Audio Download

Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 17, New Wine in New Bottles

[Study Updated and Aired March 17, 2024]

Those who are “bewitched” by the “works of the law” of Moses will tell you that since it was God who gave Moses the law, therefore “the law of the spirit” (Rom 8:2), also called “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), must be the same as the “law of Moses” (Luk 24:44).

Yes, Mr. Convery (who was quoted in our last study), “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today and forever”, but if you truly believe as you stated that “[Christ] is not changing it” (the law of Moses), then I can only conclude that your eyes are blinded to the virtual “reformation” (Heb 9:10) revealed by Christ in Matthew 5.

Matthew 5 is a new wine in a new bottle. Matthew 5-7 is a new garment made of new cloth. It is not compatible with the old covenant, and attempting to make it so will only “break the bottles…spill the wine” and “make the rent worse.”

Mat 9:16  No man putteth a piece of new cloth [Christ’s reformed doctrine] unto an old garment [the old covenant law of Moses], for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Mat 9:17  Neither do men put new wine [Christ’s “new covenant, not according to the covenant [He] made with [ancient Israel] (Jer 31:32)] into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved [The law of Moses continues to bring us to Christ, then “we are no longer under a schoolmaster (Gal 3:24)].

Yes, indeed, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, and forever”(Heb 13:8), but that Truth in no way suggests that His plan does not have different phases which are leading up to its accomplished goal. The flood of Noah was not an afterthought requiring the Lord to recalculate and reformulate another plan. That flood was designed by the Lord from “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9, Tit 1:2). It was designed as preordained to signify our baptism in the spirit:

1Pe 3:20  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1Pe 3:21  The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 13:8 does not imply that “the old man… the first man Adam” (Eph 4:22; 1Co 15:44-49), is the same as “the new man” (Eph 4:24). Neither does “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” even remotely deny that the Old Covenant “is abolished” (2Co 3:13) and “is done away in Christ” (2Co 3:14) when the new covenant comes on the scene. “We were called in Christ before the world began”, and the flood of Noah simply signifies the death of our old man to the law of Moses so we can now be married to Christ:

Rom 7:1  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Rom 7:2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead [Christ died to His flesh and to the law of Moses], she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Rom 7:3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more [after the flesh].
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away [Especially “the old covenant”]; behold, all things [including the law] are become new.

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

You are right, “there is no other way”, but that singular ‘way’ is Matthew 5, not Exodus 20 or any other part of the “things written in the book of the law.”

You are also right, “If you do not follow Him as He just described in 1 John, then you are not led by the Spirit of God.”

1Jo 3:24  And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

“His commandments” are not the commandments of Moses. If they were, then Christ disobeyed Moses’ commandments when He changed the law of Moses, including two of the ten commandments, in Matthew 5. “His commandments” here in 1 John, however, have nothing to do with the ten commandments or the old covenant “letter”, which are one and the same (Deu 4:13) and which are called “the ministration of death” (2Co 3:7). The commandments referred to in 1 John are revealed in the gospels, in Matthew 5-7. They are certainly nowhere to be found in the law of Moses, the old covenant.

Act 13:39  And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

As mentioned earlier, it was this same Apostle John who calls the holy days “feasts of the Jews”:

Joh 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem .

Joh 6:4 And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

Joh 7:2 Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.

It is manifestly obvious that John had the “feasts of the Jews” and holy days of the law of Moses and the weekly sabbath in mind when he penned the gospel of John. In all my years in a church which observed the weekly sabbath and all the annual holy days, I never once heard a single minister, not one student nor even one church member use John’s terminology, “a feast of the Jews” for these days. To us, at that time of my life, these were “God’s Holy Days” and “God’s festivals”. We took pride in the fact that we kept “God’s holy days” and we did not keep pagan holidays. Yet Colossians tells us holy days were “a [mere] shadow of things to come” (Col 2:16 and 17), in the same way that physical blood offerings were a shadow and type of the sacrifice of Christ.

Hebrews 10 tells us the entire law was but “a shadow of good things to come” and that the Lord is taking away that first ‘shadow’ “that He may establish the second” the reality, the body casting that shadow (Heb 10:1-9).

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Heb 10:8  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first [covenant], that he may establish the second [covenant].

Yes, indeed, “If you do not follow Him as just described in 1 John, then you are not led by the Spirit”.

