Radio Broadcast Wednesday 11/16/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P26 (11-16-22)

Reign Under the Grace of God, Freed From the Law

~ “You know, there’s a world of difference between being under the law and reigning in life to the one man Christ Jesus living above the law, I’ll say, it’s kind of like, someone asked once someone one time, how are you doing? He said, Well, under the circumstances, I’m doing okay, they said, What are you doing under those? God didn’t call us to live under the circumstances, he called us to reign above the circumstances. But I want to tell you, as long as you’re under the law, you’re never going to reign in life, all you’re going to do is to be condemned to death. Yes. And so we have been studying Bob for the last number of weeks. As a matter of fact, we are just now approaching a halfway mark, in regard to our study series, A Closer Look at Law and Grace, a closer look at to see what the law is, and to see what the grace of God is. We have been freed from the law not so that we just stand there in no man’s land. But we were freed from the law so that we can stand in something brand new, and that’s called the grace of God.”

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 0:40
You know, there’s a world of difference between being under the law and reigning in life to the one man Christ Jesus living above the law, I’ll say, it’s kind of like, someone asked once someone one time, how are you doing? He said, Well, under the circumstances, I’m doing okay, they said, What are you doing under those? God didn’t call us to live under the circumstances, he called us to reign above the circumstances. But I want to tell you, as long as you’re under the law, you’re never going to reign in life, all you’re going to do is to be condemned to death. Yes. And so we have been studying Bob for the last number of weeks. As a matter of fact, we are just now approaching a halfway mark, in regard to our study series, A Closer Look at Law and Grace, a closer look at to see what the law is, and to see what the grace of God is. We have been freed from the law not so that we just stand there in no man’s land. But we were freed from the law so that we can stand in something brand new, and that’s called the grace of God. And Bob, when people hear that term, we’re no longer under the law, which just scares people to death. They say, well, well, what are your what’s going to be used to guide you? Well, the reason for a person saying that is because they have no knowledge at all of the truth that Christ Jesus is alive living in believers, which is their only hope of glory. Now of a person who is lost, and playing religion says, Why What do you mean, we’re not no longer under the law? Why? How would you control people? You’d have to say, You’re 100%, right? But you’d also have to say is, how good are you doing in trying to control them with the law when the law says that the power of sin is in the law. But the fact of the matter is that to the last, that’s who the law was given to not the saved. Because a saved person, again, is not a forgiving person. That’s a byproduct of salvation. But a saved person is one who is indwelt by the living Christ, and in that living Christ, we have the forgiveness that was provided for us, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, the reason I say that is because the average person’s understanding of salvation has never gone beyond just getting forgiven. But there is no dynamic in that that is certainly Praise God. That’s one of those praise God, that that that that occurred, God came to take away our sins through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ to take them away. But see, there’s more to salvation than that. He came to take those sins away, so that raised from the dead, he could impute gift to you and me, His life, His resurrected life alive living in us, which we’re told is our only hope of glory. It we’re told that natural man cannot understand spiritual things. It’s foolish to him, but we who are in Christ literally have it says, the mind of Christ. Well, why would God give you his mind? Well, because mine isn’t worth a flip in and of itself. And my mind needs truth in order to set the entirety of my being free. And I’m not going to find truth from the world, there isn’t any truth there. So if I’m going to have my mind renewed, in order to set my entire being free, then I’m going to have to plug in to truth at the source of truth, and that’s in Christ Jesus alone, who said, I am the truth. And apart from me, you can do nothing. And so it’s only when I am truly born again. I’m not talking about being religious. I’m talking about truly coming to a point in your life whereby you have come to the end of your own self sufficiency. You’ve given up on your own self righteousness, you’ve realized that religion is never going to save anybody. And you come to the end of your own sufficiency and you say, Lord Jesus, all I can do all I am left with is thanking you for your mercy and your kindness and your forgiveness that was extended to me at the cross. And thanking you that having done that, that you were raised from the dead, and you came on you’re coming now and offering me your life which is the only solution to my spiritual death. I’ve realized that under the law, I am dead. I didn’t know that before. Like Paul said, I thought obedience to the law was going to bring life but I found out it killed me. I’ve realized that as a person who is spiritually dead, that I have no provision in and I myself to give myself life. And if I’m going to come alive, it’s going to have to come from outside of me and invade inside of me. Nothing that I can produce inside of me can produce life if I’m spiritually dead. And so we come to the end of ourselves, and we invite the living Christ to come into our hearts as our personal Lord and Savior.

