An Introduction to the Law and Gospel Distinction | Theocast

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We've said this before, I'll say it again, that the believer's sanctification comes from the same source and rests on the same foundation as our justification, and that is union with Christ by faith.

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So this is why we continue to preach Jesus. You want to see sanctified people in the church? Preach Christ and then guide people with the law.

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Right, confirm them in the faith. Extol as much as possible the grace of Jesus and watch what the

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Lord will do in growing his people. Brightly said, that first use of the law of preaching, we're trying to kill everyone.

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We're trying to crush everyone in terms of our hope and our own merit and our own legal righteousness.

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We preach the law this way so that we can then herald Christ. So this is law and gospel preaching.

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So it's not just that you mow everybody down with the law, like, hey, this is what God requires and you haven't done it.

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Like, ain't nobody done this, not even for five minutes. That's great, but that's not

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Christian preaching. Christian preaching is then, that's true, you haven't done this, but oh, beloved, let me tell you of the one who's done it in your place.

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Let me tell you of the one who has taken all of your law breaking upon himself and he died for it.

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And he made satisfaction for it. And because God is good and just, he doesn't just sweep sin under the rug, but that's not what he's done because he designed it this way that he would crush his son in the place of sinners, right?

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So we preach that, and then we preach Jesus as the law keeper. And it's as though we have been as obedient as he was obedient for us.

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And we receive all of that by faith in Christ. So even with that first use of the law piece, even when the power of the spirit accompanies it, that really is only laying us open,

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John, in order to make us fertile soil for the seed of the gospel to be sown, right? The law gospel distinction is probably one of the most important subjects that we cover here at Theocast.

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It's at the heart of resting. Most people struggle with trusting in the sufficiency of Christ because they put the law back in the gospel, meaning we believe that there's something for us to do in order for God to accept us or for us to be safe and secure.

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We don't look unto the author and finisher of our faith. We look unto us, we, the finisher of our faith.

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Well, we put our faith in a source and a power that's outside of ourselves, and this is an important subject for Theocast.

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We have covered several episodes on this, and so we wanted to take some of the best parts of those episodes and put them into one podcast, one video, so that you can share this resource, so it can be an encouragement to you.

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This also allows Justin and I to get a break throughout the year. He just got hit by the storm there in Asheville, and so we thought this would be a good opportunity to put out an episode to give us some time to allow him to get ready.

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The update of how he is doing is on the community. He's doing well. If you'd like to help support him, you can go to Justin's website, which is covbap .org

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and learn more about him and to support him, but this is a resource we wanted to put together, and if you're new to Theocast, if someone just shared this with you, we're two

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Reformed Baptist pastors. Justin Perdue is the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

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I'm John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. We love this topic. It's set us free.

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It is the power of God to save. It is the law of God to convict. It's important that we keep those separate. We pray that this will be shared and it'll be a blessing to you.

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One of the things that has dramatically helped clarify scripture for me and for Justin and continues to do so is understanding the distinction between the law and the gospel.

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It was one of the wonderful things that was, I would say, rediscovered and clarified during the Reformation and has continued to be so.

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I'm so thankful. There's so many ministries out there today who have put a bullhorn to this distinction and we need to turn the volume up even louder and we need to get more voices in it because the more people talking about it only creates more clarity.

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So today, if this is brand new, the point of this episode is that it is an introduction to the basic understanding.

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If you would have told me years ago when I was in college, John, do you believe in the distinction between the law and the gospel?

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I probably would have understood that to being the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's how

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I probably would have interpreted that or the Mosaic law versus the gospel, but I would have not understood this defining,

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I would say, hermeneutic that we use to make sure that when we're looking at particular passages that we aren't adding gospel back into the law or adding the law back into the gospel, vice versa.

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I was just gonna echo what you said personally and pastorally. I would contend that the distinction between the law and the gospel is as significant for our understanding of the scriptures as about any other doctrinal framework could be.

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Covenant theology is up there as well, but this framework of law and gospel that comes up out of the scripture that we see clearly revealed in the text, and then we go back to the text with this framework, it changes the game in terms of how you understand the

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Bible and how you would understand preaching. And it has changed the game for me personally as a believer, and it has certainly changed the game for me as a preacher of God's word.

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And so I wanna just underscore everything that you said and kind of heartily amen this and reiterate that this is not new and that theologians through history have seen this in the

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Lutheran tradition and in the reformed tradition and have said very good things about this and have made it plain that if one does not rightly understand how to divide law and gospel, one is not a sound theologian.

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That's right. And so this is important, what we're talking about. Amen, and I would echo what you said about covenant theology.

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The covenant theology would be the color to the structure of law gospel, because really we're talking about a covenant of works and a covenant of grace.

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And so if you wanna know after this episode, if you'd like to introduction to covenant theology and seeing that distinction, then you can look in our show notes.

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We have a five -part series that we put together as an introduction to that with a handout and some book recommendations.

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But let's go ahead and jump into it. We'll start with the definition, and then we'll use the Bible to kind of help us, guide us in why this would be so important.

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First of all, the law. The easiest way to understand the law is that it's a command. They are commands to do something.

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So anytime you hear a command, you can understand that that is a law. And I know that this can be hard for people to understand because when we think of law, it's hard because the

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Bible uses the word law in multiple ways, which we're going to get into more in our third episode. So stay tuned for that for a full explanation.

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But for this scenario, when the Bible speaks of the law, whether the

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Old Testament, the five books of the law, the Mosaic law, whatever, we do understand that it is representing a command, something not suggested, but something that is commanded, that one must do.

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And we've learned from Jesus, which we'll talk about here in a moment, that Jesus says, what does the law say to the lawyer?

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Not one of legal, but of the actual one who knows the Mosaic law. What does he say to the lawyer? And the lawyer says, love

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God, love neighbor. And he says, do this and live. And so the completion of the law is this.

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We understand that the law represents righteousness. For those who obey the law, they are demonstrating they are righteous.

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They can be considered righteous. The gospel is the opposite of the law in that there is no commands in the gospel.

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There is no do in the gospel. Sometimes we forget that gospel literally means news.

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That's what it means. It means a declaration of what has been done. So the other way we can say this is a promise fulfilled.

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That's what, so you have a command to be done, a promise fulfilled, or do versus done.

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So the, and here's what is the promise that was fulfilled. The promise was that where Adam failed and now fell into sin, he failed to be righteous and fell into sin.

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The promise is Christ succeeded to be righteous and removed our sin by taking it on for us.

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And there's nothing left to do. He sits at the right hand of the father as our great high priest and mediator.

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And those who by faith in Christ, trust that. The good news is they can be considered righteous and without sin.

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So that's the gospel. And then there's nothing to do this way. If you ever hear someone say, there's the command of the gospel or the imperative of the gospel, there's something for you to do.

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There's a confusion there because their gospel is clearly this, a promise fulfilled.

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It is done. It is news. Sometimes when people say, well, John, there's nothing in the

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Bible where it says the law says do this and live. There's like, there's nowhere it says that. And I said, well, actually

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Christ is the one who helps us with that. Now there's nothing in the old Testament that would give the indication that the law was given like the

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Mosaic law or the ceremonial law was given as a means to earn salvation. We would agree. The law was never given as a means to earn salvation.

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The gospel was preached to Adam and he believed, right? The promise of the Messiah, the seed of Eve, the gospels as we were told,

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Galatians 3 .8, the gospel was preached to Abraham and Abraham was justified. He believed. So the gospel has always been the good news that one can be justified by the promises of God.

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And that promise was always the Messiah, right? No, amen. So, but it's very clear that, and this is where, again,

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I'm gonna go ahead and put in a little bit of covenant theology here because I think it's gonna help on understanding the law. You see, we are, according to Romans and 1

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Corinthians, we are in Adam. And what that means is, is that when Adam failed to obey

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God's law, don't eat of the fruit of the tree, every human being that came from him at that moment was born under that curse.

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We were cursed under that. So in Adam all died. Now, what's interesting is that who is described as the second

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Adam? That would be Jesus. That would be Christ. And the thing that's important here is

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Jesus needed to earn righteousness for us because we could not earn righteous.

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We could not do it ourselves. And the question is, how do we determine whether Jesus is righteous or not?

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How do we know this? And the conclusion we know this is by the law. Did he keep the law?

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Did he keep the law? The prophets literally said that the king who sat on the throne of David would perfectly keep the law.

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Well, we know what that law is. It's the Mosaic law. And so when Jesus comes and perfectly keeps the law,

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Paul says, for us, that became righteousness. It became our life.

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No, that's right. I mean, 1 Kings 9 makes it very clear that as the king goes, so goes the kingdom in terms of Israel, the king would represent the people.

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Like if the king was obedient, the people would be blessed. If the king broke the law, the people would be cut off,

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God says. And then in Jeremiah 23 and 33 and other places, it's very clear that the righteous branch that God will raise up for David is going to not only execute justice and righteousness in the land, but the name by which he will be called is the

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Lord is our righteousness. So clearly he would come and fulfill all of God's requirements in the law.

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And then those that are, excuse me, his fulfillment would be then imputed, given to all of those who are united to him by faith.

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This is why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets, but I have come to fulfill them.

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And he'll use the language of fulfilling all righteousness. And the scriptures uses the language of, by my servant's righteousness says the

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Lord, will the many be accounted righteous. That's Isaiah. And then also Romans 5, where Paul makes it very clear that by the obedience and righteousness of the one man,

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Christ Jesus, the many are accounted righteous. That's right. So obedience to the law, according to the

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Old and New Testament, according to this understanding of the covenant of works, which we'll get into later if you go into our series, the law was designed to one, tell us about the nature of God.