1Jn 2:3  And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4  He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5  But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

What are “His commandments”? What was His “walk”? Did Christ’s commandments agree with Moses’ law “which you have heard said by them of old time?” (Mat 5:21, 27, 33) Was Christ’s ‘walk’ in accord with the law of Moses? It is true that there is some agreement between the old and new covenants. Five of the ten commandments are reiterated in:

Rom 13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Rom 13:9  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul’s emphasis here agrees with everything else he has to say about how the law of Moses is being replaced by the law of love, also known as the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which he made clear earlier in this same epistle to the Romans:

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [the law of the spirit] hath made me free from the law of sin and death [“the law for the lawless” (1Ti 1:9)].
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

“THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU, THEY ARE SPIRIT and they are life” (Joh 6:63). These words were penned by the same apostle who wrote 1 John. It is the words of Christ which give life and which will judge us (Joh 12:48).

You are right, Mr. Convery, when you say; “in 1Jn 2:3-6, we read a very sobering measuring stick as to the degree we are led by the Spirit of God.”

1Jn 2:3  And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4  He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5  But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

What so many fail to realize is that “His commandments… His Word”, the words of Christ are not the law of Moses. The “His commandments” of 1 John 2:3-6 are contrasted by Christ Himself with the law of Moses in Matthew 5. Christ’s words are our “measuring stick” of spiritual maturity, not the law which is “not for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:9). “Turn the other cheek also” does not agree with “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”:

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“The words that I have spoken… they are spirit and they are life” (Joh 6:63), are not the words of the old covenant. The Old Covenant was only “until John [the Baptist]”:

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

If indeed “grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ”, then what is the law of Moses? It is what it is called… “The law of sin and death” and those who persist in being under that law “shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” (Gal 4:30).

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [the law of the spirit] hath made me free from the law of sin and death [“the law for the lawless” (1Ti 1:9)].
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Phrase #6 – Ready to Vanish Away – Heb 8:13

Heb 8:13 In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

To Paul, as it should be to us, God’s word is reality. As far as Paul was concerned, the old covenant had been “vanishing away” from the time of Jeremiah. “…Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet unto me” (Jer 6:20).

Jer 31:31-32 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers…”

As Christ pointed out, we don’t put new wine in old bottles (Mat 9:17). The ‘new wine’ does “not accord” with the ‘old bottles,’ and the New Covenant is “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.” That is a chief element of the revelation of the new covenant. The new does not “accord” with the old. “No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse” (Mat 9:16).

There have always been, and still are today, plenty of ‘worn out’ garments around. If we attempt to repair our carnal old fleshly bodies with the ten commandments, we will only make sin appear more sinful. Our righteousness must “exceed” that of Job, the rich young ruler and Paul before his conversion (Mat 5:20).

Jer 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts…’

The new law is written in our inward parts, but the “old is ready to vanish away”:

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

The holy spirit, through the pen of the apostles, is telling us that the law of Moses is “waxing old and is ready to vanish away.” The Greek here for the English words ‘vanish away’ is not katargeo for once. It is aphanismos, Strong’s G854. This is the only place this form of this word is used in scripture. However, it is taken from aphanizo, Strong’s G853 which appears five times in the New Testament: Mat 6:16, Mat 6:19, Mat 6:20, Act 13:41, Jas 4:14.

Act 13:41 Behold you despisers, and wonder, and perish…” (aphanizo G853).

Jas 4:14 …What is your life? It is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and vanisheth away” (aphanizo G853).

“Aphanismos” may not be “katargeo“, but they do seem to have a lot in common. There is very little difference between “done away”, (Katargeo) and “vanish away” (aphanizo).

Phrase #7 – “Under the Law”

The phrase ‘under the law’ appears in seven separate areas of scripture. When two connected verses contain the phrase, we consider it as a single section of scripture, even though the phrase appears as many as three times in a single verse.

We will demonstrate with these seven sections that in God’s eyes obedience to the law of Moses is the spiritual equivalent of being “under sin.” The reason given is “because by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20). In other words, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Paul is telling us that the law is the antitype of the law of Moses.  The tree placed by God in the middle of the garden of Eden, of which man must eat before he can partake of the source of life, signifies “the law of sin and death” of which all men must partake before they can go through the fiery sword which ‘keeps the way of the tree of life’.

