Jeff Durbin: The Abiding Relevance Of God's Law

Romans 3 and the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone

If you want to open your Bibles to Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three, inspired letter from the Apostle Paul explaining the gospel from bottom to top systematically, the good news. Romans chapter three, continuing our series on core doctrine.

We're going to start in verse 19. Romans 3, 19. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only?

Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means. On the contrary, we establish the law. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray as God's people. God, we recognize that in our hands right now is your divine revelation.

It's your speech. You've condescended, God. You've spoken. You speak through all of creation and you've spoken especially in your son, father. Lord, we hold in our hands, Lord, your divine speech, your revelation.

This is you speaking. We recognize, God, the gift that this is. So we pray, God, please move mightily in this church and in this room today. Through your word and spirit, speak. Lord, renew our minds.

Heal us of what's broken. Speak to the hearts of your people, Lord, in the way that only you can. Minister to your saints. Heal, bless, grow us, encourage us, challenge us. We pray, God, that you would speak mightily by your spirit today.

Help us to understand the goodness and abiding validity of your law. And Lord, let that be light to the world in so many ways coming through this church body. We pray that you would allow your people to forget the preacher, that they would remember what they've learned from you.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So we're in our core doctrine series right now. And again, we built a foundation talking about first God, then we talked about who is Jesus and is Jesus truly the Messiah?

Then we talked about the gospel of the kingdom and in the heart of the gospel, justification by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from any works. And what's interesting is that as we move beyond that, we have to ask the next question because it is the very question that the apostle Paul answers as he vigorously and rigorously defends justification through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of law.

He just said here in a number of ways that the law can justify nobody. What does the law do? It exposes our sin. What's God gonna do with the law? He's gonna shut the mouth of the entire world through what?

His law. That law of God will be used on the day of judgment to expose the sinfulness of fallen humanity. That law of God is abiding. It is relevant. And as a matter of fact, I would just do this at the beginning to whet your appetites if we take the modern perspective, not historic perspective, but the modern perspective regarding the law of God that it is somehow irrelevant or defunct to the modern Christian today under new covenants, then we have no means by which to preach the gospel.

The Law Exposes Sin and Makes the Gospel Good News

And what I mean by that is the gospel is good news to what kind of people? Righteous people or sinful people? It is good news to sinful people. Why? Because it is good news when we hear about our plight that we are separated from a holy God, that we have violated his law and his standards that we have, according to Paul here, fallen short of the glory of God.

We've missed the mark. It is good news to learn that God's character is holy, righteous, and good. His standards are high and holy and righteous and just. We have violated them and it is good news to learn that though we deserve punishment for the violation of God's law, God in the person of Jesus Christ condescends, takes on human flesh to live the obedient, law-keeping life in perfection that none of us ever have.

And that he actually dies to take the penalty of the law, which is death in the place of his people. And then he conquers that death, our greatest enemy, by rising from the dead. And that he is ascended and seated on his throne, interceding for the people he atones for.

It is a once-for-all sacrifice and it is only good news to fallen people who understand that they have violated God's law and his standards. If the law of God is irrelevant and defunct in the new covenant, then there's nothing to impress upon the lost in terms of their need for Jesus.

The law of God is so useful to expose our fallenness and to actually demonstrate the character and holiness of God. So that's the beginning of this discussion. And Paul, as we learn from Pastor James, on numerous occasions defends that salvation, justification, reconciliation, and peace with God is only a gift of God through God's grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

It cannot be found in you. The law of God can never be used to justify you and I. We have already violated it. We violate it today. We fall short of God's glory even as his saints, amen? The law of God can never be used to establish a righteous position before a holy God because he is holy, holy, holy.

And we are the rebels. We are outside of Christ, the haters of God, the enemies of God. And that law of God, if it is put in front of us, it shows our own failures and our own rebellion. The law of God will never be used to justify a single person.

There is only one, only one person in the history of humanity that has kept the law of God perfectly, and that is God himself in the person of Jesus Christ. So you need a foreign righteousness to stand before a holy God.

You need to be hiding in Jesus and in his perfection and law-keeping. You need his death on your behalf. And that is only through faith in Jesus. The law has nothing to do with our right standing before God.

