Christians are rescued from God’s judicial condemnation by means of entrusting Jesus. God’s chosen deliverer, rather than by seeking to enact all of the written regulations of Sinai Covenant Law. As part of God’s free gift, Christians receive the Breath of God to indwell their deep inner core or ‘heart’ – the foundation of their thoughts, feelings and intentions. Paul places faith and Breath in contrast to working to put into practice the external written codes of the Sinai Covenant.
So what happens then? What happens in the Christian’s day-to-day life? As a result of their enlightened perception away from the Breath of God, and their entrustment in the Messiah, Christians are exhorted to exercise illuminated self-control so as to live a godly life by walking around within the set-apart Breath of God. Nowhere do the Apostles instruct Christians to turn to and work to put into practice the external written codes of divine Law. But as we have seen, divine Law – with its emphasis on purity, cleanliness and being set apart from the worldly arrangement and its values – has not been abolished. Christians are not given a licence to engage in wayward speech and behaviour because they now trust Jesus. But the exhortation to, and purpose of, living a godly life places them in a battle, in warfare, because within their physical, fleshly constitution, raw energies and passions produce an impetus that leads to speech and behaviour that God disapproves of. No Christian is perfectly clean and pure in their speech and behaviour, despite their best intentions, or their most transcendent experiences.
Given this purpose and summons to live a godly life and the opposition created by the energies within their physical, fleshly constitution, as well as by the values and behaviours of the world being displayed around them, where does this leave Christians? How are they to go about their daily lives successfully overcoming temptation? How are they to maintain the best standard of godliness that they possibly can?
Different Christian leaders suggest different approaches, but the particular focus here is on divine Law. ‘Aha!’ say some Christian leaders. ‘Christians need to turn to the written codes of divine Law, like the Ten Commandments, to ‘spur’ them on or ‘goad’ them towards godly behaviour’. Are they neglecting Sunday worship? The Law says ‘Keep the Sabbath set apart’. Are they stealing? The Law says ‘You will not steal’ and so on. But I strongly disagree with this approach. I propose that this is not Apostolic teaching and that it falls into the error of ‘Christian legalism’.
