Freed From the Law

Freed From the Law

The usual preaching among the “free assemblies” all over the country is “freed from the law.”

A believing sister said about a “free” preacher, “He hasn’t advanced any further than preaching freedom from the law.”

This remark was true. The sad fact is that they preach freedom from the law, but not from sin. This kind of preaching is already bearing terrible fruits all over the land.

In Romans 7:2-3 it is written, “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.”

In this scripture Paul speaks about something that, spiritually speaking, is called an adulteress. Can we find them in these days? Yes, just as surely as they existed in Paul’s days, they can be found in these days. Paul is not presenting us with a figment of his imagination. If you are so blind that you cannot see them, they exist nevertheless.

How do these adulteresses arise?

Imagine a person coming to a married woman and proclaiming liberty to her from the marriage law, so that she goes off and marries another man despite the fact that her first husband is still alive. This woman is not legally free from her first husband; she has quite simply broken the law, and by breaking the law she has freed herself from it. On the other hand, if the husband had been dead, the woman would be free indeed and could marry another; for the law does not bind a woman to a corpse. When the husband dies, the law concerning the husband automatically becomes invalid.

The woman is my personality. The husband is the flesh with its indwelling desires (or sin). These two constitute a person.

The husband is lord. Therefore this person has to follow the desires of the flesh. When this person comes under the influence of the law, together with its prohibitions and requirements, he cannot attain to righteousness though he strives ever so much to obtain it, despite the fact that he sees that the law is holy and good. Is this not so when it is written, “You shall not steal; you shall not commit adultery”? Yes, of course. These are good commandments; nevertheless, the commandment is powerless because of the husband, or the flesh with its desires. But now we learn to know how horrible the husband is, or as Paul says, “I would not have known sin (the husband, the flesh) except through the law.” Rom. 7:7. “For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’” Therefore the law makes me thoroughly acquainted with the husband (or sin).

However, since we know that the law arouses sin we must, nevertheless, establish the fact that the law itself does not cause us to sin. For then the law itself would be sin, as Paul also says, “Is the law sin? Certainly not!”

But the law came so that sin might become known. And as this knowledge increases and the person sees the flesh’s (the husband’s) corruption, his hatred of the husband will also grow. The law produces wrath—not against the law itself—which every normal person must understand is good—but wrath against the husband (sin, the flesh). And as hatred against the husband increases, a longing arises in the person to be set free.

“I can’t endure it any longer!” the person cries out. “I must be delivered and set free!”

Free from the law or from the husband? From the husband, from the flesh with its desires, from sin!

Set Free From Sin

is what Paul teaches in Romans 6:18. Then the husband has to die! Die with Christ on the cross! In this manner the law becomes our tutor to bring us to Christ (Gal. 3:24) that we might be justified by faith. Therefore, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal. 5:24. They have, in other words, crucified the husband; then they are free and have married another—Christ—and belong to Him. This is how it is written in Romans 7:4: “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ [crucified with Him], that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead . . . .”

What about the law?

When the husband dies, the woman is also set free from the law (the marriage law) of her husband. Now she is quite naturally free.

Paul says, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by [namely, the husband], so that we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter [the letter of the law].” Rom. 7:6.

He says the same thing in Galatians: “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.” Gal. 2:19.

“But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Gal. 3:25.

“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.” V. 23.

We must understand that we were not kept under guard by the law as if we were arrested and held under guard as punishment, but we were held by the husband (sin), and the law kept us in protective custody so that sin might not ruin us completely.

It didn’t just keep us under good guard, but it disciplined (trained) us to believe in Christ.

False Liberty

on the other hand, delivers us from the law, but not from the husband. Before the law has done its work in a soul, there comes (for example) a preacher who preaches deliverance from the law. The soul accepts and receives the message as a word of faith and appropriates in his mind deliverance from the law. And now occurs the most terrible thing. The person has been delivered from the law—not because the husband has died (he is still alive with his passions), but by having received a deceptive faith and a false light. And in this state the soul wants to marry another, namely, Christ.

However, Paul says, “So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress . . . .” Here we see how the spiritual adulteress arises.

Now there are many preachers and others who preach this deliverance from the law all over the land. The Bible, on the other hand, testifies about being delivered from sin! All the saints have proclaimed deliverance from sin. They have agreed with the law that sin is exceedingly sinful and that it might appear as sin. Rom. 7:13.

This false deliverance confuses the law with sin.

This is so easily done, and it is not surprising that it happens in these days; and Paul, who was not ignorant of Satan’s wily attacks, calls out: “Is the law sin?” “Certainly not!” he answers.

“Is the law then against the promises of God?” he calls out to the Galatians. “Certainly not!” He answers again. But now people fear the law more than they fear sin! Why? Examine yourself; seek clarity. The explanation is simply that the law is unrelenting in pursuing them because they have broken the law by breaking free from it; and even more than that, because the husband in them is alive. Therefore they cry out: “Be on guard against the law; do not come under the law; do not come into bondage to the law!” They fear the law more than sinning, just as the criminal is more afraid of the policeman than the sin which he has committed.

Therefore a well-known “free” preacher said to me recently: “Stop acknowledging sin!”

