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Join me on the Jamie Luce Podcast as we embark on a journey to understand the intricate balance between living by faith and adhering to the law in a Christian’s life. We’ll explore the foundational commandment of loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. This chapter emphasizes that while these actions bring blessings on earth, they do not secure our place in heaven—that is achieved through faith in Jesus Christ. We’ll draw parallels to the church in Galatia, examining Paul’s urgent message to them and its relevance to contemporary cultural issues. By looking at scriptural insights, we aim to clarify the role of faith and the law today.
Next, we tackle the critical relationship between the Old and New Testaments, emphasizing the importance of adhering to the full scripture for true discipleship. In this chapter, we discuss the dangers of disregarding the Old Testament and reshaping the New Testament to fit modern cultural desires. Using Galatians 1, we’ll express astonishment at how quickly some people desert the true gospel for a different one, and address the confusion surrounding the law. While Jesus fulfilled the law, believers still maintain a relationship with it. We’ll counter the problem of false gospels that insist on adherence to the law for salvation, underscoring that salvation is through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
In our final chapter, we delve into the purpose and power of the law, drawing from Deuteronomy and other scriptural references. We’ll highlight how the law guides us towards righteousness and reveals our sinful nature, underscoring our need for a savior. By examining Paul’s teachings in Galatians, we emphasize that salvation comes through faith, not works. We’ll contrast this belief with the doctrines of other religions and discuss the daily struggle of walking by the Spirit and dying to the flesh. Listen in as we stress the importance of continually submitting to God’s word and presence, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us away from sin and towards a life transformed by faith in Christ.
Where to dive in:
(0:00:00) – Living by Faith and the Law (5 Minutes)
This chapter focuses on understanding how to live by faith and the role of the law in a Christian’s life. I explore the importance of loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself, emphasizing that these actions bring earthly blessings but do not secure a place in heaven. Heaven is attained through faith in Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sins. Drawing parallels to the church in Galatia, I address the common confusion about the ll insights to clarify our understanding of faith and the law today.
(0:04:58) – False Gospel and the Law (14 Minutes)
This chapter explores the critical relationship between the Old and New Testaments and the importance of adhering to the full scripture for true discipleship. We address the dangers of disregarding the Old Testament and molding the New Testament to fit contemporary cultural desires, emphasizing that true salvation requires living according to the scriptures. Drawing from Galatians 1, I express astonishment at how quickly some people desert the true gospel for a different one. We also tackle the confusion surrounding the law, clarifying that while Jesus fulfilled the law, believers still maintain a relationship with it. Furthermore, I highlight the problem of false gospels promoted by groups insisting on adherence to the law for salvation, countering that salvation is through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
(0:18:47) – Understanding the Purpose of the Law (15 Minutes)
This chapter explores the purpose and importance of the law in Christian theology, focusing on its role in relation to faith and salvation. We examine Galatians 2:4-5 and Galatians 3:19, understanding that the law introduces doubt by highlighting human transgressions, which underscores the need for Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. By referring to 2 Corinthians and Romans 3:32, we see how the law brings knowledge of sin but does not provide eternal salvation. We discuss the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 17:7, noting that the law was an addition due to human transgressions until the promised offspring, Jesus, would come to fulfill the everlasting covenant. This underscores that adherence to the law cannot save, but faith in Jesus’ sacrifice can.
(0:33:43) – The Purpose and Power of Law (7 Minutes)
This chapter examines Deuteronomy 5:32-33 and Deuteronomy 7:12-15, emphasizing the purpose of the law given by God to guide His people towards righteousness and prosperity. We draw parallels between the law and the bumpers in bowling, which help keep the ball on track, highlighting how the law keeps us aligned with God’s will until the arrival of Jesus Christ. The discussion underscores the importance of the law in revealing our sinful nature and our need for a savior. Furthermore, we reflect on the enduring value of the law in understanding God’s character and its role in leading us to Jesus. The conversation transitions to the concept of faith, emphasizing that while Jesus fulfilled the law, the law still guides us towards righteous living, contrasting sinful behaviors with the life transformed by faith in Christ.
