Radio Broadcast Tuesday 10/25/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P17 (10-25-22)

Jesus Has Forgiven You of All Your Sins ~ Past Action at the Cross

~ “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22

~ “This lesson deals with what the law is powerless to do, it can’t make one perfect in the sight of God. In other words, complete in the sight of God. It cannot make one righteous in the sight of God and the law cannot give life to the dead. So three pretty important issues who says the law cannot do. We talked about that, when you’re talking about this area of the law, it says the former regulation was set aside because it was weak, it was useless. And another place it said it’s powerless. For the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. The whole goal of this is God’s desire that we draw near to Him. It was God so loved the world that He gave His Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It was God’s desire to give us everlasting life, why? There is a need in the heart of his creation, to know that he has a life that is everlasting. That’s why Satan is so anxious to try to teach people that you can lose that life that he said was eternal. That’s why Satan is so anxious to teach people that you can walk away from a life that he said you can’t walk away from. And the whole issue is, if you knew you had it, why would you want to? Absolutely. So it’s the it’s the whole thing that Satan will do everything in his power to try to discredit just like he did in the Garden of Eden. Surely God didn’t mean this, to discredit what God said in regard to what he has provided for us because He knows our deepest need. Is it our need? Is there a need in the heart of a man to know that he can draw nearer to God, in perfect worship? Absolutely, there is a need for that. But the law cannot enable that to occur. So he made us complete in his sight. And all of that, of course, dealt with the forgiveness issue.”

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 have been studying out of the lesson number four, entitled what the law is powerless to do, as you mentioned, and last week, we dealt with the first segment of that, which is that the law can make nothing complete are nothing perfect. This lesson deals with what the law is powerless to do, it can’t make one perfect in the sight of God. In other words, complete in the sight of God. It cannot make one righteous in the sight of God and the law cannot give life to the dead. So three pretty important issues who says the law cannot do. We talked about that, when you’re talking about this area of the law, it says the former regulation was set aside because it was weak, it was useless. And another place it said it’s powerless. For the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. The whole goal of this is God’s desire that we draw near to Him. It was God so loved the world that He gave His Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It was God’s desire to give us everlasting life, why? There is a need in the heart of his creation, to know that he has a life that is everlasting. That’s why Satan is so anxious to try to teach people that you can lose that life that he said was eternal. That’s why Satan is so anxious to teach people that you can walk away from a life that he said you can’t walk away from. And the whole issue is, if you knew you had it, why would you want to? Absolutely. So it’s the it’s the whole thing that Satan will do everything in his power to try to discredit just like he did in the Garden of Eden. Surely God didn’t mean this, to discredit what God said in regard to what he has provided for us because He knows our deepest need. Is it our need? Is there a need in the heart of a man to know that he can draw nearer to God, in perfect worship? Absolutely, there is a need for that. But the law cannot enable that to occur. So he made us complete in his sight. And all of that, of course, dealt with the forgiveness issue.

That the forgiveness issue under the law is never complete. Because as long as there is a violation of the law, there has to be a punishment for that violation. And there’s either a punishment or an act of forgiveness that has to take place. And that is ongoing over and over and over again, unless there was one sacrifice that was made for all mankind for all time, that took away the sins of the world not covered it such as atonement, but took it away forever. And of course, that was provided by Jesus Christ. And that’s why there is now no more sacrifice for sins. That’s why there is no more forgiveness of sins. That’s why Jesus, when He comes back, we’re told is not coming to bear sin, but to bring salvation for those waiting on him. The reason he isn’t coming back to bear sin is because he’s already done that. We have been made complete in Christ by that one offering He made forever Perfect, that’s complete in the sight of God, all of those whom he has made holy. So he made us everything that we could not make ourselves. He provided for us the deepest need of our hearts to know that we truly have been set apart by God, to know that we truly have been made righteous in his sight, to know that we truly have been made complete so that I could walk into his presence at any time calling him daddy father, and receiving mercy and my time of need. He’s done all of those things for us, because he knows there’s a need to do it for us. Now, when we refuse to rely upon him for that forgiveness, then we’re gonna have to rely upon our sacrificial system, our confession booth, our first John one nines, our altar calls or whatever else, we have made up to provide forgiveness for man, instead of accepting what God’s provision for man was, and that was his Son, Jesus Christ. And when he said it’s finished, that’s precisely what he meant. It’s over. His work is done. There’s no more work to be done. It is finished, complete. And the very moment that you step out of out of Adam into Christ and Christ steps out of heaven into you. And you have become identified with the righteous one, the completed one, the perfect one. And we’re told this priest is perfect. So we’ve been identified with the perfect one, made perfect because of our identification with him. There’s nothing else left to do. As we talked about last week, if there was any further forgiveness to be executed on your on my behalf by God, if it’s true that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, He would have to come and die again, the Bible speaks to that issue, he is not coming to die again. And it says in Hebrews quit making a mockery of the cross and treating as an unholy thing, that blood of the covenant that sets you and me apart. And so folks, many times we have given lip service to what we say Jesus did at the cross. But the issue is Have you really come to rest in that issue? That’s this whole issue, resting being made complete means it’s over. There’s nothing left to do, except say, Thank you, that’s all there is left to do. Say thank you, and let the living Christ who lives in me have the expression to live through me.

