JackHammer

How many of you have helped a young child get a project started only to find them later struggling, discouraged, and lost because they began to do the job the way they thought it should be done rather than the way you started them?

Paul experienced the same thing with the Galatian Christians and confronted them about this with these words:

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:1-3

To Paul, the Christian life boils down to finishing the way we started. In the midst of many possible arguments, he says that the only thing he needs to know is if they received the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Answering that one question should be enough to set us straight.

Of course, this is a rhetorical question. When both parties know the answer to a rhetorical question, the device is effective. The answer is obvious, and it’s seen in the next verse: “having begun in the Spirit.” 

It is foolish to think that you can start one way and finish in another way. If law-keeping was ineffective to start, it surely it is ineffective to finish. And the truth is that if Christ has done a work in our lives, that work should make us wiser than to think we can be made mature by trusting in ourselves.

Let me ask you, How did you begin? How were you saved? Did you finally come to the end of yourself and completely put your faith in Christ? Were you saved by the Spirit? I hope so.

Sanctification works the same way. I didn’t say looks the same way. It works the same way. We are made complete in Christ by coming to the end of ourselves and putting our trust in Christ. If you work to look sanctified, you’re a foolish man-pleaser. Whatever that looks like to you. Whether it is always wearing a shirt and tie; or always wearing a dress; never drinking; drinking to the glory of God; looking like you are enjoying and fully participating in worship; or singing only Psalms. If you’re working to look sanctified, you’re a foolish man-pleaser. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

As an aside, let me point out, it’s not the law that kills. It is the works of the law; the letter of the law. Grace gives us strength to fulfill the law. As a matter of argument, let’s just forget the law and be like Jesus. WWJD? Well, He fully kept the law. He fulfilled it. He is the law Incarnate.

So, finish the job. Do that in the same manner as the start. Work out your salvation. You were saved in a wonderful way. Keep on in the same wonderful way. While doing this, don’t presume upon the mercy of God.

The way to growth is through the Spirit. Recognize your lack. If we lack wisdom we are to ask of God. Do this repeatedly throughout each day. In this way, we grow in grace. Realize that the way to failure and death is by the works of the law, the flesh, the letter. On the outside, many look like separated Christians, but inwardly, they are not. Do not trust in fleshly looks. Do not rely on rules.

Oh, and by the way, do not reject rules if you do not have wisdom yourself. If you don?t understand, but in other areas you recognize the wisdom involved, follow in these “unknown” areas until you see their truth or falsehood.

Live today as you were born (again) yesterday. Finish the job.

I don’t think many of you would be impressed with my disgust with a diet of caterpillars if you knew my preference was eating cockroaches.  I don’t believe that “to each his own” or even “let’s agree to disagree” would come to mind.  More like, “No way!”

Maybe you might be impressed by my disgust with the religion of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.  Jesus asked him about God’s commandments and he said he had kept those since he was a little kid. The Pharisees had taken the law and turned it into something that could be performed by human ability alone; a totally natural compliance to the law. They morphed the law into a group of activities by which they earned their own salvation. All of this was in the flesh; completely natural; completely carnal.

Charges of Legalism

Separatists like ourselves often get charged by evangelicals and now fundamentalists as a performance oriented group that does what we do as a means of keeping in good favor with God by our own works.  Are they right?  In certain cases, they might be.  It’s always possible that we are doing right in the flesh.  The key to their diagnoses, however, is how “strict” we are or “must be.”

Many evangelicals and fundamentalists are sure that we have moved into our standards minus the Spirit—just choreographing the Christian life, everything being merely a performance.  After all, “that’s how it was to them when they were a fundamentalist.”  They were performing and failing.  It’s true; they were legalists.  But was it because of the standards?  Or was it because they had turned the keeping of these standards as a means of racking up merit points with God?  When I look at many of the standards of those they consider to be “right-wing,” I don’t see a problem with them.  Are people legalists just because they have a high standard?  Are the standards themselves the problem?

