LETTERS: THE LAW ISN'T THE ANSWER

To the editor:

There seems to be an emphasis on restoring the Ten Commandments to our school walls. Although this might be commendable from a layman's viewpoint, God has a different view. God gave Adam and Eve one commandment, and it was not to eat of the fruit of one tree which they did anyway. It has since been a long, drawn-out fight on laws.

He gave the Jews 10 commandments (more or less) at Mount Sinai. The rabbis continued to add to them and modify them, and this has been going on ever since. Man (Adam) could not keep the one commandment God gave, so it is a cinch that we are going to break at least one sometime in our life. (Have you ever gone 1 mph over the speed limit? Have you ever fudged on your taxes? Have you ever had any bad thoughts?) If you have offended in any point of the Law, you cannot stand before a just God and plead on his mercy. You are a sinner, and as such you cannot enter into heaven. You also cannot get in on your own merit, because you have none.

God from the beginning of time did give us an out. Read on and see what God through his Word has to say about the Law that he gave.

Acts 13:39: And by him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses.

Acts 21:25: As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing (the Law), save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. Romans 3:19-28: Now we know that what things the Law says, it says to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law? Of works? Nay: but by the Law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. James 2:10: For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. Galatians 2:16: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law: for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified. If you want to live by the Law, you shall die by the Law, and you will be condemned by the Law. If you want to live eternally with God and his son Jesus, just 1. pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart, forgive you of your sins, and help you to be a better person; 2. confess to someone out loud that you have made a profession of faith in Jesus (If you shall confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved -- Romans 10:9); 3. find a good Bible-believing and teaching church such as Cape Bible Chapel; and 4. start reading the Bible regularly on your own.

If you don't believe in any of the above, clip this letter and place it on your refrigerator for when you start going through the tribulation after believers are removed (raptured) from Earth.

In closing, John 3:17-18: For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And I John 5:13: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the son of God.

RALPH E. FLORI SR.

Cape Girardeau