2015-06-19
Good Morning Loved Ones,
Last week, we began to see why it was necessary for God to trump the Covenant of the Law with the Covenant of Grace. We will look more closely into that this week. The law serves to let people know what pleases God and what doesn’t, what God considers sin and what is not. But sadly, the ancient Jews took the format of presenting the law as more important than the content of what God was teaching. This led them into a legalistic approach to their lives, one that didn’t serve to function to give people God’s full perspective. Format flat out got in the way of understanding and applying God’s teaching [GA 3: 19-20].
Moreover RO 3: 20 gives us further illumination. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather though, through the law we become conscious of sin.” RO 11: 32, “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.” This is another way of saying what we find in RO 3: 23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This gives God the opportunity to reveal His heart of mercy toward His human creation. Many times I have cited RO 3: 24-26 as a reason for us to have faith in Christ. “And are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a Sacrifice of Atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished---He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One Who justified those who have faith in Jesus.” This reveals God’s grace in that He accepted Christ’s sacrifice of His physical life on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind to be forgiven forever [1JN 1: 9], i.e. Christ is a Propitiation for believing mankind’s sins. In addition, it is just that once the law was given, mankind could now be held accountable for His sinning. If God didn’t do that, His teaching would be meaningless.
Now, let’s go back to Galatians 3 and examine verses 23-25. “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” This tells us that the law alone doesn’t get rid of sin; it just lets us know what is sin. It was not until we were led to have faith in Christ, by the grace of God, that true forgiveness of sin was available. We must understand that with true faith in Christ and genuine repentance, we are “adopted” into the family of God [RO 8: 14-16] and enjoy all the privileges and blessings that come from eternal forgiveness of our sins. What the law did was to reveal our need for redemption, and what Christ did on the cross was to give people willing to believe in Him and repent that redemption. No discussion of this subject is complete without one of the most important passages in the NT, EPH 2: 8-10. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” This is FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION. It is not by human works but by God’s grace that we are saved. As for good deeds, God prepares the good deeds a saved person will do by virtue of the talents, opportunities, and interests we are given.
Remember that justification is defined as being deemed acceptable by God, as Abraham was, GN 15: 6. Having written that, we must understand that no one is justified by the law. A righteous person lives by faith in Christ and the grace of God. GA 2: 16, “Know that a man is not justified by the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law, no one is justified.” With such a statement, there can be no ambiguity about the relationship of law and grace. JAS 2: 10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” It might come as a surprise that the foundation for righteousness was already given in the OT, in Isaiah 26: 1-6 (especially vss. 3-4) and the minor prophet, Habakkuk, HB 2: 4. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal…the righteous shall live by faith.” One more very important passage that lends understanding is RO 1: 16-17, “I [Paul] am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew and then, for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written [in HB 2: 4] ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Living “by the Holy Spirit rather than by the written code” [RO 7: 6] is the best way to truly please God, be blessed, and find real happiness.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are given important reconnaissance against the evil one by You. For that we are truly grateful. We offer You our thanks for the patience in teaching us You have and for the blessing of what You teach. We confess the truth of Your Son’s words in JN 15: 5, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” We can see why the law was made necessary, due to mankind’s sinfulness and Your need to show them what is sin and what is not. However, our needs are much greater; they also involve faith in our Lord Jesus, willingness to repent, and redemption. Salvation and eternal forgiveness can only be available due to Christ’s obedience in going to the cross [LK 22: 42] and our coming to faith in Him. We must be sorry about our past sins, willing to genuinely confess them to You, and must stop these behaviors. These things will lead You to grant us eternal forgiveness, justification, and salvation. We understand there is more that we need, to mature in our faith and to serve others. We can no longer lead self-centered lives or by the dictates of mankind. It is time for us to put You at the center of our lives, and to grow in our faith. We can do this by cooperating with you in the process of sanctification---Your efforts to perfect and purify us in preparation for the day when You will call us to Your side for eternity in heaven [glorification]. Only You can determine when and how that time will come. In the meanwhile, we pledge to try to assume a balance between taking care of ourselves and serving others in our lives. We offer You our love and devotion in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: We’ll delve even further into the ideal life under the Covenant of Grace next week. Of course that life involves Christ being our Mediator between Himself and the Father too, so we’ll look at that. In the meanwhile, there are things to be said about the hope our Lord Jesus has given us. PS 146: 5, “But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their Helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” When chatting on the computer each week with seekers with questions about the Lord, I get the opportunity I’ve wanted for many years to witness to my own faith in Him. In offering my testimony, I chat about the sharp contrast of my life before He came into it and afterward. Beforehand, my life was not a life at all; it was existence. I had self-loathing, lack of confidence, lack of freedom to express myself, and doubts about spiritual issues. I even doubted that God really existed for awhile. Deep down in my starved soul was the need to be spiritually nourished and the egerness to search for that nourishment. In my early years I didn’t even recognize that. My parents saw to my intellectual and physical needs, but my emotional and spiritual ones were left wanting. I was given a lot of responsibility at quite an early age for the housekeeping, cooking, etc. In addition, I was expected to get good grades in school. Once I left for college, I was married to my first husband and had that home to keep up. But as the years went on, I began searching for the nourishment of my emotions and soul. After 15 years of marriage, my union with my first husband ended, and I was left with a son to raise and financial responsibilities (that I had great difficulty meeting). All during those years, God was keeping me in His sight, but I didn’t know it. I thought He had abandoned me. Gradually, He made His presence in my life known to me, and gave me the faith in His Son that I needed. He was there all the time, allowing me to go through all my misery, so that I could really appreciate His presence in my life and have strong faith in Christ, in His perfect time and way. Since coming to faith, my life has direction, fulfillment, service, and all the other blessings He wants me to have and appreciate. He will do this for anyone willing to listen to the truth and believe in His Son! To this, I testify with all my heart. Praise be to the Lord forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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