(0:40:56) – Salvation Through Faith, Not Works (15 Minutes)
This chapter takes us into Galatians, Chapter 3, where we explore the concept of receiving the Holy Spirit through faith rather than works. We examine Paul’s message to the Galatians, emphasizing that salvation comes not by adhering to the law, but by believing in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. We also discuss the differences between this belief and the doctrines of other religions such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims. By faith, we are reconciled with God and are called to live in relationship with Him, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us away from sin. Lastly, we touch on the daily struggle of walking by the Spirit and dying to the flesh, emphasizing the importance of continually submitting to God’s word and presence.aw and faith, stressing the relevance of Paul’s teachings. We examine Paul’s urgent message to the Galatians, his authority, and his immediate confrontation of the issues, highlighting the contemporary cultural parallels and providing scripture.
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Full Transcript
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0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
If I live within those boundaries of loving the Lord, my God, with all my heart, my soul, my strength, and loving my neighbor as myself, which all the law is wrapped up in those two things. If I do that and I walk according to that law, then I have blessing on earth. It doesn’t get me to heaven. That blesses me on earth amongst the people that I live with and amongst the way that I deal with my neighbor. What gets me to heaven is my faith in the one who paid the price that I was supposed to pay. Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. Today I’m going to be talking about how do we live by faith? What is it about faith and what should be our view of the law? I think that many times we have been just like the church in Galatia when Paul is writing to them to clear up some things that have been that are terribly wrong, and our hesitation in ever wanting to think that we know for sure what we’re supposed to do with the law, and our hesitation that we sometimes feel about how how faith looks and how that’s worked out in our lives. Many times, the hesitation that we have is simply because we have we have fallen under the same problem that this church in Galatia fell under. And if you had listened to our previous episode where we talked about the current situation that’s going on in the world, having to do with trying to change and bring in foreign gospel and the false, false apostles of a false gospel, then you’ve got a little bit of some background that will help you with today. If you have not seen that episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to that, where we have dug deep into the cultural problem that is happening right now, that correlated with the same problem that Paul was dealing with in his second letter to the Corinthians, and this is a perpetual problem.
Paul, on his missionary journeys, was the first apostle who was called to the Gentiles and he gives us a whole synopsis. If you read his letters, he tells you completely how he came to do this and how God called him to do this and the timeframe that he was called by God, what he did when he was called, where he went, who he spoke to, when he talked to the apostles, when he didn’t talk to the apostles. He gives us all of that breakdown. But I want to hone in on some very specific things. When he goes to the Galatian church. He pulls no punches, no punches at all.
Normally in Paul’s letters he would greet the people. He may talk about his calling at first, but then he would give a sort of salutary prayer and thanksgiving for the church. And the issue that he is dealing with is so strong and so important and so imperative and so important and so imperative. It is of such a consequential means that he just immediately jumps in and says who’s writing this letter, by what authority he’s writing this letter and he attacks a problem. And so I want us to go into the book of Galatians and at first I’m going to again correlate this to our culture right now, and then we’re going to go into the scripture and talk about what Paul’s dealing with here, and I’m going to give you both so that you can see where this came from, how this is scripture and how this still applies to us today. But I also want to bring, like Paul did um, and bring an understanding that maybe you’re missing today. You may be one of those, because there’s so many right now and I talked about this in the last episode as well but there are many who call themselves ministers of the gospel, who are saying we can, in essence, throw away the Old Testament and that we only need the New Testament.
And then, because it’s the New Testament without the Old Testament, if we get rid of the Old Testament, then we can kind of make that New Testament into a molded image that we want it to look like, which is to embrace all the cultural desires that are fleshly desires, things that do not make us live according to Christ, so that we can call ourselves disciples without actually being discipled by the word that we get to determine what the scripture means. Instead of the scripture determining our lives, we want to determine what the scripture means and we’ve got that backwards. That’s not going to save us, that’s not going to take us into an eternity. With Jesus Christ, we have to live according to the scriptures, but that means that we cannot kick out the Old Testament. Why do people want to kick out the Old Testament? Well, this has to do with their view of the law. We know that, according to the New Testament, according to Paul’s teachings, that the law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ Jesus said that himself in the gospels but that we no longer live under the law. We are not slaves to the law, but there is still a relationship we have with the law, so this can really bring some confusion, and so I want to bring clarity to that today.
