One of the deepest and greatest secrets of the world

The subject of Law and Gospel in Christian theology is a difficult one, and a deep one. I think there's not enough focus on how Christianity exists within 1) history; 2) human nature; and 3) law. By law, not just law such as the Constitution of the United States of America and the influence of biblical and natural law on common law and so forth, but the law that resides behind the accusatory moralizing that all human beings engage in whether they are reflecting real biblical law or they are imposing twisted and distorted versions of that biblical law.

As stated, all human beings engage in this accusatory moralizing, from atheists to the most died-in-the-wool fundamentalists of whatever religion.

In occult language you'll see references to this use of law in the context of how a group will use it to keep everybody in their place. The rogue cell metaphor. Once a person leaves their 'appropriate' place in the appropriate scheme of things they will be attacked in the manner of white blood cells attacking a rogue cell in the body. This action is the law at work. Biblical law. No matter how twisted or distorted or upside-down the presentation of that law is as it's being used as a hammer it is still the use of the law. It's that biblical mechanism of the law in action.

You see this action of the law at different scales. You see it at the social level, as stated, yet you also see it at the collective level, such as the national level. You also see it at the level of the religions of the world.

The title of this post is "One of the deepest and greatest secrets of the world." The secret is this use of the biblical law and how it ties us up and makes demands on us and coerces us (and what frees us from it - the Gospel). It is inescapable. Again, atheist or hyper rules-following fundamentalist of any religion, all are caught up in this action of the biblical law (usually accusatory moralizing from a position of assumed sinlessness, or holier-than-thou, self-righteous nature of the accuser), applied however purely or impurely that it is.

When you begin to see this you begin to understand the Gospel. The Gospel is difficult to understand. We're supposed to be emotional and say, "Jesus saved me! Hallelujah!" Yet who really understands - deeply, with real understanding - what this means? You can't understand it until you understand what law is; and the teaching on all this coming from the Christian leaders and teachers is very weak. For centuries, very weak. Mostly, they don't know anything about it. I only was on to it vaguely, and from occult knowledge and experience associated with that. I once saw a quote where Luther touched on the subject, but I lost the reference and could never find it again. Then after pondering some things in Heiser's Unseen Realm I was reminded of a book I'd read a couple of years ago titled God's Rivals, by McDermott. I tracked down the book and could see that he gave two chapters on this rare subject matter (chapters 3 and 4), and it had gone over my head on the first reading (that or I just wasn't tuned in to that particular subject when reading the book back then). McDermott got it from a writer named Caird in his book Principalities and Powers. I get the impression Caird was a trail blazer in presenting this subject, though obviously there's nothing new under the sun, but some things can get lost under the sun.

Once you understand it you can see things very clearly. From the psychology of friends, strangers, and family; to the phenomena of cults and totalitarian states; to the myriad though similar activity and elements of the various religions of the world.

For the purposes of understanding the Gospel it is the action of the law as it manifests in the various religions of the world (including secular false idol religions like environmentalism in our time, or the ideologies of collectivism, or multiculturalism).

What is the law generally? It is do this and live. Or do this and be saved. Yet after the fall we can't do all that the law demands. It's a never-ending list of demands that can't be followed, and even if it could be followed it is never enough. This is the law of God that was violated in the Garden by Adam. Adam fell, yet the law he violated stayed in place. Now no one can fulfill that law. It's a curse now, and it manifests in all the ways listed above. It imprisons and leads to death and eternal alienation in the lake of fire. It's an impossible slave master that in the end puts you in a worse situation for eternity. It's a really, really bad situation to be in. If you lived in North Korea today you'd feel that direct influence of the biblical law (yes, biblical law) as it manifests in that totalitarian police state hell. Of course, as the biblical law is imposed in that totalitarian police state it is a very twisted and distorted version of the biblical law. The action is the same though.

This is also what happens at the higher scale of world religions themselves. The false gods of the religions, fallen angels, what have you, demand a conformity to the biblical law as they see fit to administer it, which is a twisted and distorted way. You're under the power of these evil fallen entities when you are caught up in their false idol religions.