Yes, it was God who had told them not to eat of this tree, but the goal and purpose in creating Adam and Eve was to: “bring many sons unto glory” (Heb 2:10). Since Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8), it follows that God knew that Adam had to sin in order to need a Savior. “I had not known sin but by the law” (Rom 7:7). “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that THROUGH DEATH he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14). Now “the tree of life” is not “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The fruit of one is life, and the fruit of the other is death. “For this cause he is the mediator of the new testament [covenant] that BY MEANS OF DEATH, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance”. This is why Paul refers to the law of Moses as “the law of sin and death.”

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [the law of the spirit] hath made me free from the law of sin and death [“the law for the lawless” (1Ti 1:9)].
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law [of Moses] is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

There it is: “…transgressions…were under the first covenant”. Sin no longer dominates us because we “are not under the law, but under grace”:

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom 3:19). Again it’s the ten commandments that make “all the world…guilty before God”. What does Paul mean by this next verse? “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20).

What he means, as we have said before, is that life can no more come through the law (the knowledge of sin and therefore of righteousness also – Rom 7:7) than it can come through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Bringing life is not the function of this tree  which signifies the law of Moses including the ten commandments. The function of the law of Moses is to bring man to the point that he sees his need for a Savior. It accomplishes this by revealing our earthy, naked, sinful dying condition we have from creation. Christ was slain “from the foundation of the world”, before Adam and Eve even sinned. Man was created flesh and blood, and naked. ‘Nakedness’ signifies being sinful from the Potter’s hand” :

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay [Aam] was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Being made of clay means Adam would have died if he had never eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth CORRUPTION inherit incorruption” (1Co 15:50). Adam simply needed to come to see his sad dying, corruptible composition and condition.

Now notice this next verse carefully: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: (and why not?) For ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6:14). If there is a scripture anywhere in God’s word which demonstrates that there are two laws in view whenever Paul talks about “the law”, this is that scripture.

Our carnal minded reasoning is: “if we keep the law, then we are not dominated by sin, sin has no dominion over us.” Paul says “…sin shall not have dominion over you for [because] you are NOT under the law.” If you are under the law, you are a sinner of the worst self-righteous sort, such as Job, the rich young ruler, and Saul of Tarsus.

There are those who will tell you that ‘under the law’ simply means ‘under the curse of the law’ which they interpret to mean the curse of death.

Those who follow this doctrine completely miss Paul’s point that the law of Moses “is not of faith” (Gal 3:12) and is itself, along with the ten commandments, “the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2), “the ministration of death written and engraven in stones” causing Moses’ face to shine (2Co 3:7).

I am well aware that one cannot force a blind man to see. However, if you have been given “eyes to see” and you have read Matthew 5, then you will see that the ten commandments and “the whole law” have all lost their glory “by reason of that which excels” (2Co 3:10). You will further see that to cling to them and the entire Torah is to be embracing death itself: “Therefore by the deeds [Greek: ergon Strong’s G2041; doing, works] of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

The knowledge of sin saves no one, and the law, the ten commandments, are the knowledge of sin (Rom 7:7).

Those who cling to Torah and the ten commandments will quote Gal 3:12; “…The man that doeth them shall live in them.” This seems to be the only part of this verse they see. They jump on the word “live” and give it a positive connotation and deride detractors for being against living by the law of Moses. God has simply not given them eyes to see the first part of this verse: “The law is NOT of faith…”

Gal 3:12  And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

With that reasoning, one could take “…she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”, (1Ti 5:6) and give the word “liveth” a positive connotation and completely miss the point. Paul’s point is that “the law is not of faith”. To live by the law, “the deeds of the law” (Heb 11:6), will have the same effect as “living in pleasure.” You will be “dead while you live” because “the law is not of faith.” Now the most casual student of the scripture is aware that “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb 11:6).

Paul’s point, which it seems the whole of Christendom has missed, is that Torah, the law (yes, including the ten commandments) IS itself the curse. It gives us the knowledge of sin (Rom 7:7) and of righteousness (Psa 119:172). It makes us feel righteous, and that becomes “mine own righteousness which is of the law”:

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Our ‘idol of the heart’ (Eze 14:3-7) tells us, “God’s commandments could not possibly produce death; after all they are of God, and God would never give us anything that would bring forth death.” The laws God gave Moses seem “pleasant to the sight and good for food” and they are placed right there in the midst of the garden of God’s word, put there by God himself who would never put anything poison to our spiritual well being right in front of us and make it appear so good and good for us. God would never do that. Yet The Truth is: “And out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” :

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Life Comes Through Death

Is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil good for food? That is what Genesis 2:9 says.

