Day 15

God’s Law Is Good

--If We Use It Lawfully

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

You will recall the title of today’s thought comes from I Timothy 1:8. God’s law is good. It is meant for our benefit and well being. It is meant for our prosperity and preservation. It is meant for our success, and to cause us to be overcomers in everything in life. Personally, I live by ALL of God’s law that I possibly can, simply because I trust God.

But I have NO guilt when I don’t! “There is now therefore NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus came to become sin for me. He came to give me his righteousness. The law has absolutely nothing to do with my right standing before God. Only Jesus accomplishes my right standing before God.

I do not live by the law to make me right with God. I do not live by the law to earn his favor and blessing. I do not live by the law to get my prayers answered. I do not live by the law so God will like me or approve of me. I do not live by the law to get to heaven. If we live like this, we are ‘unlawful.’ We are religious crooks and outlaws by the standards of the New covenant gospel.

We talked about liability vs. responsibility, and we saw that we are under NO liability. This sets us free to live responsibly to the Person of God in us — even though we blow it sometimes. Let me repeat it again: ALL of us will DIE with something in us we know is not ‘Christian,’ most of us with more than one something. Jesus didn’t come to create a race of people who never sin. Instead, he came to create a race of people who, when they do sin, their sins are not counted against them. They are not held ‘liable.’

The trouble is, this is NOT the first message we hear when we start attending church. The first message we hear in ‘Sunday School 101’ is the ten commandments. We cut our teeth on the law of God: all the things we should do, and all the things we shouldn’t do. We become human doings, and we mistakenly think this is Christianity.

Except for his birth at Christmas,
and his death and resurrection at Easter,
we usually don’t hear much about Jesus until adulthood.
By then we are ADDICTS to the law,
and totally IGNORANT about the gospel.

The Old Testament is beautiful! There is the story of Creation, and the Garden, and so much other history. The Patriarchs, including Joseph, comprise much of Genesis. Then there is a lot about Moses. Where would we be without the Psalms and Proverbs — or the Prophets? And how about the stories about the kings — both good and bad. We love King David. There is so much in the Old Testament.

But it is NOT a lifestyle we should copy! We are not meant to be clones of Old Testament people. We have been given something much better: the gospel of Christ’s cross. Old Testament people strained trying to understand what God was preparing for us!

It’s sad: most Christians trust more in the Old Covenant law than they do in the New Covenant gospel. They love God’s law more than his grace. This begins in ‘Sunday School 101.’ The Old Testament was ‘the glory of God.’ But it has NO glory compared to the New (II Cor 3:9-11).

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GOSPEL TRUTH #29

We are seldom, if ever told about ‘the reformation’ — Jesus came to set aside the Old Covenant way of living, replacing it with the New Covenant gospel. We are seldom told about the GIFT of righteousness, so we continue to try to EARN it at every turn. We believe that the law of God is the only way to be right with him, and receive his favor, blessing, and answered prayer. It’s a lie of Satan we buy into, playing in his sandbox. According to the gospel, trying to live like this is ‘unlawful,’ and actually creates negative effects in our lives, not positive ones.

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The entire Bible is a work of grace. The law did not come to be until after grace had been established. God marked Cain, protecting him, even though he killed his brother Abel. God was guilty of ‘aiding and abetting a criminal.’ it was like this throughout the Old Testament. The law was given AFTER grace had been established. There is a lot of grace in the Old Testament, just not by means of the law.

The gospel is merely the CLIMAX of God’s work of grace!

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus.

The change was so drastic, complete, and absorbing that Jesus says, “ALL who EVER came before we were thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). The gospel is so much greater, everything before it seems like a thief.

Jesus came to destroy Satan’s works. He made a public spectacle of him and triumphed over him. He fell like lightning from heaven. He is no longer ‘the accuser of the brethren.’ His role has been reduced to prowling the earth as a roaring lion — because all he can do is roar. Jesus knocked out his teeth and declawed him! Don’t doubt it: Satan is behind everything evil that happens in this world! He is the ’prince’ of this world. But John 10 is about MUCH more than just Satan.

The Old Testament and the New Testament are a unity. The Old gave testimony, and gave birth to the new. The Old closed in failure. The job of the post-exilic prophets was to explain to the people why the promise of God would not be seen by them. In fact, it would not be seen for over 400 years. The fact is that the Old Testament is all about the New: (1) the coming King, and (2) his coming Kingdom.