So let’s go to galatians 1 and I’m going to go straight to verse 6, and he says I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. Right off the bat I mean right off the bat he greets the people and he says I’m astonished at your behavior, I am shocked at what you’re doing. That’s a strong word. Astonished is a strong word. And Paul is wanting to say this is not acceptable in any way, shape or form. And I am completely in shock and I’m astonished that you have allowed this to happen. And what has happened? That you are so quickly deserting, deserting him? Who called you into the grace of Christ? Who are they deserting? They’re deserting God. Who’s called them? He’s saying I’m astonished at what you’re doing. And what you’re doing is you are deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. And boy do we need to pay attention. If it was that important, then we need to make sure that we stay vigilant.
What is the gospel, then why was it so easy for these people to so quickly desert their God in favor of a false gospel? Don’t you see that? See that happening all around us? People who had called themselves Christians, and there are all kinds of fancy words and things that are people doing what they’re doing with that right now, but one of the things they like to say is that they are deconstructing what their religion is deconstructing, going back and rebuilding their faith. Now, in one sense, if you have felt that you have believed a false gospel that is not according to scripture, if you’ve gotten off into maybe some heresies, or maybe you have fallen into some I know people don’t like to call them this, but they are but there are religious groups who call themselves Christians or people who follow a Christ, and they are cultish in their, in their demands and in their lifestyles and in their um rules and regulations.
And this is what Paul is dealing with that everywhere he went, every church that he went to and started, he’s the founder. He has brought these people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They’d never heard of Jesus Christ before, and they are. They are coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and if they had heard about him and they are coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And if they had heard about him, they had heard all kinds of mixed stories and they had to come to know the truth that Jesus died for them, that he truly was the son of God and that the work that he did on the cross he said it is finished he finished the work. What did he finish? He fulfilled the promise that was given clear back to Abraham. Now we’ll go back and dissect that in a minute, but this is really the essence of us understanding who is Jesus and the authority that Paul had to come and correct them, to tell them that’s not the gospel.
I am the first, the first to bring the gospel to those who are non-Jews. Most likely these people had never heard of Jesus Christ and if they had, they’d heard of it through very confused language from the Jewish culture and people community around them and it was probably mixed, a mixed bag. And he’s the first. It’s not like they have heard this all their lives and they’ve heard different ones come in and give their own interpretation of what this is. Folks, they’re the first. He’s the first. He is starting these churches and he would go to these churches. And then there was a group of Jews who would follow along.
Whatever Paul did, wherever he went in these churches, he started and this Jewish group would go around behind him and tell these people yes, jesus did die for you. They’d give him a portion of this gospel, but then they would say but you have to follow the law, you, you have to. You have to, in essence, become a Jew in order to be saved. They would undo the very beauty of the gospel, which was you are saved not by any works that you have ever done or any works that you could ever do, that there is nothing that you could ever do to earn salvation. And it is by faith, and faith alone, that I believe in Jesus Christ and that he died and paid the price for my salvation. He paid my penalty and if I believe on him, then I’m saved, that it’s by faith that I believe. This man came from God said I’ll pay the price. He died and was resurrected. He died and was resurrected and now anyone who believes in him can receive the salvation that he purchased for us. That’s good news. That’s what the word gospel means. That’s the gospel.
So then you had people coming in bringing a different quote, unquote gospel. That’s not the quote, unquote, real gospel, because they’re saying, well, yes, he did that, but you still have to follow the law. So what is it? What are we supposed to do with this law? What’s the relationship with the law? How are we supposed to think about law? What are we supposed to do with law? This is really um. This is really the, the um, the foundation for being able to know how to live your life by faith. If you don’t know what to do with the law, then you don’t know how to live by faith, and Paul would teach the Gentiles what it was, and he gives some detail here. We’re going to go through this so that you can understand what you need to think about the law. What should our relationship as Christians be with the law? What should our understanding be? So let’s continue reading.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. We are dealing with that right now of Christ. We are dealing with that right now. People like Andy Stanley, whose father is revered as a gospel preaching minister faithful to the word, stayed in the word and sadly, his son, who has come to fame as well because of his father, is now dissecting and removing and changing what he tells people they have to do with this word. This is still happening, folks. This is still happening and it happens in one of two ways.
