Radio Broadcast Monday 12/05/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P33 (12-05-22)

The Law Can’t Make You Righteous ~ Only Jesus Can Make You Righteous

~ “We talked about what the law was powerless to do, it can’t bring me can’t make you righteous, no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God to obedience to the law. It can’t give you life. It can’t cleanse you of unrighteousness it can’t justify you. It can’t do any of those things except condemn you. So the law was powerless to bring to man what man needed life, righteousness, justification, all of those things. law can’t do that all the law could do is condemn. Now Christ came therefore to fulfill the law in which he did by walking in perfect love for some 33 years on this earth. And love became the fulfillment of the law. Now that’s what qualified him the life that he lived, lived is what qualified him for the death that he died. And the death that he died is what qualifies us for the life that we live. And so he fulfilled the law with his life went to the cross in order to uphold the law became death for us. And in so doing, redeemed us from the law bought us out of that whole realm of sin and death, and delivered us into a brand new realm of a living Christ. Now, when that has occurred, and if we are in Christ, and we’re no longer under the law.
“

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
It really has been an interesting and fascinating story. There’s no teaching, I believe in the Scripture, apart from of course, the person of Christ Jesus and who he is and what he came to do, then to not only to know what he came to do, but what he came to free us from in order to accomplish what he came to do. And so long grace is one of those subjects that quite frankly, until we come to grips with law and grace and to see the contrast between the two, and to realize that we are to be dead to the law so that we can come alive to the newness of life that has been given to us in Christ Jesus, and that is a life that is lived by the living Christ who is alive living in us, who is our hope of glory. And so where we are no longer living under the demands of laws written on stone, but that his laws have been written in our hearts. And it’s the law of love that is written in our hearts. And if again, the only thing that counts, as it says, in the Scripture is faith, expressing itself through love. And love is the fulfillment of the law. And so in order for us to walk in a newness of life, led and controlled by the love of God, if perfect love castaway, fear and fear castaway, perfect love. And if we were to walk in the perfect love of God, we have to be freed from fear. And fear has to do with punishment, it says, And a man who fears cannot be perfected in love. So we had to be freed from the law and the fears of the law and the repercussions of the law, and the condemnation of the law in order to walk in that perfect love and allow that love to cast away all of our fears.

So we took a look in chapter three, we’re in chapter one, we started with a contrast between law and grace. And then we took a closer look at the law in its entirety. We studied in chapter three, the purpose of the law was to show us our sinfulness to lead us to Christ. In chapter four, we talked about what the law was powerless to do, it can’t bring me can’t make you righteous, no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God to obedience to the law. It can’t give you life. It can’t cleanse you of unrighteousness it can’t justify you. It can’t do any of those things except condemn you. So the law was powerless to bring to man what man needed life, righteousness, justification, all of those things. law can’t do that all the law could do is condemn. Now Christ came therefore to fulfill the law in which he did by walking in perfect love for some 33 years on this earth. And love became the fulfillment of the law. Now that’s what qualified him the life that he lived, lived is what qualified him for the death that he died. And the death that he died is what qualifies us for the life that we live. And so he fulfilled the law with his life went to the cross in order to uphold the law became death for us. And in so doing, redeemed us from the law bought us out of that whole realm of sin and death, and delivered us into a brand new realm of a living Christ. Now, when that has occurred, and if we are in Christ, and we’re no longer under the law.

And then Bob, in chapter eight, we studied the hopelessness under the law. Under the law, it demands absolute 100% perfection, not today. But every day from the day you were born to the to the day you die, that the righteous requirements of the law is sinless perfection, nothing else will do. And so we’re told that if we obeyed all the law and yet disobeyed, and just one point, we’re guilty of violating all of it.

