[QUOTE=GandalfTheWhite;1970846]
In response to your question
Hebrews 10:16-17:
Thisis the covenant I will make with them after that time,says the Lord. ‘I will put my laws intheir hearts,and I will write them ontheir minds.’ Then he adds: ‘Their sins and lawless actsI willremember no more.’” (NIV, emphasis mine)
As I have previouslymentioned, the New Covenant hinges on not one, but two core points. At thepoint of conversion, the Holy Spirit writes the law on our minds and places iton our hearts. We have then been born again. We have been changed into people whowant to obey in our hearts the law God desires us to keep. At the very momentthis happens, we are not under law but under grace, for we have a Saviour from oursin. Our sins and lawless acts will be remembered no more. You see, friend,Jesus cannot be your Saviour from sin unless you are born again. For He willnot be anyone’s Saviour from sin unless they desire in their heart to live asHis Father wants them to. You see, God is not stupid. He didn’t make a covenantthat would give anyone a license to sin if the penalty for sin were removed. Bornagain people cannot view this covenant that way, for they want to obey fromtheir hearts. That is the whole point of being born again. If you want to obeyGod from your heart, as I have previously mentioned, it is impossible for youthen to wilfully − without conscience − seek to break God’s laws. It cannothappen, friend. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” (emphasis mine) It is not an option; it ispivotal. Without that happening, you cannot be saved.
You see, no matter which countryyou live in, you are expected to obey the laws of your land, aren’t you? Thatdoesn’t mean, however, you want to obey them all in your heart, does it. Theyare legal laws written down (or typed) on pieces of paper; they are not placedin your heart. Because that is the case, there is a penalty attached to themfor non-compliance to dissuade you from breaking them, isn’t there? And thatpenalty deters most from breaking whichever laws of their land they do not wantto obey in their hearts. If the penalty wasn’t there, you could happily go androb a bank and suddenly become a millionaire, couldn’t you? After all, what is thereto stop you? You see, however, the law God requires you to keep has beentransferred from an external law written on tablets of stone, to an internallaw written on tablets of human hearts. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 3:3, [SUP]“[/SUP]Youshow that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written notwith ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (NIV, emphasis mine)
Now, friend, why would thelaw be transferred onto your heart if the penalty for sin (breaking the law)must remain for you? If the penalty must remain, the law would remain where itwas, wouldn’t it? So, because Christians have been born again, they are notunder law but under grace. Paul preached the New Covenant, and he preached itmightily. You have been changed into someone who wants to obey God in yourheart, and because that has happened, your sins and lawless acts will beremembered no more. You are in a covenant of grace. You are not under the lawfor righteousness before God.
No matter how much bornagain people want to obey, however, they never will perfectly obey the wholelaw of God. If anyone could have done that, there would have been no need forJesus to die for our sins, for then we could have attained Heaven under thelaw.
You see, friend, there is apass mark, if you like, of obedience to the law to be righteous before Godunder it, and that pass mark is beyond man to achieve, for that pass mark is100 percent perfect obedience. James 2:10 states, “For whoever keeps the wholelaw and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (NIV)
James is quite clear,friend. If you stumble at just one point under the law, it is as if you havebroken all of it. In Galatians 3:10-11, Paulagrees with James:
For all who rely on the works of the law are undera curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to doeverything written in the Book of the Law.’Clearly no one whorelies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live byfaith.’ (NIV)
Paul is telling us if werely on works of the law to save us, we are under a curse, for then we wouldhave to do everything written in the law. He states that no one could ever bejustified before God this way, for they cannot perfectly obey the whole law andreach the pass mark required under it. The righteous, therefore, will live byfaith.
Now some try to mix a bitof law with a bit of faith, but that is not possible either. Paul states inRomans 4:14: “For if those who depend onthe law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.” (NIV)
That is also clear, friend.If you rely on obedience to the law, faith can mean nothing to you; therefore,you are cut off from grace, for grace comes through faith. The reason lawbrings wrath is because you cannot meet the standard set under it to berighteous before God. There is only onecovenant, friend, and that covenant is pure grace, not diluted grace. Suchgrace does not exist.
