Radio Broadcast Monday 10/31/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P19 (10-31-22)

Jesus, God in Flesh Fulfilled the Law of God ~ Only God Could and Did Fulfill The Law!

~ “When Jesus was here, on this earth, He did not come to abolish the law while he was here on this earth. Because how could you abolish something until you’ve brought something new in? He did not abolish the law until it was fulfilled. He didn’t discount the Old Covenant until he was able to usher in a new covenant. And that took place at his death, not in his life. And so when Jesus was here on earth, His purpose was to fulfill the law to complete the law, he lived up to the perfect requirements of the law. He walked in sinless perfection as the sinless one, He who knew no sin, God Himself alone could do that no man could ever do that. No man that he created could do that, obviously, in Adam, and no man that was ever born out of the loins of Adam could ever accomplish that. Only God could fulfill the law. Now until that law that was given by God was fulfilled by God, he could not usher in a new cabinet. Otherwise, you say, well, the old one was a total failure. So let’s try something new. No, the Olden wasn’t a total failure was only a total failure when it flowed through us. But it wasn’t a failure at all, for him. So when Jesus was here on this earth, he walked in perfect love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And he fulfilled the law in its entirety, so that he could now go to the cross and die for those of us who could not fulfill the law, and be raised again from the dead, in order to usher in a New Covenant that we live in today, which is a covenant of grace.”

Now there is no more forgiveness given by God. There is no more 1 John 1:9, confessing to get forgiven. There is no more confession booths, real or virtual. There are no more alter calls to come down and get your sins forgiven. There is no more daily repentance of sins to get right with God. There is no more bouncing in and out of fellowship with God. No, none of that. There is only walking by Faith in Him and what He and He alone did for you and me. Only by faith in Jesus are we declared the righteous of God.

~ “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ^{2 Corinthians 5:21}

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Law & Grace, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store.

Jesus asked how does God love and accept us? And how does he expect us to live the Christian life? To answer those questions, this insightful study explores a vital issue at the heart of the Christian experience, the biblical relationship between law and grace, understanding their role in our relationship to God will bring joy, freedom and spontaneity to your Christian life. Now, let’s take A Closer Look at Law & Grace.

Bob George 0:39
We’ve been talking, in lesson number three, we talked about the purpose of the law. And then last week, we talked about what the law was powerless to do. We took a couple of weeks to do that. The purpose of the law, what is it? Why it’s answered in Galatians 3:19. That direct question is answered what then is the purpose of the law? I don’t know you can get that much clearer. And it said, well, it was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred, had come. So the law was added because of our sins until Jesus came. And so it says that the law was given to us, so that we would turn to Christ. That where sin increased Grace increased all the more so that just as Sin reigned in death, so also great Grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life, in Jesus Christ our Lord. And so though the law it says was was added, so that we would turn to Christ become conscious of our sin, and turn to the one who alone fulfilled the law, which is what we’re going to be talking about today.

It said, what was the law powerless to do? Well, Bob, we studied last week, it says in Hebrews seven, that former regulation was set aside, why? it said it was weak, and useless and powerless. That’s Hebrews 7:18, and 19, the law made nothing perfect. In other words, complete. As long as you’re under the law, there’s something left to fulfill. And there’s also something left to judge when you don’t fulfill. And so as long as you’re under the law, you will never be complete in Christ Jesus, you will never be complete in your knowledge that it is all been finished, that it has all been done. Under the law, there is always something left to do. So the law made nothing perfect. In Galatians 2:21, I don’t set aside the grace of God, Paul said, For if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing. So the law cannot make you righteous, the law cannot complete your work. It can’t make you righteous. Galatians 2:16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law. So no man will ever be justified by observing law, you can’t be made righteous through the law. You can’t be justified through observing the law. You can’t make be made complete under the law. The law we also studied cannot give you life. Is the law, therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. But it’s saying for if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would have certainly come by the law. So it cannot impart life. So you say if the law cannot impart life, if the law cannot make you righteous, if the law cannot make you justified, if the law cannot make you perfect, then what in the world is the purpose of the law? And it told us in order to point out your sin, so that you would turn to the seed, who is Jesus Christ and receive the promise that was given to Abraham, that the just shall live by faith that justified shall live by faith.

Now in order to usher in the New Covenant that we are under today, as a matter of somewhat of a review, we’ve talked about numerous times about the book of Hebrews as it explains the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. And in the ninth chapter of the book of Hebrews, it explains the two wills. Under the old will under the Old Covenant that we talked about, we had that former regulation that we quoted in Hebrews seven that former regulation was the Old Covenant, the law that was set aside, because it was weak and useless, and it was powerless. What made it that way? Us we could not live up to it. We could not fulfill it. We could not obey it. We could not I find satisfaction through it. We could not walk into the presence of God calling him daddy father with it. It accomplished nothing when it flowed through us. As Paul said, The only thing it accomplished when it flowed through me was it killed me, I wouldn’t have known what sin was had it not been for the law. But when the commandment came and said, Thou shalt not covet, I died, I died, I found out I was dead spiritually. So it says the law kills. But the Spirit brings life. So there’s an Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And it says that that new will went into effect on the day that Jesus died.