Now, Bob, before he could give you and me what salvation is, and that is life, to give righteousness to the unrighteousness, to give life to the dead, to give holiness, to the unholy to give all of those things, all of these things that have been given to us. I had to be cleansed of everything that I was in order to receive everything that he is. And so it tells us in Galatians, that I don’t set aside Paul says the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

So last week, we talked about the fact that the law is merely a shadow, not the realities themselves. And that former regulation was set aside because it was weak and useless. And the law was powerless, and it was weakened by our place. So God just sent his Son to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. Now that’s in regard to be made complete. A part of that being made complete is being made righteous in the sight of God, right standing in the sight of God. Now, Paul says I don’t set aside the grace of God. In other words, I don’t I’m not gonna apologize for saying that that righteousness is a gift, I’m not gonna apologize for that. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, he said, Christ died for nothing. If perfection could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. If your holiness could be made by obedience to the law, Christ died for nothing, he should have stayed at home, just let you make yourself holy and perfect and good. But he said, I don’t set aside the grace of God, I needed grace. And if that righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ absolutely died for nothing. Now, what it’s saying is discount the cross, discount what he came to do, if you think you can obtain your righteousness, by your own works. Now, if that was the stumbling stone, that was the stumbling block that took place that Paul talked about in the book of Romans, that the Hebrews, instead of accepting the righteousness that comes from God, they sought to establish their own. And they stumbled over that stumbling stone, which is Christ Jesus, you can’t establish your own righteousness. You can’t make yourself right in the sight of God by what you do. You can only find righteousness, through your identification with the one who was righteous, and that is Christ Jesus.

So when we come back from the break, I want to talk just for a moment, and amplifying for a moment what had to happen at that cross, in order for you and me to be indwelt, by his life, by His righteousness, and by His perfection, as Paul said, I do not set aside the grace of God. For now he’s gonna say, why don’t if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Now, folks, I want to take that passage of Scripture, along with Galatians 3:11, which says, clearly, no one is justified before God by the law because the righteous will live by faith. In other words, if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. They’re saying the same thing. Now I want to tie that in to this single verse of scripture that is in the New Testament that we have very pridefully called our Christian bar of soap. It’s the way that we keep ourselves cleanse before God. It’s the most arrogant thing that I personally was ever involved in. I was involved in it. I know how to teach it, it makes me sick when I think about it, but I know how to teach it had some great illustrations hated to give them up. But the fact of the matter is, it’s wrong. And that’s first John one nine. Now I want to in light of what is said here, if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. I want us to read not only First John one, nine, but surprisingly enough, First John one eight, which will answer what First John one nine is talking about. It’s amazing how that works.

If we claim to be without sin, in other words, if I claim to be without sin, I would say that I am righteous in and of myself, or I am righteous through my obedience to the law. If I’m without sin, then I’m righteous. I’m okay. Well, it says to anyone claiming that their righteousness through the law, it says that you we deceive ourselves and the truth isn’t in us. Now if Christ Jesus is the truth, and it says that, and you will see John talking about in Third John, how he talks about how impressed he is and how happy he is that you people are walking in truth.

It says, it gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell me about your faithfulness to the truth, and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. When I’m walking in the truth, I’m walking in Christ who is the truth. Jesus said, I am the way I am the truth, I am the way, the life I am everything. I am the way and the truth. I’m the life. He didn’t say I was a way a truth a life or the way he said I’m the way not just one among many. I’m the way, the live, I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life. So when I’m walking according to the truth, it’d be like saying I’m walking according to the life. I’m walking, walking and according to the way, which is what the early Christians were called, were the people of the way. So it says that if you’re claiming to be without sin, which could either be what the Gnostics were claiming, and that is just to deny your sin nature to begin with, or what the legalist was claiming. And that is that I’m righteous because of my obedience to the law. You’re deceived. We deceive and the truth who is Christ Jesus is not in us, you’re not saved. Anyone claiming not to have a sin nature, is not, how could not be saved? How could you be saved? If I don’t have a sin nature, then what do I need him for? If my old nature there anything wrong with my old nature, what I need a new one for? It’s like people in a recovery movement. As someone once said, The problem with recovery movement is the thought that if you recover, you’re going to get back to where you were. And that’s a presupposition that you were okay before you needed recovery. If you claim to be without sin without a sin, nature, we deceive ourselves the truth is you’re not saved. If we agree with God, confess our sins agree with God concerning our sins. In other words, our sins that are an indicator that you do have a sin nature. He is faithful and just and a literal translation is to have forgiven our sins and to have cleansed us purified us from all unrighteousness not some of it. All of it.