My uncle was a gamekeeper.Often in the evenings when it was dark, he and his son would drive to the edgeof a field and park the van so that it faced the field. Everything was always quietand peaceful when they arrived; hardly a sound came from the field. My cousinwould climb into the back of the van with a gun in his hand. When he was wellpositioned, my uncle turned on the headlights and lit up much of the field. Allof a sudden rabbits scurried around in a very animated fashion. They bolted totry to get away from the glare of the headlights, for they sensed there wasgreat danger in them. Now, friend, it would be a very stupid rabbit that rantoward the headlights, wouldn’t it? For it would be scampering to where thedanger lay. Now before you become a Christian you are a sinner, but inignorance of that fact. You carry on in the dark breaking the law of God,without being perturbed by it, for you don’t know the danger that exists byyour sin, do you? Your sin will hurt you. It can bring much misery to you, butyou will not recognise you are being hurt through sin. Once you become aChristian, however, the spotlight is turned on. You are now conscious of yoursin and the headlights that bring the sin to light is the law. Now you panicbecause you see great danger, for your sin can condemn you. Where will you runto escape the danger? Will you run to a law of righteousness or to Jesus? Itwouldn’t be very sensible to run anywhere other than to safety, would it? Yousee, the law makes you conscious of your sin, but the law cannot save you fromsin; only Jesus can. Paul states in Romans 3:20, “Therefore no one
willbe declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law [striving to obeythe law]; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (NIV)
Now if you run to a law of righteousness,you have rejected Jesus as your Saviour, haven’t you? You are now your ownSaviour from sin. Either you defeat it or you are condemned to hell. Yoursinful nature is going to relish this battle, for it is one it cannot lose. If yoursinful nature could lose it, there would have been no need for Jesus to die onthe cross, would there? Now though you may not consciously understand the passmark to attain Heaven under the law, you will have to set out in this battle tryingto achieve it, won’t you? For you will know that no sin is acceptable to God.You are now in a worse position than people were under the Old Covenant, forsacrifices for sin could be made then, but you are not under that covenant, areyou? There is only one sacrifice for sin under the New Covenant, but you haverejected it. You had a Saviour from sin for the briefest of moments. You didn’tbecome saved by obeying God’s laws, did you? You were saved because Jesus diedfor you, but now you must save yourself from sin or you are condemned.
Everything has changed, however. The sinfulnature is not now carrying on in the dark doing what it wants to do. It hasbeen brought into the light and exposed. Before it stands a law ofrighteousness, which gives your sinful nature power over you. For it can onlycondemn you through the penalty for sin attached to God’s laws, can’t it? Thatis where its true power over you lies. If you live under a law of righteousness,the penalty for sin remains. If you live under grace, the penalty of sin hasbeen removed. Now Paul believed sin will not be your master, for you are notunder law but under grace. So he is really saying that sin will not be yourmaster, for you are not under the penalty attached to the law if you break it.
You see, it is the penalty of sin thatmakes you so fearful of sin, and your fear of sin produces great allurement inyou to sin. If I said to you, “If you think of a pink rabbit, God will condemn youto hell,” what is the first thing you will think of if you believe me? Youwould try desperately never to think of such a creature, wouldn’t you? Youwould become agitated at the thought of a pink rabbit. You would be, animated,overwrought, disturbed, nervous, and panic stricken at the thought of thecreature. You would end up in a frenzied state concerning it, I imagine. Nowthe more these emotions overcome you concerning the creature, the more thethought of the creature will overwhelm you; it will become irresistible. Yousee, however, as you know there is no penalty of condemnation in place if youthink of a pink rabbit, you will not get worked up about it, will you? Paulstates Romans 7:5-6:
For when we were in the realm of the flesh, thesinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruitfor death.But now, by dying to what once bound us, we havebeen released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, andnot in the old way of the written code. (NIV)
Paul tells us the lawarouses sinful passions in us when we live under it. For he goes on to say wedie to the law − we have been released from the law (of righteousness) asChristians and serve in the new way of the Spirit, not the old way of thewritten code (the law). Why does he say thelaw arouses sinful passions for those living under it?
