The Law of Grace — Don McClure

The Law Reveals Sin and Human Guilt

Romans 3 19. Now we know that whatsoever the law saith it saith unto them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and that the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law even the righteousness which is of God pardon the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.

For there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through the faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of then what you believeth in Jesus.

Where is the boasting. Then it is excluded by the law of works. Nay by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. If pardon me is he the God of the Jews only.

Is he not of the Gentiles. Yes of the Gentiles also seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law of God through faith.

God forbid. Yay. We established the law. Father we thank you for your word. And we asked it as we look at this. And sometimes it's almost like reading through some court document and all of its little legalities and trying to unwind it.

And what does it say. And we asked Lord that as we look at it you would make it ever so simple to us so clear for the things that Paul has been building up to through these first three chapters that you administer its truth to us.

For we ask it in Jesus name amen. Well here is Paul is in previous studies that we have been through been talking and studying and teaching us about the law. It's something there that he has made many a statement so far that there is no way that anybody under the law.

We've looked at entire studies on how that no attempts to even fulfill the law will ever be successful. It can't happen. You see the law is a standard. It is an absolutely flawless perfect standard. One sense to me as I almost think of the law it's like living next door to Superman.

The Law Cannot Be Imitated by Fallen Human Nature

In a sense you might say in the sense and then trying because he lives next door we are going to somehow another try to be to be like him. And there is you would you know might think well why. That'd be wonderful to have him around.

But yet at the same time as soon as he was around all of a sudden now I've got to be like him. I've got to live up to that standard now I've got the most difficult of all chores. I mean here we got somebody that they never seems to sleep.

He just lives for truth and justice. And in the American way whatever he wants he can do it flawlessly. The guy is never gonna steal. They don't need to. You just take a hunk of coal and crush it. You got a diamond.

You need a you know some money. You just go down pick up a you know some Spanish gold out of the bottom of the sea or something. And there's really no needs so much ever with your life. Anything you want you get freely.

You know in the morning when you and I wake up and we go to the refrigerator by the time we've got the refrigerator he's already flown to some South Sea Island back with mangoes and papaya and and it's got it all sitting there and he lives perfectly.

He lives flawlessly no sweat no struggle no effort. And he's somebody there that he protects the world and the young and the old and everybody in between. He never gets upset on the freeway because of course he never drives he flies.

And now that I think about that. But anyway so that's no problem at all. But then when you look at this person then you realize essentially by living next door to him he now has become the standard. And you must be able to do everything that he does.

Or you're unacceptable. You have to it be able to achieve it all. And to be able to achieve it all flawlessly and consistently for whatever is expected of Superman is also expected of you. And if you can't do it you can't enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And now all of a sudden you're not only just simply jealous of Superman. You kind of hate him in one sense because you know you cannot do it now I suppose the most foolish thing that a person would ever attempt to do would be there to say well I've still got to give it the old college try.

I've still got a you know you know give it an effort. I've still got to at least try to imitate him as best as I possibly can. And then even by the effort of doing it maybe I don't achieve it but I am better than most and I'm sincere.

And I try hard. But at the same time when we stop and realize though that the difficulty is is that it's impossible you see because Superman number one doesn't exist but number two if he did he's of an entirely different nature isn't he.

He flies as easily as we walk you know he crushes coal as easily as we crush a grape. He sees through walls as simply as we see without walls he is of a different nature. He is of a different being in a sense.

And I suppose when I even think about it I suppose it's probably easier to try to be like Superman than it even is to fulfill the law. Because when you look at the law and the standards of the law it was never ever given by the way as far as the law given it was never given with the thought of it being duplicated.

The thought was never ever given for man to try to imitate the law or to ever attempt to fulfill the law. The reality of the law and the reason for which it was given is it simply to reveal the reality of human error the the reality that we have fallen.

As Paul says the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ the law as soon as it is stood is it just is presented. The very reality of that law being presented and just looking at it ought to melt the human heart as much as trying to be Superman in a sense is trying to achieve.

When I would look at the things that the law demands and realize how foolish it is for human nature to try to do it to try to fulfill the law. When you stop and you think of the things that the law says there when the Lord takes Moses out and he writes there with the very finger you know is south they're giving the law to man.

And as he speaks the word I am the Lord your God I brought you out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. And here as he begins to tell him here is the standards of the law. You know he says you'll have no other gods before me period there's no other gods in existence.

