THE LAW KILLS - ALBERT ELISHA OBERDORFER - SAMPLE

THE LAW
KIL S
Why You Should Stay
Away From Law, and Fully
Embrace God’s Grace
ALBERT ELISHA OBERDORFER1

5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think of anything as being from ourselves,
but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers
of the new covenant, not of the letter but
of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6)
3 As I urged you when I went into
Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you
may charge some that they teach no other
doctrine,
4 nor give heed to fables and endless
genealogies, which cause disputes rather
than godly edification which is in faith.
5 Now the purpose of the commandment
is love from a pure heart, from a good
conscience, and from sincere faith,
6 from which some, having strayed, have
turned aside to idle talk,
7 desiring to be teachers of the law,
understanding neither what they say nor
the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one
uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made
for a righteous person, but for the lawless
2

and insubordinate, for the ungodly and
for sinners, for the unholy and profane,
for murderers of fathers and murderers of
mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for
kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if
there is any other thing that is contrary to
sound doctrine,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God which was committed to my
trust. (1 Timothy 1:3-11)
3

4

THE LAW WILL KILL
YOU.
AS A BELIEVER, the law will kill you.
If you misuse it.
Or if someone misuses the law on you.
And you don’t understand what is
happening.
5

6

THE LAW IS GOOD.
AND THIS is the problem.
There is no problem with the law!
The problem occurs when the law is used
unlawfully.
When it is used on the wrong person.
7

8

THE LAW IS NOT MADE
FOR A RIGHTEOUS
PERSON.
THE LAW can be used rightly.
And it can be used wrongly.
It is used wrongly when it is used on the
wrong person.
When it is used on a righteous person.
9

10

WHO IS A RIGHTEOUS
PERSON?
THIS IS the heart of the gospel.
If you are in Christ, you have been made
righteous with the very righteousness of
Christ.
Then you are no longer a sinner.
Take note: you are a sinner no more.
You are a righteous person.
Is it because you always get everything
right, right?
Far be it.
It is because you have been given the most
precious gift of Christ’s righteousness.
(When I hear this, it makes my spirit leap
for joy!)
If you do not understand this, you do not
understand the glorious gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ yet.
Then, you need to go back to the basics
and hear again what Jesus has done for
you on the cross.
11

Otherwise, you will be seriously confused.
And this confusion will spread out into the
community you are part of.
If you are holding a leadership position in
that community.
But even if you do not—if you do not
yet understand that you have been made
righteous with the righteousness of Christ,
it will have a detrimental effect on your
life.
It will severely affect your relationships
with people.
And your relationship with God.
Because then you will be relating to them
based on the law.
This is the only alternative to the gift of
righteousness.
And it is not a good alternative.
It is an alternative that brings death into
your life.
12

13

14

APOSTOLIC
SAFEGUARD.
AS AN apostle who loves us, Paul does
his utmost to protect us from the law’s
detrimental effects.
He sees the Galatians get on the slippery
slope of self-effort.
So he writes a letter to them.
He calls them foolish Galatians.
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has
bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ
was clearly portrayed among you as
crucified?
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did
you receive the Spirit by the works of the
law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, are you now being made perfect by
the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3)
The curious thing is that the devil will use
the law to bring Spirit-filled believers into
bondage.
15

Because law alienates them from grace.
It makes them self-conscious.
Boastful.
Proud.
Reliant on self.
This is what the law does to believers.
This then causes them to be alienated
from Christ.
Alienated from the workings of the Holy
Spirit.
Because
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to
the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)
So in this book, I’d like to do the same as
Paul.
I’d like to help you by showing you what
the law is, who it is for, how it affects
people, and how we can stay away from
it, and fully embrace grace instead.
If you understand these things, it will save
you from a lot of heartache as a believer.
16

17

18

“The letter
kills, but the
Spirit gives
life.”
- 2
Corinthians
3:6
19

CONTENTS
THE LAW WILL KILL YOU. 5
THE LAW IS GOOD. 7
THE LAW IS NOT MADE FOR A
RIGHTEOUS PERSON. 9
WHO IS A RIGHTEOUS PERSON? 11
APOSTOLIC SAFEGUARD. 15
1 THE LETTER KILLS. 23
2 WHAT THE LAW CAN DO. 25
3 WHAT THE LAW CANNOT DO. 27
4 ZACCHAEUS. 29
5 THE LAWYERS IN MATTHEW 22 AND
LUKE 10. 33
6 THE CASE OF PAUL. 39
7 ROMANS 7. 43
8 THE GALATIANS. 47
20