We know that in our own life, that if we have a will, or a testament, then we have a testament, it’s called a book. It’s an old will, and a new will. An Old Testament and the New Testament. If you have a will, or a testament, and it is in, it’s in our country, and it’s a legal document, that will will not go into effect until the day you die. And if you’ve made 100 wills along the way, the only one that will go into effect, will be the last one you made before you die. It’s not cumulative. In other words, we won’t take all of the things that were said and all of the 100 wills and put them all together and bring them over into your inheritance that does not occur. It’s only the last one right that goes into effect.

When Jesus was here, on this earth, He did not come to abolish the law while he was here on this earth. Because how could you abolish something until you’ve brought something new in? He did not abolish the law until it was fulfilled. He didn’t discount the Old Covenant until he was able to usher in a new covenant. And that took place at his death, not in his life. And so when Jesus was here on earth, His purpose was to fulfill the law to complete the law, he lived up to the perfect requirements of the law. He walked in sinless perfection as the sinless one, He who knew no sin, God Himself alone could do that no man could ever do that. No man that he created could do that, obviously, in Adam, and no man that was ever born out of the loins of Adam could ever accomplish that. Only God could fulfill the law. Now until that law that was given by God was fulfilled by God, he could not usher in a new cabinet. Otherwise, you say, well, the old one was a total failure. So let’s try something new. No, the Olden wasn’t a total failure was only a total failure when it flowed through us. But it wasn’t a failure at all, for him. So when Jesus was here on this earth, he walked in perfect love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And he fulfilled the law in its entirety, so that he could now go to the cross and die for those of us who could not fulfill the law, and be raised again from the dead, in order to usher in a New Covenant that we live in today, which is a covenant of grace.

As we were able to complete the chapters three and four dealing with those issues of what the law cannot do. And then to realize how Jesus walked on this earth. And through his physical life, he fulfilled the law, so that he could go to a cross die for us who couldn’t, to be raised from the dead in order to give life to the dead and to raise us and to do for us what the law could not do. The law could not make a man righteous we said that, didn’t we we read the scripture of righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing. And then we’re told now that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. It is because of him God that we are in Christ Jesus who has become for us, our righteousness. So who is our righteousness? Christ Jesus, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him his resurrected life we could become what? The righteousness of God, the law cannot give life. So what did he come to do? I came that you might have what? Life and who has the Sonn has life? Could the law do that? No, the law couldn’t do that. Jesus had to do that for you. The law it says could never make a man holy. Although he commanded to be holy while he was here. Why? To command a man who thinks he can. That’s a neat the neatest thing you can do for someone who thinks he can command him to go do it. And then just see He does and watch him fall flat on his face. And then his mouth is shut. And he’s ready to come and say, Now is there anywhere in the world for me to experience Holiness? Said yes, there is, but it’s my faith in Me (God in flesh) period. So but he will let us try, he loves us enough to let us try to come to the end of our selves, totally exhausted with their tongues hanging down to her knees, and finally given up and saying I can’t, and he says, At last at last, but I can, the law could never make anyone perfect or complete, but we just read that didn’t we, that the law cannot make any man complete. That’s the problem with a sacrificial system that has to be in, in effect, under the law, you can’t have a law without punishment. You can’t have a law without violation of the law and how to deal with the violation. So you have to have sacrifice. And so under the law, as long as you have to have more justice to be given more punishment to be executed, you can, it’s never through, it is never over your work is never over. And so under the law, you cannot be made complete, there’s no way to walk into the presence of a holy God calling him daddy father, and realizing that I can enter into His presence at any time without any interruption at all under the law, because there’s always something left to do before you could you could think about doing that. And by the time he got there, you’d be messing up again.

So the law couldn’t do that couldn’t make anyone perfect. So what did he do? Hebrews 10:14, by that one offering He made forever perfect, forever complete in the sight of God, every one of you whom he made holy. So all of this is the fact of God coming at the cross and in his resurrection, and completing through his life coming to live in us, for us, completing that work totally dying once and for all for us not gonna die again. All of that is over, it’s complete. There’s no more forgiveness to be executed on your behalf. There is no more days of atonement. There is no more confession booths, there is no more First John one nine carried over to a believer which it is not a believers passage. No more of that at all, in order to get yourself forgiven, no more having to keep short accounts with God. Because if you don’t, you’re out of fellowship, there’s nothing in the scripture to substantiate that at all. But to walk by faith, in the fact that it is over, if I’m going to walk by faith, by law, I have to walk by faith in either what is true, or what I think is true. So I’ve quite frankly, whether walk by faith and what is true, because what I think is true, can be predicated on all kinds of things. So I want that substantiated in my, in my heart.