That happens at a point in time in history, folks that no one is born that way. I’ve heard people say, Oh, I’ve always been a Christian. No, you have not. No one has always been a Christian. Because what a true Christian is, is one who is born again, it’s not someone who goes to a church called the Christian church. And so no one was ever born that way. No one would got that way through osmosis anymore, then you became pregnant by osmosis, you became pregnant, if you are a woman, you became pregnant, when at some particular point in time, whereby you were engaged in a sexual intercourse, and the sperm of a man met with your egg, and conception took place, outside of that you would not be born, nor would any of your children be born, the life of the man entered into the woman in order to produce his life. When you and I are born again, the life of God comes into us, in order to reproduce His life in us. So just as the sperm is in a woman in order to reproduce life in that woman, that in essence, the sperm of God lives in us when Christ Jesus came to live in us in order to reproduce his life in and in us in the same way only spiritually. That doesn’t happen by osmosis that happens by an event that took place at a specific time. You may not remember the exact date of that. You may not remember the exact month of that. But there was a time in your life. If you’re truly born again, when that occurred. I said, I don’t remember when I was born the first time. But I do know I’m born. And I do know there wasn’t a date when that took place. And I also know when I was born again, there was a time in my life, when I finally gave in and said, Lord Jesus, I want you to come into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Now, again, God isn’t you’re not saved by your memory. But on the other hand, if you will think through, there was a point in time, when that occurred, you may have been very young, it may have been very old like I was. But there was a point in time when conception took place. And the Spirit of God took up residency in your heart, and you were born again of the Spirit of God.

Now, if that is the case, then the law has done its work. And now the Spirit of God lives in you so that you can be led internally, by the Holy Spirit of God living in you, not externally, by laws written on stone. So the reason people are so fearful of teaching people, that you have to be under the law, or you cannot teach someone you’re freed from the law, is because there’s not a clue of the indwelling Christ living in them. And that’s why the biggest teaching of that is done by religious because a religionist, very few have ever truly been born again, they just have a knowledge of what the Word says, but don’t have a clue as to what it means. Indeed.

Before we pick up in our less in chapter seven, we studied in chapter three, the purpose of the law and Galatians 3:19 through 24, spells that out in great detail. In fact, it the the passage begins with what then was the purpose of the law? so you don’t have to wonder what was the purpose of the law, it’s going to tell you. Well, it says that the law was added because of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. And that seed, of course, is Christ Jesus. So what was the purpose of the law, it was added because of our sins, until Jesus Christ came. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised being given through faith in Christ Jesus might be given to those who believe. Now, before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law here’s the purpose was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. No man will ever be justified in the sight of God or declared righteous in His sight. As it says in Romans 3:20, therefore no one will be declared righteous and a side by observing the law rather, it’s through the law, that we become conscious of sin. So the law was given to make us conscious of sin given until the seed Jesus come, came, and until the seat of Christ Jesus comes into your life. And so the law was put in charge in order to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith.

Now we studied in chapter four what the law was powerless to do. First of all, the law cannot make you righteous. Galatians 2:16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, so but by faith in Jesus Christ, so he says, We to have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by observing the law, because by observing the law, no one will be justified. So no man will be justified in the sight of God, by observing the law, no man will be made righteous in the sight of God through observing the law. In Galatians 2:21, I don’t set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing. So the law cannot justify you, the law cannot make you righteous, and the law cannot give life. Romans 7:10, I found that the very commandment was intended to bring life actually brought death. And in Galatians 3:21. Again, it tells us if 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. So we found out that in chapter four, what the law was powerless to do. In chapter five, if you’ll remember, Bob, we studied a fact that Christ fulfilled the law. He’s taught, he said, don’t think that I’ve come to abolish the law or the prophets. I’ve not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappeared, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Well, guess what? Everything has been accomplished. He accomplished everything at the cross. That’s why it says you and I are complete now in Christ. That’s why he cried out from the cross, It is finished, he fulfilled the law through his physical life. And he upheld and fulfilled the law through his physical death. And therefore Paul could write in Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Now, we went ahead to last week, and we talked a couple of weeks in regard to Christ redeemed us from the law. And that was a wonderful study, Bob that we did. And it said in Galatians, four through five when the time had fully come, God sent His Son born of a woman under the law to redeem those under the law, how come? that we might receive full rights as sons. And for this reason, Christ is a mediator of a new covenant that those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. And so it talks about the fact that Christ redeemed is from the law, and the law has now been fulfilled in us.

