Grace - Law & Grace

I've been up for the last couple weeks. The first week I talked about the system of grace. And that system that Mike drew, the circle of grace with faith in the middle, we focused really on the idea of who in the human From a human perspective, who would ever conceive of grace? We said that nobody would admit this. The entire system of grace truly offends human wisdom. And then last week, I showed the grace circle a little bit further. God loves me, I love him back, I obey him, and he rewards me. And again, faith in the sinner, and we went through that whole thing again in more depth.

And this morning, we're gonna kind of finish that arc of the circle, and we have three questions left that we started with, and we have tried to compact these into organization as we go. We're gonna be looking at 15 new questions next week, so we're wrapping up the first 15 today. So for this morning, We're going to be looking at roughly the last three together, and they're all about the same problem.

What about the Old Testament? You get through grace, you settle with it for a little bit, you definitely settle with it in the salvation realm, but then you start hearing other things out there and you start getting concerned about, well, this impacts me and my salvation, possibly, or it impacts my growth in the Lord. So what about the Old Testament, and specifically, if grace is the system now, We're going to establish that a little bit further today. If grace is the system now, what are those, if you obey me, then I will bless you, you know, statements and passages all about? And why? Why did God give the law if He knew Israel couldn't keep it? Why did He do that?

So this morning... Very good question. I mean, answer. Yeah. We're going to get to that. So save that thought. That's great. So how do we read the Old Testament? The verse for today, or I'm sorry, the opening question for today, if God already knew Israel could keep the law, why did he give it to them? What was the point? Mike said they asked for it. What other reasons did he give it to them? Are there?

Hold that thought. We'll get to it. God gave the law knowing they would fail, and that failure was the entire point. That's what we're gonna get to. It was the point that they failed. So let's look at the first scripture today, Galatians 3, 24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. So what's the word that sticks out there?

The law has become, A tutor. What is a tutor? A teacher. Okay, is it a teacher? Actually, it's not a teacher. In this scripture, it's not a teacher. Nope, it's a pedagogos, however you want to pronounce it in the Greek. But a pedagogos was a servant who walked a child to the teacher's house. He was the attendant? Yeah. The servant, actually. And he didn't teach them anything, or she.

They would walk with them and deliver them, make sure that they were safe getting to the teacher. And that's what the law was. It was a 1500 year walk to the cross. And the law's job wasn't to save you. It's job was to get you there. to the only one who could. That's what we're going to learn about today. Get you to the cross. That's it. The law was a 1,500 year program to get man to the cross.

So basic question, does God speak to us now on any other terms than grace? No. No? Everybody agree with Gary? Is there a secondary system that God is working in the lives of mankind today in this age? The answer is no. He doesn't use any other, he doesn't speak on any other terms than grace. There's no secondary system. There's no fine print, you know, read here, the asterisks. There's no grace Monday through Friday and law on the weekend or vice versa. It's just grace.

For a lot of people, that's a radical thought. We're not taught that very clearly. We speak about grace, but we don't teach the fact that this is the operating system and terms in which God deals with us right now. And the purpose of the law was to get you to that teaching, to the cross. So a lot of us feel like God's posture shifts, that he changes systems. He goes from a law-based system, what are you doing, what are you doing for me today, to rest in what I've already done for you today.

So we know this feeling, you get the good week, God feels close. you've been reading your Bible, you've been obedient, you've been trying, you feel like God is pleased with you, right? Then Wednesday hits, and you blow it. You stumble, right? And then all of a sudden, does God feel so close? No. God feels like he's in the other room now, right?

That's law thinking. That's law thinking. And it doesn't match how God actually operates. And that's what we wanna talk about. That's where we wanna establish our reckoning, our trust in the fact that this is how God is functioning, because it has everything to do with how we respond. We either get busy or we depend upon him. We depend upon ourselves and we give it a go, right? But that's law thinking.

