Thanks for joining tonight's Bible study and we hope you're benefiting from this series of articles about life under the New Covenant. Our main thesis has been that many Christians are missing out on fully experiencing the potential of our wonderful New Covenant because they're still tied up on some level or other with the traditions of Old Covenant LAW. To find out if that's happening to you, it's a good idea to examine your thoughts once in a while with the following questions:
1) Are you upset at yourself because you can't stop sinning?
2) Are you trying to impress other people with your holy behavior and vast biblical knowledge?
3) Do you believe that God withholds blessings from you and your family because of your sins?
4) Do you sometimes get angry at God when you're going through problems?
Many believers think that living under The Ten Commandments somehow maintains moral order within the Body of Christ and that if we let go of them to fully come under the LIBERTY of the New Covenant, it would result in some kind of spiritual anarchy where believers are running around with inadequate restraints on their behavior. But that's NOT what your Bible says. Tradition says it, but your Bible says something entirely different. Indeed, it talks AT LENGTH about a New Law that FOR BELIEVERS has replaced the Law of Moses including those sacred Ten Commandments.
Some Added Emphasis
As we've discussed in previous articles, God gave THE LAW to Moses almost 1,500 years before Christ came to earth. THE LAW was built around The Ten Commandments and it was intended to show people that we're sinners who on our own can't come up with enough holiness to satisfy God's requirements. Consequently, we need a Messiah to redeem us from our inadequacy and Scripture confirms that the purpose of the LAW was/is simply to lead people to Christ so we can be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24). The LAW was made for the unrighteous, NOT for BELIEVERS IN CHRIST to try to live under (1 Timothy 1:8-9). See it yourself right there in First Timothy!
But I also want to emphasize that those same Ten Commandments and the rest of THE LAW are still needed to provide moral direction to a country, including ours until Jesus returns to set up His physical Kingdom on the earth. Keep in mind that more than two-thirds of the earth's population is non-Christian and there's only one hope for them to ever meet the Father and that's through Jesus (John 14:6). It's the LAW of Moses that has the power to show all those people that they're sinners and need Jesus. Indeed, the LAW confronts secular systems everywhere with the truth of God and that includes our secular-influenced government here in the U.S. that for the most part is operating OUTSIDE the Kingdom of God.
A New Law to Live Under
And so, individual Believers need to find something new to live under and what the Bible says quite clearly to those who're ready to cast down tradition is that we've been set free from THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH (Law of Moses) so that we can live under a new system called THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS (Romans 8:2). The Greek wording in this verse means that believers have been SEPARATED from that previous LAW, that we've been set free from its bondage so we can come under something that's better (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6). We have come out of a system that required us to operate in the flesh into something new where we can live by and in the Spirit of God.
Indeed, we have a new LAW to live under but it's NOT based on OUR performance, it's based on the performance of Christ. So we need to know what that means. How do we conduct ourselves under this New Law? Do we run out and start sinning all over the place in that spiritual anarchy so many believers are afraid of? May it NEVER be, says the Scripture (Romans 6:15)! If you're someone who's TRULY born again, you don't want to sin. You love Jesus too much because of what He's done for you to go out and let yourself fall into willful sin. The Old Law drove people to try to stop sinning by their fear of the consequences (Deuteronomy 28: 15-68); the New Law motivates believers to seek holiness with the full realization that we need help to do it. In order to be holy, we need Jesus living and working through us and by FAITH we embrace His holiness as our own and stand boldly and innocently before the Father fully reconciled, free of guilt and relieved from the frustration of our inability to please Him with righteous works. That's why, my friend that the New Testament says it's IMPOSSIBLE to please God without FAITH (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith, we operate in the flesh and when we do that we'll always drift back toward the Law of Moses and God doesn't want us trying to live there anymore.
The Bible says that the righteous in Christ (true believers) will LIVE by FAITH (Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38) which in practical terms means we're to be LED by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). Instead of living by the flesh and relying on our own strength and abilities, we're to listen for the voice and direction of the Holy Spirit and be led by FAITH in what we hear. We're to stop trying to please God to gain His favor by our own righteous works and start relying on the works of Jesus to connect us to the GRACE we need to be victorious in every area of life. GRACE is by definition God's favor and empowerment that He's given freely to believers based solely on our belief in Christ and without regard for any work we have ever done or ever could do. GRACE is favor we do not deserve to receive everything that was made available to believers upon the resurrection of Christ.
In sum, the New Law involves a new life by grace through faith in the Spirit of Christ. It is life with Christ: He is IN us and we are IN Him. To repeat, we are IN Christ totally baptized IN Him: He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5) and we can do all things through Him (Philippians 4:13) because we're a part of Him, we're co-joined and He lives through us.
Some Concluding Comments
The operative words under the New Law are grace, faith and love: Faith connects us to grace and love powers faith (1 Corinthians 13:2). Under the Old Law the operative words are commandments, obedience and punishment through curses. There are two entirely different ways to live and so far we're only scratching the surface of what life under the New Law can be. I hope you're seeing the difference and that by becoming strong in faith, you can receive all of the freedom in life that God wants you to have.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on May 8. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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
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About Prosperous Life Newsletter
PLN is an outreach of Make A Way Ministries, published continuously since January 1998. It's a FREE e-publication about life in the Kingdom of God and is sent to our email list of MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't on our list, please click on the MINISTRY WEBSITE link at the top of this article to find the PLN enrollment link.
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