Growing in the Grace of God #04 - the Old Covenant of Law — Bob Hoekstra

To continue our study on the Old Covenant of Law, we've looked at what the law can do. We looked at the inability of the law. It can make nothing perfect. But what can the law do? And we saw that it has some great purposes, the highest purpose being tutoring us to Christ, teaching us, convicting us, convincing us, letting us understand our desperate need for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now related to that, in the ability of the law, 1 Timothy 1, verses 8 -10. Here's something else the law can do. We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

The law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate. One of the things the law is able to do is to minister into and against lawlessness and rebellion. And certainly that describes every unbeliever, every man in their essential human nature.

But of course in Christ we are the holy ones, the saints, the righteous ones, not in our righteousness, but in His. Well, how about us? Does the law have any value in this arena for Christians? Oh yeah.

Whenever we walk in rebellion, lawlessness. See, it's one thing to say the law can't birth you or grow you. It's another thing to want to throw out the law. That's licentiousness. That's indulgence in the flesh.

And the law comes right back in and works on that. Goes to work. The law is for the lawless and the insubordinate, the rebellious. Tie in with this Galatians 5 .18. Galatians 5 .18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now we are to be led by the Spirit. We who are birthed by the Spirit are to be led by the Spirit. And practically speaking, in day by day living, if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law.

If we are led by the Spirit, the Spirit is guiding. The Spirit is empowering. The Spirit is providing life. We are not living under the standard of the law. We are living by what the Spirit of God is doing.

How about if we aren't led by the Spirit? I think the implication is obvious. We have thrown ourselves back under the law. If you are walking according to the flesh, what does the flesh deal with? Law.

Works of the law. The flesh has no resource, but it is revealed by the law. And the flesh is trying to strive to measure up to the law. The flesh is judged by the law. If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law.

The implication here, I think being, and especially because it is contrasting the Spirit and the flesh, is practically speaking, Christians put themselves back under the law all the time. And we will talk a lot about being under grace and not law.

It is critical to this whole study. But here is just a little signpost, a little indication, appetizer of much that we are going to see in the Scripture about the difference between Christian living under the law and living under grace.

It is night and day. It is life and death. It is flesh and spirit. That is how different it is. But what can the law do there? Well, when you and I are walking according to the flesh, that is spiritual rebellion, insubordination, lawlessness.

In other words, I don't care what the standards of God are. I am doing my program. The law can speak to us just like an unbeliever. Speak to that rebellion. Convict of that rebellion. Surface that rebellion.

And what does it ultimately do then? If we let it have its work and bow down, it tutors us right back to Christ. Not for salvation, but for renewing of fellowship, for again finding in Christ that walk in the spirit.

Exactly. So, there is a strategic inability in the law of God. It cannot perfect anyone. It can't justify. It can't sanctify on its own. But that doesn't mean it is useless. It can convict the unsaved and tutor them to Christ.

It can speak to the rebellion not only of humanity in general, but even when you tie it in with Galatians 5 .18, even to a Christian who is not walking according to the spirit. Yes?

The law of sanctification.

The life and the growth, yes. Where the life is. We have no life in ourselves, John 6 .53 says. Jesus taught that. You have no life in yourself. That's another reason the law cannot birth or grow us. The law only measures life.

It doesn't impart life. If we're going to get born again, we've got to find where the life comes from. If we're going to grow in the life, we've got to be growing in where the life comes from. The life does not come from the law.

In fact, the letter of the law kills. Kills. But we'll talk about that later. That's jumping ahead here a little bit. There's so much to think and talk about. You want to go off in 40 directions at once.

If sometimes I kind of press right on, it's not because I think this is some heavenly revealed outline and everything. But a lot of these things we'll come to and we'll come to them again and again. Because I know you're like me.

We need to hear it more than once in more than one way for more than one year. Or semester, whatever, yeah. Okay, now, to me, here's the most exciting part though is this last section. It's fulfillment.

This is the more exciting part. In other words, how are the demands of the law met in our lives? Now, this is the exciting part. The message of the law, be holy, be loving, be perfect. The inability of the law can't make you holy, loving, and perfect.

The ability of the law, it can show you how unholy, how unloving, how perfect we are. But we still have this big question. Now, wait a minute. The law and its fulfillment. How are its righteous demands met in our lives?

Oh, God has spoken into that in tremendous ways in the Scriptures. Let's start in Matthew 5 .17 in some general terms. Matthew 5 .17. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Jesus didn't come to abolish the message of the law of God. He came to fulfill it. Now, in general terms, how did Jesus, how does He, how did He, how would He fulfill the law? Well, here's some examples.

