Law and Grace - Liberty - Part 2

Good morning. We will be looking through the passage that Courtney read in addition to that section previous to that. Verses 15 through 27 is what we'll be covering here. We're continuing on in this Law and Grace series on this topic of liberty. And one of the things that we discovered last week and will continue to see this week is that, in fact, while we may have rights as believers, it's not our place in every case to claim those rights or insist upon them. The Apostle Paul himself here makes that clear in this passage, as we'll soon see. There are three kind of topics that he has here in this section. He's addressing these topics, each one related to the rights, freedoms, and grace obligations. An interesting term there, grace obligations. One of the points we made last week will continue on this week.

Grace may have obligations the law never dreamed of. What do I mean by that? Well, we'll explain it some more, but let me say kind of summarily. The reality is we may have rights that we refrain from for the sake of the building up of the body, avoiding stumbling a brother, etc. And so grace may have obligations the law never dreamed of. We'll talk about that some more here.

The obligations in Paul's case here of his apostleship, but the example certainly continues and applies with us. Applications to our own lives and ministries will flow from this. Paul's teachings here can be summarized as one, his stewardship given by Christ, We'll talk about what a stewardship is.

It's an important biblical principle that extends all the way from Genesis to Revelation. Secondly, self-limiting rights and freedoms. Rights and freedoms that I have, but I don't insist upon for the sake of grace, for the sake of the gospel and building up the body of Christ. Thirdly, spiritual principles drawn from the field of athletics. And we'll see that as well. So those three are the things that we're going to be covering here in this passage.

One of the things we have to understand culturally, and one of the reasons why Paul had challenges here with this church, is the culture of the time said humility is not a virtue. They would say things like, there's nothing worse than a person who's humble. that pagan Greek and Roman cultures, neither one of them had humility as a virtue. Claiming all rights and status was considered a virtue. So that's an important distinction that we have to understand as we look at this passage here.

Paul had two kinds of problems to correct with the believers in Corinth. Because of that, the believers in Corinth looked up to looking down on lesser people. Let me restate that. They valued looking down on people that they thought were less, and they thought that was a good thing. And so that's what they encouraged. Secondly, the believers in Corinth looked on Paul's humility.

They looked down on Paul's humility since he did not claimed to have the prestige do him. So here's the Apostle Paul. He has the ability to say, I'm an apostle, but he didn't go around claiming it. He didn't go around proclaiming it. And so that puzzled them. It made them even think kind of upside down from a cultural standpoint that, well, he must not be an apostle. Or what's wrong with that guy? He doesn't go around boasting about his apostleship. So you understand from the cultural perspective how they would be rather confused. But it was the culture that was confusing him, not Paul's teaching.

So the main theme in these verses is not claiming one's rights for the sake of the church body. That's how we could summarize the main theme. Paul is continuing to answer their questions about being offered to idols. That was one of the points where, yes, I have the freedom, but I will refrain from doing so. He is also going to continue to respond to their questions about his apostleship.

It is mostly based on viewing Paul by the cultural values. That is, the cultural ideas they had were that Paul should have been proclaiming and boasting about his apostleship, and he did not. He should have been claiming, so they thought, his rights as an apostle and He didn't do that, and so they thought, well, he must not be an apostle, or he's a very odd fellow. Now, as one writes about one's rights, a man's motives matter massively. And if that's a tongue twister, well, it is. So as one writes, W-R-I-T-E-S, about one's rights, R-I-G-H-T-S, a man's motives matter massively. Now, what are we saying here? Paul has a real challenge in writing to these believers because they have a cultural understanding, not a godly understanding. Their understanding is shaped by the pagan culture instead of what is biblical. That never happens in the church, right?

Oh boy. On the one hand, he has to write to them to say that, yes, I am an apostle who has a right to support from the churches that he has founded. So that's on the one hand. But on the other hand, he also has to write to them telling them why he is setting aside the right to support.

I have a right to it, but I'm not going to take it. Which to them is just confusing based on their looking at things from a worldly standpoint. He doesn't want to cause any of them to believe that he is really just writing to ask for support. He doesn't want it to turn into being misunderstood begging. So it's a very tricky little situation he's got here. He's got to write with a lot of thought and care here.