9 THE PHILIPPIANS. 51
10 THE CORINTHIANS. 55
11 THE COLOSSIANS. 57
12 SPIRIT-LED. 61
21

22

1 THE LETTER KILLS.
PAUL PUTS it like this,
“The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
(2 Corinthians 3:6)
The letter of the law kills if applied
incorrectly.
If applied to the wrong people.
23

24

2 WHAT THE LAW CAN
DO.
YET THE law, even if applied to the right
people (those not in Christ), can only do
so much.
It can shut people up.
Shut up the boasters.
This is what Paul tells us in Romans 3.
19 Now we know that whatever the law
says, it says to those who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before
God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no
flesh will be justified in His sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin.
Shut people’s mouths.
And make them sin conscious.
Make them feel guilty.
But that is about it.
The law cannot do more.
25

26

3 WHAT THE LAW
CANNOT DO.
WHAT THE law cannot do is to bring
people to repentance.
This is what only the goodness of God
can do.
Paul says, don’t you know that
“the goodness of God leads you to
repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
27

28

4 ZACCHAEUS.
TAKE ZACCHAEUS, for example.
Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’
house.
And Zacchaeus received Jesus gladly.
And because Jesus was received well,
He manifested His glory in the house of
Zacchaeus.
His goodness.
His manifest presence.
This then brought Zacchaeus to
repentance.
Jesus did not use the law on him.
Because Zacchaeus already knew that he
wasn’t such a good person.
He didn’t need the law to shut him up.
He needed grace.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After experiencing the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, Zacchaeus truly
repented.
29

What caused Zacchaeus to act like that?
Law?
Oh no.
Law doesn’t have that power.
If you think that law can do that, you are
overestimating the power of the law.
All the law can do is to shut people’s
mouths.
And make them feel guilty.
But it cannot bring them freedom.
30

31

32

5 THE LAWYERS IN
MATTHEW 22 AND
LUKE 10.
TAKE THE lawyer in Matthew 22.
He came to tempt Jesus.
His heart wasn’t right.
Yet, the question sounded innocent
enough.
“Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the law?” (Matthew
22:36)
Take note: “great commandment in the
law.”
But if you think that you can fulfill the
law in your own strength, you are greatly
mistaken!
Many people do not believe this yet.
Because of that, they don’t come to Jesus
yet.
These people need to hear more law.
But not the ones who are like Zacchaeus.
33

And certainly not the ones who are
already in Christ.
In Luke 10, another lawyer came to Jesus
and asked Him this question.
Again, the man’s motives were not right.
He wanted to test Jesus.
So he said,
“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” (verse 25)
Jesus replies to him with the law.
He says,
“What is written in the law? What is your
reading of it?” (verse 26)
To which the lawyer replies,
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength, and with all your mind,’
and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” (verse
27)
But notice, Jesus then says to the lawyer.
“You have answered rightly; do this and
you will live.” (verse 28)
Wow!
“Do this, and you will live!”
That is the essence of the law.
34

“The man who does those things shall live
by them.’ (Romans 10:5, Leviticus 18:5)
But you are gravely mistaken if you
think that you can get life through the
law.
Through your own obedience.
Then you have missed the gospel of Jesus.
If we are in Christ, then Christ’s
righteousness is imputed to us.
But not only His righteousness but also
His obedience.
Paul says, “by one Man’s obedience many
will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
Take note: by one Man’s obedience!
And who is that One?
It is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy One of God.
There is no one like Jesus.
You may search for all eternity long, but
you won’t find another Jesus.
But the lawyer still gave it another shot.
He wanted to justify himself.
So he asked a follow-up question.
“And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
35

Jesus then answers in the form of a
parable.
To make the man think.
To make the man realize that his own
obedience will not qualify him for eternal
life.
This is what the law can do.
The more you look at the law, the more
you will find things that you haven’t done.
The more you will find that you are
disqualified.
But why do you want to feed on why you
are disqualified?
If Jesus has qualified you?
When you are already in Christ?
Christ has made us perfect by one
sacrifice.
His sacrifice.
“For by one offering He has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified.”
(Hebrews 10:14)
Take note: “by one offering He has
perfected.”
He (Christ) is the One who has perfected
us.
36