If the standards mean you are a legalist, then Paul had a problem.  He had a standard of not taking money from the people to whom he preached (1 Corinthians 9), because he believed it would be a testimony conflict for his preaching.  It was lawful for him to take money from his audience.  He demonstrates this by quoting the Old Testament.  So his standard wasn’t even taught anywhere in Scripture and yet he kept it.  It wasn’t the only standard that he took on as part of his strategy for not offending the lost or causing a brother to stumble.  And he was obviously instructing the Corinthians to have the same type of standards.  He commanded them to imitate him (1 Corinthians 11:1).

The number of liberties we have (or how much grace we have) isn’t growing.  We have exactly the number of liberties and grace that Scripture says that we are to have.  We have liberties where Scripture doesn’t teach us either to do something or not to do something.  We don’t have liberty to sin (Romans 6:1).  We don’t have liberty to disobey our pastor on a non-scriptural issue (Hebrews 13:17).  We don’t have liberty to cause disunity in a church (Ephesians 4:1-5).  We don’t have liberty to be a stumbling block or a bad testimony even if it is a non-scriptural issue (1 Corinthians 8, 10).   We don’t have liberty to make provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14).   You see, Scripture teaches something in all of those areas.  The Bible does restrict our liberties even in non-Scriptural issues.   We get the exact amount of liberty that God wants us to have.

The Left Wing Legalist

An evangelical or fundamentalist will often talk about the multiplication of rules as being what characterizes the legalist, referring to the practice of the Pharisees in their Talmudic traditions.  That’s not all they did though.  They did add extra-scriptural regulations as an application of some Old Testament commandments, but they also would practice a kind of minimilization or reductionism as a means of keeping the stack of laws they already multiplied.  Since they couldn’t please God in the laws that were actual laws of God, they reduced the laws to a number they could keep.  They spent hours and hours arguing among themselves about the greatest of the commandments.  Whether they tried to keep all of their traditions in the flesh or minimalized all of those into a few that they could keep in the flesh, what they were doing was all flesh.  Legalism is flesh, whether right wing or left wing.

Evangelicals and fundamentalists have standards.  Those have recently become more apparent in their responses to the extreme worldliness of the emergent church.   Minimizing standards doesn’t result in more grace.  It very well could result in more sin.  Some of the standards kept by strong personal separatists are an application of Paul’s command to “flee fornication” or Peter’s command to “abstain from fleshly lusts.”  God hasn’t given us grace to sin.  The grace of God teaches us to deny ourselves of fleshly lusts (Titus 2:11-12).  Grace gives us the ability to keep the standards and by keeping them we experience the grace of God’s holiness.  When we sin because we weren’t careful about our associations or attractions, that doesn’t represent more grace for us.

Here is how right wing legalism becomes left wing: Keep Scriptural standards in the flesh—failure— turn Scriptural standards into human standards that can be kept in the flesh—failure—reduce the number of standards to a number that can be kept in the flesh—failure–reduce the standards even further so that they can be kept in the flesh—failure.  Now we are to left wing legalism. What does all legalism have in common? Standards, whether Scriptural or unScriptural, are kept in the flesh. They become something of a mere performance, and they miss the heart, faith in the Lord.

Roman Catholicism is a classic example. As then is Anglicanism. Anglicanism started when King Henry the Eighth disobeyed the Pope in divorcing his wife. He reduced Catholicism by one standard—we won’t obey the pope, but now we will obey the chief bishop of the Church of England.  We don’t become less legalistic by reducing the standards.  Most evangelicals that I read are obsessed with standards, something I don’t find with the separatists with whom I primarily fellowship. 

“Former” Legalists?

There are testimonies of former right wing legalists all over the internet.   I have found that they consistently use very little Scripture to justify their jump from the right-wing. Their response to becoming a right wing legalist is becoming a left wing legalist.  They haven’t stopped being a legalist.  They practiced flesh before and they’re still practing flesh today, even more so.   They weren’t impressive to God and they still aren’t impressive to God.  The problem never was with legalism.  They still practice it.   They think that because they have moved left-wing that they aren’t a legalist any more.  They practice legalism and they do in a classic and most Pharisaaical way.  They would say that they left that problem behind, but they haven’t.  However, what do they list as their issues?