We might ask the question, what makes Paul tick? Right? What makes the Apostle Paul tick? Paul is telling them, in these verses, his motivation for the gospel, it's not for the money. Does he have a right as an apostle To have support? Yes, but he's not writing to ask for money. It's not about money. That was, of course, brought out by the fact that he doesn't charge them for graciously offering the gospel. He doesn't come up and say, OK, in order for me to tell you the gospel, I'm going to charge X amount of money, and you all need to fork over that amount of money.

Instead, Paul sees himself as before the Lord himself, who gave him this very assignment to ministry, and before whom he would one day stand in judgment for eternal reward. He sees himself not as before these people, but before the Lord himself. That's Paul's perspective here. Now, looking at verses 15 through 18, between a choice and no choice.

Paul told them he did have a choice as to how he would be supported when he preached the gospel. He could choose. Either he could support himself, which he did by tent making, or he could rely on support from the churches. He could rely on support from the churches. He could do either one.

Paul also told them that he really had no choice as to whether or not he preached the gospel. So he did have a choice as to how he was supported. He didn't have a choice as to whether he was to preach the gospel. He certainly had to preach the gospel. He must preach it, since he had been entrusted with doing so by the Lord himself. You see, the Lord didn't say, hey Paul, would you kind of sort of like to do this? You feel inclined? Or do you? The Lord didn't do that. Paul realized that he had been entrusted with something that was of phenomenal, astounding value. And he had no choice at all but to respond with this thing of immense value that he'd been entrusted with by sharing it with others. He must do that.

A stewardship, a stewardship means you've been entrusted, okay, with a T, not encrusted, right? A stewardship means you've been entrusted, not encrusted. Now, the higher the level of the person doing the entrusting and the more critical the task that is assigned, the more important the stewardship that has been entrusted.

I might ask someone, could you take this into the church office and get it copied? And that would be a small request. Paul had been given a huge request, a massive request, by Jesus Christ himself. That was an important stewardship. Since Paul had been given this lifelong assignment, it's not like, okay Paul, you're going to do this for the next year and after that you're on your own. Paul is going to do this to his dying breath.

This is his assignment as long as he's still on the planet. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ by God's own appointment. No stewardship could possibly be more important. He says, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. It comes with an understanding of the critical importance, the nature of that stewardship, that assignment, that entrusting that the Lord had given to him.

So, that's why Paul seems inconsistent here. I have a right, but I'm not going to take it. I'm an apostle, but I'm not going to proclaim it. The Corinthians were apparently having a real tough time understanding Paul's seemingly inconsistent behavior, and it was certainly inconsistent with the pagan culture.

Was he going to act like a Jew or act like a Gentile as another conflict? Wait a minute, he's a Jew, and we know how the Jews act, and yet he comes around and he's a Jew that acts like a Gentile at times. What is this guy? Oh, and by the way, he first goes to the synagogues, and then he goes to elsewhere. So they were a little confused. How does this work? Well, he's explaining that.

Why would he set aside his total right to compensation? And of course, culturally, the thought was, well, of course you're going to demand your compensation, and the other rights of his apostleship. So on the one hand, he defends having those rights. On the other hand, he turns it down.

For the sake of the gospel, he would set aside things that don't matter for the sake of the things that really do matter. Getting the gospel across. Building up the body of Christ. Those are the things that matter. He says, I'll set aside anything for those priorities, for those things being of ultimate importance. The main thing is that we keep the main thing as the main thing.

Right? Sound like a tremendous piece of wisdom? Well, the main thing is that we keep the main thing is the main thing. Does that sound right? Yeah. Since the believers in Corinth did not understand the great and ultimate importance of the gospel, you know, you think about it, Paul understands the importance of the gospel and it grabs him. His every thought is about that.

But these believers think, well, you know, the gospel, I guess that's kind of important, but not as important as me. That's the concept that they had been absorbing from the culture. They didn't understand God's perspective on anything else very well either. They weren't looking at it from God's perspective, they were looking at it from man's perspective.

