GRACE AND THE LAW

Many Christians have been taught that the GOSPEL was not introduced until the NEW TESTAMENT. This gospel, they believe, replaced the LAW which was taught in the OLD TESTAMENT. We are now in the “age of grace” they say, and it is no longer necessary to be concerned with “works of the LAW.”

Were those who lived during the time of the Old Testament saved in a different way from those living since the Cross? In the judgment, will those who lived prior to the incarnation of Christ be held to a different standard from those who have lived since? If this is the case, what does this say about the character of our God?

GALATIANS 3:8-9 Paul says that Abraham heard the gospel. “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ?In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” NKJV

HEBREWS 4:2 The Children of Israel heard the gospel preached to them in the wilderness. “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

During the Old Testament period, the gospel (good news) was that someday a Savior would come to pay the penalty for sin. Since the death of Christ, the good news is that a Savior has come, and has died to pay the penalty for sin.

The word “grace” means “unmerited favor.” It is also defined as “the divine influence in the life.” We know that the unmerited favor of God has been shown to mankind ever since Adam and Eve were spared instant death. Most certainly the unmerited favor of God was shown to Old Testament Israel. God is the same - yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Every believer from Adam through Abraham to this very day, has felt the divine influence. Every believer has known the grace of God.

Every lamb brought by an Israelite represented Christ. His death would someday pay the price of redemption for every man and women. And even before the Israelites, righteous Able, Noah, Job, Abraham and others made sacrifices, seeking forgiveness of sins. These men were forgiven because of their belief in the substitute provided by God. They were forgiven in exactly the same way that we are forgiven today when we claim Christ’s as our substitute (Gen. 4:4; Gen. 8:20; Job 1:5). Christ said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).

The Israelite who came in true heart sorrow for sin, with his sacrificial lamb, was forgiven because of his faith in God, the forgiver. His sins were covered (Num.15:25-29; Lev.19:23). He stood righteous before God. The word “atonement” means “covering.” His sin was covered by the blood of the sacrifice, symbolizing the blood of Christ. The sacrificial ceremony had no power or worth apart from the faith of the one who brought the lamb. Without true heart repentance, the ceremony was repulsive to God (1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16,17; Hos. 6:6; Heb. 9:9).

Indeed, that was the perversion of the gospel that was taught by the religious authorities of Christ’s day. The Jews came to believe that there was merit or value in the ceremony itself. They completely lost the symbolic meaning of the sacrificial service.

ROMANS 3:20 “For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” RSV

No one, not in the New Testament or the Old Testament, was ever saved by keeping the law.

No one is saved or has ever been saved, by following a formula, by chanting a certain number of prayers, by going to church every week, by keeping every one of the Ten Commandments, by keeping the Ceremonial Feasts, or by donating large sums of money to the church or charities.

HABAKKUK 2:4 (Old Testament) - GALATIANS 3:11(New Testament) “The just shall live by his faith.”

Salvation and oneness with God, the blessing of God - in the Old Testament, as in the New - was understood to be the gift of God, received by faith.

DEUTERONOMY 9:6 "Know therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. RSV

DANIEL 9:18 “Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” NIV

The saints of the Old Testament were saved in exactly the same way as we are saved today - by the grace of God.

JOHN 14:21 “Who ever has my COMMANDMENTS and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.”

ROMANS 2:12-13 “For not the hearers of the LAW are justified, but the doers of the LAW shall be justified.”

This is a New Testament statement, yet it says that those who do not keep the Law will not be justified.

I JOHN 2:4 “The man who says ?I know Him,’ but does not keep His COMMANDMENTS is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

ROMANS 7:14 “The LAW is spiritual.” “I agree with the LAW that it is good” (Rom. 7:16).

EPHESIANS 2:15 Paul says that the “law contained in ordinances” was “abolished.”

ROMANS 3:31 Paul also says “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.” NAB

ONE : Natural Law (health, hygiene, horticulture, weather cycle, heredity, gravity, etc.)