And so we’ve come to chapter nine now on page 59, and you will want to turn to that with me. Now, in these last chapters. We’ve looked at verse after verse after verse that tells us that the law condemns, it brings death, the wages of sin under the law is death. We’ve also heard that it stirs up sin in our lives, that the power of sin is in the law. And Paul dealt with that, that I wouldn’t have known what coveting was, and the law not said, Don’t covet. But when the law said Don’t covet sin, seizing the opportunity stirred up every kind of covenants desire in me. And he realized that he died. Now after looking at these verses, here, it would be very easy for someone to conclude, therefore, that the law must be bad. And as a matter of fact, after Paul stated the purpose of the law, to the Israelites, and to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the teachers of that day, why they asked him that question, are you saying that the law is sin? And then that’s in Romans 7:7. Are you saying then that this is the law? We’re no longer under it? Why then are you saying the law said that? His response was an an emphatic, certainly not heaven forbid. The law was given by God. He said, and therefore it is holy, and it is righteous, and it is good. So when we think about the commands that God gave to Moses, like, don’t steal, do not murder, Honor your father and mother, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, no one could stand up and say that these commands are sinful, or these commands are evil, they’re not, they’re good. They’re righteous, they’re holy. But you see, all of these things, loving your Lord, honoring your father and mother, not stealing, not murdering, those are good things. But even our man made rules would be considered good. There’s a lot of manmade things that Colossians talks about, they have an appearance of being very good. So when we look at things from our vantage point, what is good and bad. The problem is not with the commands of God, the problems with the law is with us. And you see us sitting down there determining what is right and wrong, and good and bad is just a continuation from standing at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And saying, God, I do not need you to determine right from wrong and good from evil, I will determine that on my own.

And so from our standpoint, we can say those things appear to be good, and they are good, because you see when God gave the law to Moses, it says that the purpose of that law was given in order to show us to be perfectly sinful. But there was another reason for giving it it is what set the Israelites apart from the world because the Israelites were sanctified, they were holy, they were set apart from the entire world, basically, because of the laws that they ascribe to. They were given to a group of people they were given to a nation. Can you imagine a nation that didn’t have laws like don’t steal, and don’t murder, Honor your father and mother, why it would be chaotic. And so a man left to his own, without the Spirit of God living in Him to guide him into all truth is left to his own. And if he’s left to his own, he is absolutely a byproduct of anything he can think of. And it’s like a friend of mine said that humanity is like a goat, it’ll eat any thing you give it, and come back and come back, come back for more. So we have to realize that man cannot live without laws, man without Christ cannot live without laws. And so the laws were given to keep some semblance of order, among a distinct group of people. So the law is good for that purpose. But it says also, it was given to show us that we can’t obey those laws. And in so doing, will lead us to, to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby, again, we don’t have to be led by those laws, we’ll be led by the Spirit of God living in us.

Now, if the Spirit of God is leading and living and leading us, is he going to be leading us to being to stealing no to murder? No, they’re not honoring your father and mother, no, to all those other things? Absolutely not. But they’re no longer a law is a byproduct of a way of life.

As we were talking about earlier, no one in their right mind would ever say that the commands of God are sin, or that the commands of God are bad. The problem was not with the commands, the problem with the law is us. And in Hebrews Eight, seven through eight, it tells us that very clearly. For if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with who? the people. And he said, The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.

So folks, we’ve talked about this before that there had to be a New Covenant there. God found fault with the people under the Old Covenant, and had there been nothing wrong with that first covenant and in that case, A covenant is a covenant that said, Here is the law for you to keep. And so that was a part of the first covenant with God, here’s the law, you keep it. And if you don’t, the wages of sin is death. And so God gave the Law to his people. He gave the punishment for the law to his people. And he also gave a means through the the Levitical priesthood, the means of receiving forgiveness for that violation, even though the wages of sin was always death. Isn’t that strange? And yet, he provided a way whereby forgiveness could be executed until such time Bob, that Jesus can reveal that we are spiritually dead. You see, Paul said, when I saw that coveting, I died. Now, did he die that day, spiritually? Or was he already dead spiritually? Well, unless he was born of a virgin, then he was born dead, just like everybody else, because the only person who was ever born alive spiritually was Jesus. And that’s why the virgin birth isn’t up for grabs. So what Paul came to understand was, he came to understand death, spiritual death. You see the Hebrews, the Israelites understood sins. They did not understand their condition. They understood what they were doing. And they came to understand why can’t I obey this law. But they didn’t come to the understanding, there must be something wrong with me. And so that’s why legalism became rampid. it because it was constantly coming up with newer ideas on how to keep ourselves forgiven ideas on how to keep ourselves from committing adultery, they used to wear blinders on like horses, walk around with their heads down, shuffling so that they would not lust. They came up with all kinds of ideas as to how to keep the Sabbath holy. And all of that was done in order to try to obey the law, but they never could come to the root of their problem. And that was spiritual death. That’s interesting, isn’t it, isn’t it? So you see, under the first covenant, the time is coming, declares the Lord, I’m going to make a new covenant because they if they had there been nothing wrong with that first cpvenant, no place would have been sought for another. But you see, again, what was wrong with the covenant, the covenant of law? it could not make anyone perfect, complete, who drew nearer to God couldn’t make anyone righteous, we talked about that. It couldn’t give life to anyone. The only thing that the law can do is to bring death. And so as long as people were unable to live up to that law, they were remaining, constantly having to seek forgiveness, constantly having to think that I’m out of fellowship with God or relationship with God or out of something with God. Constantly going back day after day, it says every priest stands and performs his religious duties over and over and over again, which can never take away sin, constantly going back in religious form. And there came to a point where all of that just became blase. And so God said, I found fault with this covenant. And the problem with it is the people. I found fault with the people I didn’t find fault with the covenant had but there there have been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another but the problem with it was people