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Bob George 14:00
And now we’re going to pick up on page 47, Chapter Seven, we’re no longer under the law. The purpose of the law we’ve studied is to show us our need for salvation and the point is to Christ. Once this is done, the law has done its job. So therefore there’s no purpose of the law. And as much as the Spirit of God is now indwelling, a true believer and leading them constantly into the truth of Christ Jesus. And it is through our knowledge of Him. It says that we learned that we have everything that we need for life and godliness. And so the law has done its work. It showed me my face was dirty, it’s like a mirror. But the mirror cannot wash your face. The mirror merely shows you your need for cleansing, and you turn with empty arms. And you hear the voice behind you saying Bob turned to me come to me, and that’s what turning is. That’s what repentance is. It’s changing your mind. looking into the mirror, and I’m looking at me, and you hear the voice turn around, and we turn around. And he says, Do you want me to wash your face, the mirror has shown you your condition. I’m here to provide your provision, and we turn to Christ Jesus, and we are born again. The law cannot save us any more than a mirror can wash your face. A law can’t give us life. We’ve studied the law cannot forgive our sins, and the law cannot make us righteous. And that’s why as believers, we are no longer under the law. But we’re under the grace of God who accomplished for us in us what we could never accomplish, in and of ourselves. So we look at our key verse in chapter seven, Galatians, 3:24 and 25. That states that the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. And now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Now, folks, how much more clear does the Scripture need to read? I mean, I just don’t know how much clearer you could make it than this, you really don’t need a deep interpretation. When someone says you’re no longer under the supervision of the law, it means you’re no longer under the supervision of the law. And how come? well, because faith has come. Faith in who? Faith in the One who released you from the law, whereby the wages of sin is death under the law that says you’re under a curse under the law, because you’re under a death penalty, has released us bought us from that into a newness of life to be led internally by His Spirit. So now that faith has come faith in who? faith in Christ. As I’ve said, before, we suffer unbelievably, with spiritual dyslexia. We see everything backwards. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, but not seen. In other words, faith is in what Jesus has done for you and me. That’s the blessed hope that I have when it talks about in the Scripture, faith, hope and love, always in a triplicate, faith, hope and love, faith, hope and love. How come? Well you can’t have one without the other. You can’t mistake one for the other. But you can’t have one without the other. If you’ve got faith in the object of your faith is Christ Jesus, you’re going to have hope in Christ Jesus. And when you have faith in Him and hope in Him, you’re going to have the love of Him. And so you can’t separate those. And so when we’re talking about when you’re talking about being born, again of the Spirit of God and Christ, Jesus coming alive, living in us, he and he alone is who gives us that ability to walk now in the newness of life, totally freed from the bondage of the law, we had to be freed from the law, the law brought death, but the Spirit of God brings life period. Now, that, to me, is pretty good news. I would think that we would be elated over that. But there’s something inside of man that he says, No, I still want to accomplish something.

Now, when it talks about the fact that we have that we have been completed in Christ, and, and everything has already been done for us, and I said, this spiritual dyslexia is, we look at faith as me, by my faith, causing God to do something on my behalf. There is nothing in the scripture to even indicate that. Faith is not that I have faith that God is going to do something. Faith is faith in Him who has already done something. That’s why it says that we have been given everything that we need for life and godliness, through our knowledge of what? of him, of him. That’s why I said I didn’t come to alter your mind, I came to renew your mind, so that you might know what God’s perfect will is. So it’s through our getting to know him the author, that’s the only reason for studying the Bible, incidentally, folks is to get to know the author. And it’s through coming to know him that we know what he has accomplished for us in our lives and will be the rest of our lives. Learning that and and the truth of that thinking involves that never the knowledge, the cursory knowledge of that is just cursory, I’ll spend the rest of my life exploring the depths of what Christ Jesus has done for us. It’s what Paul says the height, the depth and width and breadth of the love of God and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you might be filled to the measure with the fullness of God. We will spend the rest of our lives studying the depth that truth. So what true faith is now that this faith has come, it says we’re no longer under the supervision of the law, what faith is, is coming to realize, and to know, which we have the privilege of knowing through the word of what God has accomplished for us, and walking by faith. And we keep thinking, faith is, is around what we are doing instead of what we are believing.