But this is where many get it wrong.
And have to learn the hard way.
If the law could not perfect us, it also
cannot sanctify us.
Christ is the One who perfected us.
And Christ is the One who sanctifies us.
Sanctification is an ongoing process.
But it is through grace that we have been
justified.
37

38

6 THE CASE OF PAUL.
TAKE PAUL, the apostle.
What was Paul’s relationship with the
law?
Before he came to Christ, Paul was a
champion of the law.
He excelled in Judaism far above his
contemporaries.
He was peerless in his zeal for God.
He was only doing what he thought was
right to do according to the law.
He consented to Stephen’s death, and
he entered houses and hailed men and
women to prison.
He was radical.
Luke compares Paul to a dragon.
In Acts 9, Paul is
“still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord” (verse
1).
(I got this insight from Reinhard Bonnke.)
What turned Paul around?
39

It was more than a religious sermon.
It was an encounter with a high degree
of Christ’s glory that knocked Paul of his
high horse.
Why did Jesus choose Paul?
Behind the face of a persecutor, Jesus
saw Paul’s heart. Jesus treated Paul not
according to Paul’s history but according
to his destiny.
But it required a high degree of glory to
dislocate Paul from his roots of law.
He then went on to become one of the
greatest apostles of his time.
We owe Paul much revelation knowledge.
But the question is: was Paul instantly
transformed?
From a lover of the law to a lover of
Jesus? From a lover of the law to someone
who knew how to be led by the Holy
Spirit?
The answer is ‘no.’
Paul had to learn certain things along the
way.
And one of the lessons was not to run in
his own strength but to run in Holy Spirit
strength.
40

41

42

7 ROMANS 7.
SOME PEOPLE say that Romans chapter
7 is about Paul’s experience before he
came to Christ.
Once Paul had come to Christ, all of his
struggles were over.
I don’t think so.
Romans 7 is about Paul’s experience after
he had come to Christ.
When he was filled with the Holy Spirit
already.
But the problem with Romans chapter
7 is that Paul was trying to obey God’s
commandments in His own strength.
(But the problem with obeying
commandments of God is this. We can’t
obey God’s commandments! Christ in us
obeys. Our part is to yield to Christ. It is
in our yielding to the Holy Spirit, that God
Himself does the work through us.
As soon as you start to talk about obeying
commandments, the danger is that you
forget who it is who enables you.
Without Christ, you and I can do nothing.)
43

Back to Paul.
Paul’s will and determination to do the
right things were strong.
In his past, Paul had relied on his zeal.
His will power.
But Romans 7 shows that Paul’s will
power didn’t get him far.
It was like Paul was hitting himself
against an ironclad brick wall.
Until he could not go on like this any
longer.
Until he cried out,
“O wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me from this body of death?”
(Romans 7:24)
So Paul needed to learn the lesson to rely
on and be led by the Holy Spirit.
This is what Romans chapter 8 is about.
So before Paul could get to the life we
read about in Romans 8, he needed to
experience Romans 7.
To strip him of his self-reliance.
God, in His mercy, will have us undergo
the same procedure.
It is a painful procedure.
44

Because until you realize, and truly know
by experience, that you cannot do it, you
will try very hard.
And the harder you try, the harder you
will fall.
And when you have fallen seriously
enough, Father God will pick you up and
say,
“Now, my son. Let me show you a better
way. Let me show you the way of the
Spirit.”
Which was His intention from the
beginning.”
So Paul needed to learn this lesson.
And that is why he had the experience
and insight to write on that very topic.
And he did what he could to safeguard us
from the detrimental effects of the law.
There is always this danger.
When people come to the Lord, they
begin in the Spirit.
But then, they will want to try to continue
in self-effort.
45

46

8 THE GALATIANS.
THE GALATIANS started off well.
They experienced a real conversion.
Which included receiving the Holy Spirit.
And we don’t receive the Holy Spirit
because we qualify ourselves.
We receive the Holy Spirit only because of
what Christ has done for us.
But then people came along.
And swayed the Galatians.
They confused them.
There is a witchcraft spirit behind this.
So Paul writes,
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you that you should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was
clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did
you receive the Spirit by the works of the
law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, are you now being made perfect by
the flesh?
47