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Bob George 14:08
Now, folks, I want to make another thing I’ve covered this before. But I think it’s worthy of covering again, because of this passage where it says, I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Because it would be very easy for us today looking at that and reading that as a Gentile. Or I would even say maybe an American Hebrew or some other place, that Hebrew that was not living in Israel or in Judah, although they came out of that bloodline, but it would be easy for us to spaces Gentiles to say, well, that’s a covenant that he made with Israel. But what about what about the Gentiles? Well you see the first covenant was not given to the Gentiles the first cabinet was given to the Israelites It was given to the Hebrew. The law was given to the Hebrews. So while they were in the desert, and so it wasn’t given to Gentiles, the agreement between God and man was not made between God and the totality of man. It was made to God and Israel. The Old Covenant was. So when it says the times coming declares the Lord, when I’ll make a New Covenant with the house of Israel. Now, Bob, the way I see that is this, if the Israelites as devoted as they are, could not obey the law, how in the world do we egotistical Gentiles think we’re going to that’s that’s what is amazing to me with a so called Gentile Christian Church is how in the world can we get so pious and thinking that we’re able to obey the law, but the Hebrews who are devoted, much more devoted than we would ever think have been, have ever been much more devoted in every way. And as a matter of fact, I think a Hebrew, by his nature is more of everything than we are, I think he can be angrier than a Gentile ever thought of being and I can think he can be more merciful than any Gentile ever thought of being, I look at those apostles, and I say, there is more of mankind, in everyone knows, than in any group of people on the face of the earth, there, it’s true, they can be the most doubting. And they can be the most devoted, they are just at extremes, God maybe made them that way. But he said to the Israelites, this is the covenant now it’s up to you to keep. Now they couldn’t do that. And if they couldn’t do it, we should learn long time ago to quit trying, if the Hebrews couldn’t do it, nobody’s going to. And so he said, I’m gonna make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And that’s where he said, I’m going to put their laws by laws in our hearts, and they’re going to be my people. And I’m going to be their God, no longer or anybody need to come and say, no God, because everybody’s going to know him from the first to the last. And he went ahead to say, then their sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. In other words, the day that Jesus died, and they ushered in this New Covenant, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins, why? Jesus sacrifice was the final one. He not only sacrifice for their sins, but He sent the Holy Spirit of God to them, in order to give them life, to give them something they had never had before. And that was life through faith in Jesus, rather than a continual death through attempting to obey a law that they could not obey.

Now to the Israelites, he said, take off the old and put on the new, well, how come? Well, there’s because to the Israelites, they were under an Old Covenant. So in order to put on a New Covenant, they had to take off the Old Covenant. Now to the Gentile, he was not standing there, in an Old Covenant, he is standing there naked, he didn’t have anything on. So to the Hebrew, it says, take off the old and put on the new, do the Gentile, it’s just put on the new, you never have been under the Old Covenant, you never were. Here’s a New Covenant whereby your sins and lawless acts as well as to the Jew, I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. Now put that on. So to the Hebrew, they had to take off their old form of religion. And that, quite frankly, was the meaning of John the Baptist’s, identifying them with the coming Messiah through baptism, because a Hebrew was identified by being a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and also was identified through circumcision. And what he was saying was, put all of that off, and come and be identified with Jesus who will take away your sins. Nobody is nobody sins are forgiven by being baptized, dunked in water. The water was a means of identifying with the one who would take away your sins, and that is Christ Jesus. And so it was just meerly an outward means of identification. And in those days, it had terrific meaning because the Hebrews and the Pharisees and the Legolas would many times stand at these baptismal pools, and watch very cleverly and succinctly as to who was allowing themselves to be baptized and those people would find themselves disappearing from the earth. So to those who are trying to destroy the early Christians, many were murdered as a result of that open stance of saying, I am no longer identified with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, although he’s the same God, but I’m now identified with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s my God. Not Abraham and Isaac and Jacob’s that was their God, but I don’t have their God anymore I now have my God happened to be the same one. But now he’s personal. He’s mine. And so they came to be identified with what they did not know before. And that was that God existed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They had never figured that out before, not because they were dumb, it had never been revealed before. And so they they knew that there is a plurality in the Godhead, any old rabbi would have sit there scratching his head and reading Genesis and saying, Let us make man in our image and have to ask himself, who in the world is the US? And who’s the our? At the Tower of Babel, let us go confuse their language, who in the world is the US and who is the our. And so they knew there was plurality in the Godhead, the word Elohim, the I Am, that is a plural, not singular. They knew that. But they did not have it figured out because it hadn’t been revealed yet. So with the coming of the Messiah, suddenly the Godhead was revealed, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that’s what he’s told people to come and to be identified with, come and identify yourself now with the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And so they left the old in order to take on the new. To the Gentile, he says, You don’t have anything old to take off. Just put on the new in both people, Hebrew and Gentile. We are all under a New Covenant. Yes, new to the Gentile. As we as it relates to nothing else, new to the Hebrew as it relates to the old.