It's not how God actually operates. God operates only under grace now. His posture towards you, toward every believer, is constant. It's unwavering. It doesn't change. And it's unmotivated by your performance. God's grace is unmotivated. It doesn't change a single thing about how He sees you and His position towards you. at all. It's unmotivated by your performance.

Romans 5.2 says, through him we have also obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. We stand in grace. That's the glorious results of justification. Absolutely agree. Your permanent address is grace. Gary?

My responsibility is 2 Peter 3.18 is to grow in the grace and knowledge. Grow in the grace and the knowledge of that. The knowledge is not doing, it's just the knowing who Christ is. And you know what knowing does? Knowing changes the trajectory of your daily life.

He says that, Courtney did you have a song? One of the other things I was saying back to what you were saying, it's not predicated on anything we do. There's a song that I like that it says, on a good day I'm a child of God, on a bad day I'm a child of God. That's right. It basically says that no matter what we do, It doesn't change God's thought, or his love, or the operating system.

And you sing it, but the question is, do you believe it? And that's the difference of your day. I mean, that's where the rubber meets the road. It's where you have your head stuffed. That's right. It truly is. I'm up on this geopolitical stuff, and I gave it up today. Today. If anybody wants an example of law thinking, just ask Mike what he gave up today. Thank you for that. That was a very good case in point.

Here's what's cool is your permanent address is Grace, right? Where do you live? That's where you live. I think the other thing, which the good day, bad day thing, what I was thinking about too, is the fact that a lot of believers get beat up in that they're dragged down by a sin or something that they did or a failure or whatever. And it just keeps dragging them down. And that's not where we live. That's right.

Every sin that you've done has been paid for. They have to go back to what justification by faith is. Well, it's just understanding where we are in Christ and how He sees us. He sees us only in Christ. That's right. And those failures and the trials He allows is only to conform us to the image and draw us to Him. Right. But I know a lot of believers just, oh, I sinned, and it just drags them down and down and down, or struggling with something. Yes.

It's, you know, the realization, good day, bad day, it doesn't make any difference. God sees you in Christ and the principle we're talking about, it's grace. No, that's exactly right. And that feeling is the key there. I feel like I'm having a bad day with the Lord and I feel like I'm having a good day. Well, the facts are God sees you in His Son.

And that is the grace in which we stand. That's what we said that Romans 5, 2 mentions here. You stand in it. You don't move in and then move out on tomorrow. And that's the good day, bad day thing. You've got a permanent address in grace, and you're trying to move in and move out. You're transient. You can't decide. Right, well, neither could Israel, and that was really the Old Testament obedience problem.

You know, it's, okay, yes, we're in the church, so we're in a grace system now, right? But what about all those passages that God says, if you obey me, I will bless you? all through Deuteronomy, the latter portion, 28, Exodus 19. Are those law passages? Are we under the law there?

Okay. And you say that, but do you understand the impact that it has on you today? Oh yeah, I'm definitely, I understand the difference between Israel and the church. I'm one of those people. Well, that's fine. You're not Israel. What does that mean for your daily life? Well, more importantly, you're not under the same system of Israel. If you obey me, then I will bless you is law language. Right?

So, somebody read Exodus 19, verse 5. You're gonna have to flip back to the beginning of your Bible. Exodus 19, Five through eight. First one there. Go for it. Now then, if you will, indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. Six? Yeah, through eight, please. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. And the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. All that the Lord has spoken we will do.

Imagine being the representatives of Israel and being, I mean, I see so much self-righteousness in that, right? He's already placed us there as kings and priests. But we're talking about Old Testament Jews here, not Christians. Right. Yeah. And it does connect in a different context for sure. But this isn't God making an offer. This is Israel making a commitment. We're saying, we got this. Give it to us. All of it. Every last jot and tittle. We'll take it. Right? And here's the critical move. God gave them the law knowing that they would fail to do it. They want it, they get it, and I know they're going to fail.

