Who You Are In Christ - Free From The Law
Roger Henderson · Feb 24, 2008
Who You Are in Christ, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926053591372

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, well today we're on the seventh of the riches of God's grace out of 33. And this one is called Free From the Law. And this is actually an interesting one. You know, we've been going through this list, and we started with the eternal plan of God, with all those wonderful truths about us, and then redeemed, reconciled, related to God through propitiation. forgiven all trespasses, and then Bob last week did how we're co-joined, this word that seems like Schaeffer kind of coined, which I think is a cool word, to Christ, the judgment of the old man. And now we come to a seventh one. You might say, why do I need to know about the law? Isn't that, you know, but I think this is just really crucial.

This is kind of the flip side of knowing that we're immersed in God's grace. This is the flip side of that. I found it very neat in preparing for this. I found also that I hardly scratched the surface, too, as always happens, it seems like. Let's go here. I've got too many things to push here. Can I get a volunteer to read?

Actually, let me just point out, I found in preparing for this that Galatians chapter 3 is just really critical to understanding What happened with the law? And what's our relationship to the law? The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we're going to spend a lot of time in Galatians chapter 3. We're going to take it in two sections. But I was hoping I'd get a volunteer here to read. That's quite a bit of reading. If you want to split it up and we can do it two pieces. Okay, thanks Margaret. Okay, Galatians 3. Great.

O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you received ye of 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? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be death in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, And thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth him shall live in Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man doth knoweth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to the seed as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God and Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, It is no moral promise, but God gave it to Abraham by grace. Thank you. Actually, I don't think these guys have some handouts. Let me get some handouts here for you guys. We actually have them in the back these days.

Well, thanks, Margaret. That was a great reading. So I'd like to kind of go through selected verses from those 18 verses. and you know actually if you remember Verne spent I don't know how long he spent on this and if you go back even farther than Hal I actually have a chart that Hal did I don't know anyway Galatians is just a fabulous book and this section here is really critical I think to understand the place of the law and its purpose so let's just kind of go through I had a little bit of a problem here I didn't do my carriage returns in the right place when I did the I got them all kind of jumbled together, so I apologize for that. Okay, verse two. You feel a little sick on my poor abilities in PowerPoint. Okay, verse two says, this is only one thing I want to find out from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? What we're going to find as you go through here, you're going to see a contrast between the works of the law or the law system and you're going to see the faith system or the grace system. So those two things are going to be contrasted as we go through here. So the first statement is that how did you receive the Spirit? We're speaking to believers. How did you receive the Spirit?

Was it by keeping the law or was it by the hearing of faith? And the obvious answer was by the hearing of faith. Faith is what satisfies God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And actually, it's also going to refer to the Abrahamic encounter, the Abrahamic covenant, And did Abraham keep the law? He couldn't have, because he was before the law. He came by faith to God, right? So faith is in view. But then we have this period of the law, and you think, well, why in the world? God started off with faith with Abraham, then he changed to the law to save us?

Is that what's going on here? And I don't think that's what's going on. OK, so let's get the rest of verse 3 here. So we'll just kind of keep going through here, kind of chop away. Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh?

So once again, we're going to have the flesh is kind of indicative of, you know, the flesh loves law. It loves to keep the law. You know, if you say, give me a law. In fact, what's incredible, Israel said to God, they say, give us some laws and we'll keep them. I mean, just, you know, can you imagine that?

You know, I was kind of thinking as you drive down the street, sometimes when I'm going too fast, I don't want to see the sign because I know the sign is going to convict me. I'm going too fast. So you look away. I look away. I look the other way. Keep on going. So what does the law do? The law comes along and it convicts us. You say, wait a minute, that's the standard and I'm violating that standard. So the law, we're going to see, will condemn us. It did condemn us. Okay, let's just kind of keep going. I have to give you a great example.

Sure, okay, good. One time I was going so fast through Kansas. Okay, you couldn't see the light. You couldn't see before I married her. Okay. And so the policeman stopped me. So I knew I was going fast, and I knew I was going to get a big ticket. So I said to him, how much can I go over the speed limit? And he wouldn't have stopped me.

