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Excerpts from the upcoming book by

Bruce S. Bertram

Hidden In Plain Sight

Unmasking Riches in The Word

The Law is one of the most explosive issues in Christianity. But why should it be? It doesn’t make any sense that it should cause such hard reactions from people who claim to know Him. There is such intense opposition to His living oracles, His Word of Life, that in many circles if it is even lightly mentioned it gets a heavy negative response. If a Christian dares to say that the depth of his or her passion for God and His Christ goes as far as embracing the fullness of blessing in His Law then there is grave risk of censure and expulsion from whatever assembly they are part. In this section we will discuss many of the masks of unbiblical objections to following God’s wonderful Law. Each of these is an open teaching in most of Christianity, yet they mask a great deal of rich biblical truth. Many come up as seemingly legitimate objections to following God’s Word but really have no biblical basis.

“All I Commanded You” Doesn’t Include Law

Jesus tells us in the ‘great commission’ to go to the nations and make disciples.

¹⁹“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 NASB95)

Some might object that “all that I commanded you” doesn’t include the Law, except that He lived it and taught it exactly as it was supposed to be lived and taught and we are to follow His example in every way. Since He followed God’s commands (and all of His words are the Father’s words) then so should His people. I realize there are those who don’t want to, and find all sorts of excuses such as we are dealing with in this section of the book, but resistance to the Word is not really a hallmark of His people, now, is it?

According to Leviticus 18:25, and 20:22, and Deuteronomy 9:5, the people who lived in the Promised Land before Israel got there, who were all Gentiles, were getting ‘spewed out’ (the land was vomiting them out) or driven out because they did the abominations that God was telling Israel to avoid through His Law.

²⁴‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶‘But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you ²⁷(for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. (Leviticus 18:24-28 NASB95)

²²‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. ²³‘Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. (Leviticus 20:22-23 NASB95)

⁴“Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵“It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶“Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6 NASB95 see also Deuteronomy 9:9-14.)

The Gentile nations in the Land paid the penalty for doing the same abominations that were prohibited to Israel in the Law. But why would those nations have to be spewed out if the Law didn’t apply? Perhaps it’s just poetic imagery, but the abominations were so bad that even dirt was disgusted and wouldn’t tolerate them anymore. God created the earth and upholds it by the word of His power, our fight is against spiritual wickedness, and nature is very spiritual. The abominations are a perversion of the nature that God created. So it’s not that big of a stretch to phrase it that the Land vomited the offending nations out. One thing is very clear: God’s Law applies to everyone, everywhere, at any time. No one is off the hook because they ‘don’t know’ God’s Law, or more properly, don’t want to learn His Laws. Solomon tells us this point blank.

¹³The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. ¹⁴For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NASB95)

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