Why are we not to defend? Here's the position. We are ambassadors sent on a mission by the Embassy of Heaven Church. We have diplomatic immunities. What we're saying is we're not under the local laws. Now what happens if they haul you off to jail and you turn around and start defending as one who is under the law. Now you prove yourself to be a lawbreaker.
In other words, if the horse you start riding says, "I have immunities from the law. I'm not under the law. The Lord Jesus Christ nailed the law to His cross. I've been buried and raised in Christ." And you're riding that horse and then you turn around and make a defense under the law, then you REBUILD THAT WHICH YOU TORE DOWN. That's exactly what one of our ambassadors did. He was tempted by the law. They said to him: "You eluded a police officer and our law says that you can't do that." And the temptation was great - traveling 300 feet, no faster than 20 miles an hour, going into one's personal driveway. What a temptation! How could that possibly be construed as eluding? However, in order to prove his own innocence, he had to bring himself under the law. I don't care whether he won or lost in court. He happened to lose this time. But even if he won according to the courts of men, he still lost. Why did he lose? It's simple. Because he placed himself under the law and defended under the law when his original premise was, "I have diplomatic immunities. I am not under the law."
You never, ever can shift horses in the middle of the race. If you're going to ride the horse of not being under the law, you better ride it all the way. I don't care whether you have difficulties or hard times. I don't care if some judge starts yelling at you, threatening you with contempt of court. It doesn't matter what happens. You may be facing more jail time, they may declare you're crazy, they may try to work their magic spells and rituals upon you. It doesn't matter what they do. Once you ride the horse, "I'm not under the law," you cannot defend as if you were under the law.
Let's take the case of an ambassador, a worldly ambassador, who is performing his duties for the home country, fully aware that he is not under the local laws. He gets stopped by the police for exceeding the speed limit. He says to the officer, "Excuse me, did I do something wrong?" He then explains that he is a foreign ambassador and not subject to the local laws. What if the police officer doesn't respond, but hauls him to jail anyway. Can you imagine such an ambassador changing his mind and building a defense under the local laws? He will never do it, because his actions were done under the full knowledge that he is not subject to the local laws.
Lots of people start off believing they're not under the law. Then the furnace fire gets hotter and they forget everything they've learned. They start defending under the law. And they're going to lose! Actually, win or lose they still lose because they've changed their position and defended under the law.
We have been taken out of the world. We are His ambassadors. We represent the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ brought us a Kingdom. And how glorious that Kingdom is. That Kingdom is a government. It is the government of Jesus Christ and it will not take second place to any other government. It will not even consider competing with any of the states or nations or countries. It is.
We are citizens of that government. We find ourselves here in the world, but not of it. We are Christ's ambassadors. And the city authorities become greatly disturbed when we say there is another authority, a greater authority, one named Jesus. He has set us free from their local laws. Not that our freedom is a cloak to do evil. But our freedom is to be righteous, to love our neighbors as ourselves. That's the freedom, to act on that freedom. We do not need to get permission from any governments of the world to work for Jesus Christ. He is the final authority. He is our only justification. Through the Embassy of Heaven Church, with Jesus Christ as the Head, we have all the authority we need to go out and do His will.
We cannot possibly elude a police officer, we cannot possibly be reckless driving, we cannot possibly be without insurance, we cannot possibly be with an unregistered vehicle. Maybe I better rephrase it. The reason that these things are not possible is because we are not under those laws. When they ask us, "Is your vehicle registered?" we cannot answer. The question doesn't make sense, it does not compute.
What if I ask you, "Is your Volkswagen blue?" That's a question you can't answer unless you have a Volkswagen. If you don't have a Volkswagen, the question does not apply. You can't answer 'yes' or 'no.'
Any question that involves the law, we cannot answer. We cannot say 'Yes,' and we cannot say 'No.' It's a question that cannot be answered because we're not under the law. If we were under the law, then the question would be valid. "Yes, I broke the law, or 'No,' I did not break the law." Then you'd go into a trial to determine whether you did or did not break the law. But if you're not under the law, you can't answer the question and there's no one to judge anything. Who are they to judge someone else's servant?
Apostle Paul says it very clearly. "I could care less if I'm judged by you or by any human court." Why? Because the things that we are doing are in another realm. They are not to be judged by men. What we do is strictly judged by God and Him alone. If He sent us, who is another man to sit in judgment over what God sends us to do? Especially if we're doing His Son's work.