In Romans 7 and 8, Paul explains how the Jews had formerly been in a marriage relationship with the law of commandments, where Moses served as the best man at the ceremony. But they were made to die to the law through the body of Christ and became free to marry another (Jesus). The law of works never brought a reduction of sin, but resulted in the arousal of sinful passions, bearing fruit to death. Now having been freed from the law, they could begin serving in the newness of the Spirit and not through the old way of writings and letters. The end result would be no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
And yet, many Jewish believers struggled with grasping these truths, wrestling with letting go of a law which couldn’t bring life or righteousness, tempted to pursue the fleshly way of works through a stone tablet ministry which left them in condemnation. And what about Gentiles? How would these (formerly) unclean people fit into the message of Jesus … and would they be required to apply the law? Paul explains the Gentiles would receive righteousness without even pursuing it—because of faith. Whereas the Jews would fall short of righteousness because they were seeking it not by faith, but by works.
Paul repeatedly makes the case in his letters for the gospel of grace, opposing a works-based gospel for justification. This week, we’re in Romans, where Paul explained that believers now have peace with God. Why? Because we’ve changed our behavior in order to make ourselves acceptable? No, that road will leave people disoriented and confused, unsure of where they stand with God. We have peace because we’ve been justified by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ—He is the only door by which we enter. Faith. Not works.
Christ died for people at their weakest point and demonstrated His love by dying for the ungodly, bringing justification by His blood and reconciling us to Himself, saved from His wrath and saved by His life. The good news of this grace is what motivated Paul to encourage believers with this hope … and went against nearly all of the other religious messages to which they had been exposed. Now that we’re under grace and not a works-based religious system, we have a new motivation and purpose for producing good works.
The predominant mindset within most Christian churches is that parts of the law that came through Moses are to be applied to believers today, while other parts have been eliminated after the cross of Jesus Christ. This demonstrates the widespread ignorance about that law under the Old Covenant, because God had declared that as long as the law was in effect, there would be no changes to it. Nothing could be added and nothing could be taken away from it. The hundreds of commands, rules and statutes were bundled together in one package known as “the Law.” Many ingredients; but one package that was never meant to be broken up and applied in many different ways, based upon personal perspectives or man-made doctrines. This is why people needed to be delivered from the entire law package, and why we are declared to be dead to the law under a new and better covenant.
Electricians install 220 lines to connect to the source of power. As believers we have a 220 line that summarizes the Christian life for us in just a few words. Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Paul also stated in verses 19 and 21 that we died to the law that we might live to God... And if right-standing with God comes through the works of the law then Christ died for nothing. Enjoying the benefits of this new life means not only knowing what you've been delivered from but what you were delivered into.
Looking at the first couple chapters in Galatians, the apostle Paul begins to address how he came to learn the gospel by revelation from the Lord. He confronts those who would contradict this gospel by having people believe the law of Moses was still needed in addition to belief in Jesus Christ. The Jews had now been freed from the law. The Gentiles had never been under it. Paul begins to show why he had to die to the very thing he once believed in the most.
Download/Play MP3 (6.4MB) (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download, or use Player below)
Continuing on with our conversation that we were having before our 3 special highlight editions of Growing in Grace, Kap talks about an actual person who no longer breaks the laws of the land to illustrate how we as Christians no longer break God's laws!
Also this week: The Christian life is, of course, not about keeping or breaking God's laws, so how in the world do we live our lives in Christ? Might it have something to do with grace?! Can too much grace be preached? We'll talk about all this and more on this week's Growing in Grace podcast.