He wasn't conducting some kind of experiment. He was orchestrating a lesson. Do you see the difference there? He wasn't playing around. He was going to teach them over a 1,500-year span that everything that they attempted to do out of self-effort to satisfy the law would fail. And there's a reason for that. There's a reason for this lesson. It was the point. Look at what happened. You've got the judges, the period of the judges. You've got chaos, moral collapse. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

And then you move on to kings. You've got Solomon. Turns to idolatry. The kingdom splits in half. You go into the prophets. God sent them again and again. Israel rejects them. And then you go into exile. Right? The whole system bottoms out in exile. Why?

Because nobody could produce righteousness by self-effort. Not Israel. Not us. Not anyone. That's not the system. The entire Old Testament is one 1,500 year diagnostic test designed to prove that very Point. You can't do it. It's the opposite of Nike. Don't do it. I think Vernon Peterman said that one time. I liked it.

So let's look at this law that, like we said, that was the self-diagnostic there. The law doesn't restrain sin, does it? It activates it. We've talked about this. We've talked about it with Paul. Think of it, again, like a diagnostic test. You go to the doctor and you say, I feel fine. I'm feeling good. Really? Yeah, I've been exercising. I'm doing my thing. I feel fine. So you run some tests. And the tests reveal that you're actually really sick. The test didn't make you sick. What did it do? It showed you. It what? It found out what the problem was. But the test didn't make you sick.

So can you think of a season in your life where you fell into a pattern like that, where you were trying really hard to be obedient, you were reading your scripture, striving against temptation, not gonna do it. You're building systems to track your progress, even if it's just mental checklists. You have to come to the end of yourself. And one day you realize the system had become the point, that your faith shifted from resting on Christ to confidence in your own self-discipline. Think of a season of life where you've been through that?

And the moment you realized that you couldn't keep it up, you bottomed out, just like Mike says. That's an everyday thing for me. Okay. Because we walk by faith. It doesn't have to be a bottom-out, but the bottom-outs are real. Because if you are in a self-effort mode, you will bottom out. That's just a man on the cross. That's a dependence upon me for doing the saving of me. That's right. not just for salvation, but also from the situation, right? So that dependence upon yourself and lack of dependence on Christ is exactly what grace was designed to teach you about.

That's what the law did for 1500 years. Israel tried and tried harder, and they failed and they failed harder. And every failure was proof of the same diagnosis. Nobody can save themselves. That's what was eating them alive. That was the disease. That's Romans 7. That is Romans 7. That's what it diagnosed. You can't do this, Solomon. Right?

Romans 3.20 says it exactly that way. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Why are you trying to keep a law that is designed to reveal your sin, not produce righteousness? The law is a mirror. We've used that illustration a lot. It shows you the problem, but it can't fix it.

If you got a big fat zit right in the middle of your forehead, you know when those come. Those are my favorite ones. It's like, why did it choose the most symmetrical place on my face? And there it is. The mirror tells you it's there, but the mirror can't do anything about fixing that zit. You gotta get some special oil to do that.

That's an inside joke from my wife. She gives me frankincense for my zits. When's the last time you had a zit? I've been stressed a lot lately, Mike. That's gross. I do know some people like that, and it freaks me out. Anyway, the law is a mirror. It shows you, you've got a problem, but it can't fix it, right? And that's exactly what that word, tutor, pedagogos, means.

In Galatians 3.24, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. Yeah, Mike. Yeah, you're talking about that. I can remember Oh my goodness. The first time I went to nursery school, I lived in Chicago, and there was a lady that came by that picked up kids in the block and walked them to school. What did she teach us? She taught us to stay in line. not to cross the street until she said so. But she was taking us to school, so she was the pedagogue to take us to school. And then she'd come pick us up in the afternoon and take us home. Yeah, that's not part of my illustration. She would teach us patience. Yeah. But no, it's a perfect picture, and it's what the Greek word means. It's technical that way.