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Like, how did we learn about the nature of God and how we violated his nature at the law, but it also was a way to demonstrate righteousness.

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So this is what I love about it. When the lawyer comes to him in Luke 10 and says to him, you know, what must I do to be holy and acceptable in the kingdom?

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Because that's what it means to enter into the kingdom, one must be righteous. And so what does Jesus say? Well, what was written in the law and how do you read it?

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And of course the man says, love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus quote, Luke 10, 28 says to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live.

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So Jesus understood the conclusion of obeying the law was eternal life.

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Oh yeah. And the conclusion of that lawyer should have been, well, no one can do that. Which is why the man is seeking to justify himself according to the law, which is why

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Jesus even tells the parable of the good Samaritan. So Jesus quotes in Luke 10, 28 to that scribe, that lawyer who asks

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Jesus, what do I need to do in order to inherit eternal life, in order to inherit the kingdom of God? Jesus, again, dead giveaway, right?

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Well, what is in the law? How do you read it? So we're talking about law here and the man answers, you know, love

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God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, you've answered correctly, do this and you will live.

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Jesus is quoting Leviticus 18, five right there that reads this way. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules.

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If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord, is what God said.

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So Jesus quotes that and then of course, this lawyer in Luke 10 seeking to justify himself according to what?

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The law. The law says, well, who's my neighbor, right? So I wanna make sure I'm doing this right.

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And then Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan, which the main point of that parable is ain't none of y 'all done this.

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Nobody has done this, right? And secondarily, we can say, yeah, we should sacrificially love our neighbor, but that's not the main reason

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Jesus tells it. He's trying to crush that lawyer and everybody else in his hearing who thinks that they can keep the law for righteousness.

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You actually, you can't do that, which is just if I can really quickly, I wanna pick up Paul's argument in Galatians chapter three, because he's gonna quote not only

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Leviticus 18, he's gonna quote Deuteronomy 27. This is an important kind of connection,

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I think, for people to see. So in Galatians chapter three, beginning in verse 10, Paul makes it very clear that all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

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Well, why is that? He says, for it's written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

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So again, it's an all or nothing standard. James two, 10 and 11, right? Anybody, if you've broken one bit of God's law, if you've broken any piece of God's law, you've broken the whole thing.

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Because the one who said, you know, do not commit adultery, also said don't commit murder, et cetera, right? So it's all or nothing standard. So Paul says, you know, you're cursed if you've not done everything in the law and you've lived accordingly.

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And he says, now it's evident that no one's justified before God by the law, right? He says, for the righteous shall live by faith.

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And then he says, but the law is not a faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. He quotes

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Leviticus 18, five. The law and the gospel are different things. They're complimentary. And we're going to talk about that in a second, but they're not the same.

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They are distinct from one another. They're different in terms of how they operate. And then he goes on to say how

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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. And he's going to write over in chapter four that Jesus at the right time was born of woman, born under the law in order to redeem those who are under the law.

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That through him, we might receive adoption as sons. The law was always designed to help clarify what is righteousness.

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It is not relative obedience. It's not 75 % obedience. It is 100 % and there's only one person.

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This is why the disciples, after the rich young ruler walks away, they say, well,

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Jesus, if that man cannot earn salvation, who can be saved? And then

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Jesus flat out clarifies. The law with man, it is impossible.

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No human being is able to earn for themselves righteousness by the law because it's not majority, it's complete, it's perfection.

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It's personal, perfect, perpetual obedience. That's right. The law is what God requires. The gospel is what

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God graciously provides and unpack it from there. So what he requires, what he provides, the law's that and the gospel is that.

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Pretty simple. We can unpack it. We can look at Bible verses, but there's my answer. I'm sticking to it.

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Yeah, excellent. Yeah, I think what I do in a class when I teach it is helping people understand really news versus obligation, right?

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So the law is here's an obligation to be met and there's a result that comes from it.

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That's do this. And the gospel isn't a proclamation of what was already done because news is always past tense, right?

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So it's what has happened. So it's done versus do in the simplest. When you read a passage of scripture, are you reading about what was done for you by Christ or are you reading about what you must do?

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And that's the simplest way of thinking about the law is requirement and the gospel is the announcement of what has been done.

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Justin, we wanna hear your answer as well. You guys have covered it all. I don't know that there's a lot to say.

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If I'm gonna maybe get a little bit further down the road, I would say that in Old or New Testament, law is anywhere we read of what

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God requires for righteousness and then anywhere in Old or New Testament where we read of what

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God gives us in his grace that we receive by faith, the works of another, then that's gospel.

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And simple paradigms that are helpful to me, do is law, done is gospel.

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So that's simple. Do, it conveys potential.

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Go ahead. I appreciate the fact that you said in either Testament, right, because so much of this conversation ends up being helping people to undo wrong thinking.

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Correct. So we've been all super simple and clear, but there's so much baggage because, oh, what about the dispensation of law and the dispensation of gospel?

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No, we're not talking about that. What about the fact that the Old Testament is law and the New Testament is gospel?

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No, we're not talking about that. There's so many factors like that. So I love your clarity as far as in either

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Testament because there's grace in both, there's gospel in both, and there's law in both, so hats off.

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Yeah, I think continuing on. And I'll just jump in and give an example of that. I'll give an example of that is when Paul says the gospel was preached to Abraham and he believed.

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Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a great example of in the Old Testament is clearly the gospel. Well, Jesus in John 8 says that Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

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He saw it and was glad. He saw it by faith, right? I mean, amen. I think continuing to give people some simple paradigms that, again, are helpful to me, and maybe this because of how my brain works, not only that do, done distinction, but the law says do this and live,

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Leviticus 18 5. The one who does these things will live by them. The gospel says Jesus has done it.

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Now live in him, right? Or here's one that has gotten me shot at on social media, and you brothers can help clean this up so that I'm not misunderstood.

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No. Wait till we do an episode on mythicism. Oh my

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God. Yeah. It's gonna happen. So the law demands everything and gives nothing.

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The gospel demands nothing and gives everything. And what we mean by that, so the law demands everything and gives nothing.

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Well, it's an exacting standard. It's all or nothing. It's perfect or you're ruined. The gospel demands nothing of us, meaning we don't do anything.

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It gives us everything that we need for forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life. And that gets people really worked up when you start to say things like, the gospel contains nothing in it whatsoever that we are to do.

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It's important that we acknowledge that we're not simply saying gospel, gospel, gospel. When we talk about the law gospel distinction, we're emphasizing, yes, we're emphasizing the gospel, and we would happily say we're gospel -centric or something like that, but we're all for emphasizing the law as well.

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And even in a strong - Using it lawfully, which means strongly. It requires perfect, exact obedience.

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And so we wanna be committed to both and being clear with both. We think that's what the Bible models.

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It's what the Protestant Reformation was about, recovering. And when you blur the two, you ruin both.

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And so if it's, well, the gospel has all of these demands and you have to obey all of these things, you're just blurring the two and you've ruined the gospel because it should come to us freely by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.

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But you also ruined the law, and somehow you've made the law gracious. And it's not gracious.

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Exacting, it's about obeying. And so that's why we like to joke and say, I think probably

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Kim Riddlebarger probably came up with it according to my sources, but I learned it from my court in Gospel.

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Gospel is a bad move. It's a bad look. And it sounds bad because it is bad.

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So law and gospel, don't blur the two, but emphasize the two is how I would wanna say it. I can remember thinking that I was really upholding the law in my understanding of preaching and teaching, but I really wasn't in that I made the law achievable in my preaching and teaching.

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And what it ended up doing is putting an unbearable burden upon me and everyone else that was around who

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I was because I - Imperatives. Yeah, and I thought, man, we need to, the world wants to shy away and they wanna downplay obedience and the

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Bible emphasizes obedience. And so we need to emphasize and preach obedience to the law. And that's really what my preaching and teaching was like, and yeah, gospel, of course.

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And grace, we are saved by grace alone. But what I didn't understand was

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I really saw the gospel as means of removal of sin.

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And it was a half gospel, which is why your book, another plug for Pat's book, Active Obedience of Christ is a part of the gospel, right?

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It's a part of the good news of what Christ accomplished, not only passively receiving our punishment, but also actively earning our righteousness.

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So what ended up helping me was that the law got put back where it belonged, where the fence was no longer climbable.

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I couldn't get over the wall because no one can get that high. And the law, when

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I remember that, when I first understood the concept of the law crushing me, that's when

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I realized, oh, I have to have the gospel. And there's nothing in the gospel for me to do because the gospel relieves the crushing blow of the law.

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That's when Jesus' words, when he says, come to me, all you are heavy laden, I understood what he meant. Like, ah,

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I feel the weight of the law now. And he kept trying to put the weight of the law, like on the rich man, he would put the weight of the law on people and they were like,

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I can carry it. Did you have half a law? You don't have the whole law. I know it sounds blasphemous and awful and it is blasphemous and awful.

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I think Martin Luther was just told by his mentor again and again, he had all this guilt and just love

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God, love God, love God, which is the law according to Jesus. That's to the point where Luther's like -

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The summary of the first table, right? Yeah, Luther got to the point where he said, I don't love God, I hate

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God. I hate him. And yeah, that's terrible. But the reality is all of a sudden now things are starting to click.