TWO : Civil Law (organization of government, deeds, marriages, wills, punishment of crime, etc)

THREE: The "law of Sacrifices", with it's priesthood, and the Temple pointed forward to Christ's death, death, resurrection and work in Heaven as mediator and High Priest.

FOUR: Rabbinic law - laws based upon interpretations of Old Testament Scriptures by the religious teachers.

FIVE: The Great Moral Law of God. (Eternal and always existent. Embodied in the Ten Commandments.)

Christ admonished us to “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s.” We are to obey as far as possible, civil law. Natural law is obviously still in operation. When we mistreat our body we get sick. God gave dietary laws forbidding the eating of fat or blood or scavenger animals. These laws make just as much sense today as when they were given 4000 years ago. Gravity is still working. Electricity still lights our homes. They work by natural laws. Christ argued against Rabbinic law where it conflicted with the true spirit of the moral law.

The Ceremonial Law has passed away. This law pointed forward to Christ, “the Lamb of God.” When the symbol was replaced by the reality. The symbol became obsolete. We do not sacrifice lambs anymore. This is the only part of the Torah (or Law) which has become obsolete.

HEBREWS 7:18: (Paul to the Hebrews) “There is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, thorough which we draw near to God.”

We come near to God, not through scrifices, not through earthly priests, not through an ancient Temple service, not through keeping ancient symbolic holy days, but "by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His Flesh" (Hebrews 10:19:20). We have a High Priest, Jesus Christ the Son of God, who has entered "the Presence behind the veil." This He did when He sat down at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 6:19-20, 7:20-27, 8:1-2).

The ancient Sanctuary (later the Temple) with its ceremonies and sacrifices Paul calls “the copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” This law was given with the “first covenant.” Christ, as our Heavenly High Priest, is the mediator of a new and better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). The blood is Christ is the "better sacrifice" offered in our behalf.

HEBREWS 8:13 “In that He (Christ) says, 'a new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete, and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

HEBREWS 10:9 “He (Christ) takes away the first [symbolic service] that He may establish the second.”

HEBREWS 7:12 "For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law (Torah)."

“The first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1,10). Paul describes the sanctuary with it’s furniture and its service especially the Day of Atonement service, and he says, “It was symbolic for the present time” (Hebrews 9:9). The first covenant had a priesthood from the tribe of Levi. Now we have a High Priest, Jesus Christ who is not from the tribe of Levi Who ministers in the Heavenly Temple.

HEBREWS 9:9-10 "It (the Temple) was symbolic for the present time ... concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation."

COLOSSIANS 2:16-17 "Therefore (because your sins are forgiven) let no man judge you in regard to meat or drink (ceremonial offerings), a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

[Do not let anyone judge you because you no longer offer animal sacrifices, or grain, or drink offerings in the Temple. Do not let them judge you in the way you choose to keep the festival days, without offering animal sacrifices.]

Paul is not here speaking of pagan holidays. These were not "a shadow of things to come." He is not speaking of the 7th day Sabbath, given in the 4th commandment, which was a memorial of creation testifying to the right of God as creator to rule that which He created.

HEBREWS 13:11-13 “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”

Paul tells his Hebrew readers to leave the old ways of the Temple and the ceremonial system, to come “outside the camp,” as it were, even though this means sure rejection by those who cling to the old ways.

Christ's death marked the end of keeping the ceremonial law in order to be called righteous in the sight of God.

HEBREWS 9:8 “The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All (Heaven and the presence of God) was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle (the earthly Temple) was still standing (still standing or significance).”

This passage is believed to have been written about AD65, in which case the Jerusalem Temple would still have been literally standing. (It was destroyed in AD70.)"

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
I. Have nothing in your life more important than Me.	VI. Do not murder.
II. Do not make images a part of worship.	VII. Do not commit adultery.
III. Speak’s God’s name reverently.	VIII. Do not steal.
IV. Keep the 7th day Sabbath (Saturday) Holy.	IX. Do not use lies to hurt anyone.
V. Respect authority figures.	X. Do not desire what belongs to others.

