Our investigation of the Ship of the Kingdom has been a study of the revealed Law of God for us on the earth—as
expressed through God’s three, ordained institutions of family, church and civil government. However, John tells us “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
In other words, this verse tells us that just keeping the Law of God, even perfectly, is NOT the Truth of God. God’s Law and God’s Truth are different. It is EXPERIENCING THE GRACE OF GOD that transforms the LAW OF GOD into the TRUTH OF GOD! (Law+Grace=Truth!).
Standing alone, the Law of God is still God’s perfect, inviolate Word: “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). But without this law-transforming, grace experience, the “holy, just and good” law will actually “kill me” spiritually! “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” (Romans 7:11). The perfect Law of God actually motivates and enables sin!
For example a well-meaning preacher can preach the Kingdom of God eloquently, using the Ship of the Kingdom diagram beautifully. But, if he issues a concluding challenge that includes “Now you know what you need to do, so get to work!” (I call it a “hook”), Paul tells us in Romans 7:11 that this preacher is, unknowingly, in essence “killing” his congregants! Yes, he is teaching the Law of God, but Satan will use that Law to defeat his listeners, because he is not teaching the Truth of God!
That, brothers and sisters, is why the Sword of the Word of God has two edges, as John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation 1:16 informs us: “He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp, TWO-EDGED SWORD, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength” Hebrew 4:12 corroborates this: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any TWO-EDGED SWORD.”
Martin Luther also taught the two-edged sword, but he used different terminology. In 1525 he preached a sermon (LW 35:162) where he taught that God only preached “two sermons” in the Bible: God’s Law, where He tells us WHAT WE MUST DO, and God’s Grace, which tells us WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE, because we cannot do what we must do! God is preaching the Two Edges of the Sword!
So, Luther concurs. God preaches both, law and grace, and it is essential that faithful Bible teachers teach both as well, but always carefully distinguishing between the two. They are like fraternal twins, with very different personalities, but both equally loved by their Father.
How in the world do we do that; teach both equally but always carefully distinguish between them? Remembering John 1:17, we realize that, yes, we can faithfully preach the Law of God (one twin) from the motivating source of the Grace of God (the other twin), and the result will be the Truth of God, that sets us all free from Satan’s clutches: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
However, admittedly, that is a very difficult thing to do, because we all have eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Adam. As a result we all have inherited an addiction to the fruit of that tree. Prayer, study, even seminary, do not eliminate our addiction, and it crops up whenever we have a desire to please God by being “good” and not “bad;” “right” and not “wrong.”
Any attempt at “obedience to God,” or a “challenge to do better,” or any “ought-to, need-to, or should” motivation, is a flashing neon sign that we are ALL gripped by a completely unconscious, unrecognized addiction to the fruit—keeping the Law of God.
In the next posting we will see how we can break this unrecognized, incredibly strong hold our addiction has on us. When we do, we will naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU) radiate the Truth of God, that sets free all whom we touch!