We should flee from the idea of God judging us according to our works. In James Epistle, James chapter two, it's a separate discussion from the apostle Paul here. In James 2 .10, he says, "'Whoever shall keep the whole law, you keep it all, "'which is an impossibility and stumble in one point,' "'James says, you're guilty of all of it.'".

The law is a unit, it's a complete thing. If you kept the entire thing your entire life in the last five minutes of your life, had a lustful thought, a hateful, murderous thought, you are a guilty person before God.

He is far too holy to have that kind of sin in his presence, and that's why you need Jesus. That's why you and I need the gift of eternal life. And the apostle Paul here in Romans chapter three explains the law can be used to justify nobody.

So what has God done? He's given us Jesus and this gift of grace and salvation and peace with God. How does he do so? He gives us Christ. He puts them up as a propitiation, a diversion of wrath in our place, a full satisfaction of the wrath of God in our place, so that God can remain just, because he's not ignoring my sinful rebellious life.

He's actually addressing my sinful rebellious life because he's given it to Jesus. And he is the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus, because in Jesus, I have a perfect substitute, a representative who has a perfect life, and he takes my death, and that is only through faith.

And then Paul lands on some of the most beautiful words I love in Romans chapter three. He says, verse 28, listen closely, we hold that one is justified by faith by faith apart from works of the law. Hold on to this.

Don't ever lose it. When somebody says, where does the Bible teach justification by faith apart from works? I would say in a number of places, but how about a single statement from Paul? We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

And so he makes a distinction. Faith over here by itself apart from the works of the law and cannot justify you. You are declared righteous before a holy God through faith and through faith alone apart from the works of the law, which leads the apostle Paul to inevitably have to, have to address the issue.

Okay, if the law can't justify us, if it exposes our sinfulness, if our condition, our plight is so broken that God had to provide Jesus as a propitiation for me, then what does the law have to do with me now?

What do I have to do with it? You know, many evangelicals today, I'm sure you've talked to them, maybe you are one of them, have thought that because we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone, that that means somehow that the law of God is now irrelevant to me.

It's not necessary for me to pour over the scriptures and meditate upon God's law and be like that tree planted by rivers of water. It's not necessary for me to do that because I'm saved, baby. I know Jesus.

I'm righteous in Jesus. Nothing matters anymore. That law of God isn't relevant to me anymore as a Christian. I'm in the new covenant. Many Christians, professing Christians today believe that. They do, you've heard it.

I'm saved. The law of God's irrelevant. As a matter of fact, there's entire theologies today, popular in some circles that teach that we don't need to reflect on those laws any longer. They're not relevant to the Christian or to the world anymore.

Theology is like new covenant theology, a popular view today where they'll say, no, you don't need to even look at those anymore. As a matter of fact, I was sitting down many, many years ago with probably one of the leading teachers of new covenant theology in his living room.

And he was aware of my ministry to the local Latter-day Saints. And one of the things he said to me was, he said, well, Jeff, I love your ministry to the Mormons. He said, what's some of the ways that you engage with them to start a conversation?

And so I said, well, I wanna talk about God. I wanna talk about the gospel and really focus on the core issues. And I wanna talk about how we know that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and Joseph Fielding Smith and Orson Pratt and Orson Hyde and all the rest of them are false prophets and apostles because God says in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 18.

And I gave the list of verses and he said, Jeff, I really personally wouldn't go to those verses, which was surprising to me. He's a good man. He loves Jesus and he's a good pastor. And so I said, well, why wouldn't you go to those verses?

He said, well, because we're in the new covenant now and those verses are really irrelevant to us now. I wouldn't go to those tests of a prophet from Deuteronomy because those words are no longer relevant under the new covenants.

It's a different way of unhitching from the Old Testament than someone like Andy Stanley would teach today. But many Christians would treat the Old Testament and the law of God in that way. Those standards of justice were maybe good for their time, for the body politic of Israel, but they're no longer relevant for us today.

