Describing the freedom for which Christ has set us free¹ Paul highlighted: if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.² As he contrasted the curse (κατάραν, a form of κατάρα) on a life lived by works of the law (ἐξ ἔργων νόμου) to the miraculous life in the Spirit received by hearing with faith³ (ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως) in Galatians 3, he asked rhetorically (Galatians 3:19a ESV):

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made…

In an article “Five Things About Deterrence” on the National Institute of Justice website, “Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence.”

Research shows clearly that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment.

With the Lord the “chance of being caught” is 100% and eternal punishment in a lake of fire (Revelation 20:10-15) might have caused even Draco to blush. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.⁴ Yet even with faith Paul acknowledged (Romans 7:18b-24 ESV):

I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me [Table].

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members [Table]. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul answered his own rhetorical question—Why then the law?—with the words τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν προσετέθη (ESV: It was added because of transgressions). It is extremely unlikely that he intended the law to be understood as a deterrence to sin here. For the Greek word παραβάσεων, a plural form of παράβασις, was echoed in his explanation of the spread of sin in humanity (Romans 5:12-14 ESV).

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men (ἀνθρώπους, a plural form of ἄνθρωπος) because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression (παραβάσεως, a singular form of παράβασις) of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come [Table].

Now the law came in to increase the trespass (τὸ παράπτωμα),⁵ he concluded. It is no small task to persuade us that the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) is a yoke of slavery⁶ to the sin God condemned…in the flesh through Christ, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.⁷ We think of it—if we think of it at all—as our true self, our only lord and master. Mostly we obey its dictates unconsciously—“it’s just what I want to do”—until the Lord creates and begins to grow the new man (τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον) within us.

Only then do we begin to understand what Paul meant: Now if I do what I do not want (ὃ οὐ θέλω), it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.⁸ This confounding of desire (will) and action—For I do not understand my own actions…I do not do what I want (ὃ θέλω), but I do the very thing I hate⁹—might be one’s first indication that the new man has come into existence. And it may take one some time, experiencing the old man’s persistent sinfulness, to begin to appreciate Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all (δεῖ ὑμᾶς) be born from above (ἄνωθεν).’¹⁰ Ironically, it’s only after you are not under the law (οὐκ ἐστὲ ὑπὸ νόμον) that you can look back and realize what it was like to be under the law: gaining the knowledge of sin through painful experience, learning how hopelessly sinful the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) actually is.

Paul contrasted the free gift (τὸ χάρισμα) of Christ to the trespass (τὸ παράπτωμα) of Adam, the original old man:

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass (παραπτώματι, a form of παράπτωμα), much more have the grace of God and the free gift (ἡ δωρεὰ) by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift (τὸ δώρημα) is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass (ἐξ ἑνὸς, a form of εἷς) brought condemnation, but the free gift (τὸ δὲ χάρισμα) following many trespasses (πολλῶν παραπτωμάτων, another form of παράπτωμα) brought justification (δικαίωμα). For if, because of one man’s trespass (παραπτώματι, a form of παράπτωμα), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift (τῆς δωρεᾶς, another form of δωρεὰ) of righteousness (τῆς δικαιοσύνης, a form of δικαιοσύνη) reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass (παραπτώματος, another form of παράπτωμα) led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness (δικαιώματος, a form of δικαίωμα) leads to justification (δικαίωσιν, a form of δικαίωσις) and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience (τῆς παρακοῆς, a form of παρακοή) the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience (τῆς ὑπακοῆς, a form of ὑπακοή) the many will be made righteous (δίκαιοι, a form of δίκαιος). Now the law came in to increase the trespass (τὸ παράπτωμα), but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness (δικαιοσύνης, a form of δικαιοσύνη) leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.¹¹

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.¹² Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?¹³ Paul asked rhetorically (Galatians 3:21b-23 ESV):

Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life [e.g., create the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness (δικαιοσύνῃ) and holiness¹⁴], then righteousness (ἡ δικαιοσύνη) would indeed be by the law (ἐκ νόμου) [literally: “then the righteousness would indeed be by law”]. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned¹⁵ until the coming faith would be revealed.