And I mean, he looked at me like, you know, like, what is this woman asking? I said, I just want to know, is it 10 miles or is it 9 miles? And he started laughing, and he said, well, if you had been going eight miles over, I wouldn't have stopped you. And I said, great, that's all I want to do. And he gave me the ticket, and I took off eight miles over. Rested away across the country. No, no, I got all the way across the country to get the ticket. That was the rule. Eight miles over, and I didn't stop.

In a way, that's the new law. You actually changed the law into another law that said, now it's eight miles an hour over the speed limit. Okay, that's not how we live the Christian life Okay, cool cool, okay, let's keep going here verse 5 verse 5 So then does he who provides you with the spirit and works of miracles among you did it I'm sorry Among you Do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Once again, kind of contrasting works of the law or faith. Which way did Abraham operate with God? He operated by faith. Which way are we to operate with God? By faith.

The law has a different purpose in the whole scheme of things. That's the whole reason for today's lesson. What's the purpose? Actually, in doing this, I tried to match this up with Hal's list in the next chart, so I left some verses out, and I'd just like to look in your Bibles at verse 6, which is also a really good verse too.

It says, and this is critical, this is kind of focusing back on Abraham. It says, Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So there's a key factor. How did Abraham obtained righteousness. Did he keep a set of rules, even though the rules weren't there? He could have made up his own rules, eight miles an hour was the speed limit, or the camel limit, or whatever it was. No, it was by faith. It was by faith that he was reckoned righteous before God.

So that's key. And that's going to be referred back to many times. There's sort of this tension here. Here's the Abrahamic covenant interaction with God. Here comes the law. Does the law, and it's totally a merit system, Does it invalidate that thing with Abraham? And we're going to find out it does not. But it came alongside for a purpose. Okay, verse 7.

Therefore, to be sure, that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. So in the sense that we have faith in God, we're sons of Abraham. And the scripture is foreseeing that God will justify the Gentiles, I think Mar-a-Marga has the heathen or the nations, by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham. saying all nations shall be blessed in you. So those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. It's interesting, Abraham is called a believer. That's kind of a cool thing. So we see that the operating principle that God has is by faith and it's Old Testament, New Testament.

Okay, so now we kind of come across verse 10. For as many are as of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. We'll just stop there, we'll get to 11 later. So what would you say, what's the curse from verse 10? So what's the curse that that is in view here. He states what it is, but can you restate it for me?

No one can abide by the law. Okay, good. And so when you don't, you're separated from God. Right. And he calls that a curse. You're under a curse. It says, for as many are of the works of the law are under a curse. And then he kind of defines the curse, a person whose curse is everyone who does not abide by all things that are written in the book of the law to perform it. So God's requirement is absolute. Eight miles an hour over won't do it.

It's got to be everything right on the money. Boom, boom, boom. And so you begin to see this picture as we go through here. Boy, God requires me, if I'm going to Go through the law system. I have to keep everything, every single one. And you begin to think, can I do that? Is it possible for anyone to do that? And we're going to see a purpose for the law coming into view here. Thoughts or questions at this point? confident he was.

That's incredible. That's just incredible. I mean, you know, I don't see how a person can be honest with themselves. I hate to go back to Margaret again. But we're coming along that way. There are areas where, like this morning, I was a little bit late. I got a little bit faster to get here on time to talk about God's Word. Okay? Including the law. Including the law, there you go, see? Okay. Alright, so verse 11. All my raps are messed up here.

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. So it kind of reiterates what we read earlier. it's by faith that we become righteous. Think about it. Faith is trusting in another. It's not trusting ourselves. It's not trusting, well, I'm going to somehow do all 633. Or if you go to the New Testament and you've got the Christian laws, so to speak, and I think somebody counted up there 300 and some out of those that Christ talked about in the New Testament. Can we keep those? I know that's a problem.

So there has to be a new operating principle for the Christian life. We can't go the law route because we're going to see we're cursed, we're condemned. And it says the righteous man shall live by faith. Faith is the operating principle that we operate under. Okay. All right, so verse 12. Let's see, verse 12. Okay.

However, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, He who practices them shall live by them. So if you're going to go the law route, you've got to keep them all, and you've got to practice every single one of them. And after a while, you realize that's not going to work. OK, 13, part of 17 there.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So Christ took care of that curse of the law. Wonderfully for us he became a curse for us and then 17 What am I saying? Well he was right he took on our punishment right he was put on the cross He bore the sins of the entire world so every sin Including the the one here that says if you can't keep all the so so you have all these Jews or any Christian that tries to please God by Their curse so he took that he paid for that and in that sense. Okay,

17. What I'm saying is this, the law which came in 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to annul it. So the law comes in, it's to convict men, it's to condemn them, it's to curse them, but it doesn't invalidate the promise to Abraham and it doesn't invalidate when Christ comes we will live by faith, the just will live by faith. And then 18, there's a little more of 18, there we go. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise, but God has granted to Abraham by means of a promise. So basically, it was a promise to Abraham that he was justified by.

So now, actually I was, as I was preparing for this, I came across a chart that Haller put together back in April of 97. which I thought was appropriate. He goes through all those verses we talked about and kind of condenses it and summarizes it if you want. I thought it was valuable for us to go through that. So the first one.

One cannot receive the Holy Spirit by the law. That comes out of Galatians 3.2. One cannot be made perfect or complete by the works of the law by the flesh. 3-5 God cannot abundantly supply the Holy Spirit in his ministry by the law. It must come by faith. If one is under the law he slash she is under a curse. No man is justified declared righteous by the law. 3-12 The law is not out of faith and without faith it's impossible to please God.

So you know the law as a whole You know, it's not something we should be, we need to understand it and its purpose, but it's not, we can't, it's interesting. It seems like many people will say, well I see that faith is required for salvation, but somehow when I get into my Christian life, a little bit of law isn't all that bad. Scripture has exactly the opposite view. It says, I don't want you to be involved in any law or law system.

Another thing that you'll notice, And I'm not real careful here, but in scripture, sometimes they'll capitalize law. I have the New American Standard, and I'm not sure if the King James does it. Sometimes they'll capitalize law, and sometimes they'll be lowercase. And I think they're trying to, and there's kind of two kinds of ideas with the law.

There's the Mosaic Law, which is actually more than the Ten Commandments. That's the entire law system, the 600 and whatever it is. I mean, that's what man did. They added on to that. And then there's this thing called a law system, or a law principle.

So I think some of the newer translations try to emphasize when they believe it's referring to the Mosaic Law. Other times, when it's small, lowercase, it's a law system. And I'll try to point that out in certain places. But it can be a little bit confusing. In fact, Bonnie proofread these for us. She says, well, Roger, you're inconsistent. You've got capital L's and small l's.

And I said, well, the New American Standard is trying to do something here. I'm not sure I want to undo what they did. And maybe King James does it too. King James doesn't. My version. Doesn't do it at all. They're always lowercase. Always lowercase.

Interesting. Interesting. You know, I remember Hal's teaching. of an article made the law principle a general principle. Exactly. So you can kind of do it yourself. I mean, the translators have tried to do it, like the New American Standard, maybe the New King James. They try to do that too, but then you'll find there'll be an article or not article there, you may disagree with their capital. So watch the capitals on law, as with all capitals. You know, they'll capitalize Deity too, and sometimes...

A law system is still a law system. Exactly. Whether it's the law or the law. Right. Or a principle of law. That has all been taken care of by Christ's death on the cross. You're right. So either one doesn't matter. Okay, good. 313. Christ had to die to redeem us from the curse of the law. 317. The law could not annul or abolish God's covenant. And he's referring back to the Abrahamic covenant. it had zero impact. So the law came alongside and was added for a particular purpose.

And then 3.18, he kind of states it in a positive sense. Our inheritance under grace, under faith, is that righteousness is Christ in us. Our being complete is Christ. And we have every spiritual blessing. And blessings cannot come out from the law. Actually, all of them come from the law. I mean, does the law ever, I guess this one guy thinks it's, the one particular gentleman you spoke of, he feels good about the law because he believes he keeps all 600. I was trying to catch him not eating kosher. Okay, that's good. You've got to catch him up and try to say, okay, you're not really keeping that one. So that's good. That's good. Okay. Roger. Sure, go ahead.