The Old Testament is like John the Baptist. Jesus says John was ‘the greatest among men,’ yet John wasn’t worthy to tie Jesus’ sandals. He said, “I must decrease so that he may increase.” At Jesus’ baptism John said, “I should be baptized by you.” This is the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Jesus said ANYONE in his gospel kingdom was GREATER than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11, Lk 7:28).

The entire Bible is the history of God’s redemption of man. If the fall of man had not occurred in Genesis 3, we would not have the rest of the Bible! It wouldn’t be necessary because we’d have the person of God himself in a Garden of Eden environment. But Genesis 3 did happen!

The Bible was complete in Genesis 1-2. There was creation, and everything about how things grow after their own kind — and then there was rest, authority, fellowship and marriage, relationship with God, and tending the garden (work). What ELSE is necessary? That’s exactly what we have today— but in a very fallen way. The whole Bible is the story of God’s redemption of man. And the result is that the cross re-established a Garden of Eden spiritual reality for us!

We need to see three timelines of earthly life, spiritually speaking:
(1) The Garden of Eden to the law: about 2,000 years,
(2) The law to the cross: about 2,000 years,
(3) The cross to the present day: about 2,000 years.

We’ve already seen in the first period Paul says, “Sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law” (Rom 5:13). We know the law was imputed for 2,000 years, until the cross (the second period). Now, in the third period, sin is no longer imputed. We are no longer held liable to it. Jesus became sin for us. We have a ‘Garden of Eden type reality’ — much GREATER because of the gospel.

Redemption is progressive, and not complete until the cross. Many Christians don’t think it is complete until the second coming. Paul says this is error that denies the finished work of the cross (Phil 3:18)!

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GOSPEL TRUTH #30

Let me reiterate: the Old Testament is wonderful. There is so much history and prophecy — the Psalms and Proverbs could never be duplicated in any other way. And the law of God is good — as long as we use it ‘lawfully,’ and not as the means by which to gain recognition, favor, and blessing from God. In this manner, it is a DEAD CORPSE!

There are many things for us to LEARN in the Old Testament. But if we try to LIVE by the structure and ways of the Old Testament, we are not living in faith. We are not living in the gospel. We are not living life trusting God. We are mixing the blood an animals with the blood of Jesus. We are denying the finished work of the cross.

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Christians live in expectation of the future, not in Christ’s finished work. The Christ event, —the life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus —is the culmination of all history. The CROSS is the culmination of all spiritual history! To miss this is to miss the gospel! I see this more as ‘the battle of Armageddon,’ spiritually speaking, than any end time physical battle.

To live in expectation of the future is to miss the reality of the cross. The future is coming. Jesus will return the same way he left (Acts 1:11). But don’t be as ignorant as his disciples were: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Today we would ask, “Lord, when are you coming to establish your millennial kingdom?” Jesus says his kingdom has already come! We just doubt him because we can’t SEE the reality of what he says. We don’t believe him when he says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

In the Old Testament, PASSOVER was the ‘altar,’ as they looked for the coming of Christ. In the New Testament, the CROSS is our ‘altar’ as we look for the coming of Christ. The cross is our ‘altar,’ not the return of Jesus.

There is a big argument today that God can’t consummate his covenant with Israel without giving the Jews all the land he promised to give them. The Bible clearly states that God has ALREADY given the Jews all the land he promised to give them (Joshua 21:43-45, and other passages in I Samuel that deal with the kingship of David). God’s covenant with Israel has been fulfilled. Many Christians today view Israel as a type of pseudo-god. It is not. Israel fulfilled its calling: it brought us the Messiah Savior.

The issue is this: was Jesus correct when he said, “It is finished?” — or was he mistaken? Maybe he didn’t know all the facts. The real question is: can GOD be wrong? If your answer to this question is ‘yes,’ then go back to Sunday School 101, and live by Old Testament law.

The gospel is responsible for the infiltration of divine truth, and the transformation of our minds. There is a lot of ‘counterfeit seed’ that causes us to doubt the finished work of the cross. “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith in the earth?”

Revelation 14:6 says that ANGELS preach the gospel in the end times. THIS IS OUR JOB! Why are angels doing it? There can only be one answer: it’s because we are NOT doing it! Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world before the end will come” (Matt 24:14). If we don’t do it, who is left to do it? If we don’t truly know and live the gospel, how can we be called, and sent by God to preach it? (Rom 10:15). The purpose of THE 40 DAY GOSPEL FAST is to prepare you to be called — and sent by God to share it.