In Part 1 we took a very general look at the written code – the law of God and of Man and how much we can learn about a country and God himself by looking at their laws. In looking closer at God’s law, the Apostle Paul was originally a Pharisee: an expert in Jewish law. In describing what the law alone ultimately brought about for sinful man in Romans 4:15b Paul says a profound statement: “because law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.” The breaking of God’s law ultimately brings about God’s wrath, and not His blessing. It is non-negotiable like the law of gravity, that if you jump, you’ll die. If you break God’s law, you’ll die, too – spiritually. God’s law condemns those who fail to keep its commandments perfectly and continuously, and since none can do that, all who are under the law are condemned to death. This is what Paul meant. The transgression he’s talking about is the violation of a known law – the legal consequences. Paul does not say that where there is no law, there is no sin. An act can be wrong even if there is no law against it, but when you see a sign that says: “Speed Limit 50 km” and you go beyond that, you become a law-breaker. If there’s no speed limit posted anywhere, no one can condemn you for breaking any law, can they. This was God’s written Code.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day considered themselves safe from this wrath because they had inherited the law through Abraham, and all they inherited was “transgression” which could be satisfied by offering the appropriate sacrifice to atone for it. God gave the law so that all sin might be seen as transgression, but they didn’t see it that way. They took the written code literally and actually turned it into a license to sin! Let me explain: They knew that if they broke a law that was in the written code, they’d transgressed. They then offered the appropriate sacrifice to atone for that transgression, and they believed all was well. In essence, they could have the most vile and evil thoughts in their hearts, and behave however they pleased but this didn’t matter as long as they adhered to God’s written requirements. Basically if the law didn’t spell it out and expressly forbid it, they were absolved of accountability. It was a religion they adhered to physically and ritualistically, but not morally. God never intended for his law to be the way of salvation for sinful transgressors!

So how did God expand the written code into a moral code? At the perfect time and through the climax of the ages: The atoning sacrifice of His Son that would satisfy all the requirements of the law. At the time Jesus Christ came on the scene the Jewish national and spiritual climate was ripe for change. The Jews had been looking for their Messiah-King to save them from Roman rule, but Jesus came to save them from their sin, and thus didn’t recognize Him. He didn’t come packaged as they expected, but the King of all Kings came, none-the-less. This was and is the climax of all the ages. It began with his death and resurrection, and will end with his glorious return to set up his earthly Kingdom. Even history is split between the before and after of his coming wrapped in frail humanity in that manger on that first Christmas.

This brings me to the moral code. Herein lies the heart of God’s law: Jesus combined the two – the written and moral code. Jesus didn’t come to do away with God’s law and its requirement, he came to fulfill it by becoming that sacrificial lamb to satisfy God’s wrath once and for all, to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. Jesus took the written code and explained God’s heart and essence for it in the first place, and it became a moral code. For e.g.: The law says: “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. The Pharisees took great delight in hauling a woman out of a house who they’d caught in the act of adultery with the intent to stone her as the law commanded, as she’d transgressed against that law. Again, it’s important to realize that God’s intent for that law was to show the seriousness of sin and its penalty. A sacrifice was needed to atone for that transgression. Without that sacrifice, that woman would have to die to adequately atone for her sin. That was God’s point. She needed a Redeemer. Jesus forgave her, and told her to sin no more. He knew he would become that sacrifice for her and so could offer her forgiveness, as he planned to take her punishment to atone for the wrath of God. He then went on to tell the Pharisees, that if they even looked at a woman with lust, they’d actually committed adultery with her in their hearts so they were no better than she.

Jesus came specifically to fulfill the requirements of God’s law which didn’t cancel them, but expanded them from the written code, into the moral code. The written law became the moral code. Jesus intended on taking the words off of stone (i.e. 10 commandments) in order to put them in hearts. He said in Hebrews 10:17: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” Jesus’ point was that although there was no written law against certain sins, (a ‘lawless’ act) it was still sin, and that through accepting his sacrifice he’d never again remember our sins. Hallelujah. But boy, the Pharisees did not like that! This then meant that they couldn’t freely sin in their hearts and even if they didn’t “transgress” against a known law, they’d still be under the wrath of God. They had taken God’s law and twisted it every which way but the way he meant it for in the first place. It became a polluted thing.

Isn’t it ironic, that the law given by God meant to give man boundaries for his very own benefit, they took as a license to sin? So you see, without the moral code, we only really have, half the law. In Part 3 we’ll take a look at how important it is to embrace all of God’s law in essence, not just in deed.