Dead to the law (and General Law)

Reading through Colquhoun's Treatise on the Law and the Gospel I was reminded of a big insight I'd had awhile back (how easy we forget) about how being dead to the law correlates to no longer being part of the General Law. Just the connection between the Law and the General Law is big. It's an example of how the Work puts skin on the bones of doctrine. I *know* what the General Law is. I've been up against it in my life. When I read of the Law in its collective influence on me in works of doctrine it is abstract and theoretical. And I'm not making a facile connection between the word 'law' in each thing. The General Law is condemning, it is accusing, it is death-dealing. It is coercive and mocking; an all-around curse. That is what the law is to us after the fall. The law inside us is the power of sin. Just as the features of false personality inside us are the internal correlation to the General Law.

Because the law, the Covenant of Works, the Ten Commandments, is one thing as mere law. It is a guide, it points to Christ, etc.; but... After the fall the law became a curse. Not just something we couldn't follow and therefore a constant death sentence, but an actual 'thing'. A presence, a dark, monstrous presence. The power of sin. Both in the world and in us. In all of humanity. Acting through human beings. An accusing power. Satan's power in this world as well. It is *that* aspect of the law, as dark, monstrous presence, that correlates to the General Law.

So now there is a whole area of thought regarding how we are to be towards the law once dead to the law (or separated from the General Law). The Work informs biblical doctrine interestingly here too.

Orthodox (Calvinist) doctrine speaks of the three uses of the law:

1. It condemns us and gives us no solution within itself and thus points us in the direction to Christ as the solution.

2. It puts a restraint on sin in terms of a standing legal code based on the second table of the law (thou shalt not murder, steal, give false witness, etc.).

3. It tells us what the will of God is regarding us and our behavior. It is a guide.

Now the Work states that for a Man #4 and higher the General Law can be used for friction. Necessary friction for development. And you can see for all three points above there is a real friction involved. A choice friction. A yes or no friction. A do this or don't do this friction. Once regenerated we are free from the law as a curse, but to develop we will need friction, and the law (and the General Law) provides this...for the 'sly' man, or the wily man.

But really it has to be remember that there are these two aspects of the law. The law as it exists as a code with commandments, and the law as it exists as a monstrous curse that emanates organically through sinful hearts and the spiritual world and from inside us as well. That latter, General Law aspect is used to provide necessary friction for development. We meet it with the two conscious shocks. With going against all the features of false personality. There are biblical correlations to them all, long-suffering might be one for not internally-considering, fasting might be one for non-identitfying in general, watchfulness might be one for self-remembering, etc.