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Bob George 14:07
Now, folks, when did that take place? When was the only time that you were cleansed of all of your unrighteousness? At the cross. When was the only time that you were forgiven of all of your sins? At the cross. If you claim that you haven’t sinned, Why we make him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives. In other words, we’re not making those decisions. I’m not saying I haven’t sinned based upon His Word. I’m saying I haven’t sin based upon mine. It’s my thoughts about it, not his. Well, is that unusual? Not unusual at all. You talk to many lost people and they’ll they’ll say no, not not according to my thinking. Am I sinner? That doesn’t make a difference what God says about it, it’s it’s what I say about it. folks before I could be indwelt by Him, and His righteousness, I had to be cleansed of all I had. And that was unrighteousness. I never was righteous in and of myself, that would be called self righteousness. I never was righteous in the sight of God, through what I did, I never obtained self righteousness, I could be self righteous. But it was only my own thinking that made me that way. And so the only righteousness that I could ever stand in, is if that righteousness would be given to me by God. Now, that’s what he did at the cross. It’s what he did at the resurrection, at the very moment that you and I received the resurrected Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior. It says, Now, in him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, that forgiveness that was provided for every man at the cross is received at his resurrected life that before he the righteous one came to live within us, we had to be cleansed of the only thing we had unrighteousness in order to be indwelt by Him, and His righteousness.

So first, John one nine is not a passage to a believer, because of I have to keep being confessed or keep being cleansed of all of my unrighteousness then I’m standing in my own righteousness to begin with. In other words, I have his righteousness, but then I have my unrighteousness. So I got to be cleansed again to my unrighteousness. Well, that doesn’t make any sense because I never did stand in my righteousness to begin with. So I never had righteousness except his and he doesn’t need cleansed of unrighteousness. So I’m not standing in mind. And if I’m not standing in mine, as a saved person, then what I need to be cleansed from anymore? I had to be cleansed once and for all at the cross, in order to be indwelt by him in his life, and his righteousness. It’s like if any of you have ever done any canning, the first thing that you do you sterilize the jar, what do you sterilize the jar for? In order to keep the jar sterilized? Your husband comes home and says, What are you doing? Honey, I’m keeping jars clean. What are you gonna do tomorrow, I’m gonna keep him clean. When he got a new next day, I’m keeping he stays clean, the entire life of the jar is keeping itself clean. Were you ever gonna do anything with them? No, just keep them clean. And I hope that one of these days I’ll be acceptable to whoever wants to store these jars, that they will be clean jars. That’s religion, keeping your jar clean. God cleansed you you clean the jar, you cleanse it of all of its unrighteousness for a purpose, the purpose is to put something in it. And if the jar is not totally cleansed, and you put food in it, the food will spoil, and you ruin everything. So you got to cleanse it of all of its unrighteousness in order to put applesauce in it. Then after that, you seal it. It’s a perfect picture of salvation, cleansed once and for all at the cross of all of your unrighteousness indwelt now by Christ Jesus and His righteousness, and sealed with the power of the Holy Spirit of God. No one can break that seal folks. That’s God’s seal.

And then he labeled your child to God. We don’t like that either. We rip that one off, or cover it over with our own labels. We call ourselves Baptists and Presbyterians and Methodists and Catholics and Pentecostals, and charismatics, and non charismatics, we just got all kinds of labels, that we’ve stuck all over the only label that God ever gave you. And that’s a child of the living God. But once again, we’re not happy with that label. We want to get our own. We’re not happy with being cleansed by him. We want to keep ourselves, we want to keep cleansing ourselves. We’re not happy by being indwelt by His righteousness, we want to go out and try to produce her own. Of course, we can’t get the seal off of that jar. So we have to kind of make this artificial jar around there to put our own righteousness in there, covered over with our own Christian fig leaves. Folks, we have to come to grips with the fact of how arrogant we are as people. The arrogance of a human being to say, Jesus, your death was not enough for me. You didn’t take away all my sins, so I got to keep doing something to keep myself forgiven. You didn’t make me as righteous as I can make myself or even though you say that you made me righteous It isn’t good enough. You just watch me and I’ll make myself more righteous. You said in the scripture that you made me holy, but But Lord, you didn’t make me holy enough. In other words, I can improve upon that. So you just kind of watch my smoke, and I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna improve on that you just see how holy I can be. As we talked about before the church over in Budapest, where the girl went to the United States visiting got a permanent, and then got chastised in front of the whole body for having one. You didn’t make me holy, it’s having straight hair that keeps me holy, those permanents we’ll just do it every time. We are in constantly because of our arrogance. And literally spitting in the face of the finality of what Christ Jesus did at the cross we are in our arrogance, are constantly trying to add to what God did. If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. If a man could be made perfect through the law, then Christ died for nothing. But those sacrifices repeated year after year can never enable a man to draw nearer to God in perfect worship. You see, folks, the Christian life is a life of rest. It’s a life, that God never intended us to live in the desert, any more than he wanted us to live in Egypt. His desire has always been from the beginning to enter into that Sabbath rest that promised land and rest from your works. Just as Christ Jesus rested from His.