There's none that around. You won't make a graven image of yourself. He says I'm a jealous God. He looks at me says I want your love and I want all of your love. I don't want to see myself having to fight with anybody else.

I'm the Lord your God. And I'm a jealous God. Should you not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And the Lord says and I'll deal with those that do take it in vain. In other words anytime that somebody what it means to take his name in vain is to render his name weak or valueless.

That there is something there is all the power of heaven and earth is in that name. And it's got to be attributed to him constantly. And when any time that any time in my life that I have no power and the hope of power when there is God around I've taken his name in vain incense I'm to realize there is a God that is so powerful.

I'm there says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And he says six days you'll you'll labor in the seventh day you'll rest. And he says not. In that day you won't work. And your your sons won't work.

Your daughters won't work. Your men servants won't work. Your maidservants won't work. Your ox your donkey your stranger visiting you won't work. It'll be a day of rest to sit before me. And is how you know we're to live.

And then of course he goes on to honor your father and your mother. And he says you know that you'll not kill you'll not commit adultery. You'll not steal there that go around talking about your friends and your neighbors and bearing false witness.

And you'll not covet you know your neighbor's house to your neighbor's wife or your neighbors. You know men servant or maidservant or oxen or donkey or John Deere riding lawnmower you know or whatever else somebody won't.

You look there and everything anybody else has in the world that's fine. You will never take it to yourself. You will never find yourself going down. I wish I had that I want that. Why can't I in immediately when we realize.

But wait a minute my nature does all of these. You know how many times do we. You'd hard to drive down the road without seeing you know it all of a sudden some Ferrari or some other word you can't pronounce or Lamborghini or something goes by.

You know. And you Wow you know. Is that cool or what. I wish I had one of those. Of course not till after I had the other nine cars. I've already coveted before I saw that one today. But somehow another on how easily we can look or we see somebody's house or somebody's you know men servant or maidservant or somebody's equipment somebody's you know stuff they got that they have around the house there that is wonderful.

That helps them achieve and get the work done. And how easily we look. And I want one of those. You can't pick up a newspaper without coveting. Almost there's ads for you know everything in the world you know in one section after another after another.

And when we realize this is fundamental human nature and and now to sit there and say I'm not going to do any of this I'm not gonna do it. And but you see that it's too late. The law is simply a standard of what God created man to be in the first place what man would naturally do if he was living in his supernatural state of being in fellowship with God that walking in his spirit walking in the fullness of God's nature and of his character.

There's the absolute genuine freedom when you look at Jesus and you see his life as Paul even refers to him as the second man he revealed to us so much of the nature and the character that had been you know lost in Adam in his behavior in his love and his character in his heart Jesus.

You never find him there you know I've been I got a guy got to get out and go pray tomorrow early I got to get right with God man I was I coveted after you know man's. And then you know donkey today you know something there Jesus never had that problem because his nature his character was was completely you know full it was rich it had never fallen it had no shadow of turning in it.

It was the same yesterday today and forever was pure. It was high it was absolutely glorious it was unscathed with human weakness and frailty sin had never touched it. And thus these things for him to do them they were just merely things that he just did they just reflected who he was.

But for a man that has fallen that has failed in all of them now to say I'm going to do them it's preposterous. It's absolutely you know ridiculous. And then once somebody after they've already fallen to still say well I'm still going to give it my best shot I'm going to try hard.

Well it's too late because it's something there. Paul says in Romans 310. For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse. For cursed is everyone that continueth not and all that is written in the law both to do them.

In other words as soon as I have broken one it's too late now it is simply that you know it ought to be that we just look at it's a schoolmaster to bring me to Christ. As I look at the law I find myself there.

I cannot do it the law just as something that as we look at it it's just a constant reminder essentially from whence we have fallen. It's a constant reminder that Lord if I was right with you if I was if I was in that fellowship that relationship that dimension with you that you created in me I would be doing those not by effort but by nature.

You see Superman doesn't fly by effort. He flew by nature. I know he's a comic strip but it's all I could think of it late in the afternoon there all right you know but the but it's something what it was just his nature to do these things he did.

It was not hard for him again. The supposedly you know crush the cold into a diamond it was his nature. It was just what was there is a is a part of him. You see in the course in the comic strip he came from another world.

He came from Krypton. Everybody in Krypton did that everybody in Krypton could crush or kill. You call everybody on Krypton could fly. It was just the nature of the Kryptonese people. I guess you know or something.

