Oil and Water: Mixing What God Never Mixed!

Oil and Water in the Same Glass

Pour oil into a glass of water and stir it as hard as you like. For a moment it looks as though the two have come together. Leave it a minute, and they've parted again — the oil sitting on top, the water underneath, exactly as God made them. That is what happens when we take what God said to Israel under the law and pour it over what He has said to us in Christ. We stir and stir, and for a while it looks as if it works, but it never truly mixes. Somewhere along the way the believer ends up confused, burdened or afraid, because he's trying to live under two arrangements at once.

Paul told Timothy where the answer lies: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15 KJV]. Notice that word "dividing." The Word of truth has to be divided rightly — not cut up, not thrown out, but laid out the way God laid it out. Every word of it is true. But not every word of it is addressed to you.

The Old Testament Is for Our Learning

Let's be plain, because some will hear this and think I'm setting the Old Testament aside. I'm not. Paul says, For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope [Romans 15:4 KJV]. We need the Old Testament. It shows us who God is, how He dealt with men, how faithful He was to Abraham, how patient He was with Israel, and what sin costs. It's full of examples set down for us: Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come [1 Corinthians 10:11 KJV].

But learning from something is not the same as living under it. The law, with its sacrifices, feast days and sabbaths, was a shadow, and Paul says so: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ [Colossians 2:17 KJV]. A shadow tells you something is coming and gives you its outline — but nobody holds on to the shadow once the one casting it has arrived. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster [Galatians 3:24-25 KJV]. The schoolmaster did his job. He brought us to Christ. We don't go back and sit in his classroom.

What Happens When We Stir Them Together

This is where it gets practical, because this mixing goes on in churches every week. A man reads David's prayer, Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me [Psalm 51:11 KJV], and he lies awake wondering whether God will take the Holy Spirit from him every time he stumbles. David prayed that honestly under the old covenant, when the Spirit came upon men and could depart from them. But that isn't what God has said to you. To the born-again believer the Word says, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise [Ephesians 1:13 KJV]. Sealed. Not lent. Pour Psalm 51 over Ephesians 1 and you rob a child of God of the assurance his Father meant him to have.

Or take the preacher who stands up with Malachi and tells his congregation they are robbing God and under a curse unless they bring the tithe into the storehouse. That was spoken to Israel, under the law, about a temple with a storehouse. The New Testament does teach giving — generous, willing, cheerful giving — but it teaches it on its own ground: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver [2 Corinthians 9:7 KJV]. One is a law with a curse attached. The other is grace with a heart attached. Stir them together and you get giving driven by fear, which is not what God asked for. Jesus Christ put it like this: Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved [Matthew 9:17 KJV]. Both are preserved — when each is kept in its place.

Know Who Is Being Spoken To

So how do we stop mixing what God never mixed? We ask one simple question every time we open the Bible: who is this written to? God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son [Hebrews 1:1-2 KJV]. He spoke then, and He has spoken now — and the two are not the same arrangement. The letters from Romans to Thessalonians are written to the church, to you as a son of God in the body of Christ, under the Headship of Jesus Christ. That is where your commandments are found, and that is where your promises are found. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace [Romans 6:14 KJV].

Read the Old Testament and learn from every page of it. Then come home to the letters written to you and live by those. That isn't cutting the Bible up; it's handling it the way God gave it. And here's the freedom in it: when you know what God has said to you, you stop carrying burdens He never laid on you, and you stop missing promises He has already given you. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage [Galatians 5:1 KJV]. Keep the oil and the water apart, and the Word will start to make sense again.

Key Takeaways:

• Every word of Scripture is true, but not every word is addressed to you — [2 Timothy 2:15 KJV]
• The Old Testament was written for our learning, not for us to live under — [Romans 15:4 KJV]
• The law was the shadow; the body is of Christ — [Colossians 2:17 KJV]
• New wine needs new bottles — keep each covenant in its place — [Matthew 9:17 KJV]
• The believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit, not lent it — [Ephesians 1:13 KJV]
• We are not under the law, but under grace — [Romans 6:14 KJV]

Where to go from here:

Read Galatians 3 slowly, all the way through, and watch how Paul handles the law — honoured for the job it did, but no longer the master of the believer. Then take the step above, and let the letters written to you be the place you live.

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➡️ Next — Thursday: Messages from the Outpost — A "Now Word" — or an Old Lie in a New Suit?

Begin there — who we are in Christ, in order. Then, Monday to Thursday, each day has its own job: Monday, Something to Think About? — a question for the church and for us in it; Tuesday and Thursday, Messages from the Outpost — house fellowship teaching round the table; Wednesday, Write this Down — one truth to keep for the walk. Fridays bring a series, at present Ephesians: The Letter Written to You, and one email on Sunday, The Christian Compass, closes the week and opens the next.

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