Some evangelicals claim that certain preachers and churches have attempted to shrink their liberties.   They want more liberty and because they do, these preachers and churches are now “legalists.”   Some churches might be legalistic, but it isn’t because they have standards.  A common example is the “pants issue.”  If a leader is taking away liberties by requiring skirts and dresses of the ladies of a church, then most of the Christians for the last four hundred years were dupes of legalism.   They considered this designed gender distinction to be genuine Scriptural dress code, just like many conservatives today believe the Bible teaches complementarianism when it comes to gender roles.  Is someone legalist because they forbid a lady preacher in the pulpit?  Of course not.  Do you see that the standard itself is not legalism?  It is the heart and attitude of the person who makes keeping the standard legalistic.  Nothing is wrong with women wearing dresses.  It is based upon Biblical teaching.  Because someone thinks women should wear skirts and dresses doesn’t make him a legalist.  Because a Christian thinks that men ought to be the head of their homes doesn’t make him a legalist either.   Just because a right wing legalist doesn’t like a standard and so leaves his church doesn’t mean that now he isn’t a legalist.  He isn’t experiencing more grace because he doesn’t hold to that standard any longer.  We don’t get grace by either keeping or not keeping a standard.  We experience the grace of God as a Christian by faith.  A person keeping less standards doesn’t necessarily have more faith. His problem could be that he doesn’t have enough.  He doesn’t like the awkward feeling he gets in dressing different than the world, but rather than taking responsibility for his fear, he charges his church and leaders with legalism.

Stay Tuned for Part Two

In John 9:39, our Lord Jesus Christ declares a reason for His coming:  “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”  He’s not talking about His second coming, but His first coming.  He came for judgment.  Isaiah thrice repeats this mission in Isaiah 42:1-4 in the first of The Servant Songs.  I’m going to bold and italicize the three.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.  He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.  He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

The position of this text in Isaiah gives it an amazingly emphatic place in describing the purpose why Jesus came to earth.  We will see together that the Father poured out His Spirit upon Jesus Christ so that He would bring in an entirely new order of living for those who would wait on Him.

The Context of Isaiah 42:1-4

In the second half of Isaiah, beginning in Isaiah 40, God assures Israel that He will protect them through and then out of the Babylonian captivity.  They can trust Him.  They can trust in Him because of Who He is and how He has worked, and He will deliver them if they wait on Him (chapter 40).  Chapter 41 opens up the section of which Isaiah 42:1-4 is a part.  The first seven verses read as a court case in which God gives evidence of His Sole Status as God in the way of His sovereignty over history, predicting the coming of the Persian King Cyrus 160 years before his reign and the fear that will dominate Israel’s enemies as a result.   In an interlude in 41:8-20, God calls on His servants, Israel, not to fear with Him so near.  In 41:21-29, God is back to His court room, calling on all the non-true-god people and their gods to produce evidence of their veracity.  God makes predictions far in advance of their fulfillment and can explain how they relate to the past and the present.  If any religious group could do the same, God would acknowledge their Deity.  They can’t, and so in their pomp and circumstance, they are nothing.

God comforts His servants, Israel, in 41:8-20 after evidence of Himself in history.  God now addresses His Servant in 42:1-9, after evidence of Himself in fulfilled prophecy.  His Servant is one of those predictions.  The gods with all their bedazzling self-promotion are useless, but in His quiet gentleness, The Servant will change everything.  What will He do?

The Mission of The Servant of Isaiah 42:1-4

Jesus is The Servant.  We know that based on the internal context of Isaiah 42, but we also have a clear statement of Jesus in Matthew 12:18ff.  The Father expressed His delight with the obedience of His Servant and poured out His Spirit upon Him at His baptism (Matthew 3:13-16).  His humble adherence to this portrayal of His future work—His death, burial, and resurrection—in servant fashion submitted to the will of His Master.  God wants us to serve, but we can’t without His Servant.  His Servant enables our service how?  By means of His judgment of the Gentiles (nations).