The Apostle Paul, however, saw that spiritually and morally neutral things, things that really didn't matter all that much, matters of food, dress, clothing, etc., couldn't even begin to touch the importance of his preaching and others receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. All these things about what you wear and what you eat and where you go and where you don't go, it pales in significance compared to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, he begins here using some sports analogies. The Apostles, in fact, all use sports analogies or sports words rather frequently. And it wasn't just the Apostle Paul. Here's some examples, one from the Apostle Paul. This is from Colossians 1, 28 and 29. The Apostle Paul wrote, We proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

For this purpose also I labor. And by the way, that word labor means to labor to exhaustion. I labor to exhaustion. Striving, and that word there is the word, we get our word agonized or agony. Striving athletically according to His power. So isn't this interesting? Here's the Apostle Paul and he's resting in the Lord. And you know what his rest looks like? It looks like laboring to exhaustion and it looks like an athletic effort. That's how Paul carries it out. But whose power is it? It's His power that pulls it off. On the inside, Paul is depending upon the Lord. On the outside, it looks like he's working himself to death.

Jesus' half-brother, Jude, in Jude 3, wrote this, Beloved, I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, While I was making every effort, I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly." That's that same word that Paul used up there that's translated striving with a little prefix that intensifies it.

A super athletic effort for the faith. Again, that same word where we get our word agonizing or agony from that same Greek word. There is a use of athletic terminology repeatedly, especially in the New Testament. And there are analogies from athletics, as we're going to see here in this passage. Paul and the other New Testament authors drew upon intense analogies from the sports that were so highly regarded and well-known in all the Roman Empire. Philippians 3, 12-14, for example, is based upon chariot racing. And that's one that he draws upon as he writes to the Philippians. He draws upon other athletic analogies as he writes in other passages. In this case, Paul made the point that the athletes make multiple sacrifices in both training and competition, setting aside their rights in order to win. Now, when they would set aside their rights in order to win, They did it big time.

Our Olympics, which of course everybody takes pretty seriously, are nothing in comparison to the way they would train. First of all, nobody gets any second or third place back in the athletic events of those days. Nobody gets any second or third place. You either win or you've lost. The losers were usually beaten. which meant most of them.

And you would have to volunteer, voluntarily train and train and train and train and go through all that training with the significant risk that if you lost, you would be beaten. So we're talking about something you take very seriously. And by the way, I'm not suggesting that we ought to do that. Okay, you'll be glad to know. But my point is they took it very seriously, very seriously.

Runners in New Testament times would train for 10 months non-stop before each race. One of the things that the Hebrews were very admirable regarding the races except for the fact that the Greek runners typically didn't wear anything. which is one reason that married women were not allowed. The last month before each race would be spent training at the site of the race. They would go to the place and stay there and train at that site for the last month, following nine months of training usually elsewhere.

All of the usual enjoyments and leisure activities would be set aside for the sake of one's athletic advantage. You're going to give up everything else for the sake of that. Very dedicated to this athletic event. Every movement, rest, and intake of food and drink was part of the training, including very large amounts of garlic. That's going to make sure you don't do anything else, right? Real athletes don't do empty training. And that's a part of Paul's point in verses 24 through 27. Real athletes don't do empty training.

Now, let me give you a little story here to back this up. Here we are in Denver. And some years ago, and more recently as a visit, I was in high school in this little town called Boonville. Northern California, so here. So there was this place, see that was where I went to high school, there. I went to high school and in fact this is where, when Nancy and I got engaged, this is the airstrip that she and my dad used to land at, right next to the high school.

But anyway, right there is where I did lots of intense training for football. And our coach was very serious. He said, nobody is going home tonight until I see blood. So anyway, and he was serious. And it got so dark, he couldn't see it. Poor guys. Anyway, Paul makes the point that runners in both training and competition run with purpose and direction, not with random wandering and casual pace. You know, just kind of do this casually when you feel like it.

Likewise, and he uses another analogy, a boxer trains and competes by making contact with precision, not just throwing his fist wildly into the air without contact or direction. They're very controlled, very directed, very intentional strokes is what he's talking about. So he uses both analogies here. Our living as Christians is to have direction and impact and significance, spiritually speaking.