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Things are starting to make sense because he really was grasping the fact that he didn't love God appropriately as he must.

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And that's what led him to desperation to then eventually see Christ. So I like the story.

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Just wanted to add it to your journey, John. That's excellent. Yeah. Telling us about your journey. Well, that's what made me fall in love with a lot of Reformation theology and writers was because they would beat you brutally with the law.

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I mean, just pound you and then they're like, are you done? Are you exhausted? Great, because now you're ready for the gospel.

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And the gospel becomes sweet and you learn to live by the gospel and not live by the law.

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And when I make statements like that, people think, you're antinomian. It's like, well, no, there's a difference of I walk by faith in Christ and therefore obey versus I walk by faith in the law because I think obeying the law produces righteousness.

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Right, my faith must be in Christ. And that's why the distinction matters because if you think about it in this way,

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I remember the first time I started understanding the covenant of works. And I remember,

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I wish I knew who the author was. I'd totally give him credit right now. But he was reading Genesis 315, first mention of the gospel.

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And he says, what demands are in this description of God's promise of restoration? And I was like, oh, wow, there's nothing.

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He never tells them anything. He says, this is what I'm doing. And then from my understanding, they just went forward believing that, right?

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There was a declaration of what would be done. And that's so important to understand. They did break the law, don't eat of the fruit.

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They did do that. And then what was gonna restore it? It was the works of Christ, not the work of Adam and Eve.

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Why is it that this law and gospel distinction matters for our souls on a day -over -day, week -over -week basis?

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You know, there's a great quote in the book, the Cajun book, it's brief to the point, it answers that question,

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I think, Justin. He says, troubled consciences cannot ordinarily be quieted unless the doctrine of the gospel is rightly distinguished from that of the law.

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And you know, troubled consciences are a problem, right? They are, yeah.

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For each of us. And so how can we quiet that troubled conscience when we need to know what the law requires?

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And then we're gonna even be more troubled. And then we need to have the balm, if you will, to use the old language of the gospel to soothe us and to give us comfort and joy and assurance.

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And I know it's why each of us preaches every week and we each wanna preach the law, to let people know they should be more troubled than they are, but also to preach the gospel so that they can be more encouraged than they ever otherwise would be.

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We got this email, this is a very common email that we get. This line caught me when I read it. They were just talking about their experience before understanding the law of gospel distinction and resting in Christ.

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They said, there is a constant fear and dread and a struggle with a rebellious heart and unbelief.

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That's where you are. You're in a constant fear and dread because I can't live up to the obligations of the law and I'm being told to.

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That's where I think this conversation is so important. And you're talking about the practical nature of it,

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Justin, is that if you're reading a book, listening to a podcast or listening to preaching and the preacher calls you to obey the law, he needs to call you to obey it in its exacting form so that you don't think it's achievable.

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Fear and dread comes in when you think you can do it. Someone, no, not too long ago, greeted me after the service and it was gospel.

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I mean, I don't know what the text was, but it was super assuring and it was pretty much all gospel once I talked about the law.

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And the person came up to me and they're like, oh, pastor, that was so convicting. And I thought, you must have been checking your texts or your emails or something.

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But I knew enough to know that the person loved Paul Washer and Paul Washer kinds of sermons and they were kind of trained to have that be the best compliment you can give when someone has preached something that robs you of your assurance that it's somehow good.

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And I thought, you didn't hear what I said. You should be saying, pastor, thank you for encouraging me and comforting me.

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Jesus is a wonderful savior. If Christians are gonna have any joy and peace in believing, that's a biblical category, right?

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So that you might have joy and peace in believing. Well, you can't mix the law and the gospel then because as soon as you start to weave works into the fabric of our standing before the

29:31

Lord now or in the future, you've given it all away. Because any sane person is going to assess his or her life and say, yeah,

29:41

I mean, even if there's some fruit, even if there's some evidence, even if there's some love, like I could love a lot more.

29:48

And hey, yeah, maybe I don't engage in things that I used to engage in, but I could sin a lot less.

29:54

And you know that there is no way that what you're abstaining from or what you're doing could ever earn you something before the

30:01

Lord because you know him. He's holy and he's righteous and he's altogether good.

30:08

And so how could this end well for me, right, is the question. And so that conscience, that troubled conscience piece, you're robbed of all joy, you're robbed of all peace, and then doubt and fear and dread are introduced back into the equation.

30:22

And we functionally undo the adoption that the Lord has given us.

30:27

I mean, like this is a Romans 8, 15 thing. We've not been given a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but we've been given a spirit of adoption by whom we call

30:34

God Father. And I think all of those things are jeopardized when the law and the gospel are collapsed.

30:40

Not only do you lose the law and all of its holiness and you can no longer use it lawfully, first use to show us our sin and drive us to Christ, second use to restrain corruption, third use to guide our living in Jesus.

30:51

You can't do that well, but you've given the gospel away because you've now are preaching a gospel of sincere obedience, not a gospel of Christ for you for your forgiveness and your righteousness and your eternal life.

31:05

And that makes all of the difference on a Tuesday morning when I'm tying my shoes, man, getting ready to go do whatever it is

31:12

I'm about to do. If I know in spite of the ups, downs, trials and travails, it doesn't matter if my week is devastatingly bad or if every time

31:20

I pull the lever, it's trip sevens, doesn't matter. It's like, I know that I'm safe and secure. Romans, the letter to the

31:26

Romans. So Romans 2 .13, it's not the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law who will be justified. Paul then mows everybody down in Romans 3 .9

31:35

and following and makes it plain that the law holds everybody accountable and no flesh will ever be justified by works of the law.

31:40

But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

31:47

It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for everyone who believes. So you get that whole piece of how the righteousness that God requires, he gives.

31:57

And it is that very righteousness of the law as Paul makes very plain, tracking through the rest of the book of Romans.

32:02

In particular, you get to Romans 8 .4, where in Jesus Christ, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us.

32:09

Why? Because he kept the law. Then Romans 9 .30 through like 10 .4, you get this

32:15

Israel, this is remarkable that Paul writes these words. He says that Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness.

32:23

Wow, right? But then they didn't succeed in reaching it. Why? Because they pursued it as though that could be achieved by works, right?

32:31

So what was the great error of Israel? It was they sought to establish their own righteousness under the law rather than Romans 10 .3,

32:38

submitting to God's righteousness, right? And then Romans 10 .4, because Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

32:47

So that's where I start. Galatians, Pat, do you want to pile on that? I don't want to quench the spirit.

32:52

Go for it. No, we don't. I don't want to quench it. I'm good. Romans 10, like a broken record, right?

32:58

Just go there again and again and again. Because it's - So Galatians 3,

33:04

John, you mentioned it. Deuteronomy 27 .26, cursed is everyone who does not abide by everything written in the book of the law and do it, right?

33:11

So Paul quotes that. And then he says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, right?

33:17

So we're cursed because we haven't done the law. Christ becomes a curse to die for us. Then Galatians 4, 4 and 5, at the right time,

33:25

God sent his son, born of woman, born what? Under the law. So he might redeem those who are under the law, right?

33:32

Acts 13, Paul in Antioch is preaching. And he says that through Jesus Christ, you can be set free from everything that you could not be set free from by the law of Moses, right?

33:42

So you get this whole thing again, where Jesus is doing something that the law couldn't do. I was just -

33:48

You're getting so revved up. You sound like a quarterback or something, you know, calling an audible. We could do this all day.

33:55

Shouting out Acts 13, Romans chapter 10. Romans 2 .13. I like it.

34:03

Bro, we could do this all day. The point is, we could do this all day. Yeah. We could do this all day. People get confused or nervous or misled sometimes by people who don't like this.

34:13

And they say, well, that's just Mosaic law, you know? And we would say, no.

34:20

Yeah, it's true. Jesus was born under that administration of the law. That's true. He was born as an

34:27

Israelite. All of that's true. But there's always the moral law built in even the

34:33

Mosaic law. As a covenant of works. As a covenant of works. So regardless, trans -testamentally, to make things up, we would say, it's always been true that human beings are required to love their creator appropriately.

34:46

So heart, soul, mind, and strength. Neighbor as yourself. That's old. That's new. So don't be misled by that.

34:53

Dear listeners to Theocast and the Pactum. We acknowledge that it is an administration.

34:59

Yeah. No, amen. I'd like to highlight some confusion that exists kind of broadly, maybe with a law and gospel paradigm, if you guys will permit it.

35:11

And we can edit this out if it's no good. So there was a video released by a theologian relatively well -known.

35:21

There was something he said in the beginning of the video that was not received well. But then later in the video, he said this.

35:27

That if he had an opportunity to speak to a congregation, that he perceived to be effectively nominal.

35:35

Right, like Christian in name only. So false professors, right?

35:41

He would preach on the doctrine of the new birth. And I thought, that's interesting.

35:47

I don't think that's what I would preach at all. I think if I were preaching to a congregation that I understood to be nominal,

35:54

Christian in name only, what would I do? I would preach the law and all of its holiness.

36:00

Like you said, Pat, you absolutely let it rip on the law. It's a revelation of God's character who gave it.

36:06

God never changes, his law never changes. God is perfect and holy, and so is the standard.

36:12

Your personal, perfect, perpetual obedience. Good luck with that. How are you doing? Then having done that, you herald

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Jesus Christ to these people as the law keeper and as the one who died to fulfill the law's curse in the place of anyone who would ever trust in him, right?