The penalty He took upon Himself. The soul that sins must die. He died in our place. Okay. There's a biggie in the law that Jesus has fulfilled. But here's another way He's fulfilled the law. He never violated it.

He never transgressed. So, by example, He fulfilled the law by doing what the law said to do. Here's another way He fulfills the law. By being our life today. The law says be holy, be loving, be perfect.

Where are you going to find a life like that? In Christ. That's it. In Christ. There's only one life like that. And that's the life that is available to us. You might want to jot some other verses down here with Matthew 5 .17.

Jesus fulfilling the law, not only in example where He did what it said, not only in the penalty where He died in our place where we didn't fulfill it, but He fulfills it now by being our life. Colossians 3 .4.

And we'll come to a lot of verses that elaborate on these issues right here. These first two or three weeks are kind of an overview of the big issues for the whole course. Then we'll plunge into one after another after another with lots of scripture.

Colossians 3 .4. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Speaking here of us returning with the Lord when He comes back, because He's already called us up to be with Him.

But the point for our study right now is not our being revealed with Him when He returns, but who He's called, when Christ who is our life. Now see, every Christian probably also knows, probably, that when we were saved, Christ gave us life.

But I think most Christians, it's a while before it dawns on us that the life He gave us is a share in His own life. He died for us that He might come and live in and through us. That's where the life comes from.

Christ who is our life. See, the same Jesus that never transgressed the law now lives in us who do not want to violate it. Who want our lives to look like it without trying to produce a life on our vain self-effort to live up to it.

It isn't that we don't care about the standard of the law. It's this. Where do we get the life that measures up? How do we fulfill it? Well, let's face it. The natural popular approach is you just bear down and get at it.

How hard do you have to try to be like Jesus? We'll have a session next week. We'll bring in a tub and we'll start off with water walking. And we'll stick at that until we get that down. Then we'll go on to some other things.

I mean, how hard do you have to try in order to be like Jesus? There is no way to try hard enough. We have no life in ourselves. Christ who is our life. The life we want so badly to live is the life that resides in us in another person.

Christ in us. The hope of glory. Learning to live by His life instead of our best effort gets right to the heart of it. It's what growing in the grace of God is all about. Christ who is our life. 2 Peter 1 .4.

I want to add that here. We'll come back to this one time more at the end of the course. This is such a critical verse. We'll come back for a different reason and from a different perspective. But it fits in so well here too.

2 Peter 1 .4. By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may become, now fasten your seatbelt, partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

As Rob said so beautifully in the message Sunday morning out of 1 John 1 verses 1 -4. It's about impartation, not imitation. If all we had were the law, all we would have is our best effort at imitation.

Hey, here's what it looks like. Try your best. And the law is right there to tell you whether you're measuring up or not. It's not that. That's living by law. Living by grace, by the new covenant, as doeth Christ came to fulfill the law.

In what way? Every way you can imagine. Every way you think it needs to be fulfilled. Every way the scriptures speak that it must be fulfilled. He came to fulfill it. And He is our life today to fulfill the demands of that law in and through us.

And we have become partakers of the divine nature. That in no way says we are divine. I might share something with you. I give you a Big Mac, it doesn't make you a hamburger. You become a partaker of the hamburger.

We don't become that in essence. We will always be creatures and He will always be creator. He will always be divine. We will always be those He made and remade. But still the work of His hand. This is not Mormonism.

We're going to work toward Godhood. This is not word of faith, name it, claim it. We're little gods. That's not what this is saying. I don't believe that. I believe that's a heresy. And it's not even popular Shirley MacLaine New Age.

I am God. Oh, what a revelation when she realizes she isn't. May she realize it before it's too late. But all that aside, here's the truth. We've become partakers of the divine nature. You know, like a branch partakes of the life of the vine, but the branch isn't the vine.

It's still a branch.

That sort of picture. And this is the glory of it. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, there's a constant correspondence that you well picked up that's right on. So, Jesus came not to destroy the law, not to blow it out of existence, but to fulfill it. To cover every one of its bases.

Hey, did anybody ever do all that? Yeah, one person. And only one that ever did or ever could on his own. Yeah, but how about the penalty? I mean, that's pretty stiff. You know, how are we going to fulfill that?

Eternal death? He took care of that. He fulfilled it. Yeah, but how about today? We don't want to every day live under the condemnation of the law and practical Christian living. You know, no growth, no maturing.