But if a person keeps the law, what's the first thing that they would probably do? Exactly. So they wind up, I know, they come around the block and they go back around again and they violate the very thing that God said, there'll be no boasting before me. Well, that's what this guy was doing. Right, exactly. I'm keeping all the law. Right, I know.

So we're going to see that the law has a very distinct, very specific purpose. And it's not helpful. Well, it's helpful. It is helpful. I shouldn't say that. It is helpful. OK. Now, the rest of the story, the rest of chapter 3. Bob, thank you. Sure, go ahead.

Number one, don't you think it's neat in verse 17 that Paul mentions 430 years? It is neat. It is neat. I mean, if you think about how profound it is, I mean, it's profound in the fact that under legal principles, all those kinds of specific enumerations have relevance. And also it provides some historical credibility. that 430 is really an amazing statement there. Anyway. No, no, that is good. That is good.

And that's what I found as I went through this. I said, boy, there's all these rabbit trails, all these places you can go off and go here and go there. And I think, man, I just, my head was spinning after a while. I don't want to, I want to kind of contain myself and just try to stay to the topic.

I mean, just think of the time we've been here on the earth and the perspectives that we've had over our lifespan. Here's 430 years gone between Abraham and Moses. Right. And, you know, the principle of faith has lived through those 430 and to continue to be sustained eternally. The second point is that, you know, the law itself was It's really outstanding.

Just for instance, in verse 9, for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, i.e. the written law on the tables of stone, if that be glorious, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory, which is the faith-based righteousness that's being accounted to Abraham and those that follow those footsteps today. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in retrospect. Right? I mean the written law on the table of stone that man couldn't even look at Moses' face because of the glory that surrounded him.

But for that which is done away was glorious, i.e. the law and all that it has and stands for, much more that which remains is glorious. I mean it does. The 2nd Corinthians passage about the written law versus the law by faith is such a beautiful section of Scripture. It is. Actually, Bob, when I struggled I was going to actually include that. That's excellent. That's excellent. It's a really good point. God's law is perfect. It's his perfect character. But the problem is that perfect character comes along and man looks at that and goes... It's like with the speedlite. You kind of do it... Because I can't keep that, or I'm breaking it. One of the two. Either I can't keep it or I'm breaking it.

So that perfect standard comes along. So there's nothing wrong with the law. It's just that the law is going to show us that we have need of a savior. It's going to point us to Christ. So now, how about the rest of chapter three? I'm still looking for someone to read 19 through 26. and was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. by faith in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Bob. OK. All right. So I'm just going to start with a student. I got confused here. We're just going to look at verse 19 for a second. Because it poses a question, which has kind of been in the back of our minds since we started.

Why the law then? It was added, which is kind of a key word, it was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. So maybe we'll just kind of look at a couple different parts of this guy. So the first part here is the law.

It was added. And this word added is to place beside. It's not added in the sense that there was a deficiency It was added, and actually it says, of transgressions. It's actually better for the sake of transgressions. Actually, it's to reveal the transgression. And we can see that from another verse.

If you look here in Romans 5.20, the law came in so that the transgressions would increase. This is kind of interesting. This is kind of a cool thing. God is not trying to minimize transgressions. Let's say you're in a company. You want to minimize your losses, right? Losses are bad. Well, God's not really...

He brought the law in and He knew that transgressions would increase. That kind of was mind boggling, but what was going to happen was he's going to so overwhelm that by his grace, it's going to make no effect. That was marvelous. God's not counting. He's not there with his, you know, okay, what, 2,527,000 transgressions, you know. He's not worried about that. But there's the schoolmaster concept, isn't it? the law came in so that transgression would increase. I know. So what's the purpose of all that?

Well, if the flesh didn't realize that we couldn't keep the law, because when the law came in, transgressions increased, which means we're sinning more and more and more. And they were looking around going, why am I sinning? Just like Paul said in Romans 6, where he talks about, I keep sinning, I do what I don't want to do, or 7.