36:31

And then hold him out in his triumphant resurrection, vindicated in all of his work, pointing back to that covenant of redemption, how

36:37

God had determined to save a people from before the foundations of the world, and Jesus is the Savior. Trust him.

36:43

That's my message if I'm gonna be preaching to a people that are nominal, but yet we have guys running around, guys who know better, running around saying,

36:52

I'm gonna tell people that they need to be born again. Okay, so just to think out loud together here on this episode.

37:00

So I'd be okay doing the new birth, but in a certain sense, if I say you must be born again, how about this?

37:08

You must be born again. That's what Jesus says. Is that law or gospel? No, amen. That's law, brother.

37:14

That's law, baby. But then what does he do? Yeah. So that's the requirement.

37:19

You must be born again is law. That's right. Yeah, so. No, that's good, dude. So yeah, you must be born again,

37:25

John 3, is law. What is it? It's the requirement. I'm just thinking out loud.

37:31

You notice he doesn't say, here's how to do it. That's right. But it is the requirement.

37:39

But then what does he say at the end of that? He says, just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the

37:45

Son of Man be lifted up. There in John 3. I wouldn't mind preaching John 3. I would do that, but I don't know.

37:52

No, but you're gonna preach the serpent lifted up in the wilderness as Christ on the cross for sinners.

37:57

Amen, absolutely. Amen. Because so often people, what they get, I mean, you guys have said this in various ways, but often what people get when you collapse these categories is you kind of get the law preached as gospel.

38:07

You know, we drum it down and relativize it, do your best in keeping the law, and if you do well enough, then you're gonna be saved in the end.

38:13

Well, that's the law preached as gospel, and it's damning, whereas we often get the gospel preached as law, you know, obey well enough and you'll be saved.

38:21

It's just, it's unhelpful when those categories are collapsed. At GRN and Theocast, we wanna promote three uses of the law because the third use of the law, which is for us, it's a guide.

38:33

It directs us and it points us to the beauty and the glory of Christ for God's glory and the betterment of our neighbor, right?

38:42

It's for your advantage that we utilize that. So when someone says, you guys just emphasize grace, you just emphasize grace, you don't care about the law,

38:51

I think that it's unfair when you have someone who's confessional and reformed and encourages church discipline based upon the third use of the law.

39:00

You know, someone says, there's nowhere in the Bible that says there's three uses of the law. This goes down to Trinity again.

39:06

It's a helpful way. Yeah, it's a word concept fallacy. It's a helpful way to describe how the Bible functions and sections itself, just like there's nowhere in the

39:14

Bible that says Old Testament, New Testament, but we make that division for sake of clarity. I have seen greater growth and maturity in the congregation since the law gospel distinction is in place and say, this is what the law demands.

39:27

This is what Christ has done. Let us rest in Christ. Let us run to Christ. And I have seen greater maturity and greater growth in myself and the body of believers than I ever did preach in law.

39:41

Antinomianism against the law. Heard of it, yes. We've been accused of it before, yes. I'll make some historical comments maybe in a minute.

39:48

There were a number of other brothers, have been a number of other men who have gone before us. Many of you are gonna know their names who have been accused of the same thing.

39:56

John Owen, Thomas Boston, to name two, were accused of antinomianism in their own eras in the ways that they wrote and spoke and were dogged about this, the distinction between the law and the gospel and the ways that we hold

40:09

Jesus out to sinners. It's like you said, in a sense it is ridiculous to fall in human reason in the legal frame that we have.

40:17

It sounds crazy. But to be antinomian, historically speaking, is a couple of things.

40:24

It is to deny the third use of the law, right? To deny that the law has a place in the life of the

40:29

Christian to guide. Chapter 19, paragraph six that you read is absolute gold when it comes to how we think about the law's usefulness and the goodness of the law in the life of the

40:39

Christian. We are no longer under it as a covenant of works to be kept for righteousness or to be condemned by it based on our disobedience.

40:45

That is true. But when it comes to, how do I know what righteousness looks like? I look to the law. How do I know what's good for my neighbor?

40:51

I look to the law. How do I know what's good for me, for my wife, for my children? And we look to the law and we appeal to it unashamedly in all those ways.

40:59

And so whenever you start talking like that, you are in no way in any kind of historical or theological sense an antinomian, right?

41:06

We do say the law no longer exists in any way for righteousness.

41:12

That's true. That's scandalous. I mean, Calvin writes in his Institutes and when it comes to us standing before the judgment seat of God, the law has no place in our conscience.

41:24

I guess Calvin was an antinomian as well, you know, when it comes to these matters. And so the three uses of the law, just really briefly, this is why this is critical to maintain.

41:32

The first use of the law is to show us our sin and drive us to Christ who kept it. The second use is broader. It's civil.

41:38

It restrains human corruption because we're shown what's good and bad, right and wrong. There's curses for breaking it.

41:43

There's blessings for keeping it. Third use of the law in Christ, guides our living and we by the Spirit seek conformity unto it.

41:50

And that is a good and wonderful thing. So that's how we respond to that. But we don't ever collapse the law and the gospel when it comes to righteousness and standing and relationship to God.

42:01

And we make no apologies for that. The helpful way of thinking about it for someone who's struggling with, no, this sounds antinomian.

42:08

So the law are road signs. They're telling you the way, right?

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This is the way you should go. But the roadside can't make you go anywhere. It's just pointing to the direction.

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You have to have a power that actually carries you in the direction that the roadside is pointing.

42:26

And this is where Paul says, he who began a good work in you will complete it, right? As you began by grace, you're going to continue by grace.

42:34

So we emphasize and preach grace, right? Because we know that's the motion.

42:40

That's the motivation. That's what does 1 Peter 1 .9 say. Why are you not following the road signs?

42:45

Is it not that you forgot you've been cleansed, right? It's not because somehow the road signs cause it.

42:52

And that's what's so helpful is that the law is a great arrow pointing, here's where one should go.

42:58

And here's how one gets there, which is in Christ. Well, it's Christ for pardon and Christ for power.

43:04

That's what you're talking about. Pardon from sin, power unto sanctification. So I am an antinomian when it comes to that, right?

43:11

Well, when it comes to justification and standing in righteousness. Well, yeah, the law cannot produce righteousness.

43:16

Exactly. It can't transform, it can only hide. That's right. Yeah, the law is a covenant of works, does not work.

43:21

Right. And so one of the things I think that gets confused, right, is it's a different thing to say that law is good.

43:29

And it's a different thing to say the law is good news for sinners. Those are two totally different things. We say the law is not good news for sinners.

43:37

The law condemns sinners. The law is good. That's why it's bad for sinners. I'm glad there's laws against murder.

43:43

I don't really want people to be free to come murder me. I think that's a good thing. If I am a murderer, is that law good for me now?

43:49

No. No, not because that law is bad, but because I am bad. So good. The law is good.

43:55

Right. The problem is that we are bad. So when we say things like the law is not the good news, that's what we mean.

44:03

It's not good news for sinners. It is good. That's precisely why it's bad news for sinners.

44:09

Yeah, just to quote Charles. He says, collapsing dilutes the good news of both. Like if they're good as apart from each other, and when you combine them together, then they both lose their goodness.

44:20

That's good. And then conversely, once we are united to Christ, the law becomes good for us.

44:28

Once we are justified, even the first use of the law. Right. For Christians, it's good. Repentance is not this thing you do once.

44:35

No. It's not the thing that unites you to Christ. Repentance is the Christian life. It's a life of repentance. It is what comes as the fruit of faith.

44:41

We live a life of repentance. Now, we constantly need to be reminded of our sinfulness and brought back to total dependence on Jesus Christ.

44:50

Amen. And that's where the uses of the law are preached to the believer every week. Absolutely. In the first use, to humble us and to continue to drive us to Christ and to cast ourselves on him.

44:58

Third use, to guide us, right? And Paul's words in Romans 7 are helpful in this too. I mean, when he speaks of how, you know, if given that the law is all these good things that he's already said, and the problem is sin in us, not anything with the law, right?

45:11

He says that like, if I do as a regenerate man, if I do what I don't want, then

45:17

I agree with the law that it is good, right? Because the reason, the unique paradox in the believer's life is that I have a flesh that loves sin and craves it, but I have an inner man, a regenerate part of me that loves

45:30

God's law and delights in it. And I'm grieved when I break it. Right, not because I've merited punishment, but because I love the

45:38

Lord and I want to live in a way that pleases and honors him and is good for my neighbor. And so I'm agreeing with the law and with the

45:45

Lord who gave it that it's good as a Christian. And we should talk like this, right? But we need to be clear on what we mean.

45:52

To hold a law gospel distinction is not antinomian. In fact, it's anti -antinomian. I agree.

45:57

If you have a proper law gospel distinction, you actually have the highest view of God's law that can be because you won't relativize it, right?

46:05

If you're going to blend them, you have to relativize it. You have to move the target. You have to make it at least theoretically attainable if you're going to hold it out as good news.

46:13

But if you refuse to do that, if you say, no, the law is not the good news, the good news is only Christ, then you can keep the law of God as the perfect standard that flows out of the very character and nature of God himself, and you can uphold that because the law is not the good news.

46:29

The good news is Christ. So it's actually law gospel distinctions, anti -antinomian. Agree.

46:34

Do we overthrow the law by this faith, right? By no means. We uphold the law. What's he talking about?

46:40

He's not talking about our spirit -wrought obedience. He is talking about the fact that Christ died to endure the law's penalty, and he lived to fulfill its requirements.