THE GREAT MORAL LAW	THE CEREMONIAL LAW
1. Called the “Law of the Lord” (Isa. 5:24).	1. Was called the "law of offerings and sacrifices." (HEb 9:9, Lev. 7:37-38).
2. Called “the Royal Law” (James 2:8,10-12). (At the time James was writing, the Old Testament was considered the only Scripture.)
3. Will be the standard in the Judgment (Ja. 2:10-12; Rom. 2:12,13; Eccl. 12:13,14).	3. Judges no man (Col. 2:14-16).
4. Written with the finger of God, on stone (Deut. 4:13; Ex. 31:18; Ex. 32:16).	4. Written by Moses in a book (2 Chron 35:12).
5. Placed inside of the Ark in the Sanctuary (Ex. 40:20).	5. Placed in a pocket on the outside of the Ark (Deut. 31:24-26).
6. Points out sin (Romans 7:7). A mirror (James 1:23).	6. Symbolized Christ’s Act of sacrifice, and work of atonement (John 1 29,36).
7. Where there is no law, there is no sin therefore the law existed before sin. (1 John. 3:4; Rom. 4:15). Lucifer sinned when he broke God’s law.	7. Was added “because of sin” (Gal. 3:19).
8. Is not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Called “the law of liberty” (James 2:12).	8. Was a "yoke of bondage". (Gal. 5:1, Acts 15:10).
9. Is “holy, just and good” (Rom. 7:12).	9. Was “carnal” or "fleshly". (Heb. 7:16).
10. “Till heaven and earth pass away, no part will be done away with or changed (Matt. 5:18)	10. Was taken away (Heb. 10:9), annulled (Heb. 7:18), abolished (Eph. 2:15), made obsolete (Heb. 8:13), changed (Heb. 7:12).
11. Is perfect (Psalm 19:7; Romans 7:12).	11. Was a “shadow” of the real “things to come” (Col. 2:17, Heb. 8:6, Heb. 9:9).
12. Is “established” (Romans 3:31).	12. Is “obsolete” (Heb. 8:13).
13. Is “the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13; John 15:10.	13.“Let no man judge you in regard to ... a festival or a new moon or (ceremonial) sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:16-17).
14. Is built upon principles of supreme love for God and love for our fellow man (Ja. 2:8-12; Matt. 22:36-40; Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18).	14.Is a beautiful prophecy of Christ’s death, resurrection, and Heavenly mediation.
15. Is written in our hearts by the Spirit of Christ when we accept Him by faith as our Saviour (Heb. 8:8-10; Rom. 2:15; 2 Cor. 3:3; Jer. 31:33,34).	15.
16. Carries a promise ( Jer. 31:33,34; Gal. 3:29).	16.
17. Converts the soul (Psalm 19:7).	17. “Made nothing perfect” (Heb. 7:19; Heb. 9:9).

Certainly, Lucifer sinned, when he rebelled against God in heaven. That means there was a LAW in heaven.

EXODUS 16:25 To the children of Israel, before Mt. Sinai, God said “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?”

COMMANDMENTS	SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
First	Gen. 35:2-4 “Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean.”
Second	Gen. 31:19-34; Gen. 35:2-4.
Third	Ex. 5:2 Pharaoh blasphemed God and suffered the consequences.
Fourth	Ex. 16:4-30 “Six days shall ye gather it: but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.” “How long do you refuse to keep my laws.”
Fifth	Gen. 9:20-25 Canaan was cursed because his father, Ham, showed disrespect for his grandfather, Noah
Sixth	Gen. 4:11,12 “Cain was marked for the murder of his brother Able.”
Seventh	Gen. 39:9 “Joseph refused to sin against God by sleeping with Potiphar’s wife.”
Eighth	Gen. 44:8,16 “Behold the money which we found in our sack’s mouths, we brought, again unto out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy Lord’s house silver or gold?”
Ninth	Gen. 27:2-46 Jacob deceived his father and had to run for his life. (Gen. 20:9)
Tenth	Gen. 25:29-34 Jacob coveted Esau’s birthright, and lied to his father.

LEVITICUS 24:22 “There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger, as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.”

