Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
This is the fourth installment in our current series about living under the New Covenant. By the way, a Covenant is a BINDING agreement between two parties. In this case, the first party is the Father Creator of the universe who has offered to provide a number of benefits to those who will believe in His risen Son Jesus of Nazareth, who is the second party to the agreement, and submit to His Lordship (Romans 10:9). Jesus is the Messiah (Anointed One) long prophesied by the Old Testament as the One who would come and find a way to reconcile a fallen and sin-ridden mankind back into fellowship with the Father by means of an EVERLASTING Covenant (Jeremiah 32:40, Hebrews 13:20).
I am trying to show in this series that our religious traditions are keeping us overly connected to the Old Covenant of the LAW with the result that the benefits of our New Covenant aren't fully visible and understood by many, many believers. So far, I have shown you twelve clearly stated New Testament scriptures that instruct us to separate from the Old Covenant so that we can be Spirit-led and live by FAITH. To live by the LAW is to try to impress God with what we can accomplish in the flesh by trying to generate our own righteousness. We cannot live by the flesh and be Spirit-led (Galatians 5:18). We cannot live under the LAW and also live by FAITH (Galatians 3:25). These things do NOT co-exist not because I say so but because the Word of God says so. If you doubt this point, please go back and review the previous three articles in this series by going to the Archives link you'll find at the top left of this article.
The Old Covenant is for Non-Believers
Now I want to go back to a point I made last week for some additional emphasis: I'm NOT saying in this series that the LAW is bad or that it has disappeared or that it ought to disappear. No, the LAW is Holy (Romans 7:12), the LAW is perfect (Psalm 19:7) and the LAW is good, but IT HAS TO BE USED LAWFULLY realizing that it was not made for a righteous person but for those who're lawless and ungodly (1 Timothy 1:8-9). Please go and read these two verses in 1 Timothy because the point to be made is clearly stated there.
The fact is, the LAW has ALREADY been written on the hearts (spirits) of believers (Hebrews 8:8-9) and if that heart of yours has been born again, it's already keeping the LAW as perfectly as it can be kept. Indeed, if you're born again Jesus is living His life through you by faith (Romans 8:11, Galatians 2:20) and He knows exactly how to do it. You don't need to add to it by striving with your flesh to do what's already being done by the Spirit. Instead of trying to get your flesh involved, why not just release your faith over the message of the New Covenant that you're ALREADY as righteous as you can possibly be (Romans 3:22, 2 Corinthians 5:21) thanks to Jesus.
In its essence, the main purpose of the LAW is to show non-believers that they need a Savior, that they need Jesus (Galatians 3:24). That's what your Bible actually says. The LAW is impossible to keep by anyone other than Jesus. It wasn't designed so that regular people would ever be able to keep it. In other words, it was never intended to be something to live by because it's impossible for anyone to actually do it. The intent was to show you what sin is, that you can't live by the LAW yourself and that the only way you can overcome your sin problem is by FAITH in Christ. Your works are worthless toward this purpose and there's a better way to live once you have become a born-again believer in the One who ALREADY kept the LAW on your behalf.
The Other Purposes of the Law
In sum, I'm not trying to do away with the LAW. On the contrary: the Bible says that by our faith we ESTABLISH THE LAW (Romans 3:31). It has its LAWFUL uses and will be with us for quite a while. In addition to showing non-believers that they need a Savior so they can be evangelized, I can think of a number of other reasons mentioned in one way or another in the Word for why the LAW is something that we need including those Ten Commandments I talked about last week. Following is a partial list of uses that occurred to me and there are probably a lot more:
- So we can know the history of the people who produced the Messiah.
- So we can be reminded when necessary of what sin is.
- So we can be reminded when necessary that we need a Savior.
- So we can study the prophecies of the end times.
- So we can study the types and shadows of events under the New Covenant.
- So that we can learn and understand the things of wisdom.
- In order to provide moral direction to our country and to the world.
- In order to provide moral direction to our governments at all levels.
- So we can get to know God better.
- So we can study the covenant made with Abraham since we have been connected to it.
You may think of some other LAWFUL USES of the LAW and if you do, please send me an email so I can add them to the list. We can make it a group effort.
Some Concluding Comments
Many people reading these studies will notice that religious tradition comes to give warning that the result of telling people they aren't supposed to be living under the LAW is the same as telling them to go out and sin. Nothing could be further from the truth and the Apostle Paul dealt with that same issue, which he reported in Romans 6:15:
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the LAW but under grace? May it never be!
Friend, there's something a lot better than the LAW. There's something a lot better than worrying about how God is going to punish you for your latest sin. There's a new way to live, a better way to live and TRADITION is standing in the way. The LAW can't stop us from sinning anyway because we'll sin whether we're trying to live under the LAW or not. No friend, TRADITION is standing in the way of developing the fullness of a special relationship with the Father that can be achieved only by faith. According to Scripture, that development requires you to come fully out from the bondage of the LAW (Romans 7:6), to come out from the ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:7) and into the LIBERTY of life by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on October 11. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM central time. Agree with us for God to answer your petitions.
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