So what is the Gospel? It is the news that Jesus incarnated as a human and fulfilled the biblical law and also paid the penalty for its violation, and He did this for all people for all time. How? Because He's God. He's the God-man. He's the only human being who, after the fall, was born innocent (He had no original sin), and was able to be sinless in his life. Only Jesus could do that. So he defeated the power of the law as it is being wielded perversely by the angelic 'principalities and powers' that be. This is the good news. We don't necessarily feel it as the good news that it is because we got born into it, and once we realize it the drama of it is blunted a bit. We have to look backward and put it all together in our mind and that kind of mental grasping of the situation doesn't equal anything like a dramatic discovery or epiphany. If we'd been living in actual chains prior to regeneration by the word and the Spirit and the chains dramatically came off then it would be dramatic and we'd then fall on our knees and give thanks to our Savior, Jesus Christ, in a real way which reflects a real understanding of it all. But that's where we are.

The law still has power to be obnoxious to us though. The angelic realm enforcing their false religions and illusions and temptations based perversely on the law of God are still around doing their things. They have been defeated, but they still fight on. The metaphor from the book is they lost at D-Day, but they still fought on to some degree until the inevitable end. The end in this case being the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

So I end by going back to the thought that we need to see Christianity practically in history, human nature, and law (law as described above). This is what gives real understanding and is how we see what Christianity really is. It is not a religion or a worldview. It is Christianity vs. the religions and the worldviews.

PS - In the occult language I referenced this aspect of the law as it manifests in our lives is called the General Law. It's like a black, suffocating, blanketing blob that surrounds us. In the occult language I reference you're suppose to use the friction you get from this force in order to escape it. How? By being awake regarding it (and everything else) and loving your enemy. Sound familiar? You need the armor of God - things like the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit to pull it off...

This perverse use of and just the mere existence of the biblical law and how the Gospel defeats it is one of the deepest and greatest secrets of the world to know and see.

One last note: after reading through this I don't think I emphasized the spiritual warfare at work in all this. The actual law of God is being enforced - in perverse, distorted and twisted ways - by principalities and powers (angelic forces impersonating gods or influencing human leaders and movements), yet they have been defeated by Jesus at the cross. Our knowledge of that gives us great power. We are freed from the power of these dark forces.

Another note: you have to see that when the law of God is put before the Gospel (or the Gospel is wholly absent) then the law of God becomes demonic in the hands of its enforcers, angelic or human. Yet if the Gospel is put first then the law of God becomes the pure force for the good, the true and the beautiful (I'll put it that way) as it manifests freely through the new hearts of God's redeemed.

Also my point about drawing all this into the fact that we need to see Christianity as it manifests in history, human nature, and law (as explained above) is this is how we see Christianity as being universal. Not one of many, but the whole itself.

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A real postscript (from an email) -

If you read that post this is a postscript:

"So when you think of the law of God it's not just something the Nation of Israel followed, or the ten commandments Christians have as a rule, it is everywhere in this life, in history, all over the world. In the phenomena of every world religion you see biblical law; in the phenomena of any group of people acting at the personal, social level you see biblical law being acted out; in every government, benign or viciously totalitarian you see biblical law acting out in perverse, distorted, twisted form. It pervades everything. This makes one see the universality of Christianity. Of the fall. Of redemption."

Think of the Work's (Fourth Way, Ouspensky) definition of the General Law. It too is the biblical law of God. In twisted, distorted form. The power of this law is what holds humanity under the thumb of all tyrannies. Either of social groups, or authoritarian elements in states, or in false religions. Men and fallen angels wield this power which is fueled by sin in fallen man and has the use of death as a terror and penalty to wield.

We basically walk, wherever we walk, in a dark medium of the distorted and twisted law of God as enforced by fallen man and fallen angels.

Obviously we need to know how to deal with this force. This all pervasive, universal force that is against us. Knowing that Jesus defeated it and appropriating the results of that act through faith is how you deal with it. As for it's lingering power, you have to be awake and love your enemy and use the friction of it to escape it. It is a defeated force anyway. Use it to develop.

Do you see how big this subject and realization is? - C.

Companion post here: Overview of the Situation