The Perfect Law of Liberty
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass [mirror, NASB]: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25)1
So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2:12)
Who doesn’t want liberty?
James references the law of liberty twice in his epistle. He not only identifies it as the law of liberty but as the perfect law of liberty.
Tragically, the bulk of today’s antinomian2 Christians3 not only misidentify the law of liberty, they generally want nothing to with it, despite a plethora of New Testament passages declaring it’s integral to the New Covenant.4
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Romans 7:12)
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. (1 Corinthians 7:19)
And hereby we do know that we know him [the heavenly Father], if we keep his commandments. (1 John 2:3)
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:3)
Salvation, justification, forgiveness, and all things comparable are provided us exclusively by God’s grace via the blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. Praise Yahweh!5 This fact, however, does not mean Jesus6 abolished His Father’s morality as reflected in His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments7 as society’s standard. God forbid!
These are two entirely different issues. The first has to do with the remnant’s individual salvation, the second with whose ethics God intends for us to govern our lives.
One Good Law
In Romans 7:12, the Apostle Paul depicts God’s moral law under the New Covenant as not only holy and just but also good. In fact, Paul describes the law as good seven different times—six times in Romans 7 and a seventh time in 1 Timothy 1. Cited once ought to be enough to get our attention. Cited seven times, we best look to discover what it is that makes God’s law good. Perhaps it has something to do with it being the perfect law of liberty.
Can there be more than one law that’s good—good as in righteous? Because there’s only One who’s perfectly righteous, there’s likewise only one law that’s perfectly righteous. Consequently, if we find a law depicted as good anywhere else in the Bible, it would have to be one and the same as the good law depicted by Paul in Romans 7 and 1 Timothy 1:
Thou [Yahweh] camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments. (Nehemiah 9:13)
The triune law Yahweh provided Moses on Mt. Sinai consisted of these same Ten Commandments, the statutes that explain each of the Commandments, and judgments that enforce the Commandments and their statutes:
[T]hese are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them…. (Deuteronomy 6:1)
The Commandments are incomplete without the respective statutes that clarify them, and they’re merely good suggestions without the respective judgments that enforce them.
The Apostle Paul’s “good law” is one and the same as the triune and integral moral law of God referred to by both Moses and Nehemiah.
One Perfect Law
Can there be more than one law that’s perfect?
Perfection demands both singularity and exclusivity. Consequently, if we were to find a law depicted as perfect anywhere else in the Bible, it would have to be one and same as the perfect law of liberty depicted by James:
The law of Yahweh is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)
Perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and altogether righteous—resulting in conversions, wisdom, joy, and enlightenment. Moreover, the commandments, statutes, and judgments are better than fine gold, sweeter than honey, and provide a great reward. It’s this same triune moral law (all three components cited again by King David) by which government and society functions at optimum prosperity, protection, and liberty—aka the “perfect law of liberty.”
Someone might argue that liberty is not cited in Psalm 19. This is true. But it’s certainly depicted in Psalm 19, as well as in Deuteronomy 4:5-8, 28:1-14, and numerous other passages.
Liberty is not mentioned in Psalm 19 regarding God’s law but it is in Psalm 119, consisting of 176 verses, the bulk of which refer to Yahweh’s triune law:
So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty…. (Psalm 119:44-45)
Not Without the Judgments
David’s perfect law of liberty is one and the same as James’ perfect law of liberty—that is, the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments:
For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2:11-12)
James warns us to live our lives so as not to be judged by the law of liberty. Many Christians would find this depiction a contradiction of terms: “Judgment and liberty don’t go together!”
To the contrary. They fit together perfectly. Yahweh’s civil sanctions are not only for the punishment of the wicked, but perhaps even more so as a deterrent to others who without them would also be criminals, making life in general less safe.
The potent deterrent effect of these judgments in the hands of biblical judges is what the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 13 as a terror to evil:
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (Romans 13:3-4)8
The deterrent effect of this one component of the Bible’s triune moral law alone all but eliminates the criminal element in society. The result is a society that functions at optimum protection and therefore optimum liberty.
Wells Without Water
Consequently, any law not Yahweh’s moral law, or opposed to the same, can never provide liberty but will instead only produce bondage. Furthermore, it only stands to reason that anyone who has rejected and substituted the Bible’s perfect law of liberty with something else can never provide others the alleged liberty they claim to have themselves:
These are wells without water … they speak great swelling words of vanity…. While they promise … liberty, they themselves are the servants [slaves, NASB] of corruption…. (2 Peter 2:17-19)
Such false teachers are akin to the false prophets depicted in Jeremiah 6:14, who cried, “Peace, peace: when there [was] no peace.” Those depicted in 2 Peter 2 were crying, “Liberty, liberty; when there was no liberty.” No liberty, either individually, as can only be realized via Christ’s blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the grave, per John 8:36 and 2 Corinthians 3:17,9 and as a society per Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty.10
Liberty, Liberty; When There Is No Liberty!
Here in America, this harks back to the constitutional framers who foisted their idle claims of liberty upon America. If ever anyone fit the description of wells without water, speaking swelling words of vanity, who were themselves slaves of their own corruption, it’s the 18th-century founding fathers.