46:49

And what greater commendation of the law could there ever be than that God the Son, when he became a human being, put himself under it, lived and kept it, and died to fulfill its curse?

46:59

Like, do we overthrow the law? Are you kidding? No, we uphold and honor the law very much. Look at what

47:04

Christ did. So yeah, I agree with you. To maintain this distinction, as the apostles did, is to be an anti -antinomian.

47:12

Where do we point to God's love dwelling up inside of us? John doesn't point to the law.

47:18

The law produced love in you. It says, no, we love because he first loved us, which is gospel, right? And it's important that it is the natural bent of every sinner who has grace in them to clamor for the law, because, just as your beautiful illustration of we don't like to come with empty hands, it's embarrassing.

47:41

It's embarrassing to admit you're a sinner, but that's what the law demands. And for those who get closer to the law and allow its light to shine on your filthiness,

47:51

Christ and the gospel becomes brighter. And what's happening in a lot of these law gospel collapsing of churches, is that people want to come and have their egos stroked and be told they're doing well, and here's how to get better.

48:06

And we're standing up and knocking people out of the kneecaps. And it's like, I don't like that at all, you know?

48:12

But it's like, yeah, but you need Jesus. And this is the only way to get you there. We live in an age because we're so anxious about nominalism.

48:19

And because we have seen the bad fruit of revivalism, like easy believism and all these things, and walking aisles and praying prayers and mass baptisms and the whole thing, we're so anxious about the fruit of all that.

48:31

We see the problem that's a legitimate problem. And so now what we often do is we make the gospel sound hard.

48:38

We think that's the antidote, right? We introduce the demands of the gospel. It's hard to believe.

48:45

Well, yeah, you're exactly right. It's hard to believe. It's impossible to believe it actually, because God must give us his faith, but the gospel is free, right?

48:53

It is, it's that Isaiah 55 and that Matthew 11 reality. So maybe we never do that. We don't live the gospel, we don't do the gospel.

49:01

There are no demands of the gospel other than if there is one, believe it, receive it. So can I throw a wrench in your illustration?

49:08

Because I know your answer, but I think everyone here is maybe thinking, yeah, but Paul and the confession says obey the gospel.

49:15

I'm asking you. Yeah, great. I'm so glad that you said that. Romans 1 .5, Romans 16 .26,

49:22

right? Romans 10, 16, 17. These are the verses that we're appealing to. Paul will use the language in Romans 1 and Romans 16, the obedience of faith.

49:32

I think that's the dead giveaway, what he's talking about. And then when he says in Romans 10, 16, 17, not everyone has obeyed the gospel.

49:40

What does it mean to obey the gospel? Very simple answer. Believe in Jesus. That's it.

49:46

The obedience of faith, faith in Christ. So I think that's how I would answer that question.

49:52

And that's where they'll take a portion of scripture and twist it and say, no, but there are demands in the gospel and there aren't.

50:00

And it's important because sometimes people will hear what you say and they think that you're just being overdramatic. No. Which you can be.

50:07

I've known you long enough. Hyperbolic, right? Well, but you know - But in this area, you're not. But this is where we say things like this too.

50:13

There are all kinds of implications that flow from the gospel. You better believe there are.

50:19

Because of the gospel, because of our union with Christ, everything changes, right?

50:25

Amen to all that. But the implications of the gospel are not the gospel. Yeah, so the gospel is news, right?

50:33

It is good news. It is good news. It comes from this idea of these heralds who would go out and proclaim the king, the

50:41

Caesar's victory. He would declare the glory of Caesar because he conquers his enemies.

50:47

That's what the gospel is. We are heralding the victory of King Jesus, right?

50:52

There is no command in there. It is the declaration of the victory of Jesus Christ.

50:59

Now, if Jesus Christ is victorious, if he has conquered sin and death and done that on behalf of his people, does that mean stuff for me?

51:06

Absolutely it does. There's not disconnection. Is there a response that you should have? Is there a response to that? Absolutely there is.

51:12

That's the differentiation between implications and what the gospel is. You don't help the gospel by blending those two things together, right?

51:20

You introduce yourself into Jesus' victory and that's not what we wanna do. The gospel is Jesus' victory.

51:26

Jesus does the gospel. Nobody else has ever lived the gospel. Jesus does. We think that if we make

51:34

Christianity harder, then we're gonna weed out the weak and the fakers. And the weak not like sincere weak, but we're just gonna weed out the people that don't belong.

51:45

And go ahead. It makes pastoring easier. And go ahead. Hear me out.

51:51

Because if I can put a whole bunch of burdens on people and I can give them a standard and because grace is sloppy.

52:02

Grace is messy. Let me hear what you're saying though. Oh, sorry. I'd never use one of these obviously.

52:08

Grace is sloppy. It's just, if I can put a bunch of rules and I can kind of ground it somewhere in scripture and then

52:16

I can put burdens on people, I can place guilt on them and I can make them tell the line that my calendar stays less full.

52:23

And I feel like I've accomplished more because I've got people goose stepping.

52:29

Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, and I wanna be clear. I'm not impugning anybody's motivations. I trust that the motivations are good.

52:36

People look around, guys look around and they see real problems. Yeah. Maybe it's subconscious. This is bad.

52:42

There's bad fruit everywhere and there are a lot of false professors in the church, right, so to speak.

52:48

And so then it's like, all right, what do we do? And I think devoid of some of these historical categories and given our natural frame to weave the works back in, we take this kind of green beret approach to Christianity.

53:00

Only the strong survive, right? And only the serious among us are the ones who really are legitimate. And so let's turn the temperature up on the law to test who's legitimate and who's not.

53:09

Right, it's hunting goats and tares instead of worrying about wolves. And it's like, well, we need to try to tear the weeds out amongst the wheat.

53:16

Jesus said, don't do that, actually, because you're gonna rip the wheat up with it. I mean, in the parable, that's what he says.

53:22

And so I think a lot of times we try to over -purify. And I mean, we're talking about, we're Baptists here. I mean, we're talking about regenerate church membership, but we don't wanna be

53:31

Donatists and try to over -purify the church. The law of God is sometimes referred to, the law that we're talking about right now is sometimes referred to as the moral law or the law of creation is written into humanity.

53:43

It's written into the world that God makes from the very beginning, and then is summarized and given to Moses on two tablets of stone, otherwise known as the 10

53:50

Commandments. So when we're saying the law right now, we're talking about the moral law of God, just to be very clear.

53:56

What man has done throughout history, it's very obvious. The biblical record bears this out. We have turned that moral law of God into something that we can keep in order to be saved.

54:07

We have diluted ourselves into thinking that we can do it. Now, God in his word does say things like, do these things and you will live,

54:15

Leviticus chapter 18 and verse five. Cursed is everyone who does not do everything that is written in the book of the law,

54:20

Deuteronomy 27, 26, right? Like these things are real from the Lord. The problem is that man has taken those verses so literally on the surface of them to think that we can actually keep

54:33

God's law well enough to merit eternal life. There was one opportunity for man to obey and merit eternal life that occurred in the garden of Eden when

54:41

God made a covenant with our first father, Adam. And Adam failed to keep that covenant and was therefore cursed and was driven out of the garden by the

54:49

Lord himself away from the presence of the tree of life because he would no longer be able to earn eternal life.

54:56

And so now as we fast forward through the history of humanity, the history of the world, the history of redemption, a man named

55:02

Jesus of Nazareth shows up on the scene and preaches a sermon on the side of a hill that's pretty famous. It's called the Sermon on the

55:08

Mount. And what he does in that sermon amongst other things is to teach people as the

55:14

Lord himself, like he's the Lord in the flesh. He's gonna teach people how they are to understand and apply the moral law of God.

55:21

And he crushes everyone in that sermon. He makes it quite plain that no human being is able to do this.

55:28

And right now you may be listening to me and you're thinking, bro, you ain't said a good thing yet. Like everything you're saying so far sounds condemning and it's not hope -filled.

55:38

It's crushing my soul and I'm here with you. And here comes the good news. Jesus of Nazareth, God the

55:45

Son incarnate, came and placed himself willingly under that same law.

55:50

Galatians 4, 4 and 5, right? At the right time, Christ was born of woman, born under the law in order to redeem those who are under the law.

55:59

Well, how did he do that? He came and he placed himself under that law and he died under that law.

56:05

He paid the penalty that a lawbreaker deserves. Though he had never broken the law and did not deserve to die, he died as the representative of all who would ever trust in him.

56:15

He died as the representative of all of his people from all time. And when he did that, because he is

56:20

God and therefore infinite, he is able to atone for all of the law -breaking of everyone who he represents.

56:28

So that's huge. The penalty of the law has been fulfilled. The justice of God in the law has been fulfilled in full by Christ for his people's sake.

56:38

So we are free from the condemnation of the law. Huge. Second thing that he did, he fulfilled all righteousness.

56:46

He kept the law perfectly his entire life. He did and kept his father's every word.

56:53

The law he followed perfectly. So all God's pleasure he secured for us.

56:59

All this and more he earned for me, right? And as a song we sing in our church goes, because his righteous life is mine and all his merits now

57:07

I own, I am a child of God on high. I am adopted, loved and known. So Christ has secured all of that for us through his own righteous life that is counted to us by faith.

57:17

So in a nutshell, law and gospel in its most primary sense, the law in its first use is to show us our sin and drive us to Christ because Christ willingly subjected himself and put himself under the law to die under it for us, to fulfill its penalty and to live under it for us to fulfill its requirements.