The mission of Jesus was the judgment of the nations (Gentiles).  What is that?  The word “judgment” (mishpot) is an important term in the Old Testament.  If you don’t know what that word means, then you will not know what these verses are all about.  The passage contains a building presentation of this work of Jesus Christ—His judgment of the nations, His judgment unto truth, and then His setting of judgment in the earth.  The manner in which He accomplishes this is non-physical and non-violent.  He will not break an already fractured reed and He will not so much as blow out a smoldering wick in getting His task accomplished.  We know that He does it by means of His life, death, burial, and resurrection.

The Hebrew word translated “judgment” (mishpot) does mean, in its broadest sense, societal order, in which the concerns of all are addressed. Salvation involves a wholesale change in societal order, first in the people who He saves, and ultimately everywhere. God’s salvation changes the order of someone’s life and when He finishes off salvation, He’ll bring order everywhere. This is a life-giving order, which exists when the creation is functioning in accordance with the design of its Lord.

If you look down at verse four, you’ll see that those of these nations whom He saves are those who wait on His law.  His law.  Grace is about the law of Christ transforming the order of society.  He will set it in the nations, that is, He will establish a new order on earth, and where we see that now is in the church.  Everything in the church smacks of the order of the Lord in which He rules and reigns.  When Jesus returns to finish that work in the second coming, we will see it all over the world, in every nation unto the furthest islands.

The kingdom of God on earth today stands in the church.  God has a wholly different standard of living in His kingdom and that is represented in the church.  The grace of God through Christ changes His servants into what He originally intended at creation.  They honor His design with male headship and female submission, indicating that design of God through their appearance.  The non-true-god people are called an abomination at the end of chapter 41 because they fail to recognize God as Creator.  The lack of recognition of God’s design on earth is an abomination to Him (Lev. 18:22; Deut. 22:5).

The Lord Jesus Christ through His power and grace changes the church into a living portrayal of God’s order on earth.  They live differently, act differently, and look differently than the world.  Their music is different.  Their relationships are different—they love one another, reconcile, and forgive.  Everything about them speaks of God and His ways.  If this isn’t what you see in a church, then it surely doesn’t represent the grace of God. Those in the house of God have a different standard of behavior, an entirely different culture than the world. That’s what God accomplishes through the mission of grace fulfilled by His Servant, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

During the month of August, other duties prevent my normal weekly offerings. Still, wishing to participate in the month’s discussion, and above all, desiring to understand more fully the topic at hand, I shall offer up some extra reading on said topic.

Whenever the issue of “Law and Grace” comes up, my mind immediately goes to that great verse in John 1:17 –

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Spurgeon’s sermon, which only indirectly deals with the issue of law and grace as we currently debate it, yet fills us with the richness and glory of the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, and reminds us that the law typified that grace and truth that came by Jesus. In reading this magnificent message, I am reminded that the law is grace, and that grace is found in the law of God.

May God richly bless you as you read and meditate!

THE TRUE TABERNACLE, AND ITS GLORY OF GRACE AND PEACE.
NO. 1862
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 1885,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14.

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” — John 1:17.