“Liberty!” is perhaps the greatest propaganda tool ever created. Incredibly, it’s still in play today, despite the fact that America’s witnessed what liberty she had in the early 1600s dwindle away with each and every succeeding generation since the inception of the biblically adverse Constitutional Republic born of the biblically seditious Constitution.11
This was forecast by none other than Patrick Henry, who refused to attend the Constitutional Convention as one of Virginia’s delegates, declaring, “I smelt a rat!” Convinced the Constitution would fail to secure and protect liberty, Henry voiced his concerns to the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788:
…I say our privileges and rights are in danger. …the new form of Government … will … effectually … oppress and ruin the people…. In some parts of the plan before you, the great rights of freemen are endangered, in other parts, absolutely taken away…. There will be no checks, no real balances, in this Government: What can avail your specious imaginary balances, your rope-dancing, chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contrivances? …And yet who knows the dangers that this new system may produce: they are out of the sight of the common people: They cannot foresee latent consequences…. I see great jeopardy in this new Government.12
In contrast to the federalists’ failed predictions, this and nearly everything the anti-federalists forecast about the Constitution has become reality, even after the Bill of Rights was added.
Christians and patriots often laud the grand experiment of the founding fathers. But the grand experiment has been a grand failure. Today’s America is not teetering on the precipice of moral depravity and destruction because of Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty. Instead, it’s because the perfect law of liberty was rejected by the 18th-century founding fathers who replaced it with the biblically incompatible United States Constitution as the law of the land.13
Nonetheless, liberty is still claimed to have been provided to America by means of the Constitution, despite just the opposite being true. America is arguably the most enslaved, indebted, imprisoned, not to mention immoral, nation in existence today. Yet those with liberty blinders pasted over their eyes persist in crying, “Liberty, liberty; when there is no liberty!”
Liberty was officially lost in America when the 18th-century founding fathers made liberty a goal instead of a corollary of implementing Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty as the supreme law of the land.14
Conclusion
Consequently, here’s what we have in America today: a biblically hostile Constitutional Republic, born of the biblically seditious Constitution, allegedly providing liberty via a cadre of Enlightenment and Masonic theistic rationalists, who were themselves enslaved with their own corruption.
It was, for the most part, these same men who eleven years earlier put their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. Today’s constitutional Christians are determined to conjoin the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution, believing that doing so can make a silk purse out of sow’s ear.
The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the two. Therefore, because of the Declaration’s promotion of God and Creator it’s maintained that it allegedly transforms the biblically seditious Constitution into a biblically compatible document, despite the fact there’s hardly an Article or Amendment in the Constitution that’s not antithetical, if not seditious, to Yahweh’s sovereignty and morality.15
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are, in fact, inseparable: two proverbial peas in the same pod. But is the pod righteous or wicked?
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter … because they have cast away the law of Yahweh of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:20, 24)
Tragically, just as with the biblically seditious Constitution, many contemporary Christians hang their hat on the Declaration of Independence as if it’s something biblical and/or Christian. In fact, it’s just another instance of Isaiah 5:20, calling evil good and bitter sweet.
In the end, will it be the Declaration of Independence or a Declaration of Liberty that we proclaim to the world?
Lord willing, in the articles to follow we’ll biblically scrutinize the iconic but unbiblical Declaration of Independence.
See Part 2.
Related Posts
Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
End Notes
1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.
2. Antinomianism: The teaching that Yahweh’s triune moral law (His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) has been replaced by Yahweh’s grace and is no longer applicable under the New Covenant. This, despite such passages as Romans 3:31 and Jude 1:3-4.
3. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Jesus and forgiven of your sins.
For a more thorough explanation concerning water immersion and its relationship to salvation, the book Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
Additionally, listen to audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming. Are You Under the Blood?” Part 1 can be found here. Or a MP3 CD, containing all ten messages, can be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
4. For more regarding how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law applies today and should be implemented as the law of the land, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
5. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to memorialize His name, per Exodus 3:15, in this article.
For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, the third in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
6. Yeshua is the English transliteration of our Savior’s given Hebrew name, with which He introduced Himself to the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:14-15. (Jesus is a twice-removed transliteration: the English transliteration of the Greek Iesous, which is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua.) Because many people are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with Yeshua, I have chosen to use the more familiar name Jesus in this article in order to remove what might otherwise be a stumbling block.
7. See series of free ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments, beginning with Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
8. Romans 13:1-7 has nothing to do with secular civil government. Rather everything therein depicts a biblical civil government. The one word “continually” or “devoted” (depending upon your Bible version) in Verse 6 (amplifying Verses 3 & 4) alone proves the point.
Unless someone’s prepared to claim the Roman Empire (one of the most notorious for murdering Christians) was a government that continually blessed Christians and terrorized/punished the wicked, they should rethink their theology regarding this extremely important passage of Scripture.
See free online book The Romans 13 Template for Biblical Dominion: Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government.
9. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Jesus and forgiven of your sins.
For a more thorough explanation concerning water immersion and its relationship to salvation, the book Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
Additionally, listen to audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming. Are You Under the Blood?” Part 1 can be found here. Or a MP3 CD, containing all ten messages, can be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
10. For more regarding how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
See also free online book A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
11. For evidence that the Constitution is biblically seditious, see free online book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
12. Patrick Henry, Ralph Ketcham, ed., “Speeches of Patrick Henry (June 5 and 7, 1788),” The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2003, 2nd ed.) pp. 200-08
13. The typical response to this by today’s constitutionalists is that “It’s not the Constitution’s fault but today’s criminal legislators and judges who are to blame.” But how did America end up with such criminals as her civil “leaders”? Look no further than Article 6’s Christian test ban by which mandatory biblical qualifications for civil leaders were also eliminated.
For more regarding Article 6’s religious test ban, see Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of free online book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
14. For more regarding how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
See also free online book A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
15. For evidence that the Constitution is biblically seditious, see free online book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.