57:37

And he's done both. And so what that means, John, is that we're free from the condemnation of the law and all of the requirements of the law have been met in Christ for us.

57:46

So everything that he did, it's as though we did it. It's as though we've already died, penalty paid.

57:52

It's as though we lived a perfect life, righteousness earned. Though we've not done any of it, he did it for us.

57:58

And that's the gospel. I just preached James chapter two. And it's that famous verse that Justin and I quote all the time, you know, whoever keeps the whole law, but yet fails in one point, he has become guilty of it all.

58:11

That's James is summarizing the intentions of the first use of the law. You know, what's interesting of why

58:17

James says that, most people don't know why he says that. It's just kind of versus quoted often.

58:22

And I would even say out of context, James is dealing with an issue within the churches where they're showing partiality.

58:29

And the reason they're showing partiality is because of their own, they are justifying their sin.

58:34

They don't see what they're doing as being hurtful and not only that ungodly. So James comes in and goes, you don't understand.

58:42

Like you have missed the whole point of the gospel. The law comes in and shows you that you have absolutely violated it.

58:52

And you're violating it now by showing partiality. And you need the mercy of God. Because the next thing he says later down is he says, so speak and so act as those who are judged under the law of liberty, which means those who have been set free from the law.

59:07

Another way of saying this is, you need to show mercy because you've received mercy.

59:13

That's what the first use of the law is for. You should never look at the law and think to yourself, oh man,

59:20

I failed God, I need to try harder. You've missed it. You're supposed to look at the law and say, man,

59:27

I have failed God. What am I going to do? Where am I going to look now? And this is as Justin said, if you rightly feel the crushing power of the law, you should be ground into powder, blown away saying,

59:41

I have no strength. Then you turn and say, what news, what do I have?

59:46

And there is what's called good news, right? Of that which has been done. So what's helpful when we think about law of gospel and sanctification,

59:56

Justin, these two things, the law first use often is lowered.

01:00:01

We ignore what James says. It's like, yeah, we relativize it. It's like, yeah, well, you know, I haven't done, as he says, he's going to mention, he's going to really quote

01:00:11

Jesus. He's going to mention murder and then he's going to mention adultery. And so we'll say, well, I haven't done those things.

01:00:16

Obviously I haven't broken those laws. So then we created what's called the acceptable sins clause, right?

01:00:22

Where we can be vicious with our words and our actions and ungracious and not show mercy.

01:00:28

And yet we still consider ourselves to be acceptable in the eyes of God, because I haven't done a comparative sin, which is the big ones.

01:00:36

A person would read, you know, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery, et cetera. And then would just take those words at their value and say, well,

01:00:44

I haven't killed someone. I'm doing well. I haven't had sexual relations with someone who isn't my spouse.

01:00:52

I'm doing well. And Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, takes those two commandments and says, you've heard it said this, but I'm saying to you, here's how you need to understand that.

01:01:04

If you've been angry with somebody, you've broken the sixth commandment about murder. If you have lusted after someone who's not your spouse, then you have broken the seventh commandment about adultery.

01:01:15

And so a lesson we can learn from that is that there are spiritual meanings and applications to things that are not on the surface of the text.

01:01:25

You know, in a commandment, for example, there's a way that we should rightly unpack and exegete to use a technical term,

01:01:32

God's law. And people have often not done that, John. We codify everything and we put it in these human terms that are achievable.

01:01:40

And we delude ourselves into thinking that we're doing a lot better than we're doing. That's right. So going back to this law and gospel, the only thing that can set you free,

01:01:53

I'll say the statement now and we can unpack it, but the only thing that can set you free and motivate you is the gospel.

01:02:02

Now, before we go into this, I want to go back and tie what James says. If you fail in one point of the law, you fail in all of them and go back to the covenant of works.

01:02:11

This is why Justin and I would say covenant theology is the most Christocentric, freeing, so helpful in glorifying

01:02:20

God and singing praises to his work and deemphasizing the work of man.

01:02:27

When we start looking at scripture and you compare what the flow of scripture is, you learn right away that no one can keep the law.

01:02:37

One of my favorite, and Justin, I think would agree, one of my favorite parts of covenant theology is the covenant that's made with David, the

01:02:43

Davidic covenant. And in that covenant, the psalmist says it this way, that there is a promise that's been given.

01:02:52

And in that promise, that the son of David that sits on the throne and perfectly obeys my law will earn for everyone eternal, not only righteousness, but entrance into the kingdom.

01:03:07

So you have to understand when Jesus comes and he perfectly obeys the law and you have people who are standing up to him saying, well, yeah, no,

01:03:15

I'm obeying the law. And he's like, no, you don't understand. You're not even close to me. Like you should be grabbing onto my feet as the prostitute did.

01:03:24

You should be clinging onto me for dear life because your righteousness cannot match my righteousness because one sign of guilty is a sign of guilty altogether.

01:03:35

And this is why James comes in and says, we live as people under mercy. And so we have to show mercy.

01:03:42

Every day we live as people under mercy. This is why I love when Hebrews says that we can boldly run into the throne room of God and ask for what in a time of need, mercy and grace, because not before salvation, we need mercy, but after our regeneration and after our adoption, we still need mercy.

01:04:02

That's a big thing, John, that so many people seem to struggle to understand. It's like I needed a lot of grace and mercy on the front end and now

01:04:08

I'm just gonna handle this. Well, and that's why 1 John, this is why people confuse 1

01:04:13

John. You know, I said this on Sunday, Justin, we have presuppositions when it comes to scripture.

01:04:19

We can easily lay them down on top of the Bible. And I've seen people do this. This is why it's so dangerous when someone gives me one verse and they say, give me, you know, what does this mean?

01:04:27

I have this natural bent to wanna apply it the way I wanna apply it, which I would stop them. I'm like, hey, we gotta look at the context.

01:04:33

Why did they say that? There's a reason why they said that. But some of these presupposition is that like when somebody reads

01:04:38

James or 1 John, they can immediately apply it as, well, these are books about what, like you need to be proving your salvation, right?

01:04:46

You need to be proving that you truly are a legitimate Christian. Or if you go prosperity gospel, it's like when

01:04:53

John says, or James says in James 2 .8, if you are really obeying the commandments of love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well, they can apply that as a transactional relationship.

01:05:05

Like God will bless me if - You're in the Lord's favor. That's right, if I'm doing an obedience.

01:05:11

James isn't using it like that at all. And neither is John. James and 1 John both use it in this way.

01:05:17

Look to the law, first use. You are not even remotely close because you can't do it perfectly.

01:05:24

Now look to the cross. What did you receive? Mercy. Now look to your brother, give him mercy.

01:05:31

It's always in that order. But Justin, what we tend to do is we kind of somehow loop it back up to the law and say, okay, law failed, mercy.

01:05:41

Now I need to go back to prove that I'm... No, like it ends at the cross.

01:05:46

And so this is kind of where I think we should, if you're ready to go into this idea of law, gospel, then sanctification.

01:05:53

You know, Paul says the law is a schoolmaster. And I just think of old school Americans when teachers would walk around with twitches or long rulers and you were doing what you...

01:06:03

Smack hands. Smack your hand. Bloody knocks. Right, and that's the point of it. It's like, you should look at the law as a sinner and the law is not good.

01:06:12

Law is bad. It just smacks you around. And it says over and over, guilty, guilty, guilty, right?

01:06:20

But when you're set free from it and you can look back as one who is not being judged by the law, you can look at it as one who's been justified and cleansed and set free.

01:06:31

And James uses this phrase, the law of liberty, which means you've been set free.

01:06:37

It's amazing. The law becomes something that is beautiful and glorious because it's no longer barking condemnation upon you because you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

01:06:48

You don't hate the law. You love the law. It's a complete switch. I'm gonna say this, Justin, and it might be confusing and you can correct me, but I think the actual most antinomian thing you can say is that the law is achievable because what you're doing is lowering the law.

01:07:04

That's actually anti -law. You always want the law to be unachievable. You want it to be that thing that smacks you around and says, you are a 100 % guilty failure and you'll never be able to live up to the expectations and requirements of the law.

01:07:20

That's what makes the gospel so amazing. The reform through history have referred to people as antinomian who denied the passive and active obedience of Christ in the place of the

01:07:35

Christian because what they've said, you are against God's law because you were against the purpose for which

01:07:41

God gave it. I mean, isn't that astonishing, John? We get shot at, Thomas Boston got shot at, people through history have gotten shot at as antinomian people who preach the gospel, right?

01:07:54

When in reality, the antinomian is the person that's denying the passive and active obedience of Christ and fulfilling the penalty and requirement of the law.

01:08:01

That's right. And you're an antinomian if you think you can do it to your point. If you're an Arminian, semi -Pelagian, fill in the blank, like you think

01:08:08

I can keep the law, you're the one who's denying the law. When in reality, the person who is upholding the law is the person preaching

01:08:17

Christ as the fulfillment of the law in every way, and then is talking about sanctification, the law as God, but not as threat.

01:08:26

The ultimate end and goal of the law and the gospel while on this earth, because you have to understand the supreme goal is our sanctification, right?

01:08:37

Those whom he, I'm sorry, our glorification, those whom he justified, sanctified, and then glorified. So the ultimate goal is glorification, to live with God and Jesus Christ forever.

01:08:47

But in the meantime, there's a remaining work to be done, and that work is not only the advancement of the gospel, but he uses the means of sanctification as the way in which he advances the gospel.

01:08:59

And this is where the confusion becomes is that somehow sanctification becomes the confirmation of one's salvation.

