Things are a bit different in our increasingly lawless times. Rules are harder to come by and even harder to enforce. As with most outside influences, this philosophy has entered the church system, every society's last hope for light and sanity. The church seems bent on antinomianism in a way that eclipses their original descent many centuries ago.

We humans, believers included, do not like laws. Christians love to talk rather of grace. It is our assumption that since grace trumps law, it also replaces it. In the rush to rid the church of doctrinal hindrance, we have created the new but ever old doctrine of lawlessness. In doing so we help pave the way for him who is termed "the lawless one" by the apostle.

Some have puzzled as to how a dictator could be considered lawless. Is it really possible that one could control the planet and yet be one who forsakes the rule of law? Did not all the past dictators of Babylonia, Greece, Persia, Rome, and Popery, control men by the laws of the land? How can there be a lawless tyrant?

Perhaps he is one who will seek to suspend only the laws of God, and thus he is lawless in the eyes of Heaven. Or, as is the case with all who rule in this tyrannical way, it simply means that he himself will obey no law, while he binds men to godless legislation.

Antichrist aside, what is to be our personal response to law? Does the walk in the Spirit preclude an adherence to rules? On the contrary. Even the smallest regulations of men are enjoined by Spirit-filled apostles onto Spirit-filled men.

What then can be said is the difference in our relationship today compared to the times before grace entered through Jesus Christ and His Spirit?

First, the law(s) can no longer condemn us. If anyone sins, he can find immediate forgiveness through the blood that was shed. Law can no longer send us to eternal punishment.

Second, law(s) can no longer overwhelm us. We are not on our own. It is not mere human striving now, but cooperation with the Spirit of God who lives within, that brings victory and capability.

Third, law(s) no longer motivate us. Our passion as believers filled with God is to know Him better, to serve others better, every day. The law is fulfilled in us who thus walk after the Spirit.

Law is still with us. And those who begin letting go of their walk with God need to be reminded of "legal" matters from time to time. One who starts to exhibit the inevitable lawlessness of such a condition is showing that he is not abiding in the vine, and can be subject to severe problems...