| Author | Message | ||
| Gatororeo7 (Gatororeo7) |
As we saw in the last part, the law is like a mirror. It can show us that our faces are dirty, but it can't wash them for us. And that is all God intended the law to do. It shows us that we are dead in our sins and in need of life, but it is powerless to do anything else. Hebrews 7:18, 19 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. 1. According to the writer of Hebrews, what happened to the law (former regulation)? It was set aside. 2. Why was the law set aside? Because it was weak and useless. 3. Why does he say that the law is weak and useless? Because the law made nothing perfect. 4. Because the law makes nothing perfect, can it allow us to draw near to God? No. 5. According to this verse, what do we need to draw near to God? A better hope. 6. Would the grace of God provide that better hope? Yes! Hebrews 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 1. How does the writer of Hebrews describe the law? A shadow of the good things that are comijg, but not the realities themselves. 2. How much power does a shadow have? None. 3. Because the law is a shadow, can you depend on it to make you right with God? No. 4. Can the law make you perfect and enable you to draw near to God? No. Romans 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. 1. How does Paul describe the law in this verse? It was powerless. 2. What made the law powerless? The sinful nature. 3. Is the problem the law, or is the problem you and me? You and me. 4. Do we have the power to save ourselves? No. 5. Who does? God! The Law Cannot Make Us Righteous Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! 1. Does the law have the ability to make us righteous? No. 2. If it did, what would we have to conclude about Christ's death on the cross? He died for nothing. 3. What would we have to do with the grace of God if obedience to the law could make us righteous? Set it aside. 4. Would the grace of God have any value in our lives if righteousness could be gained through the law? No! Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." 1. Can anyone be justified or declared totally righteous in the sight of God by the law? No. 2. How do the righteous live? By faith. 3. Does the law have the power to make us righteous? No. Galatians 2:16 ...know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 1. Can a person be justified by observing the law? No. 2. How is a person justified? By placing our faith in Jesus Christ. 3. What did Paul say that he did to be justified? Place his faith in Christ. 4. Should we depend on the law to be justified, or should we put our faith in Christ as Paul did? Put our faith in Christ. The Law Cannot Give Life Galatians 3:21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 1. Is the law opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! 2. However, does the law have the ability to impart or give life? No. 3. If it did, how would righteousness come to you and me? By the law. Romans 7:10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 1. What did Paul think the commandment (the law) had the power to give him? Life. 2. What did the commandment actually bring to Paul? Death. 3. Does the law have the ability to give life to you and me? No. 4. What does the law bring? Death. Ephesians 2:4, 5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 1. Who made us alive with Christ? God. 2. What motivated God to do so? His great love for us. 3. How does this verse say that we are saved? By grace. 4. For you and me to receive life and then experience life, what must we depend on - the law or the grace of God? The grace of God. 5. In your own life, what are you depending on for your righteousness and life - your obedience to the law or the grace of God? The grace of God. 6. If you are depending on your obedience to the law, are you willing to recognize that the law is powerless to produce these things in your life? Yes! 7. The writer of Hebrews stated that the former regulation was set aside because it was weak and useless. Are you willing to set aside the law in your own life and totally depend on the grace of God? YES!!! | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Another good study, Joel! Colleen | ||
| Freeatlast (Freeatlast) |
Every time I try to accept that the law is worthless, I find myself confronted with the Scripture in Romans that says THE LAW IS HOLY and it was Paul that was unholy. So if the law is worthy, and holy and just and good, should not a man who truly loves God at least TRY to keep it in order to pour out his faith towards God? What is the Christian walk based on? Yes, I believe that Jesus died for me and I can't do anything to earn salvation. So now what? James invites me to show him my faith by my works. What are these works? PLEASE HELP!!! | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Freeatlast, I'll try to explain the way I understand it. Paul points out that before the law was given, people had the law written on their hearts. Gentiles, he explains, "show that the requirmenets of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. (Romans 2:14-15) Morality is built into humanity, but without the written law, people were less aware of sin. They were still sinful (they had inherited Adam's sin--his separation from God--and therefore were vulnerable to all manner of sinning), but they did not have the conscious awareness of sin that came after the law was given. "For apart from the law," Paul says, "sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." (Romans 7:8-9) He goes on, though, to explain that the commandments, which were given to make people aware of sin, really awakened a recognition of sin, and they become enmeshed in sinning and in guilt, an awareness of of how much they broke the law. "The very commandment that was intended to bring life [an awareness of