There’s a passage of Scripture, Bob in in Timothy, and it talks about the fact that we should study the Word of God to find ourselves approved. And, and we look at that and say, Oh, I’m going to, I’m going to say the word of God so that God will be proud of me. And I’m going to stay the Word of God so that so that I can pass the test. You know, he In other words, he’s he’s approved me, but that isn’t what it’s talking about, at all. When you’re talking about studying the Word of God, in order to find yourself approved, it means that word is talking about the fact of finding yourself that the testimony about God is being verified inside of you. In other words, it’s like being tested that find yourself studying the Word of God so that what you read can be experienced. It’s like putting the fire to a piece of metal to see if it’s truly a diamond or is it artificial? So I want I want to know that is true.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Bob, George Ministries offers nine in-depth Bible study guides, please visit shop.BobGeorge.net to find the Bible study books, along with many helpful materials to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now, with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

Bob George 14:14
When we send out a new believers package to someone who has who has received the Lord, it’s to enable them to look at the word of God. And all of a sudden, I can remember as a brand new Christian reading, that if you have the Son, you have life and realizing, hey, that’s, that’s to me. Sure. That’s to me, he, he’s, he’s given me life. You know, I knew I’d accepted the Christ but didn’t know what all that was about. And all of a sudden all of these scriptures started being being revealed. Wait a minute, that’s to you, Bob. You have eternal life. So what is that it’s finding yourself verified. It’s all being now solidified in your own heart. So it’s talking about study the Word of God so that you can find yourself approved it means to find yourself verified the fact that what has happened to you is real. That’s a wonderful thing to know not sitting there. And I’m so that I can be approved by God, I’m already approved by God, what he wants to do is to show me to verify in my heart, what he’s done for me. That’s what happened when I finally came to let go to let go of this. Quite frankly, Bob, I hate to say that, but when I looked back on it, it was a stupid doctrine that I held on to have this thing of bouncing in and out of fellowship and constantly asking God to forgive me. And the reason it is is because he already has, and it is is idiotic is every day my going home and asking Amy to marry me. He said, I already did. Well, yeah, but it makes me feel good to ask you, you know, that type of thing. So it’d be I’m not walking by faith doing that. In other word, I don’t remember the service. I don’t know. I’m not sure. Well, of course, you’re sure. Well, what does God do when it’s talking about finding yourself approved? It means let the Lord teach you what has happened to you. I quite frankly, Bob think that’s why the Scripture talks about that. If you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you, the Spirit of God verifies the fact that you have eternal life, it says that. You will, you’re not gonna be sitting around questioning whether you have eternal life or not. Spirit of God says, I verify that if you let me. What is that? It’s showing you approval, it’s showing, it’s verifying as what he said is true.

So, Bob, I can remember when I let go of all of that obsession with confession, mentality, confession for forgiveness, not not not agreeing with God, when you mess up, and he’s renewing your mind. That’s, that’s, that’s a man, you’re doing that all times a Christian. But confessing for the purpose of getting forgiven when you already are doesn’t make an ounce of sense. And I can remember when I finally put that to bed and said, that’s the end of that. You’re never going to hear me and insult you again. And try to hang on across again and crucify you again, and make a mockery of your cross. And to make a mockery of the New Covenant that set me apart. As Hebrews 10 and 6 say. You’re not going to hear me do that anymore. Lord, I want to walk by faith from this day forth. And I’m going to walk by faith and what’s truth. And so what is true is it’s finished. So I walked by that. And Bob the Word of God verifies that it’s studying the Word of God to find yourself approved. And I found myself that I was approved. Because what it meant was I it was verified internally inside of me that this is true. I don’t have to argue with it don’t have to concern with about him anymore. I know in the depths of my soul, that that is true. If it isn’t true, then Jesus isn’t true, because Jesus is the one who said it’s finished. And if he said, it’s finished, and it’s finished. So that’s what it’s talking about in the Word of God. And it goes ahead to find yourself approved in the Word of God. And then it talks about so that you can rightly divide the word and then you got people who sit down with that and say, well, that means that we’re dispensationalist, that we’ve divided it all up into the dispensation, and you got other people that say, Well, that means you’re doing inductive Bible study.