So, we—walking according to the flesh, the old man which…is corrupt through deceitful desires¹⁶—were held captive (ἐφρουρούμεθα, a form of φρουρέω) under the law (ὑπὸ νόμον), imprisoned (συγκλειόμενοι, a present participle of συγκλείω) until the coming faith would be revealed. This is a fairly succinct description of the human condition vis-à-vis the law before Christ has set us free.¹⁷

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified (δικαιωθῶμεν, a passive form of δικαιόω) by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring,¹⁸ heirs according to promise.¹⁹

The Greek word translated guardian was παιδαγωγὸς: “instructor, teacher, schoolmaster; tutor, a boy-leader, i.e., a servant whose office it was to take the children to school; pedagogue.” In this context I favor the law was our “servant whose office it was to take” us “to school,” the school of hard knocks, until Christ came or we came to the knowledge of sin that, I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out,²⁰ whichever comes first. The one who acknowledges that tends to go to the Lord in faith, saying, “This law thing isn’t working out for me. You got anything else?”

Men like David came essentially to that point (Psalm 51:1-17 ESV).

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions [Table]. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! [Table]

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me [Table]. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment [Table]. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (e.g., “the old man”) [Table]. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart (e.g., “the new man”) [Table].

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow [Table]. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice [Table]. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities [Table]. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me [Table]. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me [Table]. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit [Table].

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you [Table]. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness [Table]. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise [Table]. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering [Table]. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise [Table].

Men like David proved to be few and far between: For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, Jesus said prior to his crucifixion and the inauguration of the new covenant, before his resurrection, ascension and giving his Holy Spirit to all who believe Him, and those who find it are few.²¹ I was not one of the few. The Lord Jesus drew me to Himself first and brought me later to the faith that this “law thing isn’t working out for me.”

In another essay I wrote:

My wife came home late one night several weeks after she told me she wanted a divorce. I heard her getting ready for bed in the next bedroom. I got up and started to walk toward the door. Before I crossed the threshold of my bedroom door I heard that still small voice, “What are you doing, Dan?” I stopped in the doorway. I was calm, not angry, lucid, and I was going to kill my wife. I started to shake and sweat as I made my way back to my bed. I don’t recall how long I sat there. Finally I made my way to my wife’s bedroom and half-confessed, half-blamed her for bringing demons into our home. It had to be demons, surely I could never kill my wife. I loved her. I said I loved her.

Now, about forty-seven years later, I can begin to understand what happened that night: I knew the Voice was God. I realized that He knew what I intended to do before I had thought consciously about it myself. The Voice, though clearly audible, did not enter from my ears. The Voice originated within that space I recognized as myself, yet it was not my voice. The Voice did not accuse me, reprimand me, quote a law or any Scripture. He simply asked me the most pertinent question. And that alone was sufficient to stop me from continuing in a sinful course of action—cold-blooded murder. The whole event was amazing!

So, did [I] honor [The Voice] as God or give thanks to him?²² No, I was too self-centered for that. I was more concerned about the black mark against my name as I worked to have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.²³ I all but missed the righteousness that [had come] by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.²⁴ I couldn’t miss it entirely; it happened to me. But I thought it was a unique over-the-top experience due to the enormity of the circumstance rather than something normative. I was wrong—but perhaps not entirely wrong.

Though I believed none of it at the time, as I tried to be justified by the law I was severed from Christ, according to Paul, I had fallen away from grace.²⁵ Why did the Lord stop me from murdering my wife? At the time I thought it was for her benefit rather than mine (though I certainly enjoyed the benefit of not becoming a murderer). There was no condemnation in The Voice that questioned me—The Voice I obeyed without question apart from any command being uttered—but I was thoroughly chastened. I “knew” it was up to me to do better.

But where did that murderous intent come from in the first place? Even now it isn’t entirely clear to me.

Cold blooded murder isn’t mentioned in Paul’s list of the works of the flesh. I was many years then from understanding or receiving that Jesus said to the Jews who had believed (and continued to believe)²⁶ him:²⁷ You are of your father the devil, and your will (θέλετε, a 2^nd person plural form of the verb θέλω in the present tense and indicative mood) is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies [Table]. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.²⁸

Though I had begun to experience that strange schizophrenia of the conflict between the old and new self, I wasn’t yet ready to acknowledge them as anything more than Paul’s literary devices characterizing my behavior before I believed in Jesus and what I should be doing afterward (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV).