Well, you see, the same emotions that wouldovercome you at the thought of a pink rabbit, if you believed such thoughtscould condemn you, would also overcome you where sin is concerned if you liveunder the law. The penalty for sin is in place if you live under the law, isn’tit? Your sin, therefore can condemn you to hell. You would be extremelyagitated at the thought of sin. You would be animated, overwrought, disturbed,nervous, and panic stricken at the thought of sin. Now the more these emotions concerningsin overcome you, the more sin will overwhelm you, and the more your ability toresist sin will weaken. Why is this? Because those emotions bring you to anexcited state, friend. They are all bar panic-stricken definitions of the word excite. And the definition of panic-stricken is “frenzy,” and the definitionof frenzy is “wild excitement.” Theemotions that result from your fear of the penalty for sin bring you to a veryexcited (or aroused) state where sin is concerned. If you live under the law, therefore,your fear of breaking it (sin) results in sinful passions being aroused in you.That is why Paul tells us the law arouses sinful passions in us if we liveunder it.
Now I would not want you to be under themisapprehension that God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai so it would arouse sinfulpassions in people. I would remind you of King David’s bottom line before God, forhe lived under the Old Covenant. He trusted in God’s unfailing love for him. Hesaid no one was righteous before God. So he didn’t trust in a righteousness ofhis own under the law to attain Heaven, did he? He loved God and knew he wassecure in God’s love for him, so he delighted in obeying God’s laws out of his lovefor God. That is how all should have viewed the law, but most didn’t.
Now under the New Covenant, God shows His unfailinglove to us by sending His Son to be an atonement for our sin. Many neglect thatunfailing love, however, just as they did under the Old Covenant. They becomeChristians and hinge their hope of Heaven on striving to obey the law ratherthan faith in what Jesus did for them at Calvary. They are then overcome withemotions that bring them to an excited state at the thought of sin. The lawthen arouses sinful passions in them, which results in the sin growing strongerand them growing weaker in the faith. You see, however, sinful passions beingaroused in people are not the fault of God’s laws, for the reason this happensis because people are ignoring the expression of God’s unfailing love for them.They are insisting on being justified before God, not by faith in His Son, butby works of the law. As I have previously mentioned, the Apostle Paul continuallypleads in his letters for people not to seek such a justification before God,but many refuse to accept it. And yet who better than Paul knew the futility ofseeking such a justification. For he said as a Pharisee he was the chief ofsinners.
You see, the harder you try to be goodenough for God by observing the law, the more agitated you will become at thethought of breaking it, and the more aroused and excited you will then becomeby the thought of sin. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day proved this to be true. No onemore than they hinged their hope of Heaven on being good enough under the law.What was the result? They became full of hypocrisy, wickedness, and everything unclean on the inside.They could fool the people, for they appeared Godly and righteous on theoutside, but they couldn’t fool Jesus. They had shut God’s love, mercy, andcompassion out of their lives. It was all about what they − by their ownstriving and effort − could achieve. They failed abysmally by taking such aroute, however, as Jesus words show us.
If you want to live a Godlylife you must embrace grace, friend, and that is the only way you will everhave true peace. If you allow yourself to live under the law, it will arouse sinfulpassions in you. That is the belief of the person who wrote half the books ofthe New Testament. You have to accept you are righteous in God’s sight by faithin His Son. You have to accept the penalty of sin has been removed from yourlife if you don’t want sin to be your master. You have to accept you are in acovenant of great love, mercy, and sacrifice. You see, when you repent and askJesus into your life as Lord and Saviour of it, theHoly Spirit will immediately write the law on your mind and place it on yourheart. You don’t have to ask Him to do it, and you don’t have to believe Hewill do it. He will do it. But youare asked to believe the other core truth on which the new covenant hinges: Their sins and lawless acts I will rememberno more. Only if you have both parts of this covenant in your life can theright result be achieved. The first part brings rebirth to you, for you areborn again. The second part of the covenant takes away the penalty for yourfailure to obey the law perfectly. You see, however, though God has removed thepenalty of sin from you, the law God desires you to keep remains on your heart.It is not possible, therefore, to use such grace as a licence to sin.