What it means it’s a, it’s a, it’s a word that comes from straightening a bone, like orthopedic when you get that a straightening of a bone, and the Greek word is the root of that is like ortho. And it means to straighten something. So when he’s talking about the fact of, of not only of finding yourself approved by the word, by your study of the Word of God, to verify that these things are true, and to rightly divide the Word of Truth, what the rightly divide means is straighten it out. It means to come to grips with the truth of it, and straighten that road out and walk down a straight and narrow path in regard to what truth and error is. In other words, this is my standard of truth. The Bible is my standard of truth. Nothing else is my standard of truth. So I’m going to match everything up against the Bible. I’m not going to be walking in a crooked line, going over and wavering and picking up a little psychological thought and bringing it back on my path. Pick up a little scientific thought and bring it back on my path. Pick up a little humanistic viewpoint and bring it back on my path. Try to become ecumenical and bring it back on my path that says many will be called but few will enter in. I’m going to say this is the path that God has put me on, and it’s a path of truth out of the Word of God period. And if anything doesn’t match up with the word of God is going to be discounted. If it does match up with the word of God, we’re gonna latch on to it, and hang on to it tenaciously, and run the race, hopefully until it’s finished. Now, that’s what it means to rightly divide the word of truth. That doesn’t mean to become a hyper dispensationalist. It means to straighten out your life, to get your life in line with the truth of the Word of God, and quit being tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine that comes down the pike, and picking up this philosophy and picking up this psychology and picking up this scientific evidence and picking up this. And literally discounting those things. And staying true to the pathway that God has put us on. God did not call us to be people as an example, who are involved and to be out trying to change nations and governments. He called us to proclaim the gospel that can change people. God did not come to save America, he came to save people.

Let’s go now to our key verse in chapter five, Matthew 5:17, and 18, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, in other words, to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. In other words, the prophets wrote about Jesus, the law pointed us to Jesus, I didn’t come to abolish either one of those, I came to fulfill it. In other words, I came to show what they were there for, was true. And I fulfilled that. So many times people will look at that passage once again. And think that that means you see, the law is still in effect for us. No, no, he said, I came to fulfill them, I came to prove that what the prophets wrote about me was true, I came to prove that what God said the law was for, and that was to point out your sinfulness. So that you would turn to me is true, I have come I have fulfilled the law. And so Christ did come and do exactly what he said, and that was fulfill the law.

In Luke 24:44, he said to them, This is what I told you, when I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled, that is written about Me, in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. So once again, what did Jesus tell the disciples when he was still with them? He said, everything that was written about Me, in the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, what he said, I didn’t come to abolish but to fulfill, every one of those things must be fulfilled, that was written about me. So in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, all of those things that were written about Jesus had to be fulfilled in Jesus, otherwise, they would be what? false prophets. So he fulfilled everything. He fulfilled everything in the Law of Moses, He fulfilled everything in the prophets. He fulfilled everything.

You remember, Bob, it was always interesting to me, of the men on the road to Emmaus. And I think about that many, many times about after Jesus, death. And as these men were heading back, you know, to their home, they were dejected, and walking along, and all of a sudden there was Jesus. And it says that he gave him a Bible lesson. He went from Genesis through the entirety of the Old Testament, and gave them a Bible lesson, I thought to myself, boy, what a seminar. They didn’t even have to charge for two out in the desert. We’re gonna be in a desert forest. But we’re gonna have a tape recorder. But I thought to myself, you know, those man, you talk about some guys that were privileged it was being taught by Jesus, everything that the prophets taught, pointing to himself, he then was able to relate that to himself, and what a lesson. So he said to them, This is what I told you, while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled, and written about me, including my death on the cross.

Now Christ lived, as we mentioned, the sinless life. In Hebrews 4:15. He talks we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. Now, once again, Bob, we have a lot of people who take those kind of passages and try to bring God down to our level of our fallen nature. You see, God did not become like us in as much as a person without, he was without sin. None of us from Adam knows what it is to be without indwelling sin living in us. Nobody knows that. Christ did not, did not enter into that until his death. He did not enter into that at all. And so when it’s talking about being tempted, He isn’t talking about the fact that Jesus was sitting there being tempted. Now, that sounds like a contradiction.

But let me let me explain that on a on a very puny human level, because it is it is puny, but I think it’ll get the point across. If somebody put me in a room with drugs, as an example, and tried to tempt me to take drugs, quite frankly, I wouldn’t be tempted. Now there would be a temptation there. And somebody could say that I was tempted in every way. But in my in myself, I would not be tempted on that. I have no interest at all in taking drugs. I’ve never taken drugs, I’ve never done that. So it would be hard to tempt me to do that. It’s not that I couldn’t also be fall into it. That’s where the illustration falls down. It’s not that I couldn’t, but I’m just saying it’s not a temptation to me. Now, there are other things that you have done, that I wouldn’t be in want to be in a room with. And there’s other types of sins that I would stay away from because I know in my soul, I could be tempted to give into that. So with Jesus talking about being tempted in every way, just as we are yet without sin, it doesn’t mean that he was sitting there struggling with those things such as a temptation, certain temptations that could come to me that I would have to struggle to walk away from.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.