“The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil… [are] good for food”.

Doesn’t the tree of the knowledge of good and evil produce death? Of course, it does: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse [of death]: for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things that are written in the book of the law [Torah] to do them” (Gal 3:10). This verse precedes the one quoted above and used in defense of keeping the law: “the man that doeth them shall live in them” (vs 12). Peter says concerning the law it is “a yoke…which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Act 15:10).

Heb 2:15 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; THAT THROUGH DEATH he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the devil.”

Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh THROUGH DEATH, to present you holy, and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.

Heb 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from [out of or through]DEATH…

There are three scriptures explaining why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil serves as food in the middle of the garden of Eden and why the ten commandments, “the ministration of death written and engraven in stones” (2Co 3:7) are placed right in the middle of God’s word.

1. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1Co 15:50).
2. “For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, then it stands to reason that life comes only THROUGH DEATH; the death of the flesh: “For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
3. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (Joh 12:24).

While this last scripture concerns dying to the flesh, it serves to demonstrate the creator’s modus operandi: “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ once was offered to bear the sins of many…” (Heb 9:27, 28).

These two scriptures, John 12:24 and Hebrews 9:27,28, reveal much of the mind of God on the subject of death. Being under the law and therefore being subject to death, are all an integral part of God’s plan. Before God ever created Adam, He had a plan of salvation for Adam and all his children.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Appearance and Composition of Sin and Death

Adam’s need for a Savior is revealed from the beginning in the description of his appearance and his composition. He was composed of dust, the very thing we are told furnishes nourishment for the Adversary who is represented here by the serpent (Gen 3:14). Another clue to Adam’s predestinated fate is that he was CREATED naked. Adam came into this world just as every person ever descended from him…NAKED. As surely as dust represents flesh, nakedness depicts the sinful nature inherent in being made of dust: “The first man [Adam in each of us] is of the earth, earthy: the second man [in each of us] is the Lord from heaven” (1Co 15:47).

All by Nature the Children of Wrath

“And so it is written the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1Co 15:45). Those who teach that the statement “the man that doeth them (the works of the law) shall live in them”(Gal 3:12) is a positive statement, will miss the fact that the “living soul” here is contrasted with the quickening (life giving) spirit. Any “living soul” is also a dying soul… “the soul that sinneth it shall die” (Eze 18:4,20). Also, anyone living in the “deeds of the law” is “not of faith” (Gal 3:12). Being “not of faith” is not a positive position to be in with God.

Adam was “not of faith” because he followed his wife who believed the serpent rather than God. Having believed the serpent, Eve, typifying the deceived church of God, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just as some churches today teach that the ten commandments are the same as the sermon on the mount. “And Adam was not deceived” (1Ti 2:14) but was so attached to his wife [his church] instead of his maker that he followed her instead of God.

How many sons of God see the contradictions between scripture and church doctrines but cannot face the thought of possibly losing all their friends and their family to remain true to the commandments of God “thou shalt not eat” of “the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil”?

As God had predestinated, both Adam (the “son of God” Luk 3:38) and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They could not be given life having eaten of this tree because “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by THE LAW is the KNOWLEDGE of sin” (Rom 3:20).

Adam was not deceived. He did not want to disobey God, but he was persuaded by his wife. Any student of scripture knows that women typify the church whether faithful or “fallen.” The moment they both ate of this tree, they became aware of a truth that had been the truth before they became aware of it. “They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25). This is virtually the same condition describing the “lukewarm” Laodicean church in the book of Revelation: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth. Because you sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing; AND KNOW NOT THAT THOU ART wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and NAKED” (Rev 3:16,17).

So it was with Adam and Eve. They had the whole world to themselves. They were communing with God, and He had given them this beautiful garden signifying His word. Not being aware that they are inherently sinful by their earthy composition and their naked condition, like all their descendants, they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and “all the world” henceforth becomes guilty before God” (Rom 3:19):

“And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen 3:6).

The word of God does not say Eve ‘thought’ the tree was good for food; it says “the tree was good for food… pleasant to the eyes…to be desired to make one wise.”

The law, in fulfilling its function as a schoolmaster, nourishes us much like the umbilical cord nourishes an unborn infant until the time of its birth. At that point the umbilical binding must be cut, and the infant must receive a more mature nourishment. If that cord of the law of Moses is not cut and the infant does not begin partaking of the more developed nourishment of the “milk of the words” of Christ, he will die. “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1Pe 2:2).