So when this covenant is working like awell-oiled machine, when we accept both parts of it, how does this work out inour lives? We will be acutely consciousof the failings in us − our sin − sin we hate, sin we do not want, for we havebeen born again. But we do not let thesin condemn us. We look to Jesus and cling to Him, trusting He (not we) is ourright standing before God, for He is our Saviour. We trust Him to give us victoryover the sin we are enslaved by. By doing this we are living not under law butunder grace. Sin’s power in our lives is now dealt a crushing blow, for Paultells us where the power of sin lies. He states in 1 Corinthians 15:56, “Thepower of sin is the law.” (NIV)
Why does Paul state this? Well Paul isreferring here to the law with its penalty in place for breaking it. As we haveseen, the true power of sin is in the penalty attached to the law if you breakit, for through that penalty sin has the power to condemn you to hell, andthrough the fear of that penalty many sinful passions are aroused in you. Withthe penalty of sin removed from you, sin has been robbed of its true power inand dominance over your life. For your righteousness before God rests in whatJesus did for you at Calvary, not obedience to the law.
The great Evangelist Kathryn Khulman said, “Christdied to pay the penalty of your sin, and he died to break the power of sin.” Byachieving the first, the second automatically follows.
God created a covenant whereby he put thedesire in your heart to obey Him − you have been born again. Because that isthe case, Jesus paid the penalty of your sin, but though he paid the penalty ofyour sin, the law remains intact on your heart. By Jesus paying that penalty, Heremoved the true power of sin from your life. Now what happens, friend, if youtake the power of something away? It must weaken, mustn’t it? Nothing else ispossible. The Christian’s born again heartfelt desire to obey can now come tofruition, for Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary has fatally weakened sin, which iswhat opposes obedience. So Paul states in Romans 3:31, “Do we,then, nullify the law by this faith? [a righteousness of faith in Christ-notobedience to the law] Not at all!Rather, we uphold the law.” (NIV, emphasis mine)
In response to your question
Hebrews 10:16-17:
Thisis the covenant I will make with them after that time,says the Lord. ‘I will put my laws intheir hearts,and I will write them ontheir minds.’ Then he adds: ‘Their sins and lawless actsI willremember no more.’” (NIV, emphasis mine)
As I have previouslymentioned, the New Covenant hinges on not one, but two core points. At thepoint of conversion, the Holy Spirit writes the law on our minds and places iton our hearts. We have then been born again. We have been changed into people whowant to obey in our hearts the law God desires us to keep. At the very momentthis happens, we are not under law but under grace, for we have a Saviour from oursin. Our sins and lawless acts will be remembered no more. You see, friend,Jesus cannot be your Saviour from sin unless you are born again. For He willnot be anyone’s Saviour from sin unless they desire in their heart to live asHis Father wants them to. You see, God is not stupid. He didn’t make a covenantthat would give anyone a license to sin if the penalty for sin were removed. Bornagain people cannot view this covenant that way, for they want to obey fromtheir hearts. That is the whole point of being born again. If you want to obeyGod from your heart, as I have previously mentioned, it is impossible for youthen to wilfully − without conscience − seek to break God’s laws. It cannothappen, friend. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” (emphasis mine) It is not an option; it ispivotal. Without that happening, you cannot be saved.
You see, no matter which countryyou live in, you are expected to obey the laws of your land, aren’t you? Thatdoesn’t mean, however, you want to obey them all in your heart, does it. Theyare legal laws written down (or typed) on pieces of paper; they are not placedin your heart. Because that is the case, there is a penalty attached to themfor non-compliance to dissuade you from breaking them, isn’t there? And thatpenalty deters most from breaking whichever laws of their land they do not wantto obey in their hearts. If the penalty wasn’t there, you could happily go androb a bank and suddenly become a millionaire, couldn’t you? After all, what is thereto stop you? You see, however, the law God requires you to keep has beentransferred from an external law written on tablets of stone, to an internallaw written on tablets of human hearts. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 3:3, [SUP]“[/SUP]Youshow that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written notwith ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (NIV, emphasis mine)
Now, friend, why would thelaw be transferred onto your heart if the penalty for sin (breaking the law)must remain for you? If the penalty must remain, the law would remain where itwas, wouldn’t it? So, because Christians have been born again, they are notunder law but under grace. Paul preached the New Covenant, and he preached itmightily. You have been changed into someone who wants to obey God in yourheart, and because that has happened, your sins and lawless acts will beremembered no more. You are in a covenant of grace. You are not under the lawfor righteousness before God.
