God's Laws: Sin, Law, Grace, and Obligation

By Paul Hughes

Debate rages among Christans over everything from social drinking and tattoos to abortion, divorce and remarriage, same-sex unions, and using recreational drugs. Christians are splitting between the extremes of Legalism and Libertinism, with many caught in-between.

The New Testament, especially in the practical teachings of the Apostle Paul, contains adequate answers to many of these questions and provides principles for making Godly decisions even on debatable matters never dreamt of two thousand years ago.

In God's Laws, the author sorts through all of Paul's statements relative to sin, law, conduct, and behavior, as well as liberty and grace, categorizes them by subject and intent, and sythesizes them into a coherent and unified theology. The result is a personal realization that is not only practical but transformative.

Paul placed the onus of responsibility squarely on the individual believer to obey God's original intent, rely on the Law of Faith, and practice the Law of Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312410107

Book preview

God's Laws: Sin, Law, Grace, and Obligation

God's Laws

Sin, Law, Grace, and Obligation

An Inductive Bible Study & Synthesis

Paul Hughes

Copyright ©2014 by Paul A. Hughes

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American

Copyright Conventions.  Published in the United States

by Paul A. Hughes, Liberty, Texas

[e-mail]

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Hughes, Paul A., 1957–

Includes annotations, footnotes, index, appendices, and graphic illustrations.

ISBN 978-1-312-41010-7

This book is also available in an expanded paperback version, ISBN 978-1-312-36097-6.

All Scripture quotations from the common King James Version (public domain in the United States of America), or freely rendered by the author, unless otherwise noted.

ON THE COVER:  St. Paul Preaching in Athens by Raphael, 1515.  Public domain, as established under U. S. law in Bridgeman v. Corel, 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999), supported by the U. S. Supreme Court in Feist v. Rural, 499 U.S. 340 (1991)[1], applying Article I of the Constitution and the Copyright Act of 1976.  Copyright claims to public domain works risk the criminal provisions of Section 506 of the Copyright Act for fraudulent use of a copyright notice.  All other images created and fully owned by the author.

Dedication

To my father, now 87,

who took his wife and children to church

because he would have felt ashamed

to let them go unescorted;

who continued to take them to church

three times a week;

who mowed the church lawn

when it needed it, and paid his tithes;

but who never felt saved

till he was able to quit smoking.

Preface

Throngs came to John in the desert to be baptized, asking him, What shall we do?  He told them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.  John told the publicans, Exact no more than that which is appointed you, and the soldiers, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.  He called the throng offspring of vipers, at risk of God's wrath, warning them to Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Lk. 3:7 ff.).

Others went to Jesus and asked, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? to whom Jesus replied, in one account, Go, and do thou likewise, like the Samaritan; and in another, Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me (Lk. 10:25 ff., 18:18 ff.).  The gawkers and opportunists who followed Jesus seeking bread asked him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?  Jesus gave them no bread (other than offering to them, prophetically, his body) and answered them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (Jn. 6:22 ff.).  After Peter's inspired sermon at Pentecost, a scathing indictment upon Israel, the crowd begged, Men and brethren, what shall we do?  to which Peter replied, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:37 f.).

What shall I do? in response to a divine imperative is a Kingdom question, whether the asker realizes it or not.  Many people come to believers and to God's Word, with carnal and often quite egocentric questions, to which the Lord in turn provides none but Kingdom answers.  They are asking the right question, but are often surprised to receive an answer they did not expect, and might well not accept.  The answer to existential questions, indeed the ultimate answer even to egocentric and carnal questions, is to repent of sin, receive Christ, then begin living according to God's laws rather than those of Men.  All God's laws are not only eternal in nature but eschatological, being therefore not just for the here and now but for the Kingdom and Eternity.  Jesus expressed the economy of God's Kingdom when He taught his disciples to pray, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Mt. 6:10).

But what exactly are God's laws?  Even many, perhaps most longtime Christians who believe God's Word, are often confused when it comes to which laws of God remain valid to the New Testament believer, and which have been made obsolete by grace; and no wonder, since they receive different answers from different pastors and teachers, and from different, often contradictory religious traditions!  Roman Catholic and many Mainstream Protestant teaching subordinates Scripture to church dogma and tradition, and vests spiritual efficacy in priestcraft and mystical sacraments.  The Eastern Orthodox look toward the Church Fathers and their Mystic tradition.  Calvinists set great store in their self-ratifying theological system.  Wesleyan Holiness believers, influenced as they are by Neoplatonic Mysticism, purport the ability to pray through to achieve perfection of intent, so that one no longer intentionally sins—and some say even to achieve Entire Sanctification, such that one cannot sin (which would seem to render questions of sin and law irrelevant, reducing the problem to a dualism between those who sin and those who are spiritual).  Yet those who ascribe to Holiness are often highly Legalistic, even Pharisaic, maintaining long lists of sins, great and small, often of dress, speech, diet, and participation in worldly pursuits, the tiniest of which guarantees to send the sinner straight to Hell.  It is grievous that the content of much Holiness preaching seldom strays from condemnation of sin and sinners, and is deficient in grace, power, Christian growth, and good works.

My sister and her family live very near Keene, Texas, where the Seventh-Day Adventists maintain a university, and not much farther away, their headquarters for the Texas Conference.  She and her family report being acquainted with many Adventists, who not only keep the Sabbath but are in many cases Vegans, as well.  I personally have had many discussions with believers who insist that a Christian must keep the Sabbath (some say Saturday, some say Sunday), as well as others who just as firmly maintain that Christians must eat Kosher, or some version thereof.  (I have not yet run into any who preach circumcision, which strikes me as oddly selective under the circumstances.)  One would think that a simple reading of Galatians, in particular, not to mention Romans, Colossians, and other pertinent passages, would easily dissuade any such Judaizers (for such they are), whom Paul says are fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4); yet having likely been literally indoctrinated from childhood, they remain adamant in adding select parts of Moses' Law to the requirements for salvation.

I say the above not to defame those various misguided brethren, but to highlight the crucial need for sound, Biblical teaching on the nature of sin and of salvation, in regard to which laws the obedient Christian is actually expected to ascribe, which laws amount to bondage to beggarly elements of this World, and the very real threat of believing and spreading false doctrine.

Meanwhile, debate rages within our increasingly relativistic and reprobate society over the multitude of moral issues affecting believers and the Church, from such personal choices as smoking, social drinking, and the wearing of tattoos, to immense societal moral questions regarding recreational and addictive drugs, Abortion on Demand, and Same-Sex Unions, even the very definitions of marriage, morality, and human life.  Christians who compromise on issues of eternal import, presuming upon God's grace in the name of liberty, come equally under bondage to the elements and thought processes of the flesh and this World as do the staunchest Legalists, and are equally at risk