be “clean”. But they were not truly clean. Why? Because the works of the law could never make people PERFECT!
Loving your neighbor, in the flesh, does not MAKE you or your neighbor… PERFECT!
Thus, loving your neighbor in the flesh… is ONLY a SHADOW of true good; a figure of true love.
These false brethren think they are following some NEW law of the New Testament, but it’s the same OLD law: the Old Testament law of Moses, which stood only in FLESHLY things, FLESHLY good works.
FLESHLY good works, are not a “new law”, they are the works of the OLD law.
Fleshly good works are only a SHADOW of true good works.
It is impossible for men to do true good works, but the false brethren require SHADOWS of true good works. False brethren REQUIRE the old, vain, shadows of true good works, in the life of every Christian.
“Good works are the fruit of salvation. So if you don’t love God and love your neighbor, you aren’t really saved.”
Those fleshly works ARE the works of the law. So, you’re no different than the false brethren in Acts 15…
Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. … 5 … saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
If I can take the liberty to rearrange the bolded words a bit, these false brethren…“taught the brethren…except ye…keep the law…ye cannot be saved”.
This is what a false prophet, a false Christian does… they put men under the bondage of the works of the law. Under the yoke of FLESHLY good works, which bring forth no eternal profit, thus deserve no eternal reward, because they are only vain SHADOWS of true good things.
Some of the false brethren will outright teach that Jesus didn’t abolish the law; that the whole law still applies. But others will be much more subtle, and teach that… “Jesus took away the ceremonial and sacrificial laws, but the moral laws still apply.” Or, “The Ten Commandments still apply.”
Well let me tell you a little something about the Ten Commandments…. The Ten Commandments… they ARE the OLD covenant.
Exodus 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
That covenant… the OLD covenant… the law of carnal COMMANDMENTS… IS the covenant that Christ fulfilled, and abolished, and made OLD, and disannulled.
Hebrews 8:7-13 For if that first covenant [The 10 fleshly commandments – or even just the 2!] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: … 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
So trying to keep the Ten Commandments… trying to just keep the two: love God and love your neighbor… is rejecting the liberty of the New Law, and remaining in the bondage of the Old Law; a FAULTY law. A faulty covenant that decays and waxes OLD, and ultimately DIES… just like the FLESH that it applies to. A faulty covenant, that could never give men eternal life.
The ten commandments were faulty. Even just the two greatest commandments are faulty. They were “holy and just and good”. But yet, faulty. Why?
Hebrews 7:16-19 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. 17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. 19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
The Old Testament was fleshly. Carnal. The works of that law were fleshly. Carnal. Earthly.
The commandments were carnal. They were applicable and fulfillable in the flesh.
But the Old Covenant was faulty. You could keep the whole law, and NOT PROFIT. Not produce even one perfect and eternal thing.
The New Testament is spiritual. It has no fault, and it cannot be broken. There are no sinners in it, there are only PERFECT people in it, and it gives eternal life to all those that are in it.
The New Covenant is NOT made up of (the same old) carnal/fleshly commandments.
The Ten Commandments… the Old Testament… was weak and unprofitable. It did not PROFIT.
Doing the works of the law… doing fleshly good works like “loving your neighbor”… is unprofitable.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
It doesn’t matter whether you think you are under the law of Moses, or just under a general “moral law”. All flesh, and every fleshly work, is UNPROFITABLE.
To truly PROFIT is to give (the words of) eternal LIFE.
Fleshly good works produce NO ETERNAL PROFIT. Thus they are vain and worthless to God.
Works are not fruit. Much more then, fleshly good works are DEFINITELY NOT the spiritual good fruit of a saved person.
Luke 6:44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
I’ve wondered a number of times, “why did the Lord appear in a BUSH in the Old Testament”?
Bushes, the few times they appear, are not good in the Bible. They are associated with famine and wilderness, with thorns and nettles. See Job 30:6-8, Isa 7:19, and Isa 34:13 as cross-references.
Bushes are not said to have good fruit. They are said to have evil fruit.
So why was the Lord in mount Sinai, in a bush??
I can’t say that I’m 100 sure about this, but what I think is, the reason that He appeared in a bush in mount Sinai, was because the law, the old covenant, was like a bush – it had NO GOOD FRUIT.
That mountain, and that bush on that mountain, was the very start of the giving of the law, by the lawgiver, from mount Sinai. And God associated the law, the Old Testament… which can be summarized as, love thy neighbor, and love God… He associated it with a fruitless, burning BUSH.
I think that that bush was a picture of exactly what we are learning here: that the works of the law, the very best good works of the flesh, do not produce good fruit.
The law produced only death. Paul calls it: “the ministration of death”. All the works of the law could give to people, was death. It could not give eternal life… it could not make people perfect.
It produced NO PROFIT. Thus Hebrews says it was disannulled. And Paul says it was “done away” and “abolished”.