Just, you know, He is our life. He'll fulfill it today, that law. If we'll trust Him. And we'll look at tons of Scripture on that along the way. That's right at the heart of the issue. Now, let's go a little further.

Romans 10, 4. Romans 10, 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And the implication really in the Scriptures is that Christ is the end of the law both as a standard of how you're relating to God or being measured by God, as well as it's the end in the sense of the goal.

What is the law aiming at? Well, it's a perfect righteousness. Well, Christ is the end of that. He is the goal of that. He's the termination of us living under a law relationship with God, which all the world does.

They're guilty under His law before Him. Christ not only terminates that for us. We have a whole new way to relate through Him, not through a standard of do's and don'ts. But He's also the end in the sense of the goal for everyone who believes.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is what the law is pointing at. He is what the law is speaking about. And He is for us that goal if we believe in Him and we want to draw on His fulfillment of it, not our best effort in it.

1 Corinthians 1 .30. You might want to add here with Romans 10 .4. 1 Corinthians 1 .30. But of Him, of the workings of God, His great salvation is a work He provides. Of Him, you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

See, Christ is all these things for us. It isn't we strive to achieve them. He is our sanctification even. How are you going to grow in Christ's likeness? Well, here's one biblically valid way to put it.

The more that Christ is seen in you and me and the less of us, the more like Christ we are. I mean, that's Christian growth. It's not I've got the patterns down so well I can mimic Him better than anyone.

Or I can copycat Him better now than I could 30 years ago when I first met Him the last week in 1965. It's not that. That's dead religion. It's this. We're in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus became for us wisdom from God and righteousness.

How could we be righteous before God? We said, Christ is my righteousness. How are we going to be sanctified? Well, He has become for us sanctification. I mean, He is the life we want to grow in. Yes?

I'm almost embarrassed to ask this question. Please don't be.

We've either asked it before or we need to ask it now, I'm sure.

I've been a Christian from being in Christ, as Ephesians talks about. This whole issue of being a partaker. But I still wonder in my mind, what is it? How do you know what's in Christ? Does that mean walking in the Spirit?

Is that in Christ? What is exactly tangibly in Christ?

We're going to spend a huge evening on that phrase. Just a few weeks down the road. Probably best to hang on to that. Because you've asked a big question and a critical question. And one that many need to ask.

And some have never asked it. You're right on target. It's critical to all of this. We'll spend a bunch of time on that. Now, Romans 3 .21 -24. Let's look at the fulfillment of the law by Christ in the area of justification.

You probably notice time and time and time again on issue after issue. We first look at it in justification. Then we turn around and look at it in sanctification and find out it's the same thing. Remember Colossians 2 .6 says, As you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk in Him.

How did we receive Him? Tryin' our hardest, stretchin' our greatest. I mean, how did we receive Him? Well, and so walk in Him. Let's grow the same way we were birthed. Let's walk the same way we started.

That's what the Scriptures say. But it's so easy to shift gears. To make sanctification a completely different kind of world in which we live. From the justification where we started out. Romans 3 .21 -24.

But now the righteousness of God. Now notice this. Apart from the law is revealed. There's a way for the righteousness of God to be brought forth, to be seen, to be known. Apart from the law. Not by just reading the law that says be holy, be righteous, be perfect.

There's a righteousness seen in the law. It's a righteousness of God that is demanded of us. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Being witnessed by the law and prophets. It's the same righteousness the law and the prophets are talking about.

You know, God's righteousness. Even the righteousness of God. Verse 22. Through faith in Jesus Christ. See, not through measuring up to the commandments. But through faith in Jesus Christ. To all and on all who believe.

For there's no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Here we see a powerful statement of how Jesus fulfills the law when it comes to justification.

We believe in Him. And the righteousness that the law speaks of but doesn't give us is now ours in Him. And the Father says, you're now righteous. You're justified. I declare you not guilty. I pronounce you as though you never sinned because you now have the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Same righteousness the law was speaking of. But the law doesn't give it, it just describes it. Faith in Christ lets Him give it to us. That's the difference. Where do we want the law of God? Out in perfect commandments out there?

Trying our hardest to live up to them? Or God saying, here, I'll share it with you. I'll give it to you. If it couldn't be the latter, no one could ever get justified. So these are beautiful verses on how Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law when it comes to justification.

With giving a start with God. With being taken from guilty to innocent. From unrighteous to righteous. From not able to be justified on our own to God saying, you're justified. It's by faith in Jesus Christ.