Those judicial standards, those standards for the preservation of life and property and those laws, they're not relevant today under the new covenant. Many believe that. Paul addresses this in the first century when he just gave this passionate and powerful defense of faith alone, apart from the works of the law, justifying God's people, he lands on the discussion.

He says, verse 31, do we then overthrow the law by this? Faith. I mean, doesn't that make sense to us? Paul, you just told us that this is gift, not wage. It's not earned. It's all of grace. As a matter of fact, you know that I love this.

He stutters in the text as a gift by his grace, as a gift gift. That's what kind of redemption this is. It's a gift gift. You just told me that it's a gift gift, that it's all through faith. That law can justify nobody.

And now what are you saying? You're saying that we, because of this gift, because we are justified, that now we don't overthrow it, that we actually uphold the law of God? Paul addresses immediately, immediately the issue of the law of God and what law is he talking about?

The well-known law, the law that they had and they understood. He's not talking about simply ceremonial works of the law here. Some people have tried to say that. Oh, that's ceremonial works of the law.

We're not justified by those. I'm sorry, God is not gonna shut the mouth of the pagan world because they didn't obey God's ceremonial laws. That's incoherent. It's the law of God. It is this entire package of justice and righteousness and holiness and morality.

And Paul says it's gonna shut the world up. And so this law that's gonna shut the world up that can't justify you because we're saved is the very law that we uphold. We do not overthrow it. I couldn't be clearer.

How can we get this so wrong in our day? It's not because of the text. It's not that the text is muddy or unclear in some way. I mean, what does Paul say here when he asks the question to who he knows is asking the question?

Do we then, because it's all of faith and apart from works, overthrow the law by this faith? And what's he say? By no means. There's actually an exclamation point, which I know is irrelevant, Pastor James.

There's no exclamation points in the Greek. I was just seeing if he was listening. I was pointing out something that's really irrelevant in the Greek. But at least in the English Standard Version, there's an exclamation point because it is that strong a force of language.

By no means. How dare we? How dare we profess the faith of the apostles in the New Testament, say that we believe in this new covenant, that we are justified by faith. How dare we then say in opposition to the Apostle Paul that the law of God now is overthrown and now irrelevant.

Paul says, by no means. Actually, we uphold the law. Which law? The same law that can't justify you. Couldn't be clearer in my mind. But what is the Christian view of the law? We will die on this hill.

We will die on this hill. The law will justify nobody. It is faith alone in Jesus Christ. It is all a gift because of God's love and his mercy. It is all to his glory. If you try to add even one work of the law to your right standing with God, you are lost.

You have abandoned grace, Galatians chapter five. You choose law or grace, wage or gift. It is through faith alone. But at the same time, we want to be faithful to the words of God and obedient to God.

And let's just say, if you read your Bible cover to cover, you will not see the disparaging comments regarding the law of God and his standards of justice that you will have coming out of the mouths of professing Christians today.

God speaks highly of his law, but what is the Christian view of the law? Because we're saved through faith alone in Christ alone. What is the Christian view of the law? We know that it can't justify us.

Romans chapter three, Romans chapter four and five, the book of Galatians. We know that we can't fulfill it. And that's why we need Christ. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. The law will justify nobody.

We know about the law from scripture that the natural man or fallen humanity is hostile to God's law. They're not able, Paul says in the same text, they're not able to submit to the law of God. They're not even able to do it.

They're not capable of doing it because they are hostile to God. They are the natural man. We know that the law of God exposes our sin. Amen? That's one of the reasons we run from it, right? It's one of the reasons we avoid some of those chapters in the law of God, because it's not comfortable to look into that text and see it staring right back at you.

It exposes who we are, exposes our failure as fathers and sons, husbands, wives, mothers, daughters, exposes who we really are. The law shows it to us. My good friend, you know I always bring this up at this point, my good friend Ray Comfort is the master at this.

When he's on the boardwalk or on the beach and he says to somebody, let me ask if you're a good person, have you ever lied? And the person says, yes, I've told a lie. And he says, what? He says, what do you call someone that has told a lie?

And he says, well, I'm a liar. Right, have you ever stolen anything irrespective of its value? And most people say, yeah, at some point in my life I've taken something that didn't belong to me. What do you call someone that steals something?