sin an a call to sinlessness] actually brought death." (Romans 7:10) The law is holy and righteous; it was given to make people conscious of sin and to call them to righteousness. Before the law they were sinnners and sinful, but they mostly had no thought or awareness of sin. They were guilty without being conscious of how deeply lost they were. The law was given to awaken awareness and to awaken conscious guilt. It was given to make people KNOW they needed to be righteous and to see exactly how they behaved unrighteously. But the law's purpose of pointing out sin was not the only gift God gave man. In fact, humanity soon proved that they could simply NOT keep the law or be good. They were guilty beyond any argument about it, but they were helpless in their sins. The law, as Paul explains in Galatians 2:21, is not opposed to God's promises. God's promises of victory and forgiveness and righteousness could not have been fulfilled if humanity had not been made consciously and hopelessly aware of their hopeless sinfulness as opposed to the perfection God required of them. The law described that perfection; life showed them their failure. The law made it clear that humanity was doomed to death. "For is a law had been given that could impart life," Paul further says in Gal. 2:21, "then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe." Then Paul explains the law: "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified byfaith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." (Gal. 2:23-25) The law's purpose was completed when Abraham's Seed came. It was given to make the reality and hopelessness of sin clear to people until the answer, the Savior, came to impart righteousness that the law could not give. Because of Jesus, we can now be righteous. By FAITH we accept Jesus, and when we do, we receive the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13) Now we live by the righteousness that comes by faith. God has written his law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:7-13), replacing the law on stone in our lives. That law on stone is literally the Holy Spirit. It's an internal, living law as opposed to an external set of standards. And this new covenant of the Living Law in us has made the old one obsolete. (Hebrews 8:13) The law on stone is not opposed to the law of the Spirit. It's just no longer our standard of behavior. The law is specific and carries a curse of death if we disobey. The new covenant is less specific. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) indicts our thoughts and motives along with our behaviors. Living according to the principles given in the Sermon on the mount is impossible without an indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus was clearly showing that human lawfulness could never measure up to the standards of God--standards that literally require the Spirit of God to make them happen. By giving us the Holy Spirit, God has put himself in charge of our righteousness. Now, instead of obeyeing the 10 Commandments, we say "Yes" to Jesus, literally, all the time. Christ in us prompts us, gives us his wisdom, his caution, his warnings, his insights, his power to choose His will instead of our own. We don't always choose His will; we still often give in to our "sinful flesh" which we still inhabit. But Christ does not leave us, and when we give in to sinful flesh, we are not left facing a stone law that condemns us to death. We are left facing Jesus who has already died for us and who beckons us back to himself. The Sabbath, of course, is the law that makes this distinction so important. The Sabbath was a shadow of a person, a symbol of a reality which would come when Jesus made our hearts his home. The Sabbath rest of a Christ-follower is this living law always inside us. We carry around in our "jars of clay" this "all-surpassing power from God". (2 Cor. 4:7) We now obey Jesus, not the law. The law is inseparable from its curse of death. Jesus has taken care of that curse; when we listen to him, we are covered in righteousness, and his power in us changes us "into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Cor. 3:18) The law was absolutely essential. Humanity had to know what sin was and that it was guilty. It had to know that it was hopeless and unable to be good. Faith in the finished work of Jesus, on the other hand, introduces a mystery which the pre-Christ people did not experience: the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now we do need to obey--but our obedience is to the Holy Spirit whose power calls us and empowers us to live by the "law that brings freedom" (James 2:12), the "royal law found in Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " (James 2:8) Our works now are works of the Spirit. They are generated by our intimate relationship with Jesus; they are His promptings. Our call is to be obedient to Him. We are not called to mind the law; we are called to submit to Jesus. The law with its curse has no more power or authority over us. Only Jesus, who has redeemed us from the curse and who has literally put HIMSELF in us, is worthy of our obedience. Praise Him! Colleen | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Oops--I made a dreadful typo in the above. About halfway down I wrote, "That law on stone is the Holy Spirit." I meant "That law written on the heart is the Holy Spirit." Sorry--I was rushing to get my son to his sax lesson, and I just didn't proof it carefully! Colleen | ||
| Gatororeo7 (Gatororeo7) |
Thanks Colleen, and great comments on your part. There's still plenty more to this study, I'll just keep posting mroe as I get the time. | ||
| Freeatlast (Freeatlast) |