NUMBERS 9:14 “You shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.”

ISAIAH 56:6-8 “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My alter; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Exodus 12:19; Exodus 12:48; Exodus 12:49; Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:24; Leviticus 16:29; Leviticus 17:10-12; Leviticus 18:26; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 9:14; Leviticus 17:8; Numbers 15:14-16; 1Kings 8:41-43; 2Chronicles 6:32; Isaiah 56:6-8. These passages speak of non-Israelites participation in the worship and duty towards the law.

The passage says, “everyone” “who holds fast My covenant.” Gentiles (non-Jews) who joined themselves to Israel were included in the Old Covenant. To whom was God speaking when He gave His messages through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, and Solomon. To the Hebrews, yes. Yet, Gentile Christians today claim these promises and lessons as their own.

To whom did Christ address almost all that He said, including the sermon on the mount? To Jews. Christ said “Salvation is of the Jews” ( John 4:22). Paul said of the Jews: “They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants (plural), the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;” (Romans 9:4 RSV). Does this verse mean that non-Jews are precluded from the new covenant? Yes it does!!! But remember - we who are not Jews by birth, become “children of Abraham,” Israelites by adoption, and part of the greater congregation of Israel, by “faith” in Jesus (Gal. 3:6-7). We are “grafted” in to the tree which has the faith of Abraham as it’s root (Romans 11). And remember that not every one who claims to be a Jew, is a Jew in the sight of God (Rev. 3:9, John 8:39, Rom. 2:28-29, Gal. 3:6-7).

These people are surprised to learn that it was Christ who spoke the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai

(1 Cor. 10:1-4, Nehemiah 9:9-14, James 4:12, John 5:22, Acts 10:42, 1 Tim. 2:5, Heb 12:26).

John 1:17 “For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

The “but” was supplied by the King James translators. It is not in the original. Read some of the newer translations. The law was given to Moses by the preincarnate Christ. The law is full of grace and truth. Every command, when accepted in faith, is a promise of power to obey.

When Christ gave His commandments in the New Testament, to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, He was quoting from the Old Testament (Matt. 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-34, Deut. 6:5, Deut. 10:12, Deut. 30:6, Lev. 19:18).

Commandments 1-4: Show our love for God Commandments 5-10: Show our love for fellow man The answers that Christ gave to Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness, were all quoted from the Old Testament.

The words of the Beatitudes and The Lord’s Prayer (MATT 6:9-13), all were taken from the Old Testament.

I CHRON. 29:10	LAMENTATIONS 3:30
DEUT. 14:1	DEUT. 15:7,8
PROVERBS 30:8	PROVERBS 24:17
I CHRON. 29:11	PROVERBS 25:21
ISAIAH 66:1	JOB 31:29
PSALM 37:11	EXODUS 23:4,5
ISAIAH 50:6

There was nothing wrong with the Old Testament Law. It had been covered with a clutter of tradition. Christ came to clarify the Law and to set it free from tradition. He came to “magnify the Law and make it honorable” (Isaiah 42:21).

Christ taught nothing new. He clarified the law of love which was as old as God Himself.

Christ said, “I and my Father are one.” They are one in purpose and thought.

PSALM 40:8 “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yes, thy law is within my heart” (Rom 7:22).

God’s will and God’s moral law are the same. How could God change His will or do away with it.

ISAIAH 51:7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is My law.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who hunger to know God. (Matt. 5:64)

PSALM 23:3 David said, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

We could say, “Make plain to me your moral law, and write it on my heart. Bring me into harmony with Your law, and thus with You.

PSALM 119:165 “Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

ISAIAH 51:6-7 “For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, ... but My salvation (grace) will be forever, and My righteousness (law) will not be abolished.”

LUKE 16:17 “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the LAW to fail.”

JOHN 15:10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”

“He thinks he is above the law.” You’ve heard this expression. It means that the person is acting as if the law was not written for him, as if it does not apply to him. And if someone is acting “within the law,” this means that his actions are legal and no punishment should be forth coming. But to be “under the law” means to be condemned by the law for having violated one or more precepts of its precepts.