A thief. Have you ever looked at a woman with lust, he says. And then he explains what Jesus says, that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed it already, you're an adulterer at heart.

So he says on three points right now, you're a lying, thieving adulterer. How are you gonna do before the throne of God? The law does that. It exposes my need for Jesus. Highlight again, if we abandon the law, we have no message to preach to a dying world.

If we lose the law, we lose the power to expose our rebellion and our need to flee to that cross. And so that's what the law does, it exposes our sin. What else about the law? We know that God will use it to judge the world.

When people stand on that final day before the judgment seat of God, it will be God's own righteous standards and holiness on display. It will be his law. People will be cast into outer darkness. They will be separated from God for all eternity.

For what? For their violation of God's holy law and standards. That's what the law does. Those are some ways that we look at the law of God. Now, where does that lead many Christians, many modern Christians to speak about God's law?

Because admittedly, what do we just hear about the law? It shows you God's character. It shows you how bad you are. It shows you how lost you are. It shows you your need for Jesus. It exposes the darkness that we hide in our hearts and our minds.

It shows us and reminds us of our rebellion. And so because of that, and we recognize the scripture does speak about the law of God as a curse upon a fallen people. It has that kind of relationship. If you are hostile and rebellious to God, that law will not save you and you can't accomplish it.

It is like a curse. Scripture does speak about it in that category like that. It tends to lead Christians, professing Christians today, to speak about the law of God like it is somehow bad or oppressive.

I have to tell you, it's difficult for me at times as a Christian, but as a minister of the gospel, to oftentimes hear Christian leaders speak so poorly about the law of God in the public square. Or Christian leaders speak about the law of God in ways as though they were somehow embarrassed by God's standards.

One of the worst things to do is apologize for something God has said. Brothers and sisters, let me just go on the record here. Please, let us never be found to be apologizing for anything out of the mouth of God.

He's the standard of righteousness and wisdom. And we have no right as mere creatures to judge God's own words. And we will see even today, pastors and leaders speaking in the public square about God's own standards or his standards of justice in the Old Testament in ways that are disparaging, like somehow saying, isn't it great now in the new covenant we're outside of that old, terrible, difficult, oppressive law of God.

You'll have at times even people mocking the idea of God's standards of victim rights in the Old Testament. How do you righteously punish a sin that is also a crime? And so you'll oftentimes have professing Christians today speaking about, say, the death penalty for rape or enslaving and kidnapping or murder saying, well, that's Old Testament.

Thank God we are no longer under that. As a matter of fact, you even have the modern Pope, the modern Pope condemning the God of the Bible, saying that the death penalty today is unjust. That's the vicar of Christ on earth, right?

That's the representative of Jesus on earth today, speaking about the God of the Bible in a disparaging way, saying that God is unjust. Because do you know who told us about the death penalty? God, how many times?

Over and over and over and over again. If you take the life of another human being, an image bearer of God in an unjustified manner, if you take their life, you forfeit your right to live because that is something that cannot be repaid.

If somebody steals, that can be restored. It can be fixed. It can be repaid. There are ways to reconcile with certain sins that are also crimes, but what you cannot reconcile or pay back is the taking of an image bearer's life.

And so God sets his standard is life for life. And he also says in regards to that kind of penalty, your eye shall not pity. And what's that mean? You are to be more concerned with justice for the victims than you are the emotionalism wrapped around taking the life of a person who's taken someone else's life.

And that's the way that God speaks. And oftentimes we complain about God's standards today, but the scriptures don't speak about God's law in the way that we often do today. And let me give you some encouraging words here, okay?

Encouraging word, the way that many Christians speak about the law of God today in the modern era in the West that we live, very different, very, very different than how Christians have historically spoke about the law of God in the past.

Is it with perfection in the past? Was there ever a utopia of theology? No, but we can thank God for many of our Christian ancestors who spoke so highly about the law of God and made sure that it was the light in their community, the standard of justice that they would hold to.

But Christians today will say things like, the law of God is bad. The law of God is oppressive. Or they'll even go so far as to say things like, it's irrelevant and defunct. I debated Andy Stanley years ago on the unbelievable radio broadcast.