It either happens the way it happened with them, where they bring in the rules, so to speak, the law, or it happens by saying that there is nothing you have to worry about and ignore the law, ignore the law, there’s no relationship with the law, you ignore the law. So if I ignore the law and I can remove the Old Testament, then that means that I can define love any way I want to define love because I have removed God’s parameters, I have removed the safety barriers, I have removed, um, the understanding I have of the character of God to keep me safe. Okay, at this point it’s really important. Um, I’m going to finish reading this one portion, but we need to talk about directly what the law is for Verse eight.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Paul is saying let him live under a curse, which means he will be damned. There is no eternal life for him. To the one who preaches a gospel contrary to the one that Paul is preaching, as we have said before, so now I say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed you received. Let him be accursed. He’s even saying even if an angel appears to you, can you imagine how easy it would be to fall away and to follow something if you felt that a truly an angel just now, a supernatural angel appears to you and begins talking to you. Angel appears to you and begins talking to you. What we forget is that Satan himself comes as an angel of light. Joseph Smith received his revelation by an angel who came to him.
Folks, we can be so deceived by the supernatural because we are a people who walk by natural senses. Supernatural because we are a people who walk by natural senses and it is easy to let anything that is supernatural be a hook, and we’ve got to be careful. Do we believe in the supernatural? Absolutely we do. It’s real. It is real. It’s more real than this natural. It is from the supernatural that the real, the natural I shouldn’t say real that the natural was created. So it’s even more real than our natural means.
However, not every spiritual thing is God, and we have, according to scripture, an apostle of Jesus Christ, called by Jesus himself, an apostle of Jesus Christ, called by Jesus himself, saying to us even if an angel appears to you, if anything is said to you that is contrary to these scriptures, that what that man is accursed, that spiritual whoever is doing, let them be accursed. We are not to listen to that, for I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. He’s not preaching something that is man-made, it is not man-maneuvered, it is not man-massaged, it is not man-manipulated, it is not fleshly tainted, it is not filtered through man’s cultural um, cultural community standards. It’s not folks, it is straight from God. The gospel is Jesus Christ and him crucified, him alone.
So then, what do we do with the law? What do we do with the law? Um, I want us to look at, oh gosh, where do I want to take you? Because I want you to understand. Let’s, let’s, look at the purpose of the law. What is the purpose of the law? Because in chapter 2 in galatians 2, we’re going to read verses uh, four and five. But I want us to understand the, the importance of the law. So it wouldn’t have been a trick and it wouldn’t have been so so easy a snare if it didn’t have validity. Okay, so it’s not. These people weren’t stupid. Um, in fact, in second Corinthians, paul tells them they were actually drawn away because of their own wisdom. So you can actually think. But I understand the law and that’s what makes me know that I have to follow the law. And it’s by the law, it’s the.
What law does in a nutshell, is it takes from faith and introduces doubt. It takes from faith and it introduces doubt because faith says Jesus paid it all. There’s nothing I could ever do to make him love me more, to give me a better salvation, to give me a better hope. There’s nothing eternally listen, I’m choosing words carefully. There is nothing eternally about your salvation that can be helped or hindered by your works. Your works according to the law did not save you. Adherence to rules and the law do not save you. It is Jesus Christ and him crucified alone. His blood alone, atones, blood alone, atones.
Atones for sin pays the price Up until Jesus. Every sacrifice that was made of bulls and goats, pigeons and whatever else they brought could only say for this amount of time, I am not going to remember this sin against you. Someone is paying a price and you had to come every year and redo it. It was not eternal. It was like saying an eye for an eye I committed this sin, so now I’m paying penance and my penance is now going to make us even Okay. It’s like saying I’m settling a score, so to speak. It had nothing to do with eternity. Their sacrifice of animals never.
The old Testament law never gave the Jews eternal salvation. It simply gave them forgiveness on earth to make it through till the next time they sinned and had to go make atonement for the sin. It didn’t give them salvation. There was no salvation until Jesus. That’s why, when Jesus Christ comes again and it says the dead in Christ will rise first, there are many that are dead in Christ and those who are in the bosom of Abraham. The scripture teaches us about the bosom of Abraham. We learned that in the gospels that there is a place that all of those souls are saying when, when, when, when it took Jesus coming. It took Jesus coming folks for the old Testament folks and for the new Testament folks. It took Jesus coming. It took Jesus coming folks for the old Testament folks and for the new Testament folks, it took Jesus. That is the only thing that has purchased eternal salvation.
