2002-01-01
In the last few messages I have been writing about Law versus grace. I’ve used the words Law and works somewhat interchangeably for a reason. The Lord prompts me to explain that people who live under the Covenant of the Law believe that their salvation can be obtained by what they do, i.e. works. As you undoubtedly know, there are even Christian denominations and the Mormon church which believe that salvation is obtained by a mixture of grace and works (deeds). The understanding that the Lord has given me and most main-stream Protestants and Messianic Jews is in line with what Les Feldick teaches, which is that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Les’ way of putting it, which I hope you will always remember, is FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION. The good deeds (works) might come as an outgrowth of one’s faith and justification (the act of God’s deeming one acceptable and righteous), but they do not alone bring salvation. Because Christ’s blood on the cross sealed the Covenant of Grace, we, who have repented and believe in Christ, subscribe to the belief that Les Feldick teaches. Faith, and faith alone brings us salvation. I have said this before and will repeat it, that a Law economy and a grace economy don’t mix. RO 10:4 tells us Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. What that means is the limited forgiveness, the efforts to bring salvation by our own works, the need for physical circumcision, the legalism, and all the problems with the Covenant of the Law no longer apply to us. Grace has replaced that. The law was for allowing us to know what was pleasing to God and what was not [RO 7:7], but it isn’t able to bring salvation. The Law is not evil. We shouldn’t throw out the Ten Commandments. We need to see it for what it is. GA 5: 6 is Paul’s way of stating the gist of what I’ve discussed above. “For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.” The issue of loving one another is nothing new. It first comes up in LV 19: 18, “Do not take revenge on anyone or continue to hate him, but love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord.” That’s early in the OT, and it really encompasses the entire Ten Commandments if one thinks about it. Now look at GA 5: 13-15 to see where God is inspiring Paul to take it. As for you, my brothers, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another. For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.” Doesn’t this give us a picture of the problems Paul addressed in Galatia? These are not problems isolated only to that place and time. As I said yesterday, the danger of inserting man’s spin on God’s word still is very real today. GA 3 and 4 are Paul’s doctrinal recourse against the teachings of the Judaizers of his day. But, these lessons still apply to us today. That is why it is important for us to spend the time on them that we will. How many of us have had the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to our doors? Do you know anyone who talks about how wonderful a new age congregation is? What about the more recognized Christian denominations who teach that grace and works must mix to give us salvation? In fact, let me put myself out on a controversial limb: Why do different denominations have to be there at all? I hope this won’t anger you, but my understanding is that most of these divisions occurred due to disagreements over how to govern our churches, what method we should use for taking the sacraments, how to interpret what happens when we take the sacraments, which rituals or Bible people should be emphasized, and the like. If we examine them carefully, these are man-made issues. What God wants if I understand David and the Pauline letters correctly is for the church to be one unified and edified Body of Christ. We should be loving one another as Christ loved us [JN 15: 12]. Don’t take my word for this; instead, please read EPH 4: 3, 13, 15-16, PHIL 2: 2-11, and PS 133: 1 so you can see what God has to say about it. Each of us is impacted by these truths in our own lives. Part of what God insists that I do in the course of writing these messages is to impart His will that we should not only be unified as individuals in our beliefs, but that we should also consider our interaction with each other as a part of our congregations. He commands that we love one another, which means that we edify each other and hold every person who is a believer or a potential believer as God’s precious one. We need to break down the barriers that exist between us and care deeply what happens to each other. We need to take action that will strengthen the faith of others as well as our own faith. The bottom line is that we need to keep Jesus Christ in leadership in our lives and in our congregations. Each of us has different circumstances in our lives, but all of us must keep our eyes firmly focused on obeying God and not losing sight of the goal that He sets for us. PRAYER: O Lord, in the story of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, You directed Him to respond to the devil in MT 4: 4, “Man cannot live by bread alone, but needs every word that You [God] speaks.” When You questioned Cain about slaying Abel, his question in GN 4: 9 was, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” When we put these two Scriptures together, Your message to us is clear. We need to be obedient to You, guided daily by Your word, and yes, we are our brother’s keeper. Because of our need to be in Your word daily, we take on the added responsibility to make sure that Your word is transmitted accurately and we don’t allow ourselves to be swerved either by the enemy or those submitting to the enemy into a different understanding of it than You intended. You mean for us to love one another as You directed Paul to repeat in RO 14: 8-10. Your Son modeled for us what real love is. Before His crucifixion He told us in JN 15: 13, “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.” Then, He put His words into action when He died on the cross, so we could be saved. Today, we acknowledge our need to be obedient to You, connected to You daily by staying in Your word and in prayer, accurate in our understanding of Your word assisted in that by the Holy Spirit, and willing to model Christ’s love for us by how we interact with each other as individuals and congregations. We stand alert to the danger of allowing human interpretations to be put on Your word. We humbly approach Your alter to confess our sins, to offer You profound gratitude for the blessings You give us, and to praise You for being the wonderful, awesome, righteous Lord of our lives that You are. In Christ’s name, amen. As I alluded to above, I am led to begin spending some time on GA 3 tomorrow. This important chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians has some valuable lessons for all of us in our lives today. What a precious treasure to us God’s word is! When we think about how much love He has for us, the love that is behind Him giving us not only His word but the Holy Spirit to help us understand it, we should be in total awe of Him. That love is unparalleled from any other source. He is truly our loving Abba and our Dearest Partner in the Covenant of Grace. Peter and I send you our love too. Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn