God's law and God's love form a unity

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The love of God and His law form a unity. Man cannot separate them, even if he would like to. So one simply pretends to, and brings this to bear accordingly. The formula used for this is: “No law, only grace and a great deal of love and emotion.” It makes no difference whether the law of God is viewed entirely as a relic of antiquity, or whether the law is simply dismantled, reshaped, and frayed, only to subsequently proclaim it again in a mutilated form as “God’s earthly representative.”

Law?! Oh, come on!

Law, commandments, and God’s love. Confronted and misunderstood. “Away with the law, in with grace!” could well be the slogan of those who actually believe that God, or rather Jesus Christ, the King of kings, will indeed assume His eternal reign (Revelation 11:15; Revelation 22:5; Psalm 146:10) in the (near) future, but without any “rules.” After all, Christians are not under the law, but under the grace (of Jesus), and thus any law of God is obsolete. “Do what you will; that shall be the whole of the law!” is the very popular principle, especially in popular music. The originator of this philosophy is Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), a self-professed and extremely active Satanist and a true icon in the music scene.

Hardly any self-proclaimed Christian would agree with Crowley, let alone adopt his philosophies. Yet, in principle, the thesis that God’s law is invalid and only grace prevails leads to exactly the same result as the occultist had simply openly advocated. Where there is no law, it logically holds that one may do anything, because nothing is forbidden and therefore no transgression is possible. No punishment, only grace, in other words, freedom from fools.

“But love is enough”

Heart & Stone Slabs — Does love replace the commandment?

“Yes, but love,” is a possible counter-argument. This also reveals a widespread and persistent misunderstanding, or rather, a lack of understanding. The love of God and His law are not two independent things, but are inextricably linked. Two sides of the same coin. The “commandment of love” formulated by Jesus,
“esus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

A favorite statement to justify the abolition of God’s law. But that only works if the immediately following verse is simply “forgotten”:
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. ” (Matthew 22:40)

These two commandments of love do NOT replace the law, but are the logical result of true love. Anyone who loves God and his neighbor will never think of blaspheming God, having other “gods,” or wanting to do anything evil to his neighbor. This is precisely what the Ten Commandments of God express. Paul summarized it in Galatians 5:14:
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.“

Furthermore, Jesus’ commandment to love was not “established” at this point in time, but rather He quoted from Scripture, today’s Old Testament. Specifically, from Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:5. (more info).

Decision & attitude or languishing?

Charismatic — In love with the rush of emotions

Another problem that fuels the misunderstanding about “replacing the law with love” is the misunderstanding of love. At this point, it would have actually been better if the translators of the Bible, whether into German or English, had not written “love,” but simply adopted the Greek word used in these passages. The Greek language distinguishes between the different qualities, which were simply translated as “love.” The Greek “ἀγάπη” (agape) has nothing to do with emotional, “felt” love, but is primarily a decision and ultimately a resulting attitude of the person. (more info).

As is unfortunately so often the case, people gladly forgo getting to the bottom of this truth and instead cultivated this consequential misunderstanding, even taking it to new heights. Emotional outbursts, emotional frenzy, even trance-like states in the delusion of being filled with the Holy Spirit. If one then begins to babble senselessly, this is said to be the ultimate proof (Info). A specialty of Pentecostal churches and other faith groups with a strong charismatic leaning.

Charismatics – Desire Contest

The so-called charismatic movement, or the “Charismatic Renewal,” received, as luck would have it, an enormous boost after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), both among evangelicals and within the Roman Catholic Church. Today, approximately 500 million people count among “charismatically charged” Christians—a fact that is anything but an insignificant niche. Prominent evangelical figures in this field include Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Reinhard Bonnke, Kenneth Copeland, and Derek Prince. In the Roman Catholic Church, names such as Werner Nemecek, Michelle Moran, Ulf Ekman, Karl Fischer, Johannes Hartl, Patti Gallagher Mansfield, and, at one time, Norbert Baumert SJ..

Loving God does not mean raising one’s hands languishingly in the air, amidst emotional sighs and tearful eyes, to experience the emotional rush of the coming Holy Spirit, but rather obedience. And that is inevitably connected with obeying His law. The grace that is so abused here is not the automatic forgiveness of a perpetually sinful existence, but rather, in addition to the forgiveness of sin (after genuine repentance), it also means the ability to transform a person’s character, so that in their fallen state they become capable of first wanting to obey God’s law and ultimately doing so.

Completely illogical in itself

This also shows that abolishing God’s laws would result in a paradox, because where there is no law, there is no transgression, therefore no sin, and therefore no necessary grace, and thus also a “completely superfluous” Jesus Christ and the Gospel (Info).

The erroneous thesis that “we live only under grace and not under a law” is also an oxymoron. What no longer exists cannot be above us. The question should actually be, what should be above us if it no longer exists. Paul’s statement, often used by advocates of “abolished laws,” is:
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)

Paul was (actually) clear

In order not to jeopardize their own interpretation, the “outlaws” simply overlook the following sentences in the same chapter,
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:15-16)

For that would ultimately mean having to abandon Aleister Crowley’s thesis, and with it the pleasures of a “carefree life” with all imaginable facets of one’s own freedoms and desires. Just as Paul expressed it just a few verses earlier,
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” (Romans 6:11-12).

It will therefore remain this way and will never change, as Jesus Christ warned in Matthew 5:18-19. Therefore, Paul also comes to the logical conclusion:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

What is sin?
“JWhosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4)

God’s Love & His Law – OT and NT

True love for God and one’s neighbor results in the (automatic) observance of God’s Ten Commandments. All 10 of them (Info)! Even the Fourth Commandment (Info).

From the Old Testament well into the New Testament, the law of God, His Ten Commandments, is linked to the love emphasized in the Gospel. Not to be confused with the “Laws of Moses,” which were introduced BECAUSE of sin and also represent a shadow of Jesus Christ and His work of salvation—also a dilemma. (Info).

Exodus 20:3-6:

Du sollst keine anderen Götter neben mir haben!
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:8-10

Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:9-11

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

Deuteronomy 11:1

Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

Deuteronomy 11:22-23

For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

Deuteronomy 19:8-9

And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers; If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:

Deuteronomy 30:16

In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Joshua 22:5

But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Daniel 9:4

And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Nehemiah 1:5-6

And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.

John 14:15

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:21

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

1 John 5:2-3

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.