Now continuing with God’s specific purposes for giving Israel his Law,

3) Third, God gave men his law so that they would have an objective standard for discerning good and evil, for making good judgments. He established laws of morality which defined his character and which explained to the people the character he expected of them. These laws were designed to enable Israel to establish an ordered society that would not fall into chaos and depravity as we now witness in America who has forsaken them. Of course Israel itself fell into the same sorts of depravity and lawlessness. These laws were also designed to establish justice whereby men could live in peace and harmony in an ordered society.

This discernment of good and evil is what Hebrews calls “the teaching about righteousness.” Understanding it explains why God ever created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to begin with.

 {6} So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. {7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Gen 3:6-7 NKJV)

Some things are hard to understand. For example, why did God create man if He knew that man would sin soon after his creation? And, why does God hold man accountable for that sin if He knew that man would sin? God also knew that man would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, didn’t He? He knows everything, the end from the beginning. God is sovereign and does as He pleases. He also knew the result of man’s eating of the tree, that he would “become like one of Us, to know good and evil” (Gen. 3:22).
Man’s eyes were “opened” as a result of eating that unlawful fruit. This doesn’t mean that he could see the natural world for the first time, for Eve “saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes” before she ate of it. (Gen. 3:6) This opening of man’s eyes related to the moral and the spiritual, not the physical and the natural. Adam and Eve became moral beings when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Immediately, “they knew that they were naked” and they knew that their nakedness had to be covered. (Gen. 3:7) They had seen that they were naked before, in Genesis 2:25, but then they were not ashamed.
In the New Testament we learn that the doctrine of discernment of good and evil concerns only the very mature. This becomes particularly interesting when we consider the fact that God initially told mankind not to eat of that tree. Why, for example, does God even esteem this type of discernment? The Hebrews’ writer could barely discuss this topic with his people. He said:

{11} [Melchizedek] of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. {12} For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. {13} For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. {14} But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Heb 5:11-14 NKJV)

The same is true today. One usually cannot even discuss the Biblical doctrine of discerning good and evil, i.e. of judgment, without being called legalistic, arrogant, unloving, proud, self-righteous, and on and on. Today, as in the days of Paul; almost all Christians remain unskilled in the word of righteousness, and thus, remain babes in Christ. Because they cannot understand they either turn to lawlessness or back to the Old Testament Law itself.

Let us determine to grow up now and redeem the time because the days are evil and the time is very short. Melchizedek, whose name means “King of Righteousness and Justice,” is first introduced in Genesis 14:18. The Book of Jashur identifies Melchizedek as Shem, son of Noah. Most Christians believe he is an earthly manifestation of the preincarnate Christ. Regardless of his actual identity, it is no coincidence that the King of Righteousness and Justice also appears here in the passage that speaks of discerning good and evil. Mature Christians should be able to eat the meat of the Word of God. Then, by constantly using the Word, their senses should be so exercised that they can discern both good and evil. This means that they should be able to righteously judge the issues of life, but rarely can we find a Godly man competent to do justice, i.e., to judge righteously. To do justice means to separate between the good and the evil with a righteous understanding that can only be provided by God.

The teaching about righteousness includes the doctrine that one will do the good instead of the evil when he becomes capable of discerning between the two. The ability to do good comes about by receiving a new heart from our heavenly Father. Our new heart is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews explains this when quoting Jeremiah: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Heb. 8:10) None of us have as yet received an entirely “new heart.” We still walk about in bodies of flesh that remain subject to and do sin. Now, though, is the time to bring our minds into agreement with God.

All of us still retain parts of our old hard heart of unforgiveness and bitterness, but we are exhorted by Christ in Romans 12:1-2 to renew our minds by adhering to His Word and by refusing conformity to this world. If we do not obey His commands we will forever remain hard-hearted. God would say to the hard-hearted: {3} “For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns. {4} Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury come forth like fire, And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings.” (Jer 4:3-4 NKJV) Jeremiah prophetically warns Christians in words similar to those we see in the book of Hebrews.

We find the major theme of Hebrews in verse 5:13. It is the “teaching (word) about righteousness” which is defined in verse 14 as the Christian ability to “discern between good and evil.” The Greek word translated “discern” here is the noun form of the verb diakrino. Vines says that diakrino signifies “to separate, discriminate” and “to learn by discriminating.” He goes on to say that the word means “trying oneself, `discerning’ one’s condition, and so judging any evil before the Lord.” He also states that “regarding oral testimony in a gathering of believers, it is used of `discerning’ what is of the Holy Spirit.” The noun form, diakrisis, is used here in verse 13 to speak “of those who are capable of discriminating between good and evil.” In Rom. 14:1 the word has its other sense of decision or judgment….” To discriminate means “to judge,” so this word literally speaks of judgment between good and evil.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, therefore, typologically points to the ministry of Melchizedek, which is the ministry of justice and righteousness. It also speaks of the judgment (separation) of good and evil. These are the defining characteristics of the Teaching about Righteousness discussed in Hebrews. Separation, then, also speaks of the mature ability to discern (judge) between good and evil. Hebrews teaches us that one must exercise his senses by constant use of the meat of the Word of God before he can so judge. Most people do not do this and this explains why judgment of sin in the church rarely occurs today. It also further explains the doctrine of separation, this time in terms of discernment and judgment. Even man’s judgment and separation from God for originally eating of this tree points typologically to this prophetic discernment and judgment.