A later iteration of that lesson is that if we remain on the milk of the Word, we will never become mature adults and will die of spiritual malnutrition:

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

At the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15, it was Peter who called the law a “yoke… which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Act 15:10). Paul is not referring to Torah or the law of Moses when he mentions the “sincere milk of the word.” He is rather speaking of “the words that I have spoken”: “He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words [as opposed to Torah] hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). “The sincere milk” is for “newborn babes… in Christ”. That ‘milk’ is “Christ and Him crucified” 1Co 2:2; 3:1 and 2). While milk is the best food in the world for ‘babes in Christ’, it is not the best food for a more spiritually mature person. “Howbeit we speak wisdom [not just ‘Christ and Him crucified’] among them that are perfect [mature]” (1Co 2:6).

On the other hand, the law, Torah, is “a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Gen 3:6). What does that mean? How does the law which “had no glory” (2Co 3:10) make one wise? “Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should AFTERWARDS be revealed” (Gal 3:23).

So Paul tells Timothy: “…From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures [Torah, the old covenant] which are able to make thee wise unto salvation [“the law…brings us unto Christ – Gal 3:24] through [the new covenant] faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2Ti 3:15).

Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

The law of Moses is the law of God only in the sense that the first Adam is “the son of God” (Luk 3:38) and God is “the Father of spirits [good and evil]”:

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

The law of Moses testifies of and typifies the true law of God just as Adam “in the image of God” testifies of and typifies the true “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” (Col 1:15). The true “express image of His person” (Heb 1:3) is someone the first Adam must ‘put on’. “Put on the NEW man, which is renewed in knowledge [a new man with a new covenant] AFTER THE IMAGE OF HIM [Christ] who created him [the first Adam]” (Col 3:10).

We were born the typical image. We must “put on” the true image.

Did Adam Fall?

What is the function of the Old Testament scriptures. They make us aware of our inherent nakedness: “Behold, I was shapen [of the dust of the ground] in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa 51:5). The purpose of being “shapen in iniquity” (being made under the law) is to justify the judgment of God. Adam did not “fall”; he simply became aware of how low he already was – “of the earth, earthy”, “of the dust of the ground”, “naked”. This was no accident. It was all by Divine design. Adam eating of the tree was “of the Lord [because] He sought an occasion against [the flesh – Adam] for at that time, [the flesh] had dominion over [Adam]:

Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

When the flesh dominates, God “seeks an occasion against [it]. “The Lamb [was] slain from the foundation of the world” in preparation and anticipation of Adam’s sin (Rev 13:8).

We have no reason to suppose that David, who was the youngest of his brothers, was born of an adulterous mother. We are told specifically he was the son of Jesse. David is in no way slandering his mother when he says “I was shapen in iniquity”. He is rather acknowledging the earthy composition and naked condition of ALL who are born in Adam:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

We are all born in need of the law, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to make sin (our nakedness) appear sinful to us. The tree itself is not evil; it is “good for food”, but its fruit is the KNOWLEDGE of …evil.” “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Was that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might appear exceeding sinful” (Rom 7:13): “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked” (Gen 3:7).

David explains in the preceding verse why we are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” See what he reveals to us in Psalm 51:3,4: “I acknowledge my transgression: and my sin is ever before me…that thou (God) mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear [of unrighteousness] when thou judgest.” David understood God’s purpose in creating evil; “that thou [God] mightest… be clear [of evil] when thou judgest.” David knew what judgment was all about. He knew that the day of judgment is the day when the Almighty and All Powerful God would chasten and discipline and save even the most wicked person in the universe. The “condemnation of the world” is but another less desirable “judgment” or “chastening.”

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Once again, JUDGMENT IS CHASTENING.

Rom 6:16  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.

This verse drives home the point Paul is making that sin is no longer defined by the inadequate idea of the law which leads us to believe that as long as you make a good outward show of righteousness, you are therefore righteous. Simply not killing your brother is no longer sufficient; simply restraining oneself from adultery is no longer tolerable to please God; simply not stealing is not acceptable behavior.

In reality, all these “cleavings” to the ten commandments and all the works of the law, were never sufficient to please God to begin with. “The law is not of faith”, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Keeping the old law is the equivalent of Adam obeying God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He would no doubt have thought something like this: ‘I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that [I am] wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked’ (Rev 3:17).