THERE was a time when God freely communed with men. The voice of the Lord God was heard walking in the garden in the cool of the day. With unfallen Adam the great God dwelt in sweet and intimate fellowship — but sin came and not only destroyed the garden, but destroyed the intercourse of God with his creature, man. A great gulf opened between man as evil, and God as infinitely pure; and had it not been for the amazing goodness of the most High, we must all of us for ever have been banished from his presence, and from the glory of his power. The Lord God in infinite love resolved that he himself would bridge the distance, and would again dwell with man; and in token of this he made himself manifest to his chosen nation Israel when they were in the wilderness. He was pleased to dwell in type and symbol among his people, in the very center and heart of their camp. Do you see yonder tent with its curtains of goats’ hair in the center of the canvas city? You cannot see within it; but it was all glorious within with precious wood, and pure gold, and tapestry of many colors. Within its most sacred shrine shone forth a bright light between the wings of cherubim, which light was the symbol of the presence of the Lord. But if you cannot see within, yet you can see above the sacred tent a cloud, which arises from the top of the Holy of Holies, and then expands like a vast tree so as to cover all the host, and protect the chosen of God from the intense heat of the sun, so apt to make the traveler faint when passing over the burning sand. If you will wait till the sun is down, that same cloud will become luminous, and light up the whole camp. Thus it was both shade and light; and by its means was enjoyed that safety which was afterwards set forth in the promise, “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” Over all the glory was a defense and a comfort. The Lord dealt not so with any nation, save only his people Israel, of whom he said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Read the rest of this entry →

The Women

The Sons

The Covenants

What can we learn from this comparison?

For my next installment of things I wish I had time to say myself, I have selected a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress in which Christian and Faithful encounter a man named “Talkative.” You might think of Talkative as a prolific blogger, blogging about the spiritual benefits of, say, Rock-n-roll and Corn Liquor (Hic!) As you read, you might note how very pious Talkative appears at the first, and how very quickly his piety degenerates into a not-so-pious accusation when Faithful gets down to the real business of giving Talkative the business. You might note how quickly Talkative uses the “divisiveness” card when confronted. You might note how very similar Talkative is to some bloggers we know, who sound very godly, so long as you don’t get to know them very well, whose fair speech conceals their worldly lifestyle. You might note how blunt Faithful becomes when he realizes what he is dealing with. Or, you might wonder if maybe John Bunyan wasn’t a little extreme in the use of his “Christian Liberty.”

Of course, Christian Liberty really only goes in one direction — towards carnality. Right? I mean, Christian Liberty allows men to booze, but not to revile the boozers. But I digress. Sit back and enjoy this installment of “He told you so.”

And may God brightly enlighten you as you read!

Moreover, I saw in my dream, that as they went on, Faithful, as he chanced to look on one side, saw a man whose name was Talkative, walking at a distance beside them; for in this place there was room enough for them all to walk. He was a tall man, and something more comely at a distance than at hand. To this man Faithful addressed himself in this manner.

FAITH. Friend, whither away? Are you going to the heavenly country?

TALK. I am going to the same place.

FAITH. That is well; then I hope we shall have your good company?

TALK. With a very good will, will I be your companion.

FAITH. Come on, then, and let us go together, and let us spend our time in discoursing of things that are profitable.

TALK. To talk of things that are good, to me is very acceptable, with you or with any other; and I am glad that I have met with those that incline to so good a work; for, to speak the truth, there are but few who care thus to spend their time as they are in their travels, but choose much rather to be speaking of things to no profit; and this hath been a trouble to me.

Read the rest of this entry →

We know what God’s grace, the only grace, will look like.  We can also know what is an imposter grace.  Jude wrote (1:4):

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Men might turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, that is, into license.  This is a common contemporary practice.  Grace is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.  God’s grace is a cleansing agent, not a garbage can.  As we look especially at portions of Scripture that speak of the grace of the Lord and our liberty in Christ, we will be guided by God in an understanding of God’s grace.  When we do, we see something that is vastly different than what often purports to be grace even in modern evangelicalism.  We find that those who claim the “doctrines of grace” obviously don’t possess the grace of the Bible.

Among even so-called fundamentalists today, there is a deliberate choice to disregard worldly or sinful behavior as having any significance to fellowship or salvation.  This doctrinal and practical neutrality has been accepted in the trojan-horse of a false view of grace.  Grace has been dumbed down and redefined.  They advocate a grace that changes someone’s standing without altering his state.  With all of this, there is no wonder that Christians are confused—the churches mirror the world, leaders follow the culture, and teachers provide their stamp of approval.