But what did the law do? Let’s go to um. Well, first let’s jump over Galatians three. We’re just gonna skip over a minute here and go to verse 19. He says why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come, to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels, by an intermediary.
So what Paul is saying was there was a reason God had to give the law. So we go back to the beginning. We had Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham, a promise and he said I’m going to multiply you, I’m going to bless you, I’m going to bless you. Nations are going to come forth from you. And he says and this blessing is to your offspring. Paul teaches us that the offspring that he is speaking about is Jesus. The offspring he’s speaking about is Jesus, the forthcoming of Jesus, and he is making a promise that through all the generations. In fact, let’s look at Genesis real quick. Genesis 17,.
Uh, verse seven says and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant. So this is to last. He’s saying I’m making a covenant with you that there’s going to be an offspring that brings an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you, and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their god. So he’s saying I’m going to be giving this to you. There’s an offspring that’s going to come and fulfill this. Okay, so let’s go back to uh, galatians 3 and he says at I had to add the law.
Why? Why, then the law? It was added to this covenant blessing. Now Paul describes that one covenant that is given does not nullify a previous covenant that’s given covenant that’s given. So when the law was introduced, it didn’t do away with the promise God made to Abraham. It was added to this covenant, but why? Why was it added? Why did God see fit to add law to this covenant If the covenant that he made with him is speaking to an everlasting offspring that’s coming. Why was it necessary to add the law? Okay, go over to Romans 3, 32. Romans 3.32. It says For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin, through the law comes knowledge of sin, through the law comes knowledge of sin. So what did God need to do? He has given a covenant that speaks to the everlasting promise and he has to add in the law that we read in Galatians, 3 was given as let’s see, let’s read that it was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come. To whom the promise had been made? We’re talking about Jesus. And it was put in place through angels, by an intermediary. So the law was put in place and Moses mediated that law because we’re waiting for this eternal offspring.
This law had the purpose, romans tells us, of giving us the knowledge of sin, because Jesus coming and bringing salvation, you would never know you needed salvation if you didn’t understand that you were a sinner who needed to be saved. If you didn’t understand sin, you could never know the depths of your sinful nature and you could never understand your need for a savior. And because God loves us so much he does not want anyone lost. He tells us in John he doesn’t wish that any would perish, but that everyone would have everlasting life if they would believe. This is God’s heart. They have to be able to come to faith in Jesus Christ in order to receive salvation. You do not come to faith in Jesus Christ, you do not believe. You need a savior unless you understand your sin. So what is the law? What should our attitude be towards the law? The law was given so that we would understand that we were sinners.
If God says, don’t do this, and I do that, and I understand that it is really hard for me not to do that, that there’s something in my nature that makes it very difficult for me not to do that Then I can understand, when Paul teaches that by my salvation I become a new creation in Christ, that the old things are passed away. I no longer am bound to that. I’m no longer bound in my, in my nature, to want sin. Even if I struggle against sin, the struggle is because I don’t want to sin. I’m a new creature and I don’t want that. So even Paul talked about that. Oh, the sinful man am I? What wretch I am, the thing that I don’t want to do, I find myself doing, and the thing that I do want to do, I’m not doing it.
He explains the sinful nature of man, that once you come to Christ, once you understand faith in a price that was already paid because you couldn’t follow the law, you need faith, you need to live by faith. If I can’t live according to faith, then I have to live according to the law. And the law says I’m condemned. I cannot live according to the law. I can’t do it, I will fail. My sinful nature will fail.
Adam and Eve fell from that fall. We are the offspring of that fall. It is in our nature what we had in the image of Christ, our spirit man, being alive, walking and talking with him in the cool of the day, being able to have unbroken communion with our creator of the day. Being able to have unbroken communion with our creator. Sin brought death, to that. They were forced from the garden and had to live in the harshness of reality, in a broken relationship with God. So it was necessary to understand what took place, what has happened to our nature. How are we made alive again? You’re a made alive again and the the the job of of Christ to reconcile us back to God, is that through faith that salvation comes. And now I am reconciled again. I am no longer broken off from him. I am able to hear his instruction and follow it. I’m able to live according to the plan of God, which brings me blessing, which, when God walked with his children in the garden, they were free from all law.