No matter how much bornagain people want to obey, however, they never will perfectly obey the wholelaw of God. If anyone could have done that, there would have been no need forJesus to die for our sins, for then we could have attained Heaven under thelaw.
You see, friend, there is apass mark, if you like, of obedience to the law to be righteous before Godunder it, and that pass mark is beyond man to achieve, for that pass mark is100 percent perfect obedience. James 2:10 states, “For whoever keeps the wholelaw and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (NIV)
James is quite clear,friend. If you stumble at just one point under the law, it is as if you havebroken all of it. In Galatians 3:10-11, Paulagrees with James:
For all who rely on the works of the law are undera curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to doeverything written in the Book of the Law.’Clearly no one whorelies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live byfaith.’ (NIV)
Paul is telling us if werely on works of the law to save us, we are under a curse, for then we wouldhave to do everything written in the law. He states that no one could ever bejustified before God this way, for they cannot perfectly obey the whole law andreach the pass mark required under it. The righteous, therefore, will live byfaith.
Now some try to mix a bitof law with a bit of faith, but that is not possible either. Paul states inRomans 4:14: “For if those who depend onthe law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.” (NIV)
That is also clear, friend.If you rely on obedience to the law, faith can mean nothing to you; therefore,you are cut off from grace, for grace comes through faith. The reason lawbrings wrath is because you cannot meet the standard set under it to berighteous before God. There is only onecovenant, friend, and that covenant is pure grace, not diluted grace. Suchgrace does not exist.
My uncle was a gamekeeper.Often in the evenings when it was dark, he and his son would drive to the edgeof a field and park the van so that it faced the field. Everything was always quietand peaceful when they arrived; hardly a sound came from the field. My cousinwould climb into the back of the van with a gun in his hand. When he was wellpositioned, my uncle turned on the headlights and lit up much of the field. Allof a sudden rabbits scurried around in a very animated fashion. They bolted totry to get away from the glare of the headlights, for they sensed there wasgreat danger in them. Now, friend, it would be a very stupid rabbit that rantoward the headlights, wouldn’t it? For it would be scampering to where thedanger lay. Now before you become a Christian you are a sinner, but inignorance of that fact. You carry on in the dark breaking the law of God,without being perturbed by it, for you don’t know the danger that exists byyour sin, do you? Your sin will hurt you. It can bring much misery to you, butyou will not recognise you are being hurt through sin. Once you become aChristian, however, the spotlight is turned on. You are now conscious of yoursin and the headlights that bring the sin to light is the law. Now you panicbecause you see great danger, for your sin can condemn you. Where will you runto escape the danger? Will you run to a law of righteousness or to Jesus? Itwouldn’t be very sensible to run anywhere other than to safety, would it? Yousee, the law makes you conscious of your sin, but the law cannot save you fromsin; only Jesus can. Paul states in Romans 3:20, “Therefore no one
willbe declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law [striving to obeythe law]; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (NIV)
Now if you run to a law of righteousness,you have rejected Jesus as your Saviour, haven’t you? You are now your ownSaviour from sin. Either you defeat it or you are condemned to hell. Yoursinful nature is going to relish this battle, for it is one it cannot lose. If yoursinful nature could lose it, there would have been no need for Jesus to die onthe cross, would there? Now though you may not consciously understand the passmark to attain Heaven under the law, you will have to set out in this battle tryingto achieve it, won’t you? For you will know that no sin is acceptable to God.You are now in a worse position than people were under the Old Covenant, forsacrifices for sin could be made then, but you are not under that covenant, areyou? There is only one sacrifice for sin under the New Covenant, but you haverejected it. You had a Saviour from sin for the briefest of moments. You didn’tbecome saved by obeying God’s laws, did you? You were saved because Jesus diedfor you, but now you must save yourself from sin or you are condemned.