But it's just how they all were. And but but a human being you know our nature our character here is he finally brings things down. He tells us in verse 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

You see the glory of God was the nature of man. When God created a man he created somebody in his image somebody that revealed the glory of God by nature by behavior. God said let's make man after our own image.

In that word image it's a wonderful word. Admit essentially means image by derivation. In other words God created man. That man was to be a derived image of God not an imitated image. I could have a little image here maybe of a little Buddha you know or something there and I could sit it up here and everybody say who's that he says Buddha.

And it could be an image of Buddha though Buddha is long gone and long dust. But here could be a little image. But man was a derived image. Man was a he was by his nature. He was here by creation he was in the glory of God by derivation.

And what that means essentially is that man derived his nature from God's presence the same way that you have tells us in in the Amplified Bible. I like the way it reads there in the Amplified it said.

Humanity’s Lost Image and the Restoration of Glory

2nd Corinthians 318 says. All we with an unveiled face continuing to behold we reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord and are changed from glory to glory is by the Spirit of the Lord. Paul there tells us the Christian life is one there that we were created to be looking at God with an unveiled face an open face.

And as we looked at him we reflected like mirrors his glory. When God created man we were in his image we reflected like mirrors. Anybody could look at man. They could look at Adam and they could know what God was like the same way that when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror you don't see you.

You see an image of you you see a reflection of you a derived image. But it requires your presence for the mirror to reflect you. If you don't come into the bathroom and look in the mirror and smile and then it starts cracking or whatever else it does.

But you walk in the mirror and there it requires your presence. And then the nature of the mirror takes upon the nature of the one that it beholds. And God created man in such a way as we were to behold his glory live in his presence derive all that we were from him.

And in that if God wanted you know with man to crush it you know cold into a diamond he could have done it without question to me could walk on water. He could do whatever he wanted because God would live his life through man however he chose.

And the wonderful thing is is that but the moment that man takes his eyes off God and he falls away from that now to go out and to attempt on his own effort to try to live the life that he would live if he was deriving that love that life that glory that power that majesty.

And he's no longer deriving it. The nature has changed. He now has a fallen nature not a spiritual nature not a glorious nature not a spirit empowered nature a fallen nature. And now with that fallen nature just will try to be Superman.

You just as well try to be because the nature is gone you cannot do it. But here man though in the beginning he was to be in the glory of God. And this is where we're going to be getting to in another couple of chapters when we get into five Romans five and six and seven and eight it's all about wanting to see his return to that dimension of glory and how to do it by the power of his Holy Spirit.

But here he's got to bring us through the first three chapters the place that I realize you know I'm falling in and of myself I can do nothing you know as somebody once said not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands.

When somebody realized there is nothing that I can do in my own nature or nothing in the labor of my hands can I fulfill the laws demands. And thus it's something that I've got to realize as Paul says there that by that as he says in verse 20 therefore by the deeds of the law should no flesh be justified in his sight by for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The law is just something that says no you don't try to fulfill it. It is simply there to tell me I've sinned. It's simply there that when I attempt to do something the law says didn't do it did you. Something's wrong in it and we swell then I've got to try harder.

No you don't. You know the longer you try and the harder you try to just the greater the failures. And so we. But now the righteousness of God without the laws manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets he's going to be introducing here how we're going to enter into the real righteousness of God and how that he does these things for us having nothing to do with our own energy our own effort our own nature.

And for the righteousness for verse 22 even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Christ Jesus Christ and do all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. He says there is a righteousness that God will now give to a man who has this fallen nature he's weak he's unable to do it.

He merely all the only credential he has now is to say I agree. And now he's going to be in to introduce the fact. He says now that you know this now that you know there is the knowledge of sin and there is the awareness.

And the law has brought this about to you. He says I want to tell you something. There is a righteousness that God can go now give to this man who has done so wrong and has failed so much that's going to come by faith in Jesus Christ to all the belief.

And there's no difference on who they are anybody anywhere anytime anyhow who has this fallen nature who now something happens where he begins to believe in the work of Jesus Christ the righteousness is given to him.

And there's no difference in anybody who they are. In a sense he'll get you right. And now he didn't introduces there in verse after he says that all of sin and come short of the glory of God will come back to that.

But he says now the work here of how it's done how do I get right. He says first of all it's very simple being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through the faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sin that are passed through the forfeiture the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth.

But here he introduces now all right I've sinned. I'm not Superman. I don't reveal your glory your life your love your nature your power argument settled the laws of schoolmaster. It shows me I have failed and I have the knowledge of sin because of it.