There was no law. The only law that existed was to obey. Simply do what I tell you to do, live in my wisdom, live in my command, because in my command you are blessed. But that wasn’t a specific law that I broke. I simply lived in freedom and if he told me to do something, I did it. That’s such freedom no laws, no sin. Just if father spoke, I did what father said, because father created me. He knows I walk in his wisdom, I walk in his provision, I walk in his protection. So what was the law? The law gave me knowledge of sin. It gave me knowledge of what happened. It gave me knowledge that God said uh, here’s, here’s another beautiful picture of what the law did. The law was necessary and brought through Moses so that they could continue walking in the blessing of the Lord while on this earth. See, the law can’t get you into eternity, but the law could tell you how to prosper on earth. It could tell you how to live and function under the blessing of God on earth. Let’s look at that.
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Let’s go to Deuteronomy 5. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 5. And we’re going to look at verse 32 and 33. You shall be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord, your God, has commanded you that you may live and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. So he’s saying that this law was given to them so that they could prosper in the blessing of God while on this earth. Okay, then jump over. Let’s also look at chapter 7, deuteronomy 7, and let’s look at verses 12 through 15. This is just to add to that 12 through 15. This is just to add to that.
And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord, your God, will keep with you the covenant of the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock, and the Lord will take away from you all sickness and none of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. I mean it goes on, but I’m going to stop there. I mean it goes on, but I’m going to stop there.
This law that was given was to show us we were sinful, we needed a savior and we needed a way to stay connected to God and to remain in his blessing until Jesus comes. We needed a way. We needed a way to keep us in the bumper, so to speak. Have you ever gone bowling with children? And in order for them to hit the mark, they have bumpers that they put up in the gutters, so the ball doesn’t go in the gutters and they miss the mark totally. But if they put the bumpers up, the ball will bounce back and forth within that, within those bumpers, and eventually hit some of the target. That’s really what this is a picture of God put up by the law bumpers to keep us inside those bumper rails so that we would stay on the path that we needed to stay in order to come to Jesus, if we have the knowledge that we have to stay in this parameter. Because this is these laws even though they are laws, they are birthed from the blessing and the character of God. He’s saying I don’t ever lie, I don’t murder, I don’t have wrong priorities, I don’t set, I don’t covet and try to take from other people.
The beauty of the 10 commandments and the beauty of the law which is the reason it was beautiful is because it had great purpose. It was always a guiding force to show us where we need to be, so that when Jesus comes, we know we need Jesus. If I had no way of knowing about sin, I’d never know I needed Jesus. I would ignore him. He would, he would be a historic figure at most in my life and there would be nothing that I would would want to uh, lay my life down for, because I wouldn’t think that there was anything with my life that needed laying down. This is why pride is such a problem. Pride refuses to allow us to see ourselves in humility, to see that we are a fallen creature and that we sin and need the salvation of Jesus Christ.
So what should our relationship be, then, with this law? Our relationship needs to be and I wanna take us back to Galatians but our relationship with the law needs to be that it has great purpose in showing us the character of God towards us and that he loved us enough to give us these bumpers all along the way, to show us what looks like him, so that we would recognize Jesus when he came and that we would understand that he was actually the one who could give us eternal life, that he paid the price once and for all. There was no more animal sacrifice. To this day, there is no animal sacrifice, because Jesus truly was the last sacrifice who paid the price once for all. He was the last sacrifice and it was his sacrifice that saved us. It was the eternal sacrifice. No longer do I have a simple earthly thing that helps me while my body is alive on planet Earth. I now have eternal salvation.
So what does that do for me in terms of understanding faith? I can appreciate the law and I can say that because of the law, I can stay, I can read the law, I can know the law and I could say Jesus fulfilled that law. So I’m not bound by a sin nature to that law. But I also can know that if I’m living in a way and Paul would say it many times by saying this he would say things like let’s go back to second Corinthians, the last chapter, chapter 12, where he says I fear that when I come to you I’ll see quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. He’s saying all of those things are pictures of a sinful nature. In essence, they are pictures of the character of one who has not been saved. So my understanding is that I can look at the law and they can still point to Jesus. They can still say this is the way to Jesus. If I’m behaving in that way, I need to look to Jesus. If I am committing things against those laws, I need to look to Jesus. Thank God he saved me. I don’t want to look like the world. He has washed me. He empowers me to live according to faith. He faith is the oh gosh. Okay, we’ve got to. I’ve got to give you the picture of faith.