Which obviously is all about the grace of God at work on our behalf. But again, we're not concentrating on justification in here, though it's really important to keep touching base with it. Because it's the same issues at work in the arena of sanctification.

Well, how about sanctification then? Romans 8. Early on in Romans, most of it's about justification. You start hitting chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8. Tons of words about faith and grace for sanctification. Romans 8, 3 and 4.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. That is, the weakness of the law is man's flesh couldn't measure up to it. What the law could not do, God did. Hey, no problem. God's hands aren't tied.

He did not expect the law to do all that. He did not expect it to give us righteousness. So what the law couldn't do, that is perfect, change lives, give life and all that, God did. How? By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

He looked like another sinful man, but he was a man without sin. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, the debt of sin had to be paid. He condemned sin in the flesh, even dealt with that very sin principle that dwells in the flesh of humanity.

He dealt with all of that. Verse 4, and we'll spend a lot of time on that too. Just to get a big picture though. He did all that, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Today, now.

Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Romans 8 .4 has nothing to do with justification. You don't walk unto justification, you walk in sanctification. Sanctification, growth, maturing, walk.

They're sort of synonymous perspectives on the same reality. Now think of this. Think of this verse. First of all, what is the righteous requirement of the law? Perfection. Be holy, be loving, be perfect.

Now Jesus came and did all this, that which the law couldn't do, to this end. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. This is under the heading of the fulfillment of the law.

We saw how Christ fulfilled it by example. How he fulfilled its penalty. Now we're talking about how he fulfills it day by day in our lives. What is the righteous requirement of the law? Be holy, be loving, be perfect.

Think of this. There is a way for that righteous requirement to be increasingly fulfilled in your life and mine. Day after day after day. What is the issue? Will we walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit?

What is a walk according to the flesh? My best effort to please God. Measure up to the commandments. Be like Christ. Be holy, be loving, be perfect on my own resources. The flesh. Human resource. We Christians still carry it with us.

It's called the flesh. In Romans. And when we try to draw upon that, the righteous requirement of the law is zero in its practical fulfillment in us at that moment. There is no holiness, no perfect love, no perfection like God coming forth.

When we walk according to the Spirit, we're walking in dependence on what the Holy Spirit alone can do. The Holy Spirit who birthed us with the life of Christ gives us life. What is the life he gives us?

A share and a participation in the life of Christ. When we walk according to the Spirit, the life the Spirit brings forth through us is the life of Christ. I mean, this is Galatians 2 .20. I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I doing the living. Well, come on. What's happening? But Christ lives in me. We'll spend a lot of time on that verse later on, but it just seems like it fits in here so perfectly right now, too.

See, the righteous requirement of the law, holiness, love, the perfections of God can be fulfilled in us. Let's speak of this process. How do we know? Because it's talking about a walk. Day by day. Step by step.

Issue by issue. Will we face it by our best effort? Our own dedicated resources? Or will we face it by the work of the Holy Spirit? We walk according to the Spirit. If so, what will come forth is the fruit of Christ's likeness.

And Christ always measures up. The life the law demands describes the life that he eternally had and has. That's the fulfillment of the law in us. Now, in conclusion, Galatians 4 .21. Galatians 4 .21.

Galatians 4 .21. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? I've actually talked to folks along the way who said, wait a minute. If the Ten Commandments were good enough for Moses, they're good enough for me.

They weren't good enough for Moses. Or let's flip it around. He wasn't good enough for them. Sometimes we think, let's see, Moses got to heaven by the Ten Commandments. How am I going to do it? Boy, I don't think I could have.

I'm so glad I have a better way. Total confusion on our part. No flesh will be justified in his sight by works of the law, including Moses. No one. They didn't relate to God through the law. Now, they didn't do so well, so God said, let's try another way, grace.

We'll find when we get into the New Covenant, the only way from the beginning to relate to God was by grace. He said, well, why the law? To show us how desperately we needed that grace that was offered.

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? You talk to someone, they say, well, here's my key to the Christian life. Here's how I do it. It's two hours of devotions a day. I haven't missed three hours, if you want to really be shining halo.

Is that five in the morning? No, four is much better. And I haven't missed a church service in 20 years. I haven't missed three hours, if you want to really be shining halo. Is that five in the morning?