Everything has changed, however. The sinfulnature is not now carrying on in the dark doing what it wants to do. It hasbeen brought into the light and exposed. Before it stands a law ofrighteousness, which gives your sinful nature power over you. For it can onlycondemn you through the penalty for sin attached to God’s laws, can’t it? Thatis where its true power over you lies. If you live under a law of righteousness,the penalty for sin remains. If you live under grace, the penalty of sin hasbeen removed. Now Paul believed sin will not be your master, for you are notunder law but under grace. So he is really saying that sin will not be yourmaster, for you are not under the penalty attached to the law if you break it.
You see, it is the penalty of sin thatmakes you so fearful of sin, and your fear of sin produces great allurement inyou to sin. If I said to you, “If you think of a pink rabbit, God will condemn youto hell,” what is the first thing you will think of if you believe me? Youwould try desperately never to think of such a creature, wouldn’t you? Youwould become agitated at the thought of a pink rabbit. You would be, animated,overwrought, disturbed, nervous, and panic stricken at the thought of thecreature. You would end up in a frenzied state concerning it, I imagine. Nowthe more these emotions overcome you concerning the creature, the more thethought of the creature will overwhelm you; it will become irresistible. Yousee, however, as you know there is no penalty of condemnation in place if youthink of a pink rabbit, you will not get worked up about it, will you? Paulstates Romans 7:5-6:
For when we were in the realm of the flesh, thesinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruitfor death.But now, by dying to what once bound us, we havebeen released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, andnot in the old way of the written code. (NIV)
Paul tells us the lawarouses sinful passions in us when we live under it. For he goes on to say wedie to the law − we have been released from the law (of righteousness) asChristians and serve in the new way of the Spirit, not the old way of thewritten code (the law). Why does he say thelaw arouses sinful passions for those living under it?
Well, you see, the same emotions that wouldovercome you at the thought of a pink rabbit, if you believed such thoughtscould condemn you, would also overcome you where sin is concerned if you liveunder the law. The penalty for sin is in place if you live under the law, isn’tit? Your sin, therefore can condemn you to hell. You would be extremelyagitated at the thought of sin. You would be animated, overwrought, disturbed,nervous, and panic stricken at the thought of sin. Now the more these emotions concerningsin overcome you, the more sin will overwhelm you, and the more your ability toresist sin will weaken. Why is this? Because those emotions bring you to anexcited state, friend. They are all bar panic-stricken definitions of the word excite. And the definition of panic-stricken is “frenzy,” and the definitionof frenzy is “wild excitement.” Theemotions that result from your fear of the penalty for sin bring you to a veryexcited (or aroused) state where sin is concerned. If you live under the law, therefore,your fear of breaking it (sin) results in sinful passions being aroused in you.That is why Paul tells us the law arouses sinful passions in us if we liveunder it.
Now I would not want you to be under themisapprehension that God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai so it would arouse sinfulpassions in people. I would remind you of King David’s bottom line before God, forhe lived under the Old Covenant. He trusted in God’s unfailing love for him. Hesaid no one was righteous before God. So he didn’t trust in a righteousness ofhis own under the law to attain Heaven, did he? He loved God and knew he wassecure in God’s love for him, so he delighted in obeying God’s laws out of his lovefor God. That is how all should have viewed the law, but most didn’t.
Now under the New Covenant, God shows His unfailinglove to us by sending His Son to be an atonement for our sin. Many neglect thatunfailing love, however, just as they did under the Old Covenant. They becomeChristians and hinge their hope of Heaven on striving to obey the law ratherthan faith in what Jesus did for them at Calvary. They are then overcome withemotions that bring them to an excited state at the thought of sin. The lawthen arouses sinful passions in them, which results in the sin growing strongerand them growing weaker in the faith. You see, however, sinful passions beingaroused in people are not the fault of God’s laws, for the reason this happensis because people are ignoring the expression of God’s unfailing love for them.They are insisting on being justified before God, not by faith in His Son, butby works of the law. As I have previously mentioned, the Apostle Paul continuallypleads in his letters for people not to seek such a justification before God,but many refuse to accept it. And yet who better than Paul knew the futility ofseeking such a justification. For he said as a Pharisee he was the chief ofsinners.
