©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

06/22/03

The Law Then And Now

6/22/03 The Law Then and Now

We covered a great deal of material two weeks ago

as we reentered our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

We were studying the last half of the second chapter,

and the nature of the passage made it necessary

for us to move as quickly as we did through that section

so that we could see the passage as a whole.

If you were with us then

you will remember that in that passage

Paul spoke directly to those Christians

who had come to Christ from a non-Jewish background.

He wanted them to clearly understand

that, when we enter the family of God through faith in Christ,

we all enter equal in every respect.

In the context of this letter,

He wanted them to know

that just because the Jewish converts brought with them

a national history with God

that stretched back to the time of Abraham,

that history did not in any way entitle them to privileged standing within the body of Christ.

I mentioned when we were studying this passage

that in some ways it is difficult to find parallels in our own culture

to the kind of tension that existed between the Jewish and Gentile believers in the early church.

In one sense, however, there is a very common parallel within our Christian world today.

And maybe I could explain it best by contrasting

what God intended to create through Christ

with what actually develops in many situations.

We are going to take a little bit of a side-track from Ephesians here,

but it will be worth it

because it may help us better appreciate

some of the tension within the early church

that Paul was seeking to deal with.

There is a beautiful description of the Church as God intended for it to be

in the 3^rd chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

It is in this 3^rd chapter

that Paul presents us with a concise statement

of that amazing protective moral framework given to the Christian

that provides us with the foundation for the tremendous freedom

that we have received through Christ.

It has been awhile since we’ve talked about some of these things,

so it will help if I take just a few minutes to put this whole thing in context.

Prior to our submission to Christ

the human spirit lives in a constant tension with the moral law of God.

Whether we come from a religious background

or a totally pagan background,

that tension is always there

because God has written His commandments within each of us through our conscience.

Everyone of us enters this world knowing

that there is moral right and wrong,

and that our moral conduct matters.

Now, as a society, we tell ourselves

that this moral awareness exists within us

to help us to be better people.

We tell ourselves and one another

that we should let our conscience be our guide,

and we create little cartoon images with the conscience dressed up as an angel

and the pull toward evil dressed up like a devil

both hovering around our heads trying to influence our choices.

But the truth is

God did not give us that initial exposure to the moral law of God

either in the form of our conscience,

or in written form through the Ten Commandments,

in order to help us to be better people.

He didn’t give us the law

to help us to sin less,

He gave us the law to force us to sin more.

In Romans 5:20 Paul says simply,

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...

He comes back to this in Romans chapter seven

when explains how this process works.

He says, ROM 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

Simply stated,

the moral law of God was given to us initially

to force us to face the truth about our inner heart rebellion against God.

You see, here we all are,

entering this world with spirits separated from God

in absolute rebellion against Him.

But we all believe this is the natural, normal, correct human condition.

We tell ourselves that man is basically good,

and that a life lived without submission to our Creator is really no big deal.

The truth is, however,

that we have been created by God for life with Him -

not for religion,

but for HIM,

for life with Him,

and until we are reunited with Him

we have no hope whatsoever of understanding ourselves,

or our purpose for being here.

So, because of His great love with which He loves us,

God established the most remarkable plan and design

for calling each of us to Himself.

Now, we talk a great deal

about the salvation that God offers us through Christ.

But that is not where God’s work in drawing us to Himself begins.

It begins by facing us with the truth about ourselves,

by facing us with the truth about our own inner rebellion against God

and our need for Him and the redemptive work He offers us through Christ.

And that is where the moral law of God comes into our lives initially.

It was given to us by God

to force us to drive us into sin

so that we would have to face the truth

about our own inner rebellion against God.

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...

Those of you who have listened to my teaching for any length of time

know my favorite illustration here.

I have an extremely important instruction for you.

Under no circumstances do I want you to touch the chair directly in front of you.

I don’t want you to touch it with your finger.

I don’t want you to touch it with your shoe.

You WILL NOT touch that chair.

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...

One minute ago

the last thing in the world

you had any interest in doing

was touching the chair in front of you.

But as soon as my “law” entered your mind

it aroused in you the burning desire to do the very thing I asked you not to do.

Did you ever wonder why God worded the commandments the way He did?

THOU SHALT NOT...!!!!!!

Why didn’t He say something like,

“My beloved creation. I care about you far too much not to let you know

about certain types of behavior

that will always make life harder for you,

behavior that will cause you pain.

I urge you to listen to Me, to trust Me in these things.”

Wouldn’t such an approach have made us more receptive?

Wouldn’t it have caused us to look more closely at the reasons behind those commandments?

Wouldn’t it have made it easier for us to obey them?

Yes! Of course it would.

And that is the very reason why God said what He said the way He said it.

Thou shalt NOT commit adultery!

Thou shalt NOT lie!

Thou shalt NOT covet!

Thou shalt NOT steal!

Thou shalt NOT bear false witness!

Thou shalt NOT take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain!

God gave the law as He gave it

because He wanted to face us with the truth about ourselves.

He wanted to face us with the truth

that at the deepest level of our being

we are in rebellion against God.

Paul illustrates God’s purpose here

with a testimony from his own life in Romans 7.

ROM 7:7 ¶ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about lust if the Law had not said, "You shall not lust."

ROM 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me lust of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.

Now why in the world would God do that?

Why would He intentionally seek to drive us into sinful behavior?

He would do it,

and in fact He did do it

because our problem is not and never has been our behavior.

Our problem is our separation,

our heart attitude of independence from God.

What we need is not improved behavior.

What we need is a heart reunited with our Creator in loving trust and submission to Him.

And until that happens

improved behavior will correct nothing.

So this is the way it works.