But the Lord had to show us we needed something, because we couldn't do it on our own. Ultimately, the greater the transgressions, the greater the grace, the greater the glory toward God. But then the age-old question is going to come, well if that's the case then, let's bring on the transgressions. It's interesting, God knew in his foreknowledge there would be more transgressions, and he knew his grace was superabundant, but it doesn't mean we'd maximize the transgressions. And the schoolmaster's objective is not to teach us how to sin, but to teach us how to be holy. So the law is put in place to teach us God's character. his holy character. And actually, there's another little insight along that line. We'll get to it here shortly. That's good. That's good. That's very good. Okay, and another cool thing here.

So, you know, the law, and I think there's no part of this verse points us out here. having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator. It was glorious. The tablets of stone were brought down. It was glorious. And the mediator was Moses at that time. He interceded between the Israelites and God. So it was a glorious event. The law is absolutely perfect and righteous and holy. But then it kind of conditions it. It says, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. So my question is, until the seed would come, who is the seed here? And this is kind of a trick question, not a hard answer.

When Christ came, the whole law system, it was added to multiply transgressions. God's grace would superabound that, but there was a definite period for the law to be in view. And when Christ came, the law finished its purpose, completed its purpose. Yeah, go ahead. Sure.

What does it mean, ordained through angels? Okay, well that's what I was talking about. What I saw, if you look back to when the law was presented right, Moses went to the mountaintop, right? I haven't told you my mind. I think there was angels there, but I haven't really read the passage to verify that. It was a glorious event, right? I think that's referring to the gloriousness of the law. presented by God through a mediator. The mediator was Moses. Moses brought the tablets down to Israel. So it's pointing to that.

I was specifically referring to ordained. What does that mean, ordained? I really didn't go down that path and look at that too much. The word itself means to approve or to pass out or I'm just curious. I'd have to look it up to be careful about that, yeah. The point I want to kind of carry away from this is that, why then the law?

It was added because to basically to amplify transgressions, to show us our need for a savior. And it had a time period on it, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. And that was a promise that was the Abrahamic covenant, I believe. Now, OK, so the rest of the verses that Bob read are on this chart. And I just kind of decided to do it kind of one failed swoop here. And we'll just kind of look at certain parts of it. So let's just look at verse 21 here. It says, 21 says, is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

May it never be. For if a law could have been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law. So I think this point was made by someone in our discussion here, that so if a person keeps them all, does he then become righteous? No, this says it's impossible. It says, for if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have indeed been based on the law.

So God's intent was not to impart righteousness, which is law. But isn't it interesting that maybe popular thought is sometimes, I'm going to be more righteous by obeying all these laws. And that's kind of a sad situation. People are taking God's holy standard and they're saying, well, I'm just going to try to obey that, and that's going to make me more righteous. Well, God says, no, that's not going to make you more righteous. In fact, it's the opposite of that. You can't attain righteousness that way.

And then 22 and 23 talk about this idea that the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were in custody under the law, being shut up to faith by that which was later to be revealed. It's interesting, with this period between Moses giving the law to the coming of Christ, it's interesting. God, knowing what was going to happen, it really, it made faith almost impossible because everybody's focused on the law. I'll focus on this law. I'm going to keep this law. I'll keep this law. And that's the problem that I see today is that people will get hung up on focusing on the law versus Christ. It's the same kind of deal. So that time period, it talks about things were shut up, were contained, or captured. So faith could not really be seen for what it is. Even though Abraham had faith, this time period of the law shut up faith. That's kind of a somber thing.

It would also mean that if you're focused on the law, you're in the flesh. Absolutely. So you can't be focused on Christ when you're focused on the law. Absolutely. And that's really what it's talking about. So if you're under the law, you're shut up to faith. Exactly. I mean, you're shut off. Well, and we saw it before, earlier verses, faith or law, I mean, they're contrasted. I mean, they're the opposite, the antithesis of one another. And then here's a verse you folks have kind of been talking about quite a bit,

24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. So if you look at this a little bit, what is kind of interesting is that this word, the law is kind of the subject here. There's a little clause here. The law is the subject, has become as a verb, and tutor is what they call a subject complement. It's identifying the law. The law is identified as a tutor. or better, a guide or a guardian. And I think it was mentioned that, you know, that, you know, I kind of think about the law.

The law shows God's perfect standard, but it also condemns us. So, so this idea of a tutor, I think guardian, And I thought about the law has always been a tutor. It's always been a tutor in the sense that it's showing us that we're going to not meet God's standard. So in that sense, it's always been a tutor.