Truth about Grace

Grace is dynamic, active and working, not some dormant or abstract quality.  Paul’s epistles frequently contrasted grace with law (Romans 4:16; 5:20; 6:14-15; Galatians 2:21; 5:4).  However, Paul was very careful in expounding that grace does not nullify the moral demands of God’s law. Instead, it fulfills the righteousness of the law (Romans 6:14-15). It does not annul the righteous demands of the law, but confirms and validates them (Romans 3:31).  Grace has its own law, a higher, liberating one:  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2; see also James 1:25).

Grace is not a one-time event in a Christian’s experience.  He stands in grace (Romans 5:2).  His entire Christian life is driven and empowered by grace.

The Laws 

Grace does far more than the following list, but these laws about grace especially help us understand how grace restrains and cleanses.  True grace has ofttimes been replaced today by a cheap, placebo grace that does not manifest any real conversion.  This list should guide you in the grace of God.

1. Grace forbids sin (Romans 6: 1, 2—”What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”).
2. Grace denies ungodliness (Titus 2:11, 12—”For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”).  “Ungodliness” (asebeia) is irreverence, anything that doesn’t smack of a quality or attribute of God.
3. Grace rejects worldly lusts (Titus 2:11, 12—see above).    “Worldly lusts” are desires for those things characterized by this world, by the spirit of the age.
4. Grace enables law-keeping (Romans 7:16-25).  The “law…is good” (v. 16) and Paul does not know how to perform the good (the law) because of indwelling sin.  However, the grace of Christ through His inward man delivers Him from the law of sin in his members.
5. Grace exchanges the allowed for the advantageous (1 Corinthians 6:12a—”All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.”).  Our liberty in Christ transcends what is just lawful for what is most advantageous for pleasing God.
6. Grace releases from bondage to anything but God (1 Corinthians 6:12b—”All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”).
7. Grace flees temptation (1 Corinthians 6:18; 10:13, 14).  Grace flees fornication and flees idolatry as the way of escape from temptation that God has provided.
8. Grace pleases God not self (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; 10:31).  Grace is about glorifying God in our body and our spirit in whatsoever we do.
9. Grace makes no occasion for the flesh (Galatians 5:13—”For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”  Grace will not form a base of operations for our flesh to satisfy its wants.
10. Grace avoids causing others to stumble (1 Corinthians 8:7-13; 10:29).  We are not given lilberty to make the Christian life more difficult for other people.
11. Grace brings self under subjection for the sake of the lost (1 Corinthians 9:16-27).  Grace places the spiritual needs of others above selfish, albeit permissible, desires.  Grace led Paul to make necessary sacrifices to best represent the gospel to unbelievers.
12. Grace seeks to strengthen fellowship with God (1 Corinthians 10:16-23).  Our ungodly associations could harm the communion of others with God, so that they are not edified.   The wrong communion with people and doctrine harms communion with the church and with the Lord.
13. Grace works out good works (Ephesians 2:8-10—v. 10—”For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”).  The grace that saves will cause good works.  God’s grace looks like good works.
14. Grace makes a servant (Ephesians 3:7—”Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”; Galatians 5:13—”For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”).  We haven’t been given grace to do what we want to do.
15. Grace imitates church leadership (1 Corinthians 11:1).  We have grace to follow leadership that follows Christ.  We haven’t been given grace to disobey our pastor on non-Scriptural issues.
16. Grace unifies the church (local) (1 Corinthians 10:16-21; Ephesians 3:16-4:7).  We have grace for the communion of the body.  Grace brings one accord in the membership around one doctrine and practice.  We haven’t been given grace to cause disunity in the church.

Paul encountered much objection in Galatia when he preached the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.  The leadership among the Jews demanded circumcision and keeping the laws of Moses in lieu of coming to Christ.  Paul wrote:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.  Galatians 2:16

He also said to them:

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.   Galatians 1:6-8

So salvation by grace is a true gospel and salvation by works is a cursed, false gospel.