Yeah, and the other thing, and maybe we'll get to this, is we have some friends who tend to think about law, and we get into some discussions occasionally with, we're not under law and all this. And then they come to this, and no, the law is to point us to Christ. We need the law to point us to Christ.

They forget verse 24, or 25. But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor. It's gone. It's gone. And that's what they love the law part. And they'll say, oh, the law's here to point us to Christ. No it isn't. All the Romans tell us all that does is activate sin and enrages sin. That creates all that. And they don't see those. But they love to fall under the law and forget We do forget. Israel forgot a lot. Faith has come down and we're no longer under that tutor. We're not being led by the law to Christ. What justified Abraham?

Faith. Verse 25, Galatians 3, 25, the follow on to the verse that we just went through. So the tutor walks you to the schoolmaster So the schoolmaster is the one who teaches you. The tutor's job is done once you get there. And where is there for us? The cross. You can't save yourself. The cross. It's that way for unbelievers. That's where they're to be led. Now, I realize they are under grace. but not as it pertains to their union with Christ. They're separated. But the operating system of how God speaks in terms of sovereignly bringing this world to the end that He has predestined is by grace. That is the system that He's using. And it leads us as believers to the cross. He's leading unbelievers to the cross because that's the only place that can save you. It's where the only person that can save you went. And you were there with him.

So let's talk about how does that square with grace? If you obey me, then I'll bless you. That contradicts grace. No. It proves it. Here's why. The if you obey passages don't set up an alternative system. They demonstrate the failure of self-effort. So what the law tested was can human beings produce righteousness by self-effort? Can they produce righteousness by self-effort? Can we keep the law? Can we earn God's favor? Man, remember, Israel asked for it. They wanted to experiment with that. There's nothing in man why God should accept us.

Yeah, Mike. Israel was under the law system. What was the Gentile under? What was the Gentile under? Do as you please. I think people in this Galatian verse like to say, well, we Gentiles were under the Mosaic Law and it served a purpose to bring us to Christ. Well, I don't see anywhere where we Gentiles were under any sort of Mosaic Law at all.

So, if that's the case, It isn't that we're not under legal restraints. We are. But when Paul's talking to the Galatians, is he talking to the Galatians who were Jews? That the law had that effect on them and that's what it was for? Because if I'm a Gentile sitting in that audience, I'm thinking, well, I don't have anything to do with the law. Do you have anything to do with Christ? That's my question.

In a Gentile environment, do I have a pedagogue? Do I have someone other than the civil law, the moral law that God put into place? You know, usually a Gentile isn't real clear, you know, about... The Jews had 600 plus laws to obey, thanks to the Mishnah, where if I had to, as a non-Jew, non-believer, if someone asked me, well, what laws are you under?

I would say, well, my country, my city, wherever I lived, And I'm ex-religion and whatever they tell me I ought to be doing. Isn't that Romans 1 truth? I think so. What do you mean by that? But let me back up, because we could get on a rabbit trail with this one, though.

Yeah, this is an interesting, if the diagnostic test was for Israel, and they failed, and that was the point, and it was to lead them to the cross, what was happening to all these other nations? Well, and I can't quote the reference in the scripture, but Israel was to be an example to all the nations. So what do all the nations see? that even their 613 laws, God is not blessing them because they're keeping them. They're not able to do it.

In fact, let's go conquer them. Romans 1, 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Okay, so the issue is ungodliness. Yes. And unrighteousness. Yes. And so, from a Jewish standpoint, they found out that they were unrighteous and ungodly by looking at the law. Yes.

The Gentile was told, or in that same passage is that you know I exist as God because I'm in my creation and I built myself into you. You know. And what I expect from you is that you honor me as God and you be faithful. That's what I want. Well, no man was. And I think the unrighteous man who is being, who is serious about, well, what do I do now? turns to God, just like a Jew would turn and say, well, I recognize that you're there. I also recognize that I'm not under your favor. What do I do? Well that's where, go ahead.

