It seems the Lord God gave to Paul, and to no one else, the understanding of the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

We can tell from Paul's writings, particularly in Romans and Galatians, that Paul was under continual pressure from those who were insisting that to be saved the people had to receive Jesus as Christ and also keep parts or all of the Law, particularly circumcision.

This us why Paul stated so many times that we are saved by grace and not by works, meaning not by the works of the Law of Moses.

As Paul explained in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans, the Law has authority over an individual as long as he or she is alive. Only death can free us from the authority of the Law.

We make the transition from Moses to Christ by dying. There is no other way.

Jesus Christ kept the Law of Moses perfectly and then died on the cross. When we are willing to enter the death of Christ on the cross, the righteousness that comes from perfect obedience to the Law of Moses is imputed to us; the righteous requirement of the Law is ascribed to us.

In order to remain without condemnation we must count ourselves as dead with Jesus and alive with Jesus. We must press into Jesus each day. The Holy Spirit helps us do this. As we press into Jesus the sins of our flesh come up for judgment. As the Spirit brings our sins to our attention we are to confess them and turn away from them. As long as we thus follow the Spirit of God, living in God's eternal Life, we are free from the condemnation of the Law of Moses.

But if we do not press into Jesus each day, if we do not live in the holy Life of God, continuing to spend our time and energy on eating, sleeping, working, playing, reproducing, yielding at times to sexual lust, to violence, to covetousness, to slander and gossip, to witchcraft, in other words behaving as an average American Christian, then we are not dead with Christ on the cross. We are not raised with Him into newness of life. We are not a new creation.

What then?

The Law of Moses condemns us. There is no impervious state of grace shielding us from Divine judgment, from the eyes of God. We are not judging ourselves and so God judges us. When God judges us we suffer. If the suffering does not turn us to God, then any number of things can transpire, including sickness or even premature death. We can go so far as to get our name blotted from the Book of Life even though current Christian teaching claims this is impossible.

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Revelation 3:5—NIV)

Please do not wait until you die to find out if I know what I am talking about.

To be continued.