Many today, however, have taken God’s saving grace and turned it into lawlessness, also called antinomianism.   They essentially have made grace a garbage can for their sins.  Instead of cleaning up their lives, God’s grace enables them to sin without consequence.  God’s grace doesn’t allow us to live any way that we want.  Just the opposite, someone who regularly lives a worldly, fleshly, or sinful life proves that he was never under the grace of God, because God’s grace isn’t a trash receptacle, but a cleansing agent, transforming a life.

The hypothetical antagonist of Romans 6:15 asks, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”  This wasn’t just a straw man.  People thought this in Paul’s day, and they manifested a complete misunderstanding of what Paul taught.   They weren’t under a system of law that required them to produce their own righteousness.   We never have been and we still aren’t.  But that grace that we receive, that saves, also enables or empowers us to live lawfully.

Paul said that it works like this:  “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).   To whomever we characteristically yield ourselves servants to obey, that is whom we serve.  Those under the dominion of grace, serve righteousness.  They keep the law.  Those under the dominion of the law, serve sin.  The law doesn’t enable anyone to keep it.

So, “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11, 12).  Nobody is justified by the law.  If you add one regulation of the law to grace, you nullify grace.  God forbid, however, if you think that God’s grace yields lawlessness.  If you do, then you probably don’t have the grace of God in your life.  God’s grace isn’t like that.  The grace of God will enable you to keep the law of Christ from the heart.

It is important to any understanding of Scripture that we realize the significance and meaning of the message that was first delivered to the saints. To know what Scripture means to us today, we must understand what it meant to the original recipients of the Word. This is not a difficult task, but it is one that must be recognized.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24

When New Testament Christians read this verse, they learned that the law was a paidagogos. When they saw that word, they would never have thought of a schoolmaster as we do today. The paidagogos was more like what we might think of as an escort or a bodyguard. This servant’s job was to protect the child from evil influences and guarantee that he arrived at the teacher’s house. He didn’t teach anything except what not to do, and he normally taught that with a rod or switch. The paidagogos brought the child to the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster taught the child what he need to know to be a citizen.

The law protected the nation of Israel and preserved the lineage of Christ, so that Christ could teach us how to become citizens. The law (the paidagogos) brought us to Christ (the master teacher) so we could learn that true living comes by faith.

Christ is the master teacher. The law is a ruthless slave. If you want to know how to live, look to Christ, not the law.

I love power steering fluid.  I also love my wife.  Do you see how that the meaning of words can become confusing?   The word “awe” applies only to God and His Word in the Bible, so I want to be careful using that term to describe a skateboard move (”awesome!”).  As I ice down the rolling-pin shaped bruise on the back of my head (maybe I don’t love power steering fluid any more), we will think about this problem as it relates to two other words:  law and grace.

The terminology “the law” appears 320 times in Scripture in 280 verses.  “Grace” is found 170 times in 159 verses.  “The law” doesn’t always mean the same thing, so that does present somewhat of an interpretational difficulty.  “Grace” is usually consistent in its meaning, but has recently especially been perverted into something that it is not.  Both of these words are important to comprehend for us to understand the Bible.

Let me start by clearing up any disastrous misunderstanding of “the law.”

What Is “the Law”?

Sometimes we know that “the law” is the first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the Torah or the Pentateuch.  We see this clearly in Joshua 8:31, which reads:  “as it is written in the book of the law of Moses.”  We also get this usage in the New Testament, as we see in 1 Corinthians 9:9, “For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?”

On other occasions, when Scripture says “the law” it means merely one particular regulation of God, such as in Leviticus 14:57:  “To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.”

Other times, “the law” is some other place in the Old Testament.  What Isaiah wrote in 28:11, 12 wasn’t Mosaic law:  “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.  To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”  However, Paul calls it “the law” in 1 Corinthians 14:21 when he targummed:  “In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.”