We really were centering around what is the foundation of knowledge? How do we know anything at all? What's the standard that Christians should bring to the world around us? Should we use shifting standards or neutral standards?

How do we defend the Christian faith? And so if you haven't seen that, I encourage you to go see it. I wish we had more time. But one of the things that was clear at that time was that Andy Stanley was promoting very heavily that we need to unhitch from the Old Testament revelation.

And he said a lot of things in that short period of time. But one of the things that he did say was that God was doing something new and that Old Testament law is no longer useful for us today as Christians or something that we bring to the world.

And he did say at one point that he was creating a slide for his sermon, but he decided not to actually put it on the slide because he knew that picture would be used forever against him. But he went ahead and said it.

And it was, thou shalt not obey the 10 commandments. Really? Christians today not obeying the 10 commandments so we can have other gods before God? We can make things that look like God and worship them?

We can engage in theft and adultery and covetousness and murder. I mean, that's a kind of shameful thing that we'll hear coming out of the mouths of popular preachers today. Things like, this is irrelevant.

Thou shalt not obey the 10 commandments. Also, the problem with how we see the law of God today is that it leads many professing Christians to inconsistency and arbitrariness. Just sort of whatever they like, it's a mixed bag.

There's certain things I like from the law of God. I'll go over and pluck those out, but I wanna ignore the others. So for example, oftentimes Christians will say, well, I'm saved. The law justifies nobody.

I don't want that oppressive irrelevant law anymore, but I sure do love the law against stealing. Like if somebody's gonna break into my house at night, I love what God's law says about stealing. We'll keep the thou shalt not steal.

We like that one, right? Or there is even law of God standards in terms of if somebody does break into your house and is a mortal threat to you and your family, you are allowed to defend your family and your property and your life, and you are not guilty for taking the life of that person in a self-defense manner.

People will say, I love that. I love that standard. I can protect my home and my family against an invader. I can protect my loved ones, and that is not in fact murder. It is self-defense. That's a good law.

Or people will say, I love the law regarding no lying because I want people who do business with me and contracts with me to keep their word. So we'll keep that law. And then they'll say things like, you know, I really do love that law of God regarding no sex with animals.

We'll keep that, right? That's in there too. Or intimate relationships with very close family members. We like that. That's God's standard. But, but I don't really think that we need the property rights laws, the judicial standards, or the death penalty for rape or murder.

I'm pretty sure God's not concerned with that any longer under the new covenant. We'll talk about the law in that way. Or somebody may say, we've already covered this briefly, but I'm gonna keep driving this home for us.

As members of this body, people will say, we don't need it. We don't need it. We just need to preach the gospel. We don't need to talk about that law of God stuff. It's irrelevant now in our new covenant.

We just need as Christians to be about one thing. And that is to preach the gospel, which I'm gonna say I'm all for preaching the gospel, but how is the gospel meaningful without the law of God exposing our need for the cross?

How serious is God about the violation of his law? He killed his son to save us from the punishment. That's how serious God is about the violation of his law. And if that cross and that death of Jesus is still relevant today, then God's concern for his law is abiding and relevant today.

If the cross is relevant today, the law of God is relevant today. Make sense? Yes, praise God. Now, people will even go so far as to say with the law of God today under the new covenant, we don't really need our government or nation to obey the law of God.

Now, that might've sounded cute about 40 years ago. It might've sounded cute and sort of maybe in a kind of righteous way, maybe a little bit compromising, like, you know, we love Jesus. This is our little thing.

We're not necessarily saying that you need to obey King Jesus. We're not really saying that. We don't really need our government to recognize the lordship and kingship of Jesus. We don't really need our government to recognize or uphold God's law and standards.

And I wanna ask the question, it might've been cute before, but how are we doing today? How are we doing today? And isn't it amazing in the moment that we're in, this wild and crazy ride that we are all on right now, and it is wild and crazy, isn't it amazing that actually every fundamental issue of conflict is ultimately coming down to what we have said for many years?