Now, if I truly come to understand and believe and to exercise faith in the fact that my relationship with God is eternal, that’s what it says, then I’m going to walk on this earth totally different than if I believe it’s temporal. I am going to be walking in fear, if I think it’s temporal, if it’s up to me, instead of him, I’m going to be walking in all kinds of ways that are contrary to what God said that He wants us to walk in. And so what I believe, is totally going to affect the way I behave. And but we’ve concentrated on behavior, instead of what people believe.

The apostle Paul, in Galatians, we just read it now that faith has come we are no longer under the supervision of the law. And the reason we’re not under the supervision of the law is because the law has done its work. Christ did His work and fulfilling the law. The law has now been fulfilled in you who do not walk any longer after the flesh, but in the spirit, which means you’re born again, it doesn’t mean after you’re born again, you’re walking fleshly. It means that you are no longer out of the law, because you’re saved, you’re now in the Spirit. You’re not in the Spirit, because you roll around on the floor, you’re not in the Spirit, because you say you’re in the spirit, you’re in the Spirit, if you’re in Christ, Jesus Christ lives in you, and you live in him. So it’s it is a, it is a position that you are in it’s your condition, doesn’t have anything to do with your behavior. Your behavior should be a byproduct of that. And as evidence of that byproduct, but it does not cause your condition, your condition is I’ve stepped out of Adam into Christ, and Christ is stepped out of heaven into me. And I’m now in the newness of life indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Now, in Romans 6:14, Paul said For sin shall not be your master, because you’re not under law, but under grace. So isn’t that strange? And it says that sin will no longer be your master, because you’re not under the law. But you’re under the grace of God. Now what is let’s reverse that whenever there’s a positive statement, the negative also has to be true. So what is the opposite of that? Well, if sin is not your master, because you’re under, you’re not under the law, then who is your master when you’re under the law? sin, and who is not your master when you’re under the law? Grace, because you cannot commingle and mix Law and Grace, you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins. Romans 11 says, if it’s by grace, and it’s long, no longer by works, if it weren’t, Grace would no longer be grace. And so we’re talking about the fact that as long my friends as you remain under the law.

Now, if you’re lost under the law, which is who the that’s the object of the law, the law was given, it says, to the lost, not to the righteous, but to the unrighteous. In order to do what? bring you to Christ. So I want you to think this thing through with me for a moment. If you have now been freed, bought back, you’ve been bought back from the bondage and the wages of sin under the law, which is death. And you’ve been freed from the law of sin and death by the law of life. That’s why Paul is able to say there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law, the spirit of life, set me free from the law of sin and death. What is the law of sin and death? If anyone who violates the least of these my commandments is violated all of them. It’s the law folks. It’s not the ceremonial law. It’s the 10 commandments. It’s all of them. It’s Mount Sinai period. You and I do not go to Mount Sinai anymore. You go to Calvary, you go to the empty tomb, that’s where we live. We live in a newness of life no longer under that oldness of life under the law, where sin is your master. Why is sin your master is your master? Man, it has you. As long as you’re under the law, you’re under the wages of sin. It’s Gotcha. It masters you. You’re feared death all of your life, folks, when you’re under the law Now sins no longer your master. How come? because you’ve been freed from the law in order to do what? Walk under the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No condemnation awaiting you. Geez all you tell that boy, people gotta live like the dickens. I haven’t noticed anyone not living like a dickens who are under the law, if the power of sin is in the law, then why would you say that people are living godly lives under the law? Oh, outwardly, you may see some of that, folks. But the meanest people that I’ve ever known on the face of this earth, are legalists. And the meanest people that has ever recorded on the face of this earth. Were the legalists who hung the Lord God, the most kind, sweet, loving, forgiving man that ever walked on this earth, Christ Jesus, and they hung him on a cross, because they’re afraid everybody was going to be following him, and they would lose their position as law teachers. And so folks, don’t kid yourself, when you’re mean as a hornet. Don’t call yourself Christian and call yourself religious because that’s consistent with being religious. But please don’t call yourself a child of the living God, because what comes out of you has nothing to do with what it is to be a child of God. If you were to look at one quality of Christ Jesus, when I think of him, Bob, I think of his unbelievable kindness, his kindness and His mercy, to those of us in need of kindness, and have mercy. And when you’re not merciful, and you show no mercy to people, and you show unkindness to people, and you have no regard for their feelings, no regards for the outcome of your actions toward them. No regard at all for a person’s family for his inner life or anything else. You’re not walking with Christ. Christ causes you to think of others more highly of yourself that more highly than that of yourself. It causes you to consider other people rather than always thinking about number one.

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.