That’s not all.  Consider 1 John 3:4:  “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”  Sin is breaking God’s law and Adam sinned (Romans 5:12).  Adam broke God’s law, so the law was already in existence before Moses.  Romans 4:15 says that “where no law is, there is no transgression.”  What law did Adam transgress?  He ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, an act that God had plainly prohibited.  Romans 5:14 tells us that “death reigned from Adam until Moses.”  Death was the result of sin and sin was the transgression of the law.  Adam broke “the law” before Moses was ever born.

When Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “[W]hosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart,” that too was the law of God, even though you won’t find it in the Old Testament.

Paul wrote in Romans 7:1, 2:  “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.”  Paul states that “the law” says the woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives.  What Old Testament passages say that?  Nowhere in the Old Testament reads what Paul said was ”the law.”  It is true, however, that Jesus makes this specific point in Mark 10:9.  At least Paul clearly perceived that Jesus had taught that in Mark, as seen in 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 and then especially v. 39:  “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.”  We can conclude that all the commands, statutes, ordinances, and judgments of God in the Bible are “the law.”

Are We Freed from “the Law”?

In answer to this question, consider these verses:

Matthew 5:17-19

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It looks like we’re to continue keeping the least of His commandments.  Why?  Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law.  Our relationship to the law has changed once we are born again, but it doesn’t mean we’re not keeping the law anymore.

Romans 3:31

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

We establish the law through faith.  Faith doesn’t end law-keeping.

Romans 8:4

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us.  The law still holds value, even for the Christian.

1 Timothy 1:8

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

So if we use it lawfully, the law is good.  That means we’re supposed to keep using it.

Romans 7:12-14

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

These verses say that the law is holy, just, good, and spiritual.  Sin is still the transgression of the law.  That means we are to keep practicing the law.

Galatians 3:21

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

The law is not against the promises of God.  The law can’t do certain things for which it was not designed, but it is good for what God did design it.

Galatians 3:24

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

The law continues serving as a schoolmaster.  The believer still utilizes God’s law in evangelism of the lost.

So are we “freed from the law”?  No.  Nowhere in Scripture are we said to be “freed from the law.”  Are we “released from the law”?  No.  The Bible in no place says that we are “released from the law.”  Are we no longer “under obligation to the law?”  No.  We are not and never have been under obligation to keep the law as a means of righteousness, but we are obligated to keep the law.

What Is Our Relationship to the Law?

We’re “dead to the law” (Galatians 2:19-21), that is, we’re no long under the penalty for breaking the law, which is death.  We already died with Christ; we don’t have to face the penalty of the law, so we’re dead to it.  We are dead to the penalty and condemnation of the law.  We are not “under the law” (Romans 6:14, 15; Galatians 3:23; 5:18), that is, we are not attempting to earn salvation by keeping the law, neither are we under that Old Testament system.

Paul would do good, that is, keep the law, but he couldn’t because of the law of sin in his members (Rom. 7:21, 23).  When he succeeded at obeying the law of God, he did because he “delight(ed) in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom. 7:22) and because of the deliverance through the Lord Jesus Christ, who enabled him to “serve the law of God” with the mind of the Spirit (Rom. 7:24).

Paul could obey God’s commandments through “the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2a) which set him “free from the law of sin and death.”  The law of sin and death is different than God’s law.  God’s law is good.  Sin, however, perverts the law, turning it into the law of sin and death.  But our salvation in Christ delivers us from this perversion.  This “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57) allows us to obey the good law of God by saving us from the penalty and power of sin.

Conclusion

God’s saving grace did not free us to perform unlawful deeds (2 Pet. 2:8).  The lawless are the unbelievers (1 Tim. 1:9).  Where grace abounds, sin does not.  By saving us, God does not give us license to break His law.  Instead, by His grace sin no longer has dominion over us (Rom. 6:12) for we are dead indeed unto sin (Rom. 6:1).  On the other hand, a Biblical understanding of the law strikes the perfect balance between pietism and quietism.   The Spirit of the law enables the believer to obey the law and the spirit of it by the grace of God.  Anything else is a disastrous misunderstanding of the law and grace.