Never! We agree with the law, with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and all the angels of heaven, that sin should be shown to be sin. And we will call sin sin and work against it whether it shows up in the “free” or in other assemblies.

Just as I can without fear help the policeman who is pursuing a criminal, so I can help the law by congratulating it for always being in the right place; but just as I am not bound to the policeman, so I am not bound to the law if I am dead to sin.

In my heart I agree with the policeman and with the law. We praise that liberty! We agree completely with the law! The law is for the transgressors. It is like the policeman among the believers. However, he has not been appointed to destroy the soul, but rather to judge sin and lead to faith in Christ.

We know the people who are constantly in conflict with the police. And there are believers who live such a bad life that they live in constant fear of the law, and we understand why.

On the other hand, when a person has been truly delivered from sin, it is instead replaced by the law of righteousness in God’s kingdom—a far more exalted law. God’s kingdom consists of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This law of righteousness is written in our hearts. Then we understand what righteousness is, and we live it and have peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Then we are glad that the law is on patrol as a taskmaster against all carnality and sin. For where the husband (the flesh) is on the prowl, there the law also pursues him, and the law is not satisfied until the husband with all his passions and desires is crucified with Christ.

The false liberty that is being preached all over the land makes the people lawless, and those who have said farewell to everything that is called law have thereby shut themselves off from all wisdom. Therefore the false liberty (deliverance) sermons are like an epidemic all over the land. One could believe that God sent His Son for the law, condemning the law and not sin. Transgressors condemn the law more often than sin.

There is ample proof in life that a lot of spiritual adulteresses arise as a result of this preaching. The facts speak for themselves. Now you hear about the one and then about the other, that they are living in sin—not just sins such as envy, strife, division, jealousy, and factional strife that makes it almost impossible for two people to agree to knock the third person down, (that grow like weeds in the field in the “free assemblies”), but fornication, indecent behavior, not paying back debts, borrowing and not returning it, avoiding work, etc. All this goes to show that the husband with all his desires is alive.

Now comes an awful thing that is worse than all these wretched things taken together: “We shall not acknowledge sin,” said the prominent preacher.

Therefore no judgment over sin, no law for transgressions. They don’t want to be chastened. That is law to them. No exhortation. That also has the effect of law. “The Spirit shall convict the world of sin,” said the same preacher, “but He shall glorify the believers!” May God give grace that the Spirit can also convict these deceived wretches about sin.

The law says: You shall not steal, commit adultery, etc. When a person has freed himself from the law, and the flesh in him drives him to these sins—for the husband in them is alive—he has no law that judges sin. And as a cover he quotes, “Where there is no law there is no transgression.” Rom. 4:15.

So they can, in the midst of their wretchedness and lawlessness, praise God for His great grace and love. The woman who marries another man while her first husband is still alive—what will she speak about most? Of course, she will speak about liberty and love. Translated into the language of worldly preaching, this means: “free love”!

If you proclaim the truth to them and rebuke them for their sin, they call that being in bondage to the law. “Speak about grace!” they cry out. “More grace!” Yes, we constantly need grace, and God is very longsuffering, more than any person. Yet His righteousness will one day be revealed toward those who did not seek it. We praise God for His severity—because He does not tolerate sin.

It is not surprising that these souls teach that we shall not look at ourselves. For if they looked at themselves, they would immediately discover that the husband (the flesh with its passions) was alive and that they were living as a spiritual adulteress. They think they would be under the law if they looked at themselves—which is correct; they would be. For the husband is alive, and then it is best to act like a contrite transgressor who hands himself over to the police. Both of them need to be treated by the law.

Those who are free indeed, on the other hand, gladly look at themselves and rejoice over the fact that the husband (the flesh) is crucified; they reckon themselves dead, living their new life in purity and holiness in communion with their soul’s new Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, whose will has become all their delight. And if the light should point out something that is wrong in their life, they judge it as sin, and the blood cleanses them as they walk in this light.

The fact that Christ does not acknowledge them nor become one with those who live in this false liberty is plainly evident from their doctrine.

They always refer to the substitution (the objective part) instead of obtaining that which in Christ has become one with themselves. Much could be said about these things, but we would like to recommend the articles about “The Man of God” that were published in Skjulte Skatter last winter.

We hear this expression quite often: “I have been married to Moses for so and so many years, but now I am free.”

Married to Moses! Or what they mean by it: married to the law.

I have never heard that anyone was married to the law (the marriage law according to Romans 7:2-3) instead of to the husband.

What a strange marriage!

And so they have liberated themselves from this strange “marriage partner.” The law to which they were married must have been an outright wife beater who was constantly screaming: “You must! You must! You shall! You shall!

It is amazing that old preachers can proclaim such gibberish! That people can accept and believe such things is just as amazing.

I think that the marriage partner who was the husband (the flesh) would gladly agree to shout “Hallelujah!” when he got rid of the oppressive law. And we have sufficient, concrete examples which show that he truly rejoices with the falsely liberated woman.

What confusion! When you follow Satan’s intrigues, you end up in veritable labyrinths of confusing ideas where the greatest stupidity is considered to be the most profound wisdom.

May God help His people in these days.