I'm trying to figure out, I found it here in Romans 2, 14. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are law to themselves, and that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternatively accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. So it's there, it's just not spelled out. Yeah, but instinctively God has put it on their heart.

Right. They still want self-systems, right? And that could be licentious-based or legalistic-based, but there's still the do's and don'ts, or I won'ts and I wills. We talked about how Israel was experimenting with keeping the law. I think I can get to, I think I can do this. But what they learned themselves and what they taught the nations around them was that it was consistent failure. Every person, every attempt, the whole nation, all failure.

Not because God was unfair. It wasn't because God was unfair. It's because the standard is higher than human capacity. It wasn't designed for a man not of God to fulfill it. So this is what grace declares. Since you can't do it, he already did it. Christ is your righteousness. Christ is your acceptance. Christ satisfied every claim against you.

Romans 10.4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Everyone in every nation. Everyone who believes. The tutor's job is done. The lesson's been taught. And the lesson was you need a Savior. Not because you deserve it. Because He's gracious.

And that's where Romans 3.21 comes in. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. You got it? Luce Perry Schaefer makes this statement. I want you to pay attention. It's thick in terms of thoughts here.

So, all harmony of truth is shattered when there's the slightest co-mingling of law and grace. all harmony of truth. Take the scripture and you just tear it up. When there's the slightest amount of trying to co-mingle, work these things together so that you've got a little bit of law and a little bit of grace. The scriptures just fall apart, the harmony of the scriptures fall apart.

You have man trying to do what God said he already did. There are two systems, but law belonged to a different era, and it served its purpose perfectly. It got us to Christ. You see that? So the law, the law's purpose, tutor to grace. So look at the timeline. You've got six phases, and if you can't read them, I'll read them out loud with you, but phase one, God gives the law, Exodus 19 through 20.

Israel says, we got you, we can do this. They volunteer, they own it, right? Phase two, Israel tries and fails. For 1,500 years, judges, kings, prophets, exile. Every failure teaches the same lesson. What was the lesson? Nobody can save themselves. Phase three, the law exposes sin.

Romans 3.20, through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Right? The diagnostic is complete. We know the problem. We know what the disease is. Phase four, the law tutors, and that's what we were talking about today, it tutors us towards Christ.

We've got Galatians 3.24 that we read, and the pedagogos, the tutor walks you to the schoolmaster, the destination is the cross. And then phase five, Christ fulfills the law. Right?

Romans 10.4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The tutor's job is done. The teacher has arrived. Phase six, grace reigns.

Romans 5.21, this is where we are. This is where the church is. And the arrow only moves forward. We don't go back. We don't go back into this. We've already arrived to the teacher. I always go back. Reading Scripture and going back establishes Scripture going forward. Oh, you're talking about something different. Sure. That's fine. All right. Well, we've come to time here.

It's grace all the way down. I think at the beginning of next week, Mike, we might want to just go through and answer all these questions, the 15 that you put together. These handouts support the larger 15 questions that we started with. So we'll go through and summarize the last five weeks and get ready for the next 15. Yeah. Can we finish 17 so I can sleep well?

Sure. What does it say? What is it? The three stages of filming. Oh, sure. Justification. It's grace all the way through. And I actually had to cut my slide a little short for time. But yes, it's justification, sanctification, and glorification. It's grace all the way through. The law's purpose was to lead you to the cross. And its job is done.

Let's pray. Father, how we thank you for the truths of just that The law was, in fact, a tutor to lead us to Christ. And, Lord, any self-effort does not fit within your system of grace. I pray that you would teach us these truths, that as we see them in the Scripture and we understand this age of grace in which we stand, I pray that you would help us to recognize the difference between having a knowledge of something and reckoning it as true. Lord, I pray that we would rest in the fact that your grace is sufficient for us in every respect. And we thank you for it. We love you for it. It's your name we pray, amen.