Now, Paul does more here than just explain himself. He isn't just giving excuses. His point in telling him this is only the ones who follow the rules can win the prize. Does that mean he wants to put them under law? No. The point is that there are principles, fundamental ways that things work, that he's pointing out here. It's not to say that only one of them will end up being saved, or only one of them will end up being rewarded. That's not his point.

His point is, however, that in order for us to win in the spiritual race that is before us, there are guiding principles. Now, when I use the word principles, let me explain. A principle is either a fundamental truth or the way things work. A fundamental truth or the way things work, sometimes both. In this case what he's trying to say is the way things work, the way things operate.

And guess what? How do things operate with us as believers? Grace is the operating principle. Grace is the operating principle. In order to win the spiritual race that is before us, there are guiding principles, the way things work, that call for us to place a high value on the spiritual race that we're running. High value on the spiritual race that we're running.

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is a passage that spells out the same point. And I'll read it here. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So verse one is about our race.

And saying, well look, if you're going to run the race, all these things that get in your way, that weigh you down, that end up making it hard to move swiftly and efficiently, lay those aside. And verse 2 puts our focus on Jesus who had his own race to run and still has his own race to run. Look at verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Why did Christ endure the cross?

For the joy set before him. What joy? Joy of fellowship, John 17. with the Father, and to have you and I included in that fellowship, in that intimacy. That's the joy set before Him. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. And for the joy set before Him, He said those precious words in John 17. Words of intimacy between Himself and the Father, in which you and I are included. For that joy of intimacy and fellowship Forever.

He said, it's worth it. It's a bargain. I'll pay it. I'll pay the price, gladly. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. For fellowship with you and with me. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame." He says, the shame? Who cares? Compared to the joy, that's nothing. That's nothing.

"...and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Which, by the way, where are you seated right now? At that same right hand. Spiritually. This is Ephesians 2, verse 6. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, and you are identified with him in that sitting. You're there with Him, intimately, just like we talked about in John 17. Together with Christ, whereas we're seated with Him.

Now, I need to talk about let us. This isn't something that I want you to just eat for lunch. There's probably some down there, but that's not what we're talking about. This is the words let us. Twice you'll see let us show up here in verse 1. And we need to talk about it because it's rather, I would say, weakly translated, but it's very commonly translated that way. So the lettuce points here, not the lettuce that we eat. Not that. This passage has, in most translations, the word let, as in let a man regard us in this manner.

And you see that in several passages here in 1st Corinthians 318, 321, 1st Corinthians 4.1. Let us is very commonly the way things are let no man, let no one, the way things are done. However, it's important for us to recognize let does not mean to allow in this passage or in any other passage from Acts to the end of the Bible.

Doesn't mean that. Let does not mean allow anywhere from Acts to Revelation. It doesn't. Instead, it means we must. Here under grace, the operating principle, we have, we must, we must. Grace does have obligations, but not under law. We must lay aside every encumbrance. We must run with endurance. Fixing our eyes coming out of those musts on Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Him. Why under grace do we have musts? Is it because if you don't you're threatened with punishment? Is it because under grace that you'll be stoned to death? No. That's not the point.

The imperatives, the things that we must do as believers are based on what is eternally true in our eternal position. Based on our eternal position, we in our condition must lay aside every encumbrance. It's the only thing that makes spiritual sense based on who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us.

That's what the musts are all about, not a threat. It's not even because if you don't do that you won't be blessed. You're already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The must is the only thing that makes sense based on who God has made you to be in Christ and who God has made Christ to be in you.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the one whom God has used to accomplish these things. fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. If we're fixing our eyes on Jesus, do I have to demand my rights? No. If I'm fixing my eyes on Jesus, do I have to go and claim and proclaim everything that I am and have?

No. Because grace does not demand rights. Grace does not proclaim positions, even if we have them. Grace is willing to step back for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the body of Christ from that which could be demanded. That's what grace does. Because it's God's grace. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we see here that grace is this amazing thing. It doesn't do what the world expects. It at first almost seems unnatural. And yes, it is unnatural. It's supernatural.

And we do thank you, Lord, for this most astounding thing called grace. We pray that you would teach us what grace is, even if it's a matter of looking to the law to learn what it is not. We thank you, Lord, for all that you're teaching us, and that we can behold you, look unto Jesus, as we study your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.