So I like that sense better because if you focus on the law, you're not focusing on Christ. That's why I was trying to modify just what you said just a little bit. that I thought that the focus needs to be on Christ. The law is going to show us that we're sinners. It's going to show us that we're transgressors. Yeah, it says the law makes sin look utterly sinful. Exactly. And so that's kind of the little tweak I wanted to make on what you said. So the law is going to point out, it's going to increase our transgressions, it's going to show us that we need a Savior. So I think that's what's really good to carry.

So that we may be justified by faith. sure go ahead on top it says to impart life okay there's two words for life in the Greek which is bios and Zoe mm-hmm okay so this is talking about Zoe which is eternal life which is what Adam had before he said okay the flesh is bios that's what we are in the flesh okay that that's a life of the body so to speak that's is a tutor to the flesh. But we are no longer in the flesh according to Paul. We are in the spirit. And when you are born again, you receive Zoe. Okay? We still have vials because we're human and we're alive physically. But when you receive the spirit able to impart life. See, that's the purpose of all this, is so that we have eternal life, the situation that Adam had, the first Adam before he sent. So the law is speaking to our flesh, to our lives. Absolutely, and that's why it's of no value to the Christian, because it's speaking to our flesh. It's only going to stir up the flesh.

Good, okay. Okay, then 25 and 26. But now faith has come, We are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So faith is the operating principle of the Christian life. That's how we operate, through faith, not by keeping laws.

So let's go to the next page here. Okay, so in looking at some set of words or set of phrases in scripture, besides that wonderful chapter in Galatians, which the other parts of Galatians would speak to this as well, there are some phrases that come up.

It says, we are not under the law, and we're going to look at those verses. We are free from the law, and we have died to the law. These are kind of, you can kind of group some sets of scripture under these three categories. We're not under the law. We are free from the law. We have died to the law.

So we're going to kind of step through those. And Roger, could you almost put the word flesh there instead of law? Because we've died to the, I'm just asking because in a sense, that's what it is. We've died to the flesh. So we're free from the flesh. We are not under the rule of the flesh or the power of the flesh anymore. That ties into last week, Stan. Conjoined with Christ because we've been judged by our own nature. The flesh and the law have an intimate relationship. We are not under the law.

The first verse here is Romans chapter 6. And this is really neat. Romans 6 is just a tremendous passage. It says, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law. And notice there's no definite article. This isn't under a law system, but under a grace system. So this is marvelous. And I was kind of thinking about Mike's class on grace. One of the key things is that we are under a grace system, not a law system. And in the next part, verse 15 says, what then shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?

May it never be. And what is interesting is that this objection is brought by Paul several times. The objection always is, well, if I'm under a grace system, I can just sin all I want. And he says, no. He always rejects that. He always says, no, that's not what's in view. under grace.

Grace is not lawlessness. And that maybe sounds kind of strange, but because we took, you know, grace is trusting another for your salvation, trusting that Christ is able to keep the law perfectly. And he can please God perfectly. So the fact that shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace, is not the issue. It's not the issue.

And actually, if you remember back in 6.1, in Romans 6.1, he said the same thing, the same phraseology was used by Paul in 6.1 where he said, let me just read that. Same argument.

Actually, if you go back to 5.21, it says, and sin reign in death, Even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin? The grace may increase? May it never be? How shall we who died to sin still live in it? So the point is that we're not to, you know, that's always a question that comes up and God's answer is consistently the same. Because I operate in a grace system, you know, that does not mean that you're lawless.

But you know, I have so many friends, and we have these animated discussions about that very thing. You know, well, if you're under grace, then you can just do whatever you want, anytime you want, you know, because you can say you're under grace. But what they don't get is, if you're in Christ, His character will, and maybe through growth, A lot of those sinful things that you have done in your life and you continue to do, they start to drop away because the more you focus on him and his character, the more he's animated in you, and those things are not part of his character.

Right, right. And the other part of it is that Grace is a, you know, and I like what Mike has done with this in his classes, Grace is a motivator. You may not think that. You say, well, well the lawsuit was a motivator. I may get a ticket or I may get, you know, I see that sign and I feel bad. But grace is a motivator.