01:09:08

Sanctification is not the confirmation of one's salvation. That's when things become threatening.

01:09:14

Man, I can't tell you how many sermons are being posted inside the Facebook group that are sent to me, and you will hear someone who should be preaching joy and hope, and they sound threatening, and they sound, the tone is always one of a judgmental framework as if,

01:09:32

Justin, they were preaching the first use of the law trying to condemn people, which I preach first use of the law and so do you every

01:09:40

Sunday, right? We come, we confess our sins, we receive mercy from God, it is necessary.

01:09:46

But there's a difference between preaching the first use of the law under condemnation and what we're gonna talk about now, which is the third use of the law and sanctification, completely different.

01:09:55

To the Christian, third use of the law, we preach the law as guide, but we don't ever do that in a way that's threatening, edgy and harsh.

01:10:03

We do that in the way that I think we're about to have this conversation, that look to Christ, consider what

01:10:10

God has done for us in Jesus. We're free now. We believe the law of God is good.

01:10:17

Now, let us encourage one another and stir one another up toward love and good works and conformity to the law by the

01:10:23

Spirit. That's what we get to do in the church. So it's very much a, hey, guys, hey, friends, let's do this because it's so good.

01:10:33

How good is the Lord to us? And he's told us this is good for our lives, let's pursue that. And this is obviously honoring to the

01:10:41

Lord and good for us, let's do this. And this thing over here is wicked and it's gonna destroy other people, so let's not go there.

01:10:50

That's how we should talk. And so we're motivated by Christ. We're motivated by love and joy and gratitude.

01:10:56

We're not motivated by fear and dread. So this is where sanctification historically and confessionally becomes very important.

01:11:03

Sanctification is absolutely needed for the unity of the body of Christ and the advancement of the gospel.

01:11:11

So the more that we trust in, and even clarifying what sanctification is, the Reformed have always had a monergistic, that means one working, view of sanctification versus other forms of theology that seem to all summarize in being synergistic, dualistic, two working, you and God working together.

01:11:31

Now, we believe that God uses the Spirit by the use of means within the ordinary means of the church to draw us closer into a deeper faith.

01:11:40

That's what sanctification is, is a greater strengthening of our faith in Christ.

01:11:45

And from faith comes obedience. I think it's very interesting that Paul does not say, obey the law as evidence of your salvation.

01:11:55

He actually says things like this, walk by faith, right? If you've been regenerate, walk by faith or walk by the

01:12:03

Spirit. Why would he say that? Because we are no longer underneath the condemnation of the first law, use of the law.

01:12:09

We're not being judged by it. We've been set free. So we walk every day looking to that and using that as our motivation.

01:12:19

I quoted this beforehand to Justin in James chapters two.

01:12:25

He says this in starting off the soul section rebuking them on this showing partiality.

01:12:30

He says, if you really fulfill the royal law, that means the ultimate final law, love God, love neighbor.

01:12:36

According to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. I love this.

01:12:43

It's the same thing that you and I quote all the time. First Peter two, no, second

01:12:48

Peter one, when he says you are ineffective and unfruitful, which means our obedience is an effective way of bringing encouragement and strengthening.

01:13:01

But Justin, in James chapter two and in first or second

01:13:06

Peter one, both of those are motivations of mercy and the gospel.

01:13:12

James says it this way. He says, let me just read it to you here. Verse 12, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty, meaning that there is no judgment.

01:13:23

There is only mercy. You've been set free from it. So your words and your actions are that of one who lives according to the mercy received.

01:13:33

Same thing in second Peter one, nine. He says, if you are not increasing and showing these first, or sorry, the third use of the law, the love of God and love of neighbor.

01:13:43

He says, you've forgotten that you have been cleansed from your former sins. James and Peter are using mercy.

01:13:50

Let me use one more. This is Philippians. I'll turn this over after you, Justin. This is

01:13:55

Philippians chapter two. He says this in verse three, do nothing for selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

01:14:04

Why? Well, otherwise, if you don't, you're going to be proved that you're not a Christian. He doesn't use a fear tactic here.

01:14:10

No, he doesn't use dread. He uses delight. Let each one of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.

01:14:17

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, what's the motivation? Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

01:14:26

But he goes down to talk about all the way to verse eight and being found in human form. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

01:14:35

He's saying all of us have that same mind. We're considering each other more significant.

01:14:41

We're loving each other. And why? Because our minds are unified in what? The mercy we received in the cross, the gospel.

01:14:51

Romans 13, eight to 10. Oh, no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

01:14:58

So this is third use of the law as well. Because Paul's been super clear in Romans already what Jesus has done.

01:15:03

And now he's talking to people at a horizontal level. Like how are you to act with one another? So love each other. And if you love each other, you fulfill the law.

01:15:10

Verse nine, for the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal.

01:15:15

You shall not covet. And any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

01:15:22

Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

01:15:28

That's really good. Like, so this is what we've strived to do and how we strive to live with one another. And we're keeping the law.

01:15:34

We're living in conformity to the law of God when we love our neighbor. And we could do a whole episode, and I don't want to get off on this tangent right now,

01:15:41

John, because I know you and I agree on this. It's very interesting that people that often beat the drum of obedience have created all of these good works that aren't even in the scriptures that we need to do.

01:15:51

And then this piece of love neighbor is just kind of assumed at best, if not neglected altogether.

01:15:57

So another podcast for another day. Romans 15, five and following.

01:16:03

God is called a couple of things. He's called the God of endurance and the

01:16:09

God of encouragement. What wonderful words those are. Because I don't know about you, but like when I'm feeling low and when

01:16:15

I'm really struggling and feeling flat and gray or whatever, I have no hope within myself whatsoever that I'm gonna be encouraged in my spirit.

01:16:24

And I have no hope whatsoever that I'm gonna endure because I'm like, I don't even feel like a Christian right now.

01:16:30

And so it's a tremendous comfort to the saints and always has been that, picking up on what you said earlier, that God is the one who sanctifies his people.

01:16:40

And he is the one who is faithful utterly, even when we are faithless. Like he will not deny himself and he will accomplish the work that he has set out to do in us.

01:16:49

And this does not, in the lives and hearts and minds of the saints, does not produce apathy and a lack of concern for obedience.

01:16:57

It comforts us in our pursuit of it. And so I'm comforted to know that God is utterly faithful, that he will complete the good work that he has begun in me, that 1

01:17:10

Thessalonians 5, that was Philippians 1, 6, 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24, that may we be sanctified completely and that the one who has called us is faithful, he will surely do it.

01:17:24

God is the one who is faithful always. And God is the one who ultimately does the work of sanctification in and through us by his spirit through the means that he's given.

01:17:34

And that doesn't mean that we don't participate. Of course we do. We apply means, we pray, we strive, we do all of that stuff by virtue of the fact that we've been given life from God and by virtue of the fact that we've been united to Christ by faith.

01:17:49

The motivation to keep trying as we fail. I know I fail as a father, as a husband, as a pastor, as a neighbor, all of the time.

01:17:57

Every Sunday I look forward to the moment where we confess our sins together to receive mercy together, right? James 5, confess your sins to one another.

01:18:04

Tonight, men's Bible study, we're gonna gather together, encourage one another, confess our sins to one another. It creates equality because there is no one to whom

01:18:12

God shows favor upon based upon their own works. Our favor comes because of Christ. This is a great section of scripture that I put out on social media the other day.

01:18:21

This is 1 John 4, 17. He says this, by this love perfected with us so that we may have confidence.

01:18:28

Let's listen to that words. James says confidence, right? Not fear, not dread, not wondering, not weary.

01:18:35

Confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world.

01:18:41

There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear for fear has to do with punishment.

01:18:48

And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Then he says this, we love because he first loved us.

01:18:55

He's like, don't be afraid, you're in love. You have the love of the father. There's no judgment coming onto you.

01:19:01

And then, then he says, now go love somebody because you have no fear, you have no dread, you have no worry, imperfectly go love people.

01:19:10

That is how sanctification should be observed. If you're struggling in your loving of neighbor in obedience to Christ in those ways, you don't double down and try harder.

01:19:21

You look longer and harder to what's been done for you in the law through.

01:19:29

So you start with the law and say, yep, I failed. I failed you again, father. I need mercy. What does he say? In the time of need, run and ask for mercy and grace and it will 100 % of the time be granted to you.

01:19:40

We always are motivated by the mercy and grace of the gospel, never fear and dread.

01:19:46

Pull the clutter off the law here. Let's let the law be what it's for and let's let the gospel be what it's for. So talk to us about what do you mean there is no law, sorry, there's no power in the law, go.

01:19:57

Nobody ever accused Paul of being a legalist. He was always accused effectively of being against Moses, right?

01:20:05

And Jesus as well, I mean, accused of similar things. The title again, there is no power in the law.

01:20:11

There's power in the blood, amen? And there is power in the gospel that is the, it is the power of God.

01:20:17

The gospel is the message of Christ is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

01:20:23

The law is good. So don't misunderstand us. The law is good. The law is holy. The law of God is wise.

01:20:30

Amen. It is righteous. All of those things. And the law in and of itself does not have power to save anyone.

01:20:41

And the law in and of itself does not have power to sanctify anyone. Both of those are important.

01:20:47

I'll just go ahead and say it right now. When it comes to salvation, the law can not save, it can only kill.

01:20:54

And when it comes to sanctification, the transformation of a Christian's life, the law cannot change or transform.