Are you ready for the question? You already know what's coming. It's three words, by what standard? Susie knows it, okay. By what standard? By what standard? You've got the opinions, the personal opinions of one candidate versus the personal opinions of another candidate.

But in reality, you're also talking about the personal opinions and arbitrary decisions of entire parties and entire communities. And have you noticed that it's all shifting all the time? Have you noticed that the standards of even one candidate have changed from 2016?

As an example, as an example, one candidate, and this is by the way, don't even dare call this a political sermon. This is a sermon about morality. This is a sermon about the law of God and God's judicial standards.

This is a sermon about what's right in God's eyes. One candidate, Donald Trump, when he adopted the pro-life position, he actually ran a thread right through consistency. And what did he say in a national interview in 2016?

He adopted the position, okay, here's the position I'm being told is right, human from fertilization, all human life is sacred, all human life is worthy of protection. And so he said, okay, that's a human being from fertilization.

All humans deserve to be equally protected. Great, national interview. All right, if you're the pro-life guy, you're gonna become president. Does that mean that if a woman willfully takes life for a child, that she needs to be punished?

And what did he say in 2016? What did he say? He said, there have to be some kind of punishment, I guess, because it's murder, right? Isn't that our position? And after he finished that interview, what happened?

The pro-life establishment came in and smacked his hand and said, actually, that's not our position. We don't want equal protection for the human being in the womb. We tell people that, but that's not our position.

Please stop saying we want equal protection. So then he shifts to a position where he's mostly pro-life, with maybe some exceptions, to where now he's actually publicly come out and said that we need to win the election so we can't win it on abortion.

We need to take a more centrist position. We need to have exceptions. And even in the last week, he shifted from, we need to have more time for abortion, so he started losing some of his base. And what'd they say?

Your position's becoming radical. And so he had to come back out and he had to fix his words and restore what he was saying. Here's the problem. It's shifting sands. By what standard? Is it your personal opinion?

Is it the opinion of your current culture and the people around you? Give you another example in history. You know this one very well. There was a time in this nation where we engaged in one of the most wicked enterprises that God hates.

We engaged as a nation in an enterprise of kidnapping and enslaving our black brothers and sisters. And this was something that was a moral mess that our nation inherited. Many people in the South and the North, there were actually at one point, more abolitionist societies in the 1830s in the South than there were in the North.

That movement grew. Christians began to speak against it. But it was adopted by the culture. It was allowed by law. Kidnapping and enslaving other image bearers of God, treating them as though they were less human or not quite the image of God.

And that was accepted. People said, well, that's fine so far as it goes. We can maintain this and keep it going. And how did it end? It ended ultimately from the beginning from Christians speaking what to the culture?

What? Their own personal distaste of slavery, that they personally found it uncomfortable, that they had a particular community that didn't agree and they'd like to be heard. They'd like to have their day in court.

No. Those abolitionist societies and those Christians that spoke out against the issue of slavery, my great, great, great grandfather was one of them. He was a pastor over at Congress. He was an abolitionist and he condemned the Pennsylvania legislature for the issue of slavery and demanded an immediate removal of this wickedness.

They used the law of God. Christians spoke to their culture and said, that's an image bearer of God. That is my brother and my sister. They are made in God's image. And God says in his law that if you engage in man stealing, kidnapping and enslaving, not only is it immoral and sinful, but God actually says you deserve capital punishment for it.

How serious is God about the issue of kidnapping and enslaving? He says you deserve capital punishment for engaging in it. And so the question is, is if we base our standards in society on what is popular, then Demas always wins.

What is Demas? It's in the word democracy. The people. And whatever the people think at that time will be the ethical standard of the day. One day slavery will be righteous. The next day, maybe not. Maybe in some cultures it would be right to round up and exterminate Jewish people.

And that's righteous because it's allowed by law. It's accepted by the community. Maybe that will be the standard. If Demas rules, then the God Demas will always have shifting standards. And so Dr. Greg Bonson, you'll notice in your soul food for today, Dr. Greg Bonson said this.

If we will not have inscripturated morality from God as our sociopolitical standard, we have no principle, no principle to protect us from those who wish to play God. And brothers and sisters, aren't we seeing that today?