Colleen, thank you very much! I think you have a gift for explaining complicated ideas in a way that even infant believers can apprehend. I need to re-read and ponder your points some more, but one fundamental question keeps bubbling to the surface no matter what is explained to me: If the law was given to point out sin, how can I knowingly go on sinning (breaking the law) once I come to know Christ? To me, this boils down the essence of the question at hand. | ||
| Freeatlast (Freeatlast) |
In other words, once I see my dirty face in the mirror (my sins as defined by the law), don't I need to make some effort to wash it (keep the law)? I know I can't get it perfectly clean, but isn't it appropriate to expect me to at least pick up a rag and soap and turn the water on? Or am I to stand there effortless while Jesus does it all for me? As long as I pray for a job, I don't need to turn off the TV, get off the couch, and prepare a resume'. Do you see the apparent conflict that I keep wrestling with? Salvation may be grace alone, but is my Spiritual growth and maturity? I have this conflict going on inside me between cooperative effort (God's grace + my participation) and unilateral effort (God's grace and participation alone). If the process of sanctification is cooperative, where do I find my part? How do I know what to do and not do in order to participate on my end of the bargain? | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Good questions, Freeatlast. I think the difference pre-salvation and post-salvation is in the source of the action. Salvation, of course, is completely a work of grace. Obedience before knowing Jesus and being born again is our logical response to seeing our sin. We choose to stop and to be good instead. We know how ppoorly that works! Post born-again, we see our sin in a new way. We see it from a position of victory instead of from a position of working toward victory. When we are born again, we are no longer defined by our sin, even if it's not erased from our lives yet. I'm no longer an over-eater or an anorexic or a kleptomaniac or an adulterer--you get the idea--I'm now a daughter or son of God. My identity is completely new. I'm no longer defined by my sin. As a daughter of God, my sin is his along with me. Because I completely and irrevocably belong to him, instead of focussing on struggling to resist temptation or to "clean up my act", I can instead focus on surrendering to Jesus. When I surrender at the point of temptation instead of resist, I am saying "Yes" to Jesus, and his power takes care of the temptation at hand. Let me use myself as an example. I have always felt compelled to explain myself to the point of being obnoxious if I felt misunderstood. In fact, I never considered such a thing to be intrinsically wrong. I was RIGHT to defend myself if musunderstood! People had an obligation to understand me!! One day I read a passage in Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" in which he pointed out that Jesus never defended himself. He did his Father's will, and if people misunderstood him, he did not engage them in discussion or arguments for the sake of disabusing them of their misunderstanding of him. To Jesus, the important thing was doing God's will, not clearing his own reputation. Well, that passage convicted me. I realized that I often not only defended myself but got pretty hot under the collar and became argumentative if the person I was trying to convince did not understand my point of view. I began to pray that God would help me to give those kinds of situations into his hands. It's amazing how often we find ourselves in the kinds of situations that trigger our habitual responses AFTER we ask God to help us gain victory in them! What I've begun to do (and I don't always do it well, but I'm seeing it begin to work!) is when I find myself misunderstood or at odds with someone whose understanding I crave, instead of careening into an argument, I will at that moment ask God to give me his strength and wisdom to say only what he wants me to say and also ask Him to deal with the other person in the way they need to be dealt with. In other words, I'm beginning to just be still instead of engage in arguing even though I may be misunderstood or even hurt. I'm not deciding not to argue; if I were, I'd rarely be able to follow through because deciding not to argue doesn't stop the anger and hurt from growing in my heart. It would merely stop my voice while my demeanor and attitude would still be hostile or hurt. Instead, what I'm doing is surrendering the situation to Jesus. I'm asking Jesus to take charge of the other person and also to take charge of me. I focus on Him and on listening to His will instead of on holding my tongue. When I can surrender the moment to him, He does indeed take care of it. He doesn't always make the other person change right away, but he does bring his peace to my heart, and I can be calm and quiet even though I'm misunderstood. Furthermore, I can avoid doing things to hurt the other person passive-aggressively because I'm focussing on Jesus instead of the unfairness at hand. I've also been learning to surrender my work to Jesus, my panicky, out-of-control feelings when I have way more to do than I can accomplish in the time I have. I literally ask Jesus to help me do what needs to be done and to let the rest go, and I trust him to help that to happen. He does take care of me when I do that! When I let my identity as his daughter define me instead of the temptations and habits that have defined me most of my life, I have much more change in my life than I have when I work on my sins. When I work on overcoming my sins--when I focus on choosing not to sin--I'm actually focussing on sin instead of Jesus. Bob George deals with this subject really well in his book Classic Christianity. He tells of a man who was really born again, but he continued to struggle with his homosexual tendencies. Bob George counseled with him, and he told the man that the problem was that he