The Law of Lawlessness from 30.9.16
Personal Matters
When previously Christian states pass laws legalising abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage we are certainly approaching the summit of lawlessness. These are the “terrible times” of “the last days” when “People will be lovers of themselves….lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Tim 3:1-5). Inside and outside the Church we are in the season Jesus prophesied, of “increasing lawlessness when the love of many will grow cold” (Matt 24:12). Aiming to rekindle love for Jesus this article discusses the “mystery of lawlessness” and its constant conflict with the “mystery of godliness”, Christ himself (2 Thess 2:7; 1 Tim 3:16).
Sin is Lawlessness
Since “God his love” his laws are “holy, just and good”, but ungodly people experience Law as severe and condemning (Rom 7:12; 1 John 4:8). The transformation of the very character or form of Law goes back to the original temptation in Eden. The command given to Adam, ““of the tree of knowledge…you shall not eat, for…you shall surely die.””, was to lovingly guide him so his highest desire was to be like his Creator (Gen 2:17). God-likeness meant freedom for and delight in Law; in this way love would have “fulfilled the law” (Rom 7:22; 13:8; Gal 5:14). The satanic temptation “you shall not surely die…you will be like God” was an inducement to delight in deathlessness above the Law of the Lord (Gen 3:4-5). When Eve “saw that the tree…was a delight to the eyes”” she elevated the pleasure of satisfying her own desires above the delight of knowing God (Gen 3:6). To the fallen mind Law-breaking is the secret of enjoying yourself to the max; this is the mystery of lawlessness. But as God warned death spoils the party, with Law constantly reminding the conscience of sin’s consequences (Rom 6:23). Law breakers are pleasure seekers excluded from the eternal delights of God for whom the very form of law has morphed from something wonderful to something terrible. The broken human conscience testifies that “law is laid down for…the lawless, for the ungodly and sinners” (1 Tim 1:9). How can sinners escape such ugly truths?
Pleasures in the Father
By taking an opposite route to our sinful ancestors Jesus fulfils the Law in perfect love for the Father (John 8:46). Where Adam and Eve aspired to a selfish form of “god-likeness” elevated above responsibility to God’s command, Jesus “though…in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself…” (Gen 3:5; Phil 2:6-7). “the mystery of godliness” in Christ involved him leaving the eternal pleasures of his Father in heaven for our sake (1 Tim 3:16). The climax of his emptying himself of the pleasure of God in our place was the experience of the absence of paternal joy on the cross; ““why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34; Phil 2:8). In enduring the penalty of the Law on our behalf Christ “considered us better than himself” and perfected love as “the fulfilment of the law” (Rom 13:8; Gal 5:14; Phil 2:3). Raised from the dead Jesus has moved out of the realm of Law and death into the eternal pleasures of the Father which were his plan for humanity from the beginning (Heb 12:2). Loving service for others as better than ourselves is the form of life to which Christ calls. Such a beautiful vision is much admired, e.g. in Mother Teresa, but it is a form Christ-likeness rarely sought. For in these “last days” few discern the mystery of lawlessness in its various forms undermining true godliness.
The Mystery of Lawlessness
The “mystery of lawlessness” manifests itself in a “love of pleasure” that masquerades as the “highest power” of goodness (2 Thess 2:7; 2 Tim 3:1-5). The prosperity preachers, the jihadists lusting for Paradise, the “mercy-killers” who speak of their acts as “unconditional love” and the crusaders for same-sex marriage are all possessed by a common religious zeal for an ungodly purpose. Their passion for personal human pleasure to triumph over suffering is the spirit of the antichrist “gone into the world” 1 John 2:18ff.). These false “forms of godliness” have no power to kill off a sinful nature which longs to please itself. The ultimate form of this “mystery of lawlessness” is “the man of lawlessness who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thess 2:3-4, 8). Since “the temple of God” is the Church, the one who places himself above all moral accountability by making himself Law Giver and Judge represents himself as a manifestation as Jesus (1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21). The power of the “man of lawlessness” will seem to have achieved the goal of fallen humanity to be “a law to oneself” free from the penalty of death. For as “the beast whose mortal wound has been healed” he appears immune to the final penalty of Law (Rev 13:3, 12). Triumphing over sin’s penalty of death through self-sufficiency is humanity’s ultimate “pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:12). This “final Man” will be the perfect leader of all those who long to be pleased with their own righteousness, secular or religious. This is the false “form of godliness” crippling Christendom today; a problem Jesus perfectly understood (2 Tim 3:5).
Renewed in Love
Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable many Christians conscious of their own morality subtly “thank God” that they are not like gays, atheists, abortionists, euthanasia folk or liberals (Luke 18:10-14). This is a sure sign of living under Law, for Law-keepers cannot help but compare themselves with others. Love however never makes comparisons but motivates to action. As love for God would have moved the Pharisee to leave his place at the Temple to go over to the tax collector to lift him up so we should be found lifting up, by prayer and deed, the enemies of the gospel, antichrist’s people, today. This is the radical implication of the form of godliness in the cross, “in humility count others better than ourselves” (Phil 2:3-5). As in love Jesus always considered the Father more significant than himself such sacrificial love for others is the true mark of Christian godliness (John 14:28). This is the real character of the Christian religion the world needs to see. For as long as the lost see us trying to save ourselves from extinction rather than suffering for their salvation they will see in us not the Spirit of Christ but of a beast who always wants to live.
Conclusion
The way forward in today’s “terrible times” lies neither in a return to “Christian values” or conformity to a post-Christian world. Both options are the way of Law binding us to strive for the pleasure of self-satisfaction through moral or religious performance. We must die to being pleased with ourselves and imitate Paul as he imitated Christ; “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please the Lord.” (1 Cor 11:1; 2 Cor 5:9). The pleasure of loving Jesus by taking the form of a servant of undeserving sinners is infinitely more satisfying than all the pleasures of a self that refuses to die. The Church’s embodiment of the death-and-resurrection of Christ is the one thing that can expose the “mystery of lawlessness” as nothing but a deception (2 Thess 2:10-11). It seems we really need the horrors of our day to rediscover the power of the gospel.