So I want us to go to chapter three, galatians, chapter three. Let’s listen to this verse one. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this Did you receive the spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit, by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Did you hear by faith or did you receive the spirit by working out, living according to the law? Did you receive salvation while you lived according to laws? Did you receive the holy spirit, god, knowing that Jesus paid the price? That’s the hearing of the gospel. And the minute they heard the gospel. They heard the gospel. They heard that Jesus had paid their price and penalty and, by faith, they believed in him and then they would receive the Holy Spirit.
Folks, you receive the Holy Spirit by faith, not because you follow the rules, not because you worked so many good works, not because you accomplished so much. Do you know that the Jehovah’s witnesses and the Mormons don’t believe that you can have any assurity of any kind of faith, because you always have to be worried about the works and you’ll never really know for sure. Even if you’re Muslim, you don’t know if Allah is pleased with you. You just have to keep trying to do stuff that you think will please him. He’s a tyrant. The God they serve is a tyrant. All of these, all of these religions.
Jesus is not a tyrant. He says I freely, freely give, I freely gave my life to you. I laid it down, I followed the law, I fulfilled the law and I paid the eternal price. Only I was worthy, only I was able to do it, only I was holy enough to to holy at all that I could sacrifice myself and pay the penalty that you needed to pay. And so if you will believe in me and I’m telling you, I paid this price for you that’s by faith I received that. There’s no other way to receive that. There is no other way to receive salvation, but by faith. You either believe Jesus paid the price or you don’t. It’s not by your works. Either believe Jesus paid the price or you don’t. It’s not by your works.
Now Paul will go on in his writings to tell us that that doesn’t mean that I hate the law or that I ignore the law or that I act in opposition to the law. He says by no means do I do that. That would be crazy. But I am not saved by the law. And it is not the, it is not following that law that I score more points or have a better salvation, or that I. It is simply me accepting Jesus and what he did, and I understand, and I’m so grateful because I understand.
I couldn’t have done it. I was a wretch. There was nothing about my life that deserved salvation. That’s why it’s by faith. There is nothing in the works that we do that we can pay enough pittance, nothing. It doesn’t matter how much good I do. It is all about the reconciliation of our relationship with God, the father, and all we are to do, as he is Jesus and the price he paid, and us believing by faith that we have that salvation through Jesus has repaired. He’s the repairer of the breach. We are now reconciled to the father. We now go back as if it was before sin, before sin, which means my job going forward, because I have the spirit of God living in me. I am alive. My spirit is now alive. I am not dead anymore. I am alive and all I have to do is walk in relationship with him and if he asks me to do something or not do something, I obey. I am free from the law. I won’t. I won’t break the law. If I’m following him, I just won’t. I just won’t if I’m following him, I just won’t. I just won’t If I, if I find myself, um, if I examine myself and I see that I am totally living according to the flesh, then I need to, I need we talked about this in the last episode then I need to, um, seriously sit down and figure out am I actually saved?
If all I do is fulfill sin in my life, then have I actually been saved? Have I actually believed on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and received his spirit so that I am washed? Do I still want sin? Am I still hungering for sin? There’s a problem If I’m, if I’m calling myself saved and I want to sin. That’s a problem.
Now, if you feel your flesh pulling on you, then you can know okay, am I feeding my flesh? Am I causing my flesh to grow or am I dying to my flesh? We are to pick up our cross and die daily. So that means I still have to live in this body. I still have a flesh that that is satisfied by earthly things, right? So I, if I’m hungry, then I’m going to want to go eat food, right? Um, I, if I am sleepy in the natural, I’m going to want to sleep and get rest.
So there are natural things that pull on me. There are natural, fleshly, uh, appetites that pull on us, the way that we stay walking after the spirit according to faith, the way that we live by the spirit, the way that we live by faith, is that I take those things. Whatever those appetites are that the flesh might be pressing on me or trying to demand from me, I go and I submit myself again to this, to the word of God, and I submit myself to the work of Christ and I say father, what do you say? And I spend time with him and my spirit man is refreshed and my spirit man grows and I am able, I feed the spirit of God in me so that I die to the flesh and I walk according to the spirit.
