Some might be confused about the purpose of the law and the purpose of the gospel. Are they the same or different? This daily devotional looks at how they are connected and how disciples of Christ are required to discern the difference.
Nuggets
- God’s law required 100% obedience.
- The law prepared us for Jesus’ arrival.
- It was always God’s plan to send Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer.
- With Jesus’ covenant, we only need accept the gift of salvation.
Devotions in the How to Discern the Voice of God series
The difference between the law and grace may be confusing for some. They seem to be connected, but then Paul kept telling us that we were no longer under the law.
What gives?
Let’s Put It into Context #1
Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong. Applying that would mean that we gauge a situation and know how God would like us to act.
That is what discernment is, but we can’t just leave it at that. It isn’t just about doing what is right or wrong.
It isn’t an academic knowledge of reality and existence. It isn’t just a head knowledge of Who God is and what He has done.
Most importantly, we are called to know God. Knowledge is organizing truth in the mind.
But like we keep saying, our faith can’t just be head knowledge. It has to be heart knowledge.
It is knowing, believing, and submitting to God so that we can secure salvation. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with eternal life and good.
God isn’t into a works-based salvation. He wants us to change our character to be more like His.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- We have to know obedience from sin.
- Disciples are told to pursue knowledge.
- We are not to follow the world’s attempts to figure out how God does what He does.
- By changing our character to be like God, we know what His truths are and can determine right from wrong.
- Knowledge leads us to understand God.
- Paul thought discernment was wrapped up in loving God more.
- The word of God is living because we are constantly learning more than we previously knew and learning more in-depth what we previously knew.
We are walking through Alexander’s sermon to see what we can mine from it. The purple headings are going to be his words.
Resource
Alexander’s Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/alexander/rightly_dividing_the_word_of_truth.htm
Let's Put It into Context #3
But first we have to talk about what the law and the gospel are for those who may be new to churchy words.
Liddon explained what the law entailed. He was explaining Paul’s use of it and wrote, “Here he means by it generally the five Books of Moses to which the Jews commonly gave the name; and more particularly he means those parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, in which are contained the various rules which God gave to Moses for the moral, social, political, and religious, or ceremonial conduct of the people of Israel.”
Resource
The gospel refers to the good news which contains the message about Jesus being our Savior and Redeemer. It specifically focuses on our need to ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
A good workman will so divide the word of truth, as clearly to distinguish between the law and the gospel; between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal. 3: 24-26 ESV)
The Law
I had never really thought about it this way before. We are all under God’s laws, even if we aren’t the Israelites.
Well, nature does have laws. Who created nature? God. All of mankind are accountable to God.
Resource
Let’s focus on the Books of Moses. Add Genesis, and they are called the Torah.
Yeah, there are a lot of do’s and don’ts in the laws contained in the Torah. They fall into three different categories: civil, ceremonial, and moral.
Why were the Israelites given laws? These were their part of the covenant agreement God made with Abraham. When they were obedient to the laws, they ensured God would look on them in favor. That made it a covenant of works.
Glossary
Vincent described what God’s law is. He wrote, “God’s law is the declaration of His will; and God’s perfect will never changes, and, therefore, God’s law is like Himself — the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
Resource
The laws won’t change, but Jesus, being our Savior, fulfilled all of these laws. We no longer are responsible for the civil and ceremonial laws. We do, however, have to keep the moral laws.
What we are facing, though, is worldview people think we can keep the moral laws without making a profession of faith. That isn’t enough.
Yes, keeping the moral laws are helping to give us a character like God’s. That is a good thing.
There are two problems with that. The first problem is moral laws alone cannot save us. God’s law required 100% obedience.
That is never going to happen. “For the law never made anything perfect …” (Heb. 7: 19 NLT). Our sinful nature would not let that happen. Almost isn’t good enough.
Knowing us, we would start kicking back at being told what to do and what not to do. That isn’t submission to the all-powerful God.
If we would be doing a bang-up job at keeping the law, our sinful nature would start puffing ourselves us. “Hey, we can act like this on our own. We don’t need God.” Wrong.
That was part of the issues with the law. It could only give us the model of how we are supposed to behave. It did not tell us how to rectify it if we broke a law.
The second problem is that keeping the moral laws do nothing about our being spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
We needed Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins. The law prepared us for His arrival.
The Gospel
It was always God’s plan to send Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer. He was changing it to a covenant of grace.
Glossary
With Abraham’s covenant, it was a covenant of works. Our part of the bargain was the do’s and don’ts.
With Jesus’ covenant, we only need accept the gift of salvation. Oh, yes. We are expected to follow the do’s and don’ts after conversion. Perfection is not a requirement of salvation. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
There is nothing we can do ourselves to gain salvation from God — except ABCD.
We are justified — not by what we do — but by our faith. Faith is the belief that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
See, belief in God’s Word. Not be Superman or Wonder Woman and do everything exactly right. Believe.
We are separated from God when we are born. It was nothing we ourselves did.
But we ourselves have to rectify that condition. We have to repent and be saved. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God, expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Davies put it this way. He wrote, “According to this constitution there is encouragement for sinners to repent and use the means of grace; and all who are saved by it, are not only obliged to yield obedience to the law, but also enabled to do so with sincerity, though not to perfection. They are effectually taught by it ‘to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live righteously, soberly, and godly in the world;’ and, in short, holiness of heart and life is as effectually secured in this way as in any other.”
Resource
Sincerity. Not perfection.
So, it isn’t do or don’t do. It is believing on Jesus.
This is what the gospel is all about.
Making the Connections
So, how does discernment fit into this discussion? Tyng told us that “The law is the model; it is not the substance.”
Resource
We have to put the square pegs in the square holes. That means we have to know round from square — and square from rectangle.
We can only do that through revelation of God. “If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing” (II Cor. 4: 3 NLT). Worldview people aren’t going to get the memo.
Why? Because it isn’t about us or what we do or what we understand. It is only about what Jesus has already done for us.
What I read in the Biblical Illustrator said that some is even kept from the saints. “The gospel in some measure and degree is hid and obscure, even to the saints of God.” Saints means holy ones. We have been set apart.
Resource
We aren’t going to be given everything. What we are given is difficult to understand if we go at it from a worldview perspective.
We need to approach God humbly. We need to acknowledge His sovereignty. We need to submit to Him.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
We have to be able to distinguish round, square, and rectangle. That means we have to seek God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
How Do We Apply This?
Remember when we said we can’t keep the moral laws 100%? Remember when we said we need to still be following those laws and commandments?
Even saints aren’t going to be able to do that. Luther put it this way: “Nevertheless there is sin still remaining in the saints, whereby their conscience is accused and plagued. Yet Christ helps it up again through His daily, yea, continual drawing near.”
Resource
• We sin still.
• When we do, we need to repent and turn.
• We need to do repent daily.
Father God. Even before You created us, You were providing for us. You provided the Plan of Salvation. Thank You for loving us and wanting to restore our relationships with You. We believe the only way to do that is by asking Your Son Jesus to be our Savior. Forgive us daily as we continue to sin and continue to ask Your forgiveness. Amen.
What do you think?
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