was still identifying himself as a homosexual instead of as a son of God. You can't be both, he said, because you have only one identity. He did the same with a girl who had an intractable eating disorder. As these two people began to believe and focus on the fact of their identities as God's children instead of their identities as homosexual or anorexic, they began to focus on Him at the moments of their temptations instead of on the temptations themselves, and they became victorious. My identity in Christ means that He is literally everything, even at the moment I'm confronted with my dirty face in the mirror! The mirror no longer identifies me; Jesus does. As I look to him instead of my dirty reflection, He fills me with the assurance and the peace and the strength that replaces my desire to be filled up with whatever I hoped to gain from my old habits. When I consciously look to him and ask him to take care of the situation and to be my strength and wisdom and to fill me with love, as I surrender everything to him, He takes charge of being my victory. It's no longer my own strong-willed determination that gets the victory. I guess, Freeatlast, I would say that instead of obeying the law and getting my behavior lined up according to it, I'm learning to surrender. That's what obedience to Jesus is: surrender. It's giving up my rights and desires at any given moment and saying instead, "Jesus, please be my strength and do in and through me what you want done." My participation is yielding to Jesus as opposed to "working" on my sins. In fact, as I've found out, sometimes the sins Jesus wants me to work on are things I thought were RIGHT--i.e., making sure I was understood! Jesus understands me, and he is the only one who can help others to understand me. My arguing will only antagonize. Does this make any sense? I just know that seeing myself as totally belonging to Jesus and being vulnerable to him and yielded to him are becoming really life-changing concepts. I still deal with my old habits, but Jesus is patiently teaching me to let go and surrender instead of to fight my sins myself. There's a reason why, in Ephesians 6, we're instructed to put on all the armor of God and then to STAND. We're not told to go fight with that armor but to STAND. Jesus will fight for us. The armor will protect us from enemy attacks. I am so grateful for the complete responsibility Jesus takes for us! Colleen | ||
| Pheeki (Pheeki) |
Great explanation Colleen. | ||
| Janice (Janice) |
Freeatlast, I can see where you feel like things are conflicting but the truth is that we are saved by grace through faith and it is a done deal. However, you are right in believing that it doesn't stop there. Salvation is final but your growth isn't. The following scriptures are from the book of I Peter and we will find in the first verse that we are warned to stop being hypocrites, and to lay aside our anger and our envying. We are told also to quit speaking evil of one another. The second verse is the reason why I pasted this though. I don't know how long you have been out of the SDA's clutches and learned the truth, but we are told that we should have a desire for learning. Our learning enables us to grow. God did not speak to our hearts to keep us still and secure in our salvation. He wants to equip us in truth so that we can win others to Christ. Satan is our enemy and God knows all his plans and schemes and has them all laid out for us in his word. We are commanded to put on the full armor of God and this includes getting educated in exactly what God is talking about in his word. We need to study as admonished in 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If we take a look at the the second chapter of Peter in its entirety, it will help us to see that all the scriptures speak to us and let us know that we have truly been saved by grace and for those who don't or won't know it, well, those who won't listen are being disobedient, and that is all there is to it. I hope you enjoy the scripture that I cut for you here, and I hope that maybe it will clear up some of your questions. Verse six even says that you will not be confounded, isn't that great to hear? 1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 1Pe 2:3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious. 1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, [as unto] a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, [and] precious, 1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 1Pe 2:7 Unto you therefore which believe [he is] precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 1Pe 2:8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, [even to them] which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. God bless you as you continue to grow and seek the Lord's guidance through his word. Also pray for a good church that preaches sound doctrine and has the basic fundamental beliefs. I will end this post to you by listing what I feel are fundamental truths that should be taught in all churches. 1. The Bible is the inerrant word of God and all scripture is given by inspiration of God and written for us to profit by. 2. God is a triune being which includes: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 3. Jesus was born of a virgin and was perfect and without sin. 4. Salvation is in Christ alone, we are saved by grace through faith + nothing else. It is a free gift given by God to anyone who accepts it. 5. Christ died for all and not just a limited few, and God's grace is sufficient to bring us to him. His resurrection assured us of his atoning works on the cross and is finished. I also believe that Jesus is soon returning for all his saints, and since the field is white unto harvest, we should be about the Father's business. Let's work while it is yet day, for night approaches. God bless, Janice |
