God Doesn’t Care About The Law?
This past week I came across a clip from a podcast of Pastor Chad Moore. Chad is the pastor at Sun Valley Church in Arizona. For a little context, these quotes from the clip are verbatim from beginning to end. Also this clip was from his Instagram account. So there is no taking it out of context because he is the one that provided the context that I heard it in. This was not from someone who clipped it from a large portion of video. This is exactly how he has displayed it on social media. This is Chad speaking with Robert Watson who is a teaching pastor at Sun Valley church.
Chad: “If you're really religious and you're a church person and you've been around it for a long time, I'm gonna say something that's gonna bother you for a second. The fact that God forgives means people are more important to him than his rules. People are more important to God than the ten commandments. That shook somebody up somewhere.”
Robert: “Well it's what drove the Pharisees nuts about Jesus.”
Chad: “Okay well lets start there. Let's just break that down. Have we all broken the ten commandments, yes or no?”
Robert: “Yes.”
Chad: “Is it possible that we can still be saved?”
Robert: “Yes”
Chad: “That must mean…”
Robert: “That's also a prerequisite for us being saved if you first gotta be a sinner.”
Chad: “Well you gotta admit that you broke his commands but the fact that he made a way above and beyond the rules means relationship with people trumps the rules. This is grace.”
Robert: “Well it's what drove the Pharisees nuts about Jesus.”
Chad: “Okay well lets start there. Let's just break that down. Have we all broken the ten commandments, yes or no?”
Robert: “Yes.”
Chad: “Is it possible that we can still be saved?”
Robert: “Yes”
Chad: “That must mean…”
Robert: “That's also a prerequisite for us being saved if you first gotta be a sinner.”
Chad: “Well you gotta admit that you broke his commands but the fact that he made a way above and beyond the rules means relationship with people trumps the rules. This is grace.”
This is not the Gospel. This is a selfish, egotistical, humanist view of looking at the Gospel. Do we break the ten commandments? Yes. Are we sinners? Yes. Is that a prerequisite to getting saved? Sure. Does Jesus forgive those that come to Him in repentance? Yes. Does He treat us in our salvific state as if we never did sin? Yes. But that doesn’t add up to God loving us more than His rules. If that was the case, then why does He use those same rules to send people to hell who are not saved?
It is because God both loves us and His law that Jesus had to come to earth. If what Chad is saying is true, then why the cross? Why did Jesus come? God would just instead say to us “Awe just forget it. Don't worry about it. You’re cool, I forgive you. Don’t worry about the law, I love you more.” But He didn’t! No Jesus had to come down to do all that He did so that the law would be upheld and not disregarded. This is why Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) Actually to believe what Chad believes here is to neglect all that Jesus did for us while He was here on earth! God must and does care about the law. While at the same time loving us!
Now to be fair to Chad, this comment of his obviously sparked some backlash online. In the comments section of this post he said to one of his dissenters, “Read Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, The Gospels. You could memorize John 3:16-17. Basically the whole of the New Testament. All of it, Jesus keeping the law, sacrificing Himself in obedience to the Father, so that people might be saved because we’ve all broken that law. If the commandments were more important, Jesus would have never came…”
But this again is only a half-truth. Yes Jesus did keep the law, obey the Father and sacrifice Himself for us. But this does not equal God's law being insignificant or unimportant. This is also a dangerous belief. If you toss aside the law so carelessly then those who become saved won’t think it is so important to follow it. But this can not be further from the truth! Once saved we now have the power to do what? Obey the law! To follow God and His law as He calls us to!
So let's look at these books of the New Testament that Chad suggests supports his point. Galatians: “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”(Galatians 3:24) Doesn’t sound like the law is unimportant to God. Now let's look at Romans: “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” (Romans 7:7-12) The law doesn’t seem devalued by God at all here.
Now let's look at what Robert claimed. He said that the Pharisees didn’t like JEsus because Jesus didn’t hold to the law like they did. But is that true? “And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8) See Jesus did not like what the Pharisees did to the law. He didn’t approve of them adding to it, misinterpreting it and teaching it incorrectly! They took God’s law and twisted it into something it was never intended to be! They watered it down so they could live up to it. They made it powerless to convict men and women in their hearts.
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8) See Jesus did not like what the Pharisees did to the law. He didn’t approve of them adding to it, misinterpreting it and teaching it incorrectly! They took God’s law and twisted it into something it was never intended to be! They watered it down so they could live up to it. They made it powerless to convict men and women in their hearts.
Chad and Rob say some things that are correct, but their conclusions are all wrong. Does Jesus love us? Yes! Did He do what was necessary to save us? Yes! But He did it by satisfying the law of God. As Paul tells us in Romans, “ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26) All of this does show God’s love for us and His grace toward us. Yet that does not mean God does not hold any regard to the law. Think about it; it is called “The Law of God”! This is all based on His character. And if he doesn’t uphold, He contradicts Himself! He seizes to be God! No this is not the Gospel. It is only a half truth that is being taught here by Chad. The law is what convicts us, the law is what we will be judged by, the law is what Jesus fulfilled to be able to save us, the law shows us what sin is, the law is our guide and path in life and the law is not disregarded just because He saves us. For He did not come to abolish but to fulfill the law.
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