As we were talking about this first John eight and nine, and then you go, realizing now that as a person who was lost, could never be saved, claiming to be without sin, he’s deceived, the truth isn’t in him. On the other hand, a person will agree with God concerning his sins, that God can be faithful, and dependent upon to be faithful and just to take away your sins forgiven, and purify you from all of your unrighteousness so that he can come and live in you and give you His righteousness. If we claim we haven’t sinned, and we make him out to be a liar, who said we have His Word has no place in our lives were deceived beyond measure, and we have no need for Jesus, if I have not sinned, if I have not sinned, I have no need for Jesus at the cross. If I don’t have a sin nature, then I have no need for a new one, which was the purpose of His resurrection.

Now as we go into chapter two, and First John says, My dear children, I’m going to write this to you now that is, in comparison to who he’s been writing to. It’s not that I write this to you, as well as who I just been talking to. Now he’s been talking doctrine in the first chapter, he’s been talking truth that is applicable to all people, the ones who aren’t saved, claiming that they are, and the ones who are, say, being confused by the ones who are claiming they are, but at the same time are claiming things that Jesus said, If you claim them, you’re not. Right. Now, I said, My children, I write this to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does, we have one who speaks to the Father, in our defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, if righteousness could be gained through the law of Christ died for nothing, there is only one righteous one, and that’s Christ Jesus. And so it says that we have him the Righteous One. And he is the one who turns aside God’s wrath taking away our sins, and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world. And we have again perverted what that means. And what that literally says, If you’ll look in your footnote, if you have an NIV, you’ll see what that means. And we we turned that around. He’s the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, that is ludicrous because Jesus did not come to atone for sins, He came to take it away. But just see Bob the subtlety of this where that word atonement has been drugged over by translators into the New Testament when that word is never used in the New Testament, and the original. And the only justification for translating it that way, is what commentaries will tell you through continual theological usage, it’s become acceptable. So it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s true or not just if it’s continually used by a theologian, it becomes acceptable, that, again, is ludicrous. He’s not an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He’s the one who took away our sins, blood bulls, and goats was an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That was called atonement. That’s why it was called atonement. Jesus didn’t come to atone. He came to take it away, not only ours, but the sins of the entire world. God was in Christ reconciling the entire world unto Himself, not counting their sins against them. How many sins are counted against anyone in the world? None. How many are dead? Anyone who has refused life? They don’t get dead they already are. The wrath of God doesn’t come upon you. The wrath of God.is already upon you. Every person is born into this world dead spiritually. How many people are dead spiritually? Everyone born into this world, no one is born alive. No one is born saved. You’re all born dead. And just in the same way, those dead people’s sins that come as a result of their spiritual death, those sins were all taken away at the cross. Now that forgiveness that was provided for everyone at the cross is received in his resurrected life. When you and I come to him not to get forgiven, we come to him to get life from the dead. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life, eternal life in Christ Jesus. Now, when I come to Him for what He came to give me, life, in that life, I have redemption, we’re told that forgiveness of sins, I don’t go get redeemed. My redemption comes from his resurrected life. When I am in Him, I am in the one, the redeeming one, the one who redeemed me. When I’m in him, I’m in the forgiving one, the one who forgave me. When I’m in him, I’m in the righteous one, the one who made me righteous. When I’m in him, I’m in the justified one, the one who justified me, all of it, folks, everything that we have in our possession is in him. And in him, you’ve been given everything that you need for life and godliness. And until you come to grips with that you’ll never be made perfect. And able to walk into the presence of God realizing it’s been done, because there’s always something left to do. I got more forgiveness to be executed, I have to make myself a little more righteous. I have to get a little more holy. You can’t rest in that, folks. He didn’t make a temporary salvation. He didn’t make a impermanent, something that is not permanent. He made a permanent, complete, perfect salvation for you and me, so that when we step out of Adam into Christ steps out of heaven into us, we have been made complete, there’s nothing else to be added.

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.