As we have talked about the Hebrew and the Gentile. It’s an amusing thing almost that here is the Hebrew that was to let go of the law. Let go the old cabinet take off those old, battered clothes that just beat them half to death, and put them down in the in the in the garbage pail and put on this brand new suit. And then to the Gentiles. He said, just put on the brand new suit. And so the Gentile gets all dressed up in he’s brand new suit. He’s received a New Covenant.

And so what do you do? Well, we went back over it’s like saing to the Hebrew, where do you do with those? Oh, ragged clothes? Well, he said, I put them over there, and that’ll garbage can. So the the Gentile goes over and digs those Oh, beat up clothes, out of the garbage pail and puts them on over his brand new suit, and says new style. Got a new thing going here. And here he is where God said to the Hebrew take off that old and put on the new, you’re no longer under the law, you’re under the grace of God, to the Gentile. He just said, you’re under the grace of God. And we go back and pick up the law and become more legalistic, not because God ever designed that for us on our own, which is, which is Intuit degrees, almost worse on our own, we picked up once again said God, I just don’t believe that we could not be under the law and go right back and pick up the same law and bury yourselves under it. And so here we all are all dressed up in a beautiful brand new suit to those who are truly in Christ Jesus. And over that suit is a bunch of battered clothes called the law. And we’re trying to look good in the sight of God. Not clothed in our own righteousness, even though we are. But instead, let’s clothe yourself with the law, and our attempt to obey. And it is absolutely ludicrous. When you stop to think about it. Sure.

Now Paul under the law, and Romans 7:15 through 24. He said something, I don’t understand what I do. It’s really a good thing that Paul was not living in our generation, because we would immediately have sent him to probably some Christian psychologist. Because if you don’t understand what you do, you must have some real big problem. You’ve probably been potty trained too early, you may have had a mother, you may have come from a dysfunctional family. But Something is definitely wrong with you, Paul, if you don’t understand what you do, because all men should understand what they do. Why all men. They don’t. We don’t function in that confusion of don’t understand why you do something that’s really abnormal. And you say, Oh, really? It really Yeah. So here’s Paul saying, I don’t understand what I do. And I’ll guarantee his solution to that is not to go to his shrink, and it’s not to get on Prozac. He’s gonna say I don’t understand what I do. And that is not an unnatural state for a man to be in. Especially one under the law. And Bob, the majority of people today who are walking around saying that question I just don’t understand what I do is what’s called a double minded man. And they’re unstable in all ways because they got one foot smack in the law and one foot smack and grace. And they’re trying to walk down both sides of the street at the same time and wonder why they don’t understand what they do and why they’re double minded. So Paul said, For what I want to do, I do not do that make does that. Do any of you relate to them? You want to do some but you don’t do it. But what I hate I do. Do any of you relate to that one? See, the first time I read this, Bob, I thought somebody has been peeking, because it describes you and me to the tee. It describes your and my mindset to a tee. What I want to do, I don’t do and what I hate, I do. Now here’s here’s what he’s saying. Now, if I do what I do not want to do. I agree the law is good there anything wrong with the law. But as it is, it’s no longer I myself who do it. But it’s sin living in me. Folks, we don’t have to blame our mothers. We don’t have to blame our dysfunctional families. You’ve got it out. You can blame sin. Now you’re blaming who God blames. You don’t have to pass this on to somebody else and act like you’ve been abused and everything else in your life. You’ve got sin, living in you, and that is your problem. It’s no longer you who are doing it, but it’s sin living in me.

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.