Page 95 - Laying Down the Law

another person. He told me he intended to take the dog outside and shoot it. He made
this known to his family, and they greatly protested. This was the beloved family pet,
and they were exceedingly grieved to have to carry out the requirement of the Law on
Rover.
(I do not say that this man rightly applied this law, for the dog did not kill
anyone.)
Looking for a way to quell the uprising among his family, the man told me later
that he had determined that the family dog did not actually bite the young girl. He
wrote to me that the dog merely “pushed her with his teeth.” This line of reasoning
provided him with an out so that he did not have to kill the dog. This was truly a
lawyer’s solution. He found a way to make the Law arrive at the judgment he desired.
Although this may appear to be an extreme example, it reveals a pattern that
occurs with great regularity among those who are led by Laws and creeds. The soul
of man has a proclivity toward arriving at interpretations of the Law that deliver it
from undesired sacrifice and suffering. When men are led by a code of conduct, the
soul serves as the arbiter and judge of how that code should be applied. It stands to
reason that the soul is not going to voluntarily choose crucifixion.
A concomitant consequence of looking to the soul as arbiter and judge is that the
man or woman fails to look to the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s judgment. This man, in
looking to the Law to reveal to him the righteousness of God, failed to walk by the
Spirit. In effect, he had become “severed from Christ.” Paul warned the Galatian
believers this would be the consequence of those who sought to be justified by the
Law.

Galatians 5:4
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law...

This lawyer’s approach to the Christian life was very different from that of the
apostle Paul.

Galatians 2:19-20
"For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...”

The Law was given to man PRIOR to the Spirit of Christ being sent to indwell
mankind. Those who have been born again of the Spirit of Christ have that same
Spirit resident in them to guide them into the way that is pleasing to the Father.
Christians are to “walk by the Spirit.”
It does not matter whether one adopts the Law of Moses as their guide, or some
code of laws developed by their church or denomination. If Christians are looking to
a body of laws to guide them, they will fail to look to the Spirit to perform this vital
function.
As I wrote in an earlier chapter, the moral Law contained only a shadow of the