2 Corinthians 3:7-13 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones [that is not just the ceremonial law… that is the Ten Commandments!!!], was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
The law… the very ten commandments… are ABOLISHED in Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish all the other laws, but leave men with just the ten commandments.
He abolished them ALL… the ten commandments included.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish all the other laws, but leave men with just two commandments.
He abolished the whole old law… including the two commandments that the whole law hangs on.
Just those two laws… are bondage! The ministration of death. The ministration of condemnation.
They don’t make anyone perfect, or give anyone life. They don’t make anyone righteous. They ONLY condemned men and gave them death. That is all that fleshly good works can produce: death!
So WHY? WHY… would the works of the law, which have been disannulled, abolished and done away, be required to be saved? Or, WHY would one’s doing of works in the flesh, which works are unprofitable, and produce ONLY condemnation and death, why would those DEAD WORKS, be proof of one’s eternal LIFE in the Spirit??? How are dead things, PROOF of LIFE?
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
If a Christian is dead, and his life is hidden away in Christ, then why are you expecting the proof of his life, to be present in his DEAD FLESH, visible through his FLESH’s DEAD WORKS?
How is someone’s dead FLESH, proof of their eternal LIFE in Christ? How is dead flesh, working works that produce death, how is that proof of eternal life?
God made the first covenant OLD… and gave men eternal life by a New Covenant.
He did away with the Old, and brought in the New. Why?
You think God did that so that after they were given ETERNAL LIFE in the New Covenant, that men would then go back to the Old, now DEAD Covenant, and be better motivated and better able to do its works? The works of the law? The fleshly works that produce DEATH? And that is how we are supposed to know whether men are alive, in the New Covenant? By whether or not they do the dead works of the OLD Covenant?
WHY? HOW? How can you think that the Old Covenant matters anymore?
These two laws… love God, and love your neighbor… they ARE the law. They are the OLD covenant.
Just trying to keep just those two laws… IS the works of the law.
The works of the law are not true good works BECAUSE they …
Hebrews 10:1 …can never… make the comers thereunto perfect.
The works of the law… are an imperfect shadow of true good works. But now they have been done away. And the new law, is a law that makes people PERFECT, and gives them ENDLESS LIFE.
This is what Hebrews is teaching! That is the gospel that Hebrews teaches. It is not a different gospel!
Hebrews 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
They served the DIVINE… They served God, in the world. They loved God in their fleshly, worldly service.
Their motivation wasn’t the problem. Their ABILITY was the problem. They could not serve in truth, in the Spirit, in Christ. They could only serve in the flesh. And fleshly service is not TRUE service.
Hebrews 9:9-10 Which [the first covenant, the worldly temple, the sacrifices, the law, the works of the law, the loving, divine service of God in the law, the ten commandments, and the two commandments on which all the law hangs… it all…] was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
The old testament law, the moral law of “love your neighbor”, was only a figure of good things. It was TEMPORARY, and it stood only in carnal works. Worldly, fleshly, service!
The works of the law are not true good works because they can’t make those that do them PERFECT.
If you were able to do one TRUE good thing… one true good work… then you would be PERFECT. You would be just as righteous as Jesus Christ. And you would live forever! You would be DONE, and you would know that you NEVER had to do another good work again.
That is the gospel that Hebrews preaches! The New Covenant which makes men PERFECT.
Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
Because there was no FLESHLY law that could make men perfect and give them eternal life, Jesus came to do away with the Old Law, and give men a new, SPIRITUAL law.
Hebrews 7:16 Who is made [Jesus is made a Priest], not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
The Old Testament law is a law of CARNAL commandments. Love thy neighbor, feed the hungry, give to the poor. The New Testament law is completely different. It is not carnal. It is ETERNAL.
A true good work, under the New Law, is eternal and endless. The new law, the new covenant gives “an endless life” to those that obey it.
Now if you give to the poor on Earth… they don’t get an endless life, do they? And neither do you!
So if you are doing fleshly good works, then there is absolutely no way that you are doing the works of the New law. You are doing the works of the OLD law.
If you give to a poor man on earth… you both die! But, if you give to the poor, in spirit and in truth, you live forever, and that poor man lives forever too.
The works of the law are carnal commandments. Carnal commandments applicable in fleshly things. They are temporal and temporary. They can be seen. And are not eternal.
Fleshly good works. Fleshly laws. That is what the modern false Christians seek after… And that is what the Moses-following Jews sought after too. That is how they all establish their OWN righteousness; this is how they “prove” that they are righteous, prove that they are saved: by the same carnal works. Love your neighbor, serve the Lord, don’t do this, don’t touch that, don’t eat there, don’t drink that. Keep the sabbath. Stay in church. Turn from your sins. Don’t company with sinners. Keep yourself clean.
By Pastor • Christian Doctrine, Problem Texts • 0