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds [Table]. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart [Table]. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that²⁹ you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The phrase [you] were taught in him (KJV: have been taught by him) was ἐν αὐτῷ ἐδιδάχθητε in Greek. The preposition ἐν followed by the pronoun αὐτῷ in the dative case can be translated: “in, on, at, by, with, within” according to the Koine Greek Lexicon online. I favor “by Him” because the Holy Spirit brings me back here again and again to understand what and how I do (ποιέω in Greek). And I don’t experience preachers or Bible teachers preaching or teaching this very often. That may be an implicit bias of expository preaching.

The phrase τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον (ESV: your old self; NET: the old man) only occurs in Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9. It was ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος (ESV: our old self; NET: our old man) in Romans 6:6. The phrase τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον (ESV: the new self; NET: the new man) only occurs in Ephesians 4:24. The concept occurs again in Ephesians 2:15 as ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον (ESV/NET: one new man) and in Colossians 3:10 as τὸν νέον (ESV: the new self; NET: the new man; literally, “the new”), which connects this concept to Jesus’ discussion of new wine: Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-39.

If the strict expository preacher or teacher only considers them when addressing these few passages, the old and new man will appear less important than the emphasis the Lord places upon them: What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’³⁰…born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.³¹

At any rate, the night I didn’t murder my wife, I didn’t believe that either existed. Both τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον and τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον were merely euphemisms for my works, admonitions to stop sinning and start doing righteousness, rather than something already accomplished by the grace of God in Jesus Christ—ready, available, already present for me to receive through faith.

So I proceeded: “I [had] said I loved her. The next morning I set out to make my word true, not unlike Jephthah. I copied Paul’s definition of love on a piece of paper”³² (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a NASB).

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; [Table]

“I tacked it up on my bedroom wall by the door so I couldn’t leave that room without seeing it. I showed it to my wife. I promised her that this was my new law, that this is how I would love her.”³³ I did not write—You shall not murder³⁴—on a piece of paper and tack “it up on my bedroom wall by the door.” That is curious, given that I called love “my new law.” But Paul had written (Romans 13:10 NASB):

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”³⁵ (Matthew 22:37-40 NASB):

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment [Table]. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets” [Table].³⁶

And it’s highly likely that I had heard “The Law of Love” taught and preached:

The concept of the “Law of Love” is a central tenet in Christian theology, emphasizing the importance of love as the fulfillment of God’s commandments. This principle is deeply rooted in both the Old and New Testaments and is considered the essence of Christian ethical teaching.

And frankly, I was a bit frustrated with “Paul’s understanding of law” (e.g., my misunderstanding of Paul’s understanding of law), thinking that it was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place.

Though I had copied Paul’s description of love verbatim from the NASB, what I understood was:

Thou shalt be patient, thou shalt be kind, thou shalt not be jealous; thou shalt not brag, thou shalt not be arrogant. Thou shalt not act disgracefully, thou shalt not seek thine own benefit; thou shalt not be provoked, thou shalt not keep an account of a wrong suffered, thou shalt not rejoice in unrighteousness, thou shalt rejoice with the truth; thou shalt keep every confidence, thou shalt believe all things, thou shalt hope all things, thou shalt endure all things.

Thou shalt never fail…

Even that may not have been too bad, if I had thought of these as God’s promises rather than as commandments. I did not. I thought of them as laws for me to obey. I set about being perfected by the flesh³⁷ with a vengeance. The troubling thing was: it worked!—sort of—my wife didn’t die. I wrote elsewhere:

Though such things are difficult to measure, I think it is fair to say that I did incrementally better at not sinning by trying to love like this rather than trying not to sin.³⁸

I reflected on my own experience with my wife. I was far from perfect loving like God by attempting to keep the definition of his love as if it were law. But my wife survived it. She wasn’t raped. Even after our divorce she thought of me as one of the kindest men she knew.³⁹

I’ll pick this up in another essay. Tables comparing Galatians 3:23; 3:29 and Ephesians 4:21 in the KJV and NET follow.