You see, the harder you try to be goodenough for God by observing the law, the more agitated you will become at thethought of breaking it, and the more aroused and excited you will then becomeby the thought of sin. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day proved this to be true. No onemore than they hinged their hope of Heaven on being good enough under the law.What was the result? They became full of hypocrisy, wickedness, and everything unclean on the inside.They could fool the people, for they appeared Godly and righteous on theoutside, but they couldn’t fool Jesus. They had shut God’s love, mercy, andcompassion out of their lives. It was all about what they − by their ownstriving and effort − could achieve. They failed abysmally by taking such aroute, however, as Jesus words show us.
If you want to live a Godlylife you must embrace grace, friend, and that is the only way you will everhave true peace. If you allow yourself to live under the law, it will arouse sinfulpassions in you. That is the belief of the person who wrote half the books ofthe New Testament. You have to accept you are righteous in God’s sight by faithin His Son. You have to accept the penalty of sin has been removed from yourlife if you don’t want sin to be your master. You have to accept you are in acovenant of great love, mercy, and sacrifice. You see, when you repent and askJesus into your life as Lord and Saviour of it, theHoly Spirit will immediately write the law on your mind and place it on yourheart. You don’t have to ask Him to do it, and you don’t have to believe Hewill do it. He will do it. But youare asked to believe the other core truth on which the new covenant hinges: Their sins and lawless acts I will rememberno more. Only if you have both parts of this covenant in your life can theright result be achieved. The first part brings rebirth to you, for you areborn again. The second part of the covenant takes away the penalty for yourfailure to obey the law perfectly. You see, however, though God has removed thepenalty of sin from you, the law God desires you to keep remains on your heart.It is not possible, therefore, to use such grace as a licence to sin.
So when this covenant is working like awell-oiled machine, when we accept both parts of it, how does this work out inour lives? We will be acutely consciousof the failings in us − our sin − sin we hate, sin we do not want, for we havebeen born again. But we do not let thesin condemn us. We look to Jesus and cling to Him, trusting He (not we) is ourright standing before God, for He is our Saviour. We trust Him to give us victoryover the sin we are enslaved by. By doing this we are living not under law butunder grace. Sin’s power in our lives is now dealt a crushing blow, for Paultells us where the power of sin lies. He states in 1 Corinthians 15:56, “Thepower of sin is the law.” (NIV)
Why does Paul state this? Well Paul isreferring here to the law with its penalty in place for breaking it. As we haveseen, the true power of sin is in the penalty attached to the law if you breakit, for through that penalty sin has the power to condemn you to hell, andthrough the fear of that penalty many sinful passions are aroused in you. Withthe penalty of sin removed from you, sin has been robbed of its true power inand dominance over your life. For your righteousness before God rests in whatJesus did for you at Calvary, not obedience to the law.
The great Evangelist Kathryn Khulman said, “Christdied to pay the penalty of your sin, and he died to break the power of sin.” Byachieving the first, the second automatically follows.
God created a covenant whereby he put thedesire in your heart to obey Him − you have been born again. Because that isthe case, Jesus paid the penalty of your sin, but though he paid the penalty ofyour sin, the law remains intact on your heart. By Jesus paying that penalty, Heremoved the true power of sin from your life. Now what happens, friend, if youtake the power of something away? It must weaken, mustn’t it? Nothing else ispossible. The Christian’s born again heartfelt desire to obey can now come tofruition, for Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary has fatally weakened sin, which iswhat opposes obedience. So Paul states in Romans 3:31, “Do we,then, nullify the law by this faith? [a righteousness of faith in Christ-notobedience to the law] Not at all!Rather, we uphold the law.” (NIV, emphasis mine)