When we sin (when we transgress the law) we are condemned to die the “second death” (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 4:15; Rom. 5:13; James 1:15). We are under condemnation of the law. “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), therefore all are under condemnation (Rom. 5:12).

We cannot, in our own strength, keep the moral law of God. Without the power of God dwelling in us, we are “slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:6). We cannot keep the law of God even when we want to. “You do not do the things that you wish”, Paul said (Gal 5:16). The law cannot save us; it can only condemn. If we depend upon keeping the law for our salvation, then we will be lost. We must depend upon Christ. It is only by His grace, by His imparted power that we can “keep the law.”

When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, and we are “born again,” Christ Himself by His Spirit comes to dwell in each one of us (John 17:23,26; Col 1:27; 1Cor. 15:45). Through the power which His presence imparts we begin to live a new life of righteousness (Rom. 6:4). We no longer “fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Rom. 6:12, Gal.5:16). The law of love is “written in our hearts” (Rom. 2:15; 2 Cor. 3:3). The righteous requirement of the law “is fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4).

GOD’S GRACE ENABLES US TO KEEP THEM MORE PERFECTLY SO THAT THE RIGHTEOUS REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW MAY THEN BE FULFILLED IN US.

By His perfect life and death Christ fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law. He “was obedient unto death, striving against sin.” He now lives out that perfect life in each believing man and woman who surrenders to His indwelling. We are benefactors of His death, and we become partakers of His righteous life. We are saved from the penalty of sin, which is death, and we are saved from sin itself (from the slavery to sin in our lives).

Christ is my Savior. He paid the penalty which would have been mine. He also gives me righteousness day to day, moment to moment, in my thoughts, in my desires, and in my actions. It is His righteousness. I cannot claim any part of it as originating within me. Yet He has made it mine.

ROMANS 6:15 “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!”

ROMANS 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

ROMANS 8:6-7 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.” NIV

The natural human mind, without the Spirit of God is selfish (sinful or carnal). It cannot submit to the law of God. This is why it means death to be controlled by the sinful mind. To be controlled by the Spirit of God on the other hand, is to partake of the divine nature, which is life.

God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying out, “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:6). The mind indwelt by the Spirit of Christ reaches out towards God. This mind submits to the law of God, just as Christ submitted to His Father’s will (John 15:10). This mind says, “Oh how I love Thy law” (Ps. 119:97).

The law has not be changed. The believer is changed and is brought into harmony with the law.

Yes, I pay a penalty. “Be not deceived - God is not mocked - whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). My relationships in this world, my health, perhaps my finances may suffer. God does not change the law of cause and effect. The “second death” penalty at the final end of the wicked - that sentence is commuted.

GALATIANS 3:13 Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law.” The curse of the law is death, for those who violate its requirements.

God said, “If you sin - you will die” (Gen 2:17). He didn’t say, “You will die this very day.” When Adam and Eve sinned against God, a domino effect was set in motion. A series of natural consequences began to unfold as a result of their rebellion.

An example we might site is the changed in the relationship between man and woman. Man, as the head of woman appointed by God to provide for and protect his wife. Man as the physically stronger, was to serve the needs of his wife and children. After sin however, might would make right, and man became the master and ruler. (Today we realize that when God formed Eve from Adam’s rib, He was creating a clone. He modified only one chromosone, the Y to the X.)

God predicted this domination of man over woman. “Your desire shall be for your husband, and He shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). God’s curse was really a prediction of how her sin would effect her future, and that of her daughters.

The expression “curse of the law” does not mean that the moral law was a curse, to be done away with. It means that the law (of cause and effect) brings destruction upon those who violate its principles.

The moral law predicts the future, pronouncing a blessing upon those who abide within its limits, and a curse upon those who violate its principles. Upon those who have transgressed, the law pronounces a curse - “You will die” (James 1:15). Now Christ has come, and has set us free from this curse. First, He as set us free from eternal death. Second, by giving us power to live within the law, He has set us free from the painful consequences which we suffer when we violate its principles. He “has redeemed us from the curse of the law.”