But now he says all right now to get right. First of all I want to introduce to you they're being justified freely by his grace the work that is going to transform your life from one dimension essentially here now to another.

And here when you look at this I mean God's plan of redemption is so and it's ingenious you know it's one of the most I mean awesome thoughts I suppose of all the ages without question there's an absolutely nothing like it.

But as he explains redemption here he uses three sorts of metaphors in the sense the first one he says you're justified freely. We're gonna take this person who has sinned. And the thing is is that now essentially he's going to be justified.

It in the word justified isn't it's an accounting term as you probably know it's a legal term. It's not unfeeling word it's not an emotional word. It's not a I like it sort of a word. It's a factual word.

It's a hard and fast legal term and so counting term. And it's one that's essentially there. It's a word being justified. This is if man is is standing before God which he is and as he's standing before God the word justify it simply means to render righteous or to show and exhibit one to be righteous or to declare or to pronounce one to be just.

And here's simply there is a work that Jesus Christ he says can do that can take a person as gross of a sinner as terrible the sinner who simply knows I am a sinner that now that person exhibits a faith in Jesus Christ and they begin to be justified.

It is a work that occurs to them it happens to them. It's not a feeling word it's a factual word. This last Sunday night I did a marriage ceremony and there was you know a couple that stood before me and I asked them do you don't.

You will you won't. You now pronounce you we didn't have a lot of time but anyway when we're done and they they yes I do yes I will and they gave their vows and they made those commitments. At the end I turned to them and I said with the authority given to me by the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the state of California I now pronounce you to be husband and wife.

Now I don't care how they feel. It's fine if they feel good I prefer that I suppose. But at the same time it's done it's a fact. It has happened. They are married. The paperwork has been done the words have been said and now if they don't like it they got real problems.

And because they've left some facts have occurred. It's happened. Well here the same thing essentially when somebody comes before God through Jesus Christ and stands before him recognizing I am a sinner and that he has offered to justify me.

It makes no difference as Paul says who they are whether I came as a Jew a Gentile with the law without the law however it was that I heard about him when I came in and I recognized justification was being offered.

I said I want to get in that line and they said and I said well I'm in line how does it happen. And they say it's through Jesus Christ who died for you on the cross and based upon that you know a work of justification is done now it's something that can only be done essentially.

And it's interesting back in Proverbs 17 15 it says he that justified the wicked is an abomination to the Lord as a matter of fact even the Old Testament God himself in Exodus 23 said I he said I will not justify the wicked.

But now here in the New Testament this is exactly what he says I'm doing precisely at this point the Lord now in the new covenant and it's exactly it is precisely he looks at somebody over here in judicial term.

He says you come to me you know you're a failure. You confess it and I'll forgive you. You will be justified you will be forgiven. And it is something incidentally that he that he planned. But Bible tells us before the foundation the world.

Revelation 13 8 says Jesus was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He had already offered his blood his life for us even before God said let there be light even before man had said even before you know we'd failed for every one of us.

He looks there and he died as Paul says or John says not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world. And here the wonderful thing is is that once he has done that now when anybody in the world comes and says will you forgive me.

He doesn't. Charles Spurgeon said about this concept of justification by faith he says the doctrine of justification by faith through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ is very much to my ministry.

What bread and salt are to the table. As often as the table is set there are those necessary things. This is the very salt of the gospel. It is impossible to bring it forward too often. It is the soul-saving doctrine.

It is the foundational doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One time in reference to his own church he is Spurgeon referring to his own church he said may this house be utterly consumed with fire before the day should come when there should be given an uncertain sound about the atonement.

This is not merely a doctrine of the church it is the doctrine of the church. Leave this out. You have no truth no Savior no church. As Luther said of the doctrine of justification by faith that this was the article of standing or fall or of a falling church.

So we affirm the atonement the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ for the sins of men. The foundational aspect of what the Church of Jesus Christ is all about the the foundational doctrine is that somebody over here who has failed in revealing the glory of God which all have sinned and fallen short of that glory there when they realize that and the law as a schoolmaster brought them to Christ revealed sin.

And now they come. I need forgiveness at that point this wonderful activity of justification happens tonight as we gather you know here may you know come in one by one and it makes no difference whether you want to look at us one by one individually or you just take the whole lot of us in one big mass in a sense I suppose before God and some taller and shorter some younger in the Lord some older in the Lord some with many sins some with few sins only because you're young you know and sort of a thing but but you gather us all together and you sit us there and in God just takes all of us and he shoves us over here in a sense to one side.

