Articles by Ed Ross

When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to

Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes.” And

when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you

think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their

sons or from strangers?” Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him,

“Then the children are free.” Matthew 17:24-26

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written

that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the

freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two

covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—

for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is,

and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the

mother of us all. …Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the

bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we

are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Galatians 4:21-30

Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;

that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that

we should bring forth fruit unto God. ...Now we are delivered from the law, that being

dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the

oldness of the letter. Romans 7:4-6

Peter, no doubt, meant well when he responded to the temple tax collectors. This was not a civil tax, but a tax

that was rooted in the old testament law (Ex 30:13-14; 2Chrin 24:6, 9). Whether it had been perverted or

misapplied is not at all the issue here. Peter assumes it was required and that Jesus would certainly comply.

Our Lord does not take issue with the validity of the tax, but questions whether the children of a king are

legally obligated to pay tax to their father. In our Lord’s response he clearly intends to represent his Father as

King and he as the Son; but he speaks not only of himself for he uses the plural – “the children (lit. sons) are

free,” and, “lest we offend them…”. This was no benign assertion. It was eschatologically earth-shaking.

Though born under the law (Gal 4:4), and always obedient, he declares that he and the children the Father had

given him (John 17:2-3; 6; 9-12; 24) were legally free from the demands and condemnation of the old covenant

law.

As the New Testament unfolds, this truth is not only fully revealed, but becomes paramount to our

understanding of this new covenant. We are no longer under law because we are in Christ. He is the reality of

which the law was only a faint shadow and type (Coloss 2:17; Heb 8:4-5; 10:1). He is greater than the temple

(Matt 12:6), Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8), the absolute revelation and standard of righteousness (John

16:10; Rom 10:4). He is the eternal Son of God who by one sacrifice has perfected forever those who are

sanctified in him (Heb 10:12-14). He is our covenant (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8). In him we are free (John 8:36)!

Paul presses this home often in his writings. We are dead to the law that we might be married to Christ and

bear fruit (from within!). We are delivered from the law that we might serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in

the oldness of the letter (Romans 7:4-6). The letter kills, but the Spirit is life-giving (2Corinth 3:6). What the law

could not do, Christ has done (Romans 8:3-4). The law was of the old covenant, a bondwoman to put us into

bondage. Now we are commanded in Christ, our New Covenant, to cast out the bondwoman and her son, and

to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of

bondage (Galatians 4:21–5:1).

The written Word has now been transformed for us by the Living Word. It once could only command and

condemn and increase our bondage to sin. It is now a conduit of living water for free-born children by which the

Spirit nourishes and teaches of Christ. It was once a mirror to reveal our ugliness. It is now a looking-glass by

which we behold Christ’s beauty, and beholding him we are changed (2Corinth 3:18). The Righteousness to

which the written law pointed now dwells within us by his Spirit, restraining the flesh and bearing the fruit of

righteousness through faith and love, mercy and truth.

In Christ we are re-created to love the Father and his holiness. We rejoice in truth, and hunger and thirst after

his righteousness. But we must never allow our godly love, passion and zeal to be enslaved again by law, and

to degenerate into fleshly works and deadly “will-worship” (Coloss 2:23). To be sure, the natural man cannot

possibly see the difference (1Corinth 2:14). The distinction to him is all semantics, double speak, and

foolishness. But that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the hearts of men is revealed

to us by his Spirit, and by his Spirit alone (1Corinth 2:9-10). Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of

the Lord is there is liberty (2Corinth 3:17). If Christ shall make you free you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

His yoke is easy and his burden light (Matt 11:30). His rest is glorious (Isaiah 11:10). Let us give diligence

unto the assurance that we have entered into that rest, for He truly is our Sabbath (Heb 4:9-11).

Christ, Our Covenant,

May the veil be lifted for many who have your “religion” but do not have you (2Corinth 3:14-17); who have a form

of godliness but do not know the power thereof (2Tim 3:5). Please deliver us all from the deception of legalism

in all of its varied forms. Teach us anew that, having begun in the Spirit, we cannot be made perfect by the

flesh (Gal 3:3). Lord make us perfect in love (1John 4:18) and adorn us in the beauty of your holiness (Ps

90:17 NKJV).

Complete in You,

Amen.

Tuesday's Touch #50

...from Pastor Ed ...January 05, 2010

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