1. We enter this world with hearts in rebellion against God.

2. God then arouses the rebellious spirit within us by confronting us with His moral law,

both in written form

and through our consciences.

3. At certain points our spirits rebel against the law,

driving us into sin.

4. That sin then turns our lives into a mess,

bringing about broken relationships,

loneliness,

isolation,

fear,

guilt,

shame,

and a whole spectrum of other consequences

that, if we are honest with ourselves,

ultimately drive us to cry out to our God for help,

and deliverance.

Did you ever wonder why there appeared to be such a great gulf

between the life of Christ

and the teachings of Christ?

His life, with every action,

every touch,

every encounter proclaimed to the world, “I LOVE YOU!!

I love you right where you are,

in all your moral filth and confusion and ignorance.”

His teachings, on the other hand,

contain some of the most restrictive and terrifying statements found anywhere in God’s communication to us.

MAT 5:21 ¶ "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'

MAT 5:22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'You empty head,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

MAT 5:27 ¶ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery';

MAT 5:28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

MAT 5:29 "And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

MAT 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Why did He teach that way?

He did it because He was talking to a people

who honestly believed that they could generate a moral life

that would make them acceptable to God on the basis of their behavior,

and, in preparation for His offer of His own death

as the payment for our sins,

He wanted to create within those who heard Him

a desperate longing for some way,

some answer,

some hope apart from their own behavior.

The first century nation of Israel,

looked at itself as morally superior to the rest of the world.

They were a people so “pure” that they would not even allow themselves to touch objects

that had been touched by the Gentile dogs around them

without carefully cleansing themselves from the defilement afterwards.

And to that people He said,

“Do you really think you can stand before God on the basis of the Law?

Well, then, let Me show you the law as you’ve never allowed yourself to see it before.

And now, here we are 2000 years later,

in a completely different culture,

and yet nothing has really changed.

Oh, we don’t pretend that we have put together a society

that is sufficiently morally superior

so that we can stand accepted before our God on the basis of our performance.

What we have done as a society, however,

is to tell ourselves

that there really are no absolutes in the area of morality,

that what matters most

is respecting the rights of the individual

and defending each person’s ability to live by whatever standard seems good to them.

In other words,

we haven’t declared that we measure up,

we have declared that there is no measure.

But then look at this!

When we lie,

when we steal,

when we violate God’s pattern for sexuality,

we still feel the guilt,

and the shame,

and it still destroys our relationships

with those who make up our world.

And when someone else cheats us or lies to us

our true awareness of the law comes out

with the furry it creates within us.

And with us,

just as with every other group of people who have ever lived,

our first relationship with the moral law of God

is one in which the law drives us to sin,

and then condemns us when we fall short.

And if this first phase of our relationship with the moral law of God

goes as God intends for it to go,

there will come a point in our lives

where we cry out to our God,

“Lord! Please help me.

Please forgive me.

Please heal me.

Unless You can provide another way for me to find peace with You,

and to find peace with myself,

there is no hope for me.”

And our God’s response to that cry is always the same:

MAT 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

MAT 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

I love the way the author of Hebrews said it.

HEB 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.

HEB 8:11 "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them.

HEB 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more."

But then what happens in our relationship to the moral law of God

after we come to Him in faith?

Does it still continue to be our enemy,

driving us into sin?

Well, the truth is,

it depends a great deal on how we approach our walk with the King

following our union with Him.

If we do not correctly understand the arrangement He has made with us through Christ,

if we do not understand

that our standing with God is now and forever more shall be

based upon the fact that our sin debt, in its entirety has been transferred to the account of Christ,

and that He has not asked us to try to live for Him,

but rather He has promised that He will now dwell in us and live His life through us,

in other words,

if we continue to believe

that our acceptance by God is based upon our performance for God,

then we will very likely continue to live out the same law-based dynamics

that characterized our relationship with God prior to our union with Christ.

The Law will continue to be our adversary

because we will see it demanding from us

a level of performance that we can never quite achieve,

and see ourselves forever falling short

before a God who is perpetually displeased with us for our failure to do what He wants us to do.

Or, we may follow the pattern of Israel,

and immerse ourselves in a carefully controlled list of moral and religious duties

that we tell ourselves will allow us to find peace with God.

If, however,

(and this is where I’ve been heading since I first got off track this morning,)

if we hear correctly what our God is saying to us

about a life lived with God through faith in Christ,

if we can really allow ourselves to believe that,

ROM 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

ROM 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...

If we understand that through Christ

we have entered into a restoration with God

in which we now live in absolute, eternal peace with Him,

for the first time in our lives

we can begin to see the moral commandments of God

as we have never seen them before.

You see, once they have lost their power to condemn us,

once they can no longer terrify us with the threat of the wrath of God,

once we know that all of the wrath of God

for all our sins

has already been poured out on Christ on the cross,

and that ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

from that point

we can begin to discover the most amazing thing about the moral boundaries revealed to us by our God.

We begin to realize

that, not only are those boundaries not a prison that confines us,

but they are in reality

the most wonderful protective framework

that frees us to know and experience life as never before.

JOH 8:31 ..."If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

JOH 8:32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. "

JOH 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

JOH 8:36 "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Through the commandments

God reveals to His people

the truth about the way life is really designed to operate.

And through those commandments

He shows us how to approach life with a boldness and a confidence,

never having to fear

that we may make choices that will turn out to be destructive to us down the road.

OK, now, I actually got into this whole thing this morning

because I was taking us to one of the key passages in scripture

in which God lays out that moral framework for the believer.

It is found in the last half of the book of Colossians,

and right in the middle of that passage

Paul gives the most glorious description

of the way the church is designed by God to operate.

But having taken our whole morning to lay the groundwork for the passage,

rather than rushing through it

I think we’ll stop here and save it for next week.