And then he puts the atonement of Jesus Christ he puts the justification of Christ and he looks at that that is his guiding influence that is the issue that is the the message of what justification is is all about it's something of an accounting term where anybody in this group whoever we are in this group regardless of where we have been and what we have done how terribly we've done it how rarely we have done it however consistently or flagrantly when there is somebody there that says can I be justified.

At that point there's no difference in the eyes of God as Paul says whether it's through the law without the law a Jew a Gentile anybody anywhere anytime anyhow. At that point he says yes I can remove you into a whole new dimension and the way that is done you may wonder how could such a thing be.

And of course it works as Paul goes on here in verse 25 he says unto whom or he says whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

And simply now he says you want to know how do I justify you. How does a thing like that occur that a whole life like that in one act of justice not feeling or emotion or anything else but just absolute judicial eternal fact is stamped you know in heaven and earth in a sense that such a thing could be in the word he uses here it's done there through the purpose of propitiation through faith in his blood.

And essentially they're the word propitiation is a wonderful word. For also we get the word mercy seat but it means a re it's relating to an appeasing or an expiating a placating. It means an absolute appeasement of anything that was wrong.

It's expiating everything that was wrong. In other words here is somebody over here in this group they failed. They said can I be justified. He said yes. And you are. And we say how. And he says it is expiated.

It is absolute. All your sins are totally appeased. They are gone they are blotted out there. It's it's also uses and the mercy seat the word mercy seat the also for the same word meaning it's a cover.

And you know in the Old Testament the Holy of Holies in the in the Ark of the Covenant and on top of the Ark of the Covenant we have of course the mercy seat there. And then they would take as you know in the Old Testament the blood of the sacrifice the blood of the Lamb that was now in there figuratively going in it had died for the sins of the people.

They took its blood they sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and that blood shed because it had now died. They were the wages of sin is death. They deserve to die. But God did a work of justification where he says all right man you know there must be a death for a death a life for a life you have sinned you are worthy of death.

Therefore the reason it is expiated the reason it is appeased is because another life has been placed in the place of your life before me and it died in your place. And he says there specifically the one that died was faith.

Yeah you know who set forth expiated through the faith in his blood in Jesus Christ he is the one that he had that his life was so flawless so glorious so acceptable to God that no matter what you and I have done it is immaterial to God.

You know we have people on death row all the time that I suppose you know they they they they when they killed one person in that they killed one person in that. For that they say you will die. We believe in capital punishment and it is a life for a life.

You took a life you do it however you realize we have the exact same judgment for a mass murder somebody that is maybe killed dozens or hundreds of people. You will die too because it's the ultimate price that will be paid.

And here it is something from God's perspective regardless of what it is Jesus Christ his death pays it all totally completely. You know you may think but I'm a terrible sinner and you ought to we are if you aren't.

If you don't think that ask your wife she'll she'll help you out with it or something I'm sure. Just ask anybody around if you think well I don't think I'm so bad. That's why we need to be here honey you know or whatever.

But when we realize we are terrible sinners but to realize sometimes with some people actually take it in another extreme where they say I'm so terrible I am such a terrible sinner that I don't I don't die.

This is impossible for me to think that Jesus Christ would be sufficient. Let me tell you first of all as far as the heart and the mind of God is concerned then we're gonna see more of this as we get farther into Romans.

But Jesus Christ his life is sufficient for all the sins of all the world of all time. You may think you're a big sinner and I suppose you got you maybe got a nice little pile of sins. You could stack up there and say boy look at this.

But I'll tell you when you put all the sins of the world yours are in there somewhere. But it'll be tough to find through all the sins of all the world of all time. And Jesus died for all of it. He is the propitiation for all of it the sins of the world.

And here the wonderful thing is that when I realized that is what he came for that is what he does to be a sacrifice for that. And it's something there it completely expiates. When I'm looking at Christ this is of course is what in the Old Testament they long for in my apartment in Psalm 51 David wrote.

Christ’s Blood as Propitiation and Redemption

And you know this he says for thou desire is not a sacrifice else would I give it. Thou desire is not. You know for burnt offering nuclear is God. If I could just get a sacrifice an offering he says. But I know there is something greater that must be given.

Micah struggled with this as well in Micah 660 says. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow by myself before them the high God. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old.