...
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to
you and works miracles among you, does
He do it by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith? ... (Galatians 3:1-3, 5)
48

49

50

9 THE PHILIPPIANS.
THE SAME thing happened with the
Philippians.
People came along.
And swayed them.
With the law.
So Paul writes his passionate plea in
chapter 3.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,
beware of the mutilation!
3 For we are the circumcision, who
worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in
the flesh ... (Philippians 3:2-3)
Self-effort.
Keeping the law.
I have seen that also several times.
It is always the same story.
Believers start beautifully in grace.
They have received the Holy Spirit and
begin their faith walk.
And then people come along and push the
51

law on them.
And the joy of these new believers goes
out of the window.
They begin to obey all these laws.
And by doing so, they slip into self-effort.
The works of the flesh.
And they begin to be alienated from
Christ.
So Paul in Philippians chapter 3 says, all
this striving do follow the law, doesn’t do
you any good.
The only way we can get to know Christ
is by His righteousness.
And not our righteousness.
All this righteousness that comes through
the law is ‘dung.’
52

53

54

10 THE CORINTHIANS.
IN ALMOST every letter, Paul will
warn believers not to be swayed by law
teachings that alienate us from Christ.
The devil is a slimy creature.
He will use the law to alienate believers
from Christ.
So Paul says,
2 I am jealous for you with godly
jealousy. For I have betrothed you to
one husband, that I may present you as a
chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, so
your minds may be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians
11:2-3)
Some bible versions read,
“led astray from your simple and pure
devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,
Berean Study Bible)
55

56

11 THE COLOSSIANS.
IT WAS the same with the Colossians.
Paul felt to remind them to stay away
from the law.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in
drink, or regarding a festival or a new
moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come,
but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward,
taking delight in false humility and
worship of angels, intruding into those
things which he has not seen, vainly
puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from
whom all the body, nourished and knit
together by joints and ligaments, grows
with the increase that is from God.
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from
the basic principles of the world, why, as
though living in the world, do you subject
yourselves to regulations—
21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not
handle,”
57

22 which all concern things which
perish with the using—according to the
commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an
appearance of wisdom in self-imposed
religion, false humility, and neglect of
the body, but are of no value against the
indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:16-
22)
Legalism is a real threat.
As it was in Bible days, so it is today.
Because it will alienate believers from
Christ.
It will disrupt their pure devotion to
Christ.
58

59

60

12 SPIRIT-LED.
WHEN WE are led by the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit will not lead us into sin.
Christ is not a minister of sin, Pauls says.
We do not need to fear that if we do not
know the law that the Holy Spirit will
lead us into sin.
This is what Paul says in Galatians 5:
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; and these
are contrary to one another, so that you
do not do the things that you wish.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are
evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions,
jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness,
61

evelries, and the like; of which I tell you
beforehand, just as I also told you in time
past, that those who practice such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such
there is no law.
24 And those who are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking
one another, envying one another.
(Galatians 5:16-26)
When we learn to walk in the Spirit, we
learn to be led by the Spirit.
And there is nothing we need to fear.
The Holy Spirit will not lead us into sin.
He will lead us out of sin.
If we are led by the Spirit, we are not
under the law.
In other words, we do not need the law to
guide us.
62

We are being led by the Spirit.
Holy Spirit.
Yet, this is a process.
We all live in the Spirit once we are in
Christ.
Christ is our life.
He is in us, and we are in Him.
But, we still need to learn to be led by the
Spirit.
Paul calls it walking in the Spirit.
To walk, as the Spirit leads us.
This is something every believer needs to
learn.
And it is a journey.
An exciting one.
63

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ELISHA
64

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THE LAW
KIL S
Why You Should Stay
Away From Law, and Fully
Embrace God’s Grace
ALBERT ELISHA OBERDORFER
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71

The Law Kills: Why You Should Stay Away from Law,
and Fully Embrace God’s Grace.
Copyright 2021 © Albert L. Oberdorfer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
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be rectified in future editions.
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