Now, don’t get me wrong, folks, this is not easy. What I am saying is not easy, but it is how to walk by the spirit. And I’m not saying that I get it right all the time. I’m not saying we’re all perfect and because we’re not, that’s why we’re so grateful and live by faith, because it is not by my works that I’m saved. So when I have made mistakes and when I have followed after fleshly desires, when I should have been feeding my spirit, I can say thank God for the cross. Thank God, my salvation is secure in Jesus Christ, who has forgiven me. It wasn’t my works that saved me to begin with. I am saved because Jesus paid my penalty. He shed his blood for me. He loved me, he saved me and I live now to please him. Are you hearing me, folks? Are you hearing me?
Okay, let’s go to chapter three, verse five. Does he who supplies the spirit to you, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, do so by works of the law? Is God doing them through you and through the one who gives the spirit and does miracles? Is he doing that according to the law, by works of the law, or by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? The people who were healed from their sickness and disease and those who heard unto salvation did so by faith. They were healed by the faith of the word that they heard. When Jesus said go, your faith has made you whole. They walked away according to faith, healed. They accepted that they were healed by faith and walked in it by faith. Not by the works of the law, but by faith.
Then go down to verse seven. Know, then, that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham, and the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed. Along with Abraham, the man of faith, we are walking in the promise that was given to Abraham, and we have the ability to walk in that promise with the knowledge of the law, to know how to prosper in the world. But then we also now have received salvation by faith for eternity.
So what do I do with the law? Um, this is the way I like to think about it. I think that the law has provided me a way to know how to deal with the community around me, how to treat them and how to walk and speak of God and honor God before men, so that, while I’m on this earth, I am blessed on this earth that I have all the blessing of Deuteronomy five and seven that I read to you, that I, if I live within those boundaries of loving the Lord, my God, with all my heart, my soul, my strength, and loving my neighbor as myself, which all the law is wrapped up in those two things, if I do that and I walk according to that law, then I have blessing on earth. It doesn’t get me to heaven. That blesses me on earth, amongst the people that I live with and amongst the way that I deal with my neighbor. What gets me to heaven is my faith in the one who paid the price that I was supposed to pay, that I was supposed to pay. I didn’t deserve to have heaven and Jesus did it for me anyway, and he did it for you, and it is only by faith in him and in the sacrifice that he made for us that we have everlasting eternal life.
So I don’t despise the law. I don’t kick out the law. So I don’t despise the law. I don’t kick out the law. I don’t remove it from all life. Removing it doesn’t make my faith better. Removing any regard for the law doesn’t save me better, because I’m not saved by the law, I’m saved by faith. But if I remove it altogether, then I run the risk of not knowing how to live a blessed life on this earth with my neighbor. That means I can murder. If there is no law, then it’s fine to lie, murder, steal to, to um, not love God, which will completely affect my ability to be saved and enter into eternal life. I would have other gods before him, I would be unfaithful to my spouse and I would covet what belongs to my neighbor.
I mean, if you think about it, folks, it makes no sense to say that the law is worthless. It has its purpose. It allows me to know and have knowledge of sin. It helps me to know how to live and navigate amongst an earthly community, how to be blessed on this earth. But it is Jesus, and Jesus alone and faith in him alone that brings me salvation and eternal life, faith in him alone that brings me salvation and eternal life. I hope this has brought some clarity to you and given you tools to know how to deal with the struggle of law and faith in Jesus Christ, walking after the spirit and not after the flesh. And I pray that it helps you to have really good conversations with people who maybe have gotten caught up in the mixture Um. And. And I pray that it helps you to have really good conversations with people who maybe, um have gotten caught up in the mixture of this, because this was what what the church in Galatia was dealing with.
Paul was worried about them. They’re being pulled away, they’re being taught a false gospel and we have to stand against a false gospel. We have to be vigilant and on guard not to allow false gospel to come in and to pull us away, to desert our God. Let’s stay vigilant folks. Let’s stay earnestly in the word of God, in relationship with the one who saved us, reconciled to the Father and living after the Spirit, and we will be blessed if we do. Thank you so much for taking time to be with me today. It was my pleasure to spend time with you. If you would like to send me any kind of emails, you can do that at mail at jamielucecom, and then you could also visit my website, jamielucecom. J-a-i-m-e-l-u-c-e. Thanks again for tuning in. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