ROMANS 7:16,23 Paul said, “I consent unto the law that it is good.” “But I see ANOTHER LAW at work in my

members.” This other law, is the “law of sin and death,” in fact Paul says, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death” (Romans 7:24). He said this because it is natural for human beings to sin.

We are by nature selfish. Yet Paul saw another law at work - the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” This law “has set me free,” Paul said, “from the law of sin and death.” The Spirit of Christ, dwelling within us, is stronger than the natural or carnal nature.

ROMANS 8:1,2 “The LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE in Christ Jesus has set me free from the LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.”

*** Did you see that God’s grace is also called a law; the “law of the Spirit of Life?” ***

We have no power within ourselves to love unselfishly, but when we are “filled with the Spirit of Christ,” when we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) then we become channels for God’s love. No longer slaves of Satan (Gal. 4:7, Rom. 6:16) or our own desires, (Gal 5:17) we have “power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12).

ROMANS 1:5 “We RECEIVED GRACE and apostleship FOR OBEDIENCE to the faith ...”

Strong’s Concordance defines “grace” as “the divine influence or the divine power upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.” Grace is also defined as the unmerited favor of God.

TITUS 2:11-14 “For the GRACE of God that brings salvation to all men TEACHES US that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for ... Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

NOTICE: Grace teaches us to obey the law. We received grace so that we could obey, and we will be zealous of good works not in order to obtain salvation, but because we have been saved.

HEBREWS 8:10 “ I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts”

PSALM 40:8 “I delight to do thy will... yea, they law is written within my heart.”

There are many who believe that as long as we are in this world we cannot stop sinning. They say that until Jesus comes, and we receive new bodies, we will continue to fall over and over and over, repeating the same mistakes. But this is not what the Bible says.

“I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless ....” (Jude 24)

“No temptation has overtaken you but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape ...” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly .... He who calls you is faithful, Who also will do it”

TRUE GRACE	COUNTERFEIT GRACE
Gives power to keep the LAW.	Says it’s not necessary to keep the LAW.
Jesus saves you from your sins.	Jesus saves you in your sins.
Jesus cleanses me from the inside out. I receive a new heart and a new mind	Jesus covers me with his righteousness, but I’m still dirty on the inside.
“I can do all things through Christ” (Phil. 4:13). I can stop sinning.	I don’t have to stop sinning, as long I just keep saying I’m sorry. Confession without repentance.
I always have free will. Jesus cannot heal me if I do not consent to be changed.	Jesus loves me too much to ever let me be lost no matter what I do. Presumption is the counterfeit of faith.
Salvation is not heaven (that’s just the home of the saved). Salvation is not eternal life (that’s the reward of the saved). Salvation is freedom from the slavery of sin in my life, here, now, in this present world.	Salvation is heaven and eternal life.

JAMES 1:23-25; JAMES 2:12 “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what type of man he was. But, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

“The Word” is called the “perfect law of liberty.” To say that we can ignore the law is the same as saying we can ignore the Word of God. They are the same.

Perfect obedience to the law of love through the power of God’s indwelling sets us free from sinning and from its painful consequences. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!

LUKE 4:18 “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek;

he hath sent me to ... proclaim liberty to the captives, ... and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

ROMANS 8:21 “Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

Are we at liberty to sin? No! No! We are offered freedom from sinning and from its inevitable results. We are set from the power of Satan. He can tempt us, but he cannot make us fall.

A “covenant” was an agreement between two parties. Like a contract, the covenant details the responsibilities of each party. The covenant between God and man has always been the same: “I will be their God and they will be my people”

(Hebrews 8:10, Ezekiel 36:27, Deuteronomy 30:6) Keep My laws through my power in you, and I will bless you, and you will live.

The first covenant was a covenant of promise, with symbols (sacrifices and ceremonies) of the Messiah to come (Hebrews 9:1,3,4). The first covenant God made with Adam at the gate of Eden. God promised to send a redeemer. The covenant was given to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It was renewed to Israel at the foot of Sinai. Again and again, man broke this covenant (Heb. 8:7-8).

