Consequences Of Breaking God's Law: Eternal Damnation?

God's law is a spiritual law that can be summed up in a few words: love God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. This is reflected in the Ten Commandments, which include rules about devotion to God, obedience to authority, and how to treat others. According to the Bible, when we break God's law, there are inevitable consequences. This is because the world is a moral universe, and breaking God's law means we will have to face His wrath. However, it's important to note that God cannot break the law Himself, as it reflects His character and nature.

God's law is a spiritual law, a covenant with Israel, and a law for all mankind

The Bible tells us that God's law is a covenant between God and humanity, starting with Adam and Eve. God invited them to be priest kings, to enjoy eternal life, and to spread His goodness throughout the world. However, they broke this covenant by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, bringing the curse of death upon humanity.

God's law is also a covenant with Israel, given to Moses at Mount Sinai. This law included specific rules and regulations, such as the Ten Commandments, which governed devotion to God, obedience to authority, and the treatment of others.

Additionally, God's law is a spiritual law that we find in the New Testament. It is summed up by Jesus in two commandments: love God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. These commandments encompass all the law and the prophets. Jesus further expanded on these commandments, teaching that lustful thoughts are equivalent to adultery, and that anger and demeaning insults are equivalent to murder.

Breaking God's law occurs when we fail to love Him or when we harm our fellow man. God added a prohibition against coveting to the law because harm to another often begins with a mental sin. By following God's law, we can live righteously and partner with Him to renew the world.

Failing to love God and others is breaking God's law

The law can be summed up in a few words: we are to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and we are to love one another as Christ loved us. This encompasses all the law. In Jesus' words, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40).

The law given at Sinai, including the Ten Commandments, had specific rules and regulations. The first four commandments are about devotion to God, the fifth is about obedience to God-like figures (such as our parents), and the remaining five are about how we treat others.

Since the law is based on loving God and our fellow man, we break God's law whenever we fail to love Him or whenever we harm our fellow man. Harm to another usually begins in our inner being, so God added a prohibition against coveting—a mental sin. Jesus expanded on this by saying that lustful thoughts are equivalent to adultery, and that anger and demeaning insults are equivalent to murder.

Therefore, failing to love God and others is breaking God's law. It is a denial of God's character and a failure to embody the law through our actions.

God's law is not arbitrary, it reflects God's character

God's law is not arbitrary; it reflects God's character. God's law is a spiritual law that we find in the New Testament, a covenant between God and Israel, and the law God gave to mankind at the very beginning of human life on earth.

The law can be summed up in a few words: we are to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and we are to love one another as Christ loved us. The apostle Paul said, "He who loves another has fulfilled the law." This is further reflected in the Ten Commandments, which begin with the four commandments about devotion to God, followed by the commandment of obedience to our parents, and ending with commandments about how we treat others.

God's law is a mirror of God's character. Just as a mirror reveals dirt on our face, the law reveals our sins and where we fall short of thinking and acting like God. By internalizing and keeping God's law, we become more like God every day.

God's character is revealed in His law, and the Bible is clear that Christians are to become godly and like God. God has given us His law to reveal and define His character so that it is not a mystery to us.

Jesus further emphasized God's benevolence in His interpretation of the law. He consistently shot down any interpretation of the law that caused harm and exploited anything in the law that could be used to promote mercy. Jesus revealed that God's commands are not arbitrary but are rooted in His benevolent nature and are for our good.

Jesus fulfilled God's law, he did not break it

Jesus himself said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17–18). This statement gives us insight into His mission and the character of God’s Word. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, regardless of the accusations made against Him. Instead, He promoted the authority of the Law of God.

Jesus emphasised the eternal nature of the Word of God. He said, "until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5:18). He also commended those who teach the Law accurately and hold it in reverence: "Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19).

Jesus fulfilled the Prophets in that He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies concerning Himself in His first coming alone. He fulfilled the Law in at least two ways: as a teacher and as a doer. He taught people to obey the Law (Matthew 22:35–40; Mark 1:44), and He obeyed the Law Himself (John 8:46; 1 Peter 2:22). In living a perfect life, Jesus fulfilled the moral laws; in His sacrificial death, Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial laws.

Jesus did not abolish the Law, but fulfilled it. He established the Word, embodied it, and fully accomplished all that was written.

God cannot break the law

God's law is a spiritual law that we find in the New Testament. It is also the covenant between God and Israel, and the law God gave to mankind at the beginning of human life on Earth. The law can be summed up in a few words: we are to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and we are to love one another as much as we love ourselves.

If God arbitrarily declared certain things to be good, then the Law is no longer grounded in the moral order of the created order or in God’s character. There would be little reason to expect that obeying God would naturally result in better-ordered societies and greater peace with the universe. At some point in the future, God could change the Law so that a new set of things is good. For example, though God has declared it good to not murder, by this logic, He could have just as easily declared murder good. If this explanation of the relationship between God and the Law is accepted, then the Law is arbitrary, and God may be capricious.

If God merely recognized the Law as good and chose to communicate it to His people, then the Law precedes God, and God Himself is bound by the Law. This is problematic because it implies that there was something that existed prior to God. Additionally, in this understanding of the relationship between God and the Law, the Law becomes the supreme norm of the universe instead of God. In theory, God could sin in this second understanding. Indeed, according to the megachurch preacher’s statements, God did sin by violating the moral order of the universe.

Both of these explanations fall short of orthodoxy. Neither describes a God who is worthy of worship in the way that Christians recognize. Thus, a third explanation of the relationship between God and the Law is needed.

The third option is that the Law is good because it reflects the character of God. In this solution, God is self-existent, logically and temporally prior to all else, and wholly good. The Law reflects his character, in part. By conforming to the Law, the Israelites were communicating something about God to the surrounding peoples and to each other. Thus, the Law was never about earning salvation; it was about worship and evangelism.

God is the ultimate good in the universe. He is essentially good, and there is no mixture of evil in Him. God wants his creation to be good, like Him. Therefore, He tells his people to be holy as He is holy. To show how to do this, God gave His people the gift of the Law. The Law reflects His character, so that by obeying the Law—by embodying the Law—His people were acting consistently with God’s character.

Based on this logic, then, God cannot break the Law. To break the Law would be to deny His very character. It would, so to speak, un-God God. He would cease to be good and, thus, cease to be worthy of worship. The view that God can break the Law is questionable. The view that God did break the Law draws close to blasphemy if the speaker rightly understands the import of his words.

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