No, four is much better. And I haven't missed a church service in 20 years, and I wouldn't if it kills me. Well, it's probably killing you already. And on and on and on they go. You have this desire to open Galatians 4 and turn to verse 21 and go, tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

Living by self-effort to reach a standard that is going to make God bless and change us is back under the law. Now, the wonderful thing is, there's nothing wrong with extended devotions. There's nothing wrong with wanting to never miss a meeting.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to do all these things. They are wrong, and the desire to do them isn't wrong. If we put our hope in them, we're wrong. If we think by doing them with our effort and faithfulness and commitment, that we're causing God to make us like Christ, we're back under the law.

And it's easy to walk that way. It's typically in the serious American church. Now, a lot of the American church has violated the law of God this way. They're lawless. Hey, let's be tolerant, let's be contemporary.

Everything goes, find out what's right for you. That's an abomination to God. That's not grace. That's lawlessness. That's the flesh speaking. That's not the spirit. But in the serious-minded, even evangelical church, it's so easy to get back under the law.

I think the whole key is in the regimen, instead of the person we're getting to know. Now, one person can go through extended devotions and find life. Another can go through an extended devotional regimen, and it be death to them and everyone they talk to.

It's neither the yea or nay of the regimen. It's what's going on in the person's heart with the one who it's all about. Is it a faith relationship, a walk in the spirit? Or is it a self-righteous, I'm going to make myself great and godly approach?

Those are the issues. And I tell you, this verse really hits. Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you hear the law? Do you hear what it's saying? It's saying, be as perfect as God on your own.

And if you can fulfill that, hey, you don't need grace, no problem. If you can be as holy as God on your own, be as loving as Christ on your own, be as perfect as the Heavenly Father on your own, hey, we don't need a study like this.

That's for all those wimps. They can't measure up. Yes? I was going to say, I'm a wimp. Okay. Good. I stand with you, brother. I stand with you. A few more thoughts in conclusion. The message of the law, be perfect, perfect in love, perfect in holiness, perfectly like God.

The inability of the law, it cannot perfect us, meaning it cannot justify us or sanctify us. What it can do, though, the ability of the law is show us God's character, His will, our total need for Christ, and then the fulfillment of the law, how its demands are met in our lives.

It's through Jesus Christ. Faith in Him justifies us. Depending on Him daily and His Spirit to work brings daily sanctification or growth in godliness. The just shall live by faith, both from initially getting life, as well as day by day developing life.

Is our hope in the Lord or is it in our regimen, our procedure, our religious activities? What did you say about sanctification? Our justification is by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what justifies us.

We've seen that in Galatians and Romans. But it's a faithful dependence, trust in Him day by day, that brings us sanctification, which is day by day growth in godliness. Day by day growth in godliness.

A couple of verses out of Hebrews before we conclude. Let's look at Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 8. Just a couple of quick verses. Remember Hebrews 7 .19, For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

How would you like to have your distance between you and God, your relationship, your fellowship, hinge upon how well you do in your own effort to live up to the law of God? How intimate would your relationship be with God?

We'd be so far off, only God could see us. Yeah, we wouldn't be interested unless it was some self-righteous interest. Hey, look at me, I'm godly. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

A better hope. Hebrews 8, 6 and 7. But now he, Jesus, our great high priest under the new covenant, has obtained a more excellent ministry, more excellent than Aaron and the Levitical priesthood, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

We'll spend a whole night looking at the better promises of the new covenant. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. We need a better hope, a better covenant than law.

We need the new covenant of grace. And that's our study next week. The two hours will be dedicated to the new covenant of grace, just plowing through a bunch of scriptures, showing how it's the grace of God that justifies, the grace of God that sanctifies.

And then we'll let the rest of the course elaborate on all these things we've laid the first three weeks together. Any thought before we... I believe the Lord can, I'd say, excite us to this degree. Joy inexpressible and full of glory, to take a phrase from Peter.

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness. Lord, I want to thank you tonight for the merciful way that you have allowed that we do not have to relate to you by law performance.

Lord, we thank you for your law. It's holy, it's just, it's good. We want to use it lawfully. But oh, how we thank you that we don't have to start out a relationship with you by law, and we don't have to develop a relationship with you by law.

Praise you for that, Lord. We thank you for that. What a blessing. Thank you for this better hope, this new and living way, justified by faith in Jesus Christ, sanctified by daily trusting and believing and depending and drawing upon that divine life of God the Son that we have been joined to, made one with.

Lord, teach us more how glorious this grace is, that we might live by it, abound in it, and day by day have the righteous requirement of the law fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in Jesus' name.

Amen.