01:21:01

It can only guide. That's right. Because there's a lot of preaching in churches across this land and across this world that are basically just, the preaching is law.

01:21:12

As though the law can do something. And as though the law alone is what we need.

01:21:18

And this is the instinct of many people, whether it's the church needs to preach law so that people will live better, just unashamedly.

01:21:27

We're just about better living. We're about making better people who are more morally upright. Or even if it's a church where the gospel is wonderful and the gospel is preached, but the instinct is something like, okay, yeah, we get the gospel, but now let's move on to the more important matters of the

01:21:44

Christian life. Tell me what to do. What we are contending for is the preaching of law and gospel.

01:21:50

And even though the law is holy, good, righteous, wise, we're saying it has no power to save, no power to sanctify.

01:21:56

When the law is preached the right way with the gospel, when the law and the gospel are rightly divided, wonderful things happen.

01:22:05

And the law and the gospel are not contradictory, but they are complimentary in God's economy of salvation.

01:22:10

And I hope that this podcast today, I know you do too, will make that even more clear. What powers us is not the instructions.

01:22:18

It's that which we are being carried in. We're being carried by Christ. But as we are being moved by Christ, our flesh still wants to get in the way.

01:22:27

And the law is what guides and protects us and keeps us from not going off the rails. And when you understand this illustration, we love the law.

01:22:36

The law is extremely helpful, but it is not the power that actually does anything.

01:22:42

That is always done by Christ. And so I think when you say that phrase that you used, it's really important because what we're actually trying to do is elevate the law and make its value really helpful, but not put our trust in the law as far as the means by which we are going to obey.

01:23:00

Well, and to even piggyback on 1 Timothy 1 .8, that the law is good provided it's used lawfully.

01:23:06

When the law is used unlawfully, when you try to make the law do something that it cannot do, it actually becomes harmful and detrimental, which is why there's so much ink spilled in the

01:23:15

New Testament on the fact that we cannot be justified by works of the law, right? Paul throws such sharp elbows on that as do the other apostles, as does

01:23:24

Jesus. I mean, even in the ways that he handles the law and the gospel, which we've talked about at a number of other points. Yeah, can

01:23:30

I use one more verse there? Sure. Hebrews 7 .19, for the law made nothing perfect, but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to Christ.

01:23:39

So what's the whole book of Hebrews about? Christ, right? Yeah, Christ is better. He's greater. The first and greatest use of the law.

01:23:45

So like a Romans 3, Romans 5, Romans 7, Galatians 3 reality is to show us our sin and drive us to Christ.

01:23:51

It's that kind of theological use. It's the mirror, you know, where we assess ourselves in light of the law and we're crushed in our sin and driven to Christ who kept it for us.

01:24:02

As we would define the second use, that's the more broad civil use. It curbs human corruption. And then the third use is to guide our living in Christ.

01:24:12

And so that's for the believer. It's not condemnatory. It's not threatening as it pertains to our standing, but it tells us like, what's good for us?

01:24:21

What's good for our neighbor? What does righteousness look like? And what are things that we should run from because it's gonna ruin us?

01:24:27

Those kinds of things. We're guided by the law, right? Because we don't have wisdom in and of ourselves. So in the early verses of Romans 7,

01:24:34

Paul makes it plain that we have to be, we used to belong to the law. And now as believers, we actually have died to the law in Christ, right?

01:24:43

So we've been united to Jesus in his death. His death counts as our death. And so the death that lawbreakers deserve,

01:24:51

Jesus died it, and in him, we did too. And so, because a death has occurred, we no longer belong to the law.

01:24:58

And we needed to be set free from the law. We now belong to Jesus. And this is how we're actually able to serve

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God. And Paul says in like verses 4, 5, 6 of Romans 7, that before, when we were unregenerate, before we'd been united to Christ, the law only served to exacerbate our passions.

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So this is important. So even when we preach the law and try to apply it to the heart, like Jesus does in Matthew 5, and there are other places in scripture, but that's maybe the most epic one, where he says, you've heard it said that you shouldn't murder.

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And then he makes it plain that if you've been angry, you're a lawbreaker and liable to the hell of fire. And you've heard it said, don't commit adultery.

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But I'm telling you, if you've looked at someone with lustful intent, you're a lawbreaker, that kind of thing. Even preaching the law that way, apart from the power of the

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Holy Spirit, for us as fallen people, all that's gonna do is exacerbate our passions.

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When things are forbidden, we want them all the more as fallen people. There's something really epically wrong with us, because this is how we all operate.

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But then Paul pivots, beginning in Romans 7, 7, and he makes it really clear how the

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Lord used the law for him. And when the law is accompanied by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, Paul sees that he's ruined in all of his legal hopes.

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Remember, this is a man, he writes in Philippians 3, that he, righteousness according to the law, blameless.

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He had all this confidence in the life that he had lived and in the disciplines that he had and all that.

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But the law, when it's accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, showed him that all of his legal hopes were dashed, and it showed him that he was ruined, and it showed him, through the commandment, he says, sin becomes sinful beyond measure.

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So sin is shown to be sin through the right preaching of the law when the Holy Spirit accompanies it and gives us eyes to see.

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This tendency towards trusting in the flesh or the law, when we say trust in the flesh, what we mean is, when

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Paul says, I have the desire to do what is right, but not the capacities to carry it out. That's what he's fighting for constantly.

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He is sympathetic to that desire of going, I can do this. I can do this. I know I can do this.

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And then the scripture goes in and goes, but don't try it, because you will fail. So probably the most clear place that he puts this is in Galatians chapter three.

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And he says, oh, foolish Galatians who bewitched you. So that's a very strong language.

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He's saying, this is like demonic. You know that, right? Like, this is not of the spiritual realm of Christ.

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This is of the spiritual realm of the evil. He says, it was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

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Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Now, this is important. How did you start? How did you come into the family of God? I mean,

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Ephesians two, just slap you upside the head, not by works as any man should boast, right? Not by obedience.

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So are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Do you suffer so many things that is in vain, right? And the reverse five, does he who supply the spirit to you and works miracles among you,

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I love that he talks about the supernatural work that's happening now, do so by works.

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Now this, I love this. By works of the law or by hearing with faith.

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Paul is not downplaying the law. He's not belittling it. He's not casting it aside. He's saying, you are not using it as it was designed.

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You are not living according to its purpose. The way in which that we continue in our progression and faith, the way in which we grow into the likeness of Christ is by faith.

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And Justin, he points it out clearly, it's faith in the work of Christ. I love this.

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When Paul says, we walk by faith, right? And that's how we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

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What we hear in modern day preaching is the law, law, law. If you don't wanna obey the flesh and you wanna stop lusting and stop all your problems, it's law, law, law.

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And Paul goes, no, no, it's not. That's demonic in nature actually. It's actually Christ, Christ, Christ.

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Because walking by faith is to receive the righteousness of Christ. To walk by the spirit is to receive the righteousness of Christ.

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And so that's what we need to continue to be exhorted in. Keep trusting him, keep looking to him. And this is part of what, when we say pull the clutter off the gospel,

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Justin and I want to reclaim the power of the gospel. And when I mean power, I mean the supernatural work of the spirit.

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When Jesus says that it's like the wind blowing and he does a work, we believe that there's an actual supernatural work happening here.

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He says, 1 Peter 1, 3, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

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Justin, that should just wrap it up and sum it up right there. Now he goes into the third use of the law later on.

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Now, if this is true about you, here's how you should obey. But he says the power to do so is divine.

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It's not flesh, it's divine. I mean, that should just wrap up this argument, case closed, right?

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But how many writers of the New Testament, this is like, what's our fourth book we've quoted so far? They're all having to clarify what we keep falling into.

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The law can only guide, can't transform. What transforms? It is literally, I mean, it is the power of God at work in us, right?

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Through our union, our vital union with Jesus Christ. This is the Roman six argument in other places,

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John 15. I mean, so both immediately pop into my mind. In Roman six, the argument's very clear.

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Like we shouldn't continue in sin because we've been united to Christ. We've been baptized into him, right?

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We're united with him in his death. We're united to him in resurrection power. What's that mean? It's the

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Ephesians one, end of Ephesians one argument, right? That the very power of God that raised

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Jesus from the dead is the power that's at work in believers, right? Unto sanctification. And we've been justified from sin's guilt and we've been set free from its tyranny and we're not under the law anymore, we're under grace, but we've become obedient from the heart.

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This is the argument and it's all through our vital union with Christ.

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John 15, right? Apart from me, you can do nothing, Jesus says. If you're united to me,

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I'm the living vine. If you are united to me, you will bear fruit. Hold Jesus out and preach

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Jesus out. Preach the love and the mercy and the grace and the power of Christ to the believer. Guide the believer with the law that is good and the

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Lord will use that to transform and to sanctify. To increase our faith, to help our faith grow into maturity, it is the heralding of Christ.

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It's the continuing reminder of the work of what Christ has done. That doesn't mean to the exclusion of the law.

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What he means is that faith is what we walk by. So we need that to be strengthened constantly so that we can obey the law.

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The law is a good diet. It is a faithful preacher of the Bible will preach the law, right?

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But he must power his listener through the means of Christ. And that's what we're trying to get into order here.

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The law needs to have its proper place. It's instructions, it's not power. Where's power? Power is in Christ.

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So we feed on Christ and then we receive the, I love how it's the sandwich effect,

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Justin. I don't know if you can point out a passage in scripture that even James will use the sandwich effect of Christ for you, now obey, remember