The new covenant is simply a renewal of the original covenant, but without the sacrificial symbols, because now Christ, the promised redeemer has come.

The terms of the covenant remained the same: Obey my law of love, through my indwelling Spirit, and live. I will give you the desire to obey and the power to obey (a “new heart” and a “new spirit”). You must choose to obey.

DEUTERONOMY 30:6 “The Lord will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.”

: The Holy Spirit existed just as surely then as now. The great majority just did not surrender to that power.

The Israelites lost site of the Spirit of the law because they were trying, so hard in their own strength to keep the letter of the law. This is known as legalism.

The “new covenant” is based upon the fact of Jesus’s victory over sin. Jesus has come as a human being. He has overcome. “Jesus has become a surety ...” (Heb. 7:22). The ultimate victory over Satan and sin is now a sure thing. And we may share in this victory.

The “old covenant” made with Israel was based upon man’s promise to obey the law of God. At he foot of Sinai “all the people answered together and said, ?All that the Lord has said we will do’” (Ex 19:8). These were “poor promises”, broken within days, because man has no power in himself to keep God’s law. Nowhere do we hear of the Israelites asking for the indwelling Spirit of God. They rejected the Spirit and tried to keep the letter.

HEBREWS 8:7-9 “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second, because finding fault with them (men) ... because they did not continue in My covenant ...”

ISAIAH 24:5-6 “The earth is defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth ...”

The “New covenant”, the “everlasting covenant” is based upon God’s promise to us. God has promised to “redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14). He has promised to write His law in our hearts (Heb. 8:10). We must claim His promise and believe. We must remain humbly aware that the credit for our good works goes to God, not to us. Then our efforts to obey are joined to His powerful grace and we overcome. This is why Paul says that the “new covenant” is “established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). It is based upon God’s promise not man’s.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, all experienced this righteousness by faith. They believed God’s promise of a “new heart” (Jer. 22:40; Jer. 31:33; Eze. 36:27; Heb. 8:10. They were partakers of the everlasting covenant.

Anyone, whether he lived 3000 years ago, or lives today -- if he is attempting to keep God’s law in his own strength -- is living under the old covenant, and he will fail of receiving eternal life.

HEBREWS 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, ...”

HEB 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their mind and write them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ezekiel 36:27,28; Hebrews 10:16; Jeremiah 31:33).

ROMANS 10:4 “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Christ is the end of trying to keep the letter of the law, in your own strength, in order to be righteous before God.. Christ is the end of legalism.

II CORINTHIANS 3:5-6 “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter (legalism), but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.”

ROMANS 3:27 “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

The works which we do in order to win God’s favor, in order to be saved, are useless, because we cannot, out of our unsaved hearts perform works that are free of selfish intent. We must first receive grace, the healing purifying power of God. Then we will do good works, we will bring forth the fruits of the spirit, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved.

The “law of faith” brings about “the obedience of faith.” “Faith without works” is not real faith. It is a dead counterfeit (James 2:20).

ROMANS 1:5 “Through whom (Christ) we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith ...”

[Did you understand that grace is the power love of God which gives us the desire and the power to obey.]

PHILIPPIANS 2:13 “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

JOHN 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,”

EZEKIEL 36:27 “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” (Old Testament)

PHILIPPIANS 3:3-9 Paul says that he kept the law perfectly as far as was humanly possible, but when the Holy Spirit convicted Him of the true spirit of the law (that is loving ones fellow men) he realized he was lost and could never meet the requirements in his own strength. He had no confidence in his own ability to obey God perfectly, but trusted to the power of the Holy Spirit in him.

EPHESIANS 3:16-21 “that He (the Father) would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that, Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

ISAIAH 27:5 “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” (Old Testament)

GALATIANS 3:24 “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

Little children must be taught by simple means. You cannot just tell a child to eat healthfully. You must explain what foods are good for him. Just so, you cannot tell a spiritual infant to love God and man unselfishly. He would have no idea what that means.