4) Fourth, God established laws of separation which taught Israel to be a people separated from the ways of the world. In order to teach this lesson he established laws which in the natural, on an external, observable level, made Israel appear different than the other nations of the earth. This explains why he established so many laws for which most people see no good reason today, laws like wearing garments made of only one type of cloth, laws forbidding the eating of “unclean” animals and allowing one to eat “clean” animals, laws mandating the wearing of tassels on ones garments, and so on. These laws actually establish the doctrine of the carnal (natural) vs. the spiritual.

We see from Genesis 3:9-19 and 4:3-15 that God still spoke directly to man even after Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is because there is still ground for relationship by virtue of the blood sacrifice for sin, which speaks of spiritual salvation. God Himself shed the first animal blood which was a type of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Spiritual salvation, effected by the blood of Jesus, brings with it a “clear conscience.”

{13} For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, {14} how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb 9:13-14 NKJV)

God makes it clear to mankind, through Abel’s accepted sacrifice, that He must have a blood (animal) sacrifice in order to accept man into His presence. Cain, however, would have none of it. God was showing through His demand for a blood sacrifice that He requires a man’s true life (soul) to be separated from his physical existence. This is the meaning of the blood, the life (soul), being separated from the body. Rather than offering the sacrifice that God requires, which is a sacrifice that requires a separation of the life (blood) from the body, Cain killed his brother instead. This prophetically showed the separation among men, even saved men, which sin causes. This is a picture in the natural of the separation of the spiritual from the carnal believer. Here is Paul’s description of these two types of believers:

{13} These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. {14} But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. {15} But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. {16} For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. {2} I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; {3} for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (1 Cor 2:13-3:3 NKJV)

It is normal for a babe in Christ to be carnal. Such a one needs the milk of the Word in order to mature. But, it is abnormal and unhealthy when believers, after five, ten, twenty, or more years, still exhibit the carnal thoughts and attitudes of a babe in Christ. The picture of the carnal vs. the spiritual Christian is further illustrated by Jesus’ parable in Luke:

{42} And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? {43} “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. {44} “Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. {45} “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, {46} “the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. {47} “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. {48} “But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:42-48 NKJV)

Here we see the principle of the separation of Cain and Abel prophetically applied by Jesus in the teaching of the separation of the carnal from the spiritual Christian. The wicked servant in the parable above is a Christian. Just as Cain beat and killed Abel, so the carnal, wicked Christian “beats” the spiritual, faithful servant of God. How? By unwarranted criticisms and by social and business ostracism. The carnal Christian holds on to sin and justifies his doing so while the spiritual Christian repents of sin and relies upon the power of the Holy Spirit to enable him to forsake the sin totally. The carnal Christian refuses to separate himself from the world’s pleasures, sinful relationships and the allure of mammon. The spiritual Christian comes out from worldly ways and maintains a life of holy separation to God. This separation of the spiritual from the carnal in the book of Genesis looks all the way forward to the end of the Bible, to the culminating Scriptures regarding the Doctrine of Separation.

{14} Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? {15} And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? {16} And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” {17} Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” {18} “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.” (2 Cor 6:14-18 NKJV)

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)

Paul and Jesus also teach us how we must ultimately relate to the Christian who refuses to grow up and continues doing the things of the world. Paul teaches us to separate ourselves from the “evil” Christian, saying,

 {10} Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. {11} But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person. {12} For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? {13} But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” (1 Cor 5:10-13 NKJV)

Jesus makes it clear that such a separation must even reach to one’s own family if necessary when He says,

{49} “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! {50} “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! {51} “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. {52} “For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. {53} “Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter- in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53 NKJV)

Jesus says that this kind of separation will be necessary just before His second coming. This is why he tells the story of the faithful and wicked servants at the time of His second coming right before he says that He came to bring division (separation), not peace! Then He explains that His wicked servants should be able to discern the times, but that they cannot do so because of their hypocrisy:

 {54} Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. {55} “And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. {56} “Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? {57} “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? (Luke 12:54-57 NKJV)

Finally, He warns those who refuse to repent of their sins and hypocrisy that not only will they be subject to separation in fellowship by His faithful servants, but also by Him when He judges them at His judgment seat:

{58} “When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. {59} “I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.” (Luke 12:58-59 NKJV)

In this final parable of Luke chapter 12 the adversary is the faithful Christian who has been slandered, reviled, or otherwise wronged by the carnal (evil) Christian. The magistrate is the “first in rank and power,” i.e., Jesus Christ. As magistrate He is the Judge who delivers the evil Christian to His officer, who could be a powerful angel or, more likely, a glorified saint. The prison is the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” that Jesus warns believers about in Matthew 24:51. This warning from Matthew 24:51 culminates a parable which is quite similar to that of Luke 12:42-48. All three pictures, the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the casting into prison, and the beating with many stripes describe Christ’s judgment and punishment of His own servants. The separation of the spiritual from the carnal is the Word of the Lord for all of his people RIGHT NOW. If we refuse to heed Christ’s word of separation, then we will be punished by Him.

The laws of Moses taught these things in the natural, but obeying them could not bring them into spiritual reality. Thus Jesus had to come in person to explain what he meant and to empower us to accomplish these things in reality, i.e., spiritually.

Conclusion

These four aspects of God’s one law explained above were meant to teach his people the principles of his kingdom, a kingdom founded upon righteousness and justice, grace and truth, mercy and law. But, as Jesus told them, they failed to understand and correctly apply the Old Covenant laws. Instead they made God’s good laws into traps for the unwary, preventing others from coming into the fruit of God’s kingdom, and never coming into the spiritual understanding of those truths themselves. Jesus finally rebuked them saying,

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13)

“And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7)

5) And finally, Jesus summed up all of the Old Covenant laws with exactly one law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He explained this one law like this, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.“ (Matthew 7:12 KJV)