Just think about your relations with your children. In the proper relationship with your children, they love you and they depend upon you and there's a relationship. My wife teaches first and second grade and many times she'll use the approach with the kids, who are my best students?

She'll say, this table over here, you're quiet, and you're doing your work. This table over here, you're not so quiet. And it's amazing. With first and second graders, they'll respond to that. Because they're first and second graders. Later on, they'll go, I don't care. That's a teacher, and I want to do whatever I want. But with first and second graders, there's a relationship. There's almost a mother, a family relationship. And they want to please the teacher.

And I think that's the same with our Heavenly Father. We want to please someone who we care for, who died for us. That's the motivation that we have I want to please him not that that there's all these laws It's because I want to please the one who cares for me, and that's that's a motivator under grace our wonderful Savior What he's done for us Okay next one here Galatians 4 4 through 5 But when the fullness of time came God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law So that he might redeem us He might redeem those who were under the law and that we might receive the adoption of sons. And kind of the focus of this verse is actually this, God sent forth his son.

That's kind of the main phrase there. And it was a particular time, the fullness of time, which has several implications. One of the implications is the law period came to an end. And interesting, Christ had no problem with the law. He was able to keep it perfectly, because he is God. He was born under the law. And he was able to redeem those who were under the law. And look what happens. When he redeems us, we have this relationship. Our whole 33 riches of God's grace is about a relationship that we have with God, something that we couldn't have done ourselves, that he had to do on our behalf.

And then Galatians 5.18, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. So here, back again to the same kind of thought processes. As you walk in Spirit, or you walk by faith, trusting Christ for what he's going to do. The law has no impact on your life. You're not under law. So that's where we're to be. We're to be led by the Spirit and we will not be involved in the law, period.

8.2 Romans 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. So we've been set free. We've been freed Actually, that's the law of the sin nature. And this verse here, we could spend an entire session on. Romans 7, 4 through 6.

Actually, before that was this kind of comparison in marriage with the woman and the husband dies and so on. Therefore, my brethren, You are made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that you might bear fruit to God. So our dying to the law allowed us to be joined to Christ.

I mean, wonderful. And the flesh is in there. I think it was mentioned that the flesh and the law have very similar statements about something. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were aroused by the law, There's a law working, rousing up those passions. We're working on members in our bodies to bear fruit for death.

But now, we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of life, newness of spirit, honest oldness of the letter. And what's really cool here is, one of my favorite words is right here. I have thousands of favorite words, but anyway. Released here.

That word released. is if you look at Romans 6.6, to put an idol, to take off line, the same word, to take off line.

So just like the sin nature was put off line, rendered inoperative, the law was rendered inoperative in terms of the believer. Just a tremendous statement. It's been rendered inoperative in terms of the believer. So why we shouldn't be messing around with it. So I want to close with one verse here. Let's look at Philippians chapter 3, two verses. Philippians chapter three.

I was talking to Kurt about trying things, timing, and it's amazing sometimes. It works out. I'm thinking, I don't know. When you're teaching, you think, well, what happens if I get through all those in the first half an hour? Then what do I do? So sometimes, and I appreciate all your comments.

Let's look at Philippians 3, verses 8 and 9. It says, More than that, I count all things to be loss, in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." I think that's just, you know, if I can sum anything up here, if you carry anything away, our righteousness cannot come by the law. It only can condemn us. It only can be there to say, whoops, I blew it again.

But our righteousness comes through faith in our Savior and the one who loves us. And that wonderful relationship we have. He cares for us so much that we want to please him. We want that to be a right relationship. When we feel bad, we feel convicted when we do wrong.

All right, let's close. Dear Father, we just thank you, Lord. We thank you for your word, Father. We thank you for the marvelousness of what you've accomplished, Lord, in all things, Lord. And we marvel at how you're able to to bring in a law system which to us seems probably just, you know, we certainly wouldn't have done that, but we know that you've done things perfectly and righteously and we know that the law has served its purpose and we pray that we might see our Savior and see our relationship with Him and how that we can trust Him and we can please you and be righteous in your sight by faith in your Son. We thank you in His name. Amen.