Page 114 - Laying Down the Law

Toward a Perfect Man

oth Christ and His apostles stated that the goal of their labor was to present men
Bperfect before Yahweh. The time had arrived for man to move past childhood into
maturity.

Matthew 5:48
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Colossians 1:28
[Christ] we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Yahshua.

Hebrews 7:18-19
For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because
of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect...

In pursuit of this goal, a new, far more capable, instrument needed to be
employed. The Law could make no man perfect. At its best, it contained only a
shadow of the righteousness of God and His plan for mankind. The Law needed to be
replaced by that which was perfect, and which had the power to present man perfect.
Christ appeared at a time when the people of God had experienced only an
imperfect revelation of the Father. They had never seen God in the flesh. They had
only the shadow of the Law, and it was subject to misinterpretation. When Christ
appeared, mankind had revealed before them for the first time a perfect
representation of God.

Hebrews 1:3
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature,
and upholds all things by the word of His power.

The Law did not contain “the exact representation of [God’s] nature.” Neither
did the Law contain the power to make men perfect. The Law was weak. It was
necessary for Yahweh to replace the Law with that which was perfect and powerful,
for the time had come for men to progress past childhood to perfection.

Romans 7:4
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body
of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from
the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

God the Father was looking for the mature fruit of sons in His own image and
likeness. The Law could not produce this fruit. Therefore, at the precise moment