The law is like a mirror (James l:23-25). A mirror tells you when you’re dirty, but the mirror can’t make you clean. And destroying the mirror won’t make you any cleaner.

Paul says of his mission: “that I might gain (convert) them that are without law” (I Cor 9:21). The pagans didn’t know they were sinful. They had no standard, and no mirror. So they felt no need of a Saviour.

The law defines sin. It tells us what is sin and what is good. When we have learned the basic Ten as children then we are ready to go on to a finer standard like the teachings and the life of Christ. We look beyond the letter to the principle.

I TIMOTHY 1:9 “the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly sinners,”

A converted person, one who has a new heart would not need those commandments written on stone in order to behave righteously. He is living by the principle of love for God and man. He would never lie, cheat, or steal. He would honor God’s Sabbath, and His name. In heaven, I don’t think God will need to post the Ten Commandments on a wall as a reminder.

We keep the law when we have a spirit of love and unselfishness. This explains why we are guilty of breaking the whole law when we violate one principle. We could not violate that one point without selfishness in our hearts. James 2:10

GALATIANS 3:21 “If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness should have been by the law.”

GALATIANS 2:16 “man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ”,...”for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

GALATIANS 2:21 “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ died in vain.”

(If it were possible for us to keep the law in our own strength, then we didn’t need a Saviour.)

GALATIANS 3:ll “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for ?The just shall live by faith’”

Notice: the old testament saints were saved in just the same way, by faith, as we are today.

HEBREWS 11:7 “Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith because he built the ark.”

The moral law, without power from God (grace) is a curse, because we cannot keep the Law in our own strength. We are saved by Jesus Christ who taught us to ask for the Holy Spirit and power to be able to keep the Commandments. We live by faith in God’s promise of saving, regenerating power.

ROMANS 6:7 “... a woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband ... You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God ... But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so the we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

You have become dead to keeping the law as a means to salvation. You still keep the law, but not as a way to be saved. You now keep the law because you have been saved, and have received power from Christ.

Paul here is contrasting the attempt to gain salvation by our own works, which is futile slavery, the “oldness of the letter,” with the “newness of the Spirit”, the indwelling power of grace, which produces inward change, true righteousness, not just outwardly correct behavior.

The law was the first husband, but he was a tyrant which could only point out her sins (Gal. 7:7-23). When you realized the impossibility of keeping the law in you own strength you “died to the law” as a means of salvation, and were married to Christ. The law didn’t love you and the law could not help you to obey. Jesus loves you, and He gives you power to obey willingly and joyfully. This new marriage is happy!

This same symbol of marriage Paul uses in Galatians 4:21 and Galatians 5:6. Abraham’s taking Hagar represents our attempt to gain salvation in our own way, by works. The miracle child given through Sarah symbolizes salvation by grace, the gift of God. Paul went on to say that clinging to circumcision or to any of the ceremonial laws, was to continue trying to achieve salvation by works.

Works are a window to the soul. True faith results in loving deeds. A consistent, righteous life is not possible without the indwelling of the Spirit of God, therefore, if a man or woman has demonstrated righteousness in action, this is a testimony that he or she has entered a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

To say that we are to be judged by our works is the same as saying we will be judged by our faith. The works are evidence of our faith.

If a person claims to have faith in Christ, but his/her life shows no evidence of unselfishness, then the claim is a lie, and the “faith” a sham.

The same words which are used to describe God, also are used to describe God’s LAW.

TRUTH (Isaiah 26:12, Psalm 119:142) --- GOOD (Romans 7:16) ---- SPIRITUAL (Romans 7:14) ---- LOVE (1John 4:8, 1John 4:16, Romans 13:10) ---- GOSPEL (2Thessalonians 1:7-9) ---- Holy (Romans 7:12) ---- JUST (Romans 7:12).

“LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE”	“LAW OF SIN AND DEATH”
Healing Grace	No Healing
Restores Life (New Heart)	Death the Inevitable
Breaks the Cycle of Addiction (slavery) to Sin	Natural Consequence of Addiction to Sin