The Conflict Between the Law and Grace // You Have Been Set Free, Part 5

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Yeah we know about grace, we've heard about grace, it's a good thing but deep down inside, in our heart of hearts most of us harbour a sneaking suspicion that this whole 'God' thing surely has to come down to following a bunch of rules, right?

If I were to ask you, "are you living under a curse?" What would your answer be? I guess perhaps if you're going through some tough times you might be tempted to say yes but just for a moment set your circumstances aside, forget what's going on around you, in your relationship with God are you living under a curse?

Now that may seem like rather an odd question but actually a good many people who say they believe in Jesus are doing exactly that, they're living under a curse. A curse that God wants to remove from your life today, Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 and 13:

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse for it is written 'cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law. But:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written 'cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'.

That word curse is a very strong word. If someone says to you 'I curse you' that's pretty offensive, you take that pretty seriously. There's a venom, a sense of evil, a sense of fear, foreboding in that word curse.

Well, now listen this to this very carefully, God is saying to you today that if you're living your life under the lie that you can only be in His favour if you perform, if you deliver the goods, if you follow the rules. If that's how you're living your life God is saying to you today that you are living under a curse.

That's very strong and the reason I'm being so blunt and so direct with you on this is that God is making a powerful point to you and me today. But with the bad news comes the good news. They call it the Good News but frankly I think it's stunningly Good News, it's fantastic news, it's sensational news.

Jesus took that curse on His shoulders when He died for you. He became a curse for you as He hung on that cross so that you could be set free. Listen to me, stop living under the curse of trying to follow the rules and start enjoying the freedom that you have in Christ. Start enjoying the fact that God has put His Holy Spirit in you. Start enjoying the fact that you're forgiven, that God has a plan for your life, a good plan.

Back in the Old Testament it says that:

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Have you heard the Good News today? Then enter into that joy, experience that joy, live in that joy, the curse has been removed, you are forgiven, you are free. That's fantastic news.

And yet we still struggle with this whole 'grace' thing don't we? Grace, Gods grace is such a difficult concept to wrap your heart around. Even if you can wrap your mind around it, wrapping your heart around it, believing in the grace of God is so hard because we don't live in a world of grace.

We live in a world that measures you on your performance. A world that says, "if you're wealthy, if you have a good job, if you live in a big house, if you drive a nice car then you're successful, then you have value, THEN you have worth." And the flip side of that coin is true too. If you don't measure up, if you don't deliver, if you don't fit into the world's mould of success, if you're not good looking and well dressed then you don't have much worth at all.

In fact all too often if you can't do something for people they just discard you, pass you by, throw you on the trash heap. So we have a performance mind set, we've been taught to equate performance measured by the world's scale, with value. That's the basic lie we live with and can I say even as Christians we kind of have this belief that what comes first in the Bible is the law of the Old Testament, the rule book if you will and it was only later that this idea of God's grace, made active in our lives through faith, came about.

Law first then grace but actually that's not true, that's putting the cart before the horse. Have a listen, the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter 3 verses 6 to 8:

Just as Abraham 'believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness' so you see those who believe are the descendents of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify Gentiles by faith declared the Gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, 'all the Gentiles shall be blessed in you'. For this reason those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

Now the point Paul makes a few verses later in that chapter is that this whole 'Abraham believed God and it was reckoned as righteousness' thing happened a full four hundred and thirty years before the Old Testament law was given to Gods people through Moses. So let's get the horse before the cart, grace through faith in what God says always came first, always. Grace, the free unmerited favour of God. It's just who God is. It's born out of the incredible love He has for you and me.

The world wants you to perform, to deliver, to be measured by its rule of success and frankly religion is about performing and delivering too. But what God has for you today is His grace and grace always, always comes first. So let me ask you; if God is the God of grace and when you see what Jesus did for us on the cross there could be no doubt about that, then why did He introduce the Old Testament law? Why did God even entertain a bunch of rules that at the end of the day His people would simply be incapable of keeping?

It's an important question to know the answer to because it's all too easy to slip back into that old way of thinking, that following Jesus is all about adhering to a set of rules. So here's Gods answer through the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter 3 verse 19 and 23 to 26:

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made. Now before faith came we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer subject to the disciplinarian for in Christ Jesus you are children of God through faith.

So the Old Testament law was only ever put there as a temporary measure until God was ready to reveal His grace, through faith, in the coming of Jesus Christ. It was put there to keep people in line I guess until God was ready to reveal Jesus. And when you look back at the history of Israel throughout the Old Testament, from beginning to end, the thing that stands out is that God's people couldn't seem to keep the law for very long at all.

In fact the very name Israel means 'to struggle with God'. The whole story of the Old Testament is about Israel struggling to keep the law, struggling in their relationship with God. God sent them Prophet after Prophet to call them back to Himself. He punished them over and over again to bring them to their senses and for a little while that would work until they wandered off again.

If you ask me, "what's the central theme, the central point of the Old Testament?" My answer would simply be this; but try as they might Gods people couldn't stick to the rules. We can't follow the law. We'll never be able to put ourselves into a right relationship with God simply by following the rules.

The whole of the Old Testament screams out at us, "this isn't working, there has to be another way". And there is! That's why God sent Jesus. That was always the plan. The whole point of the Old Testament struggle for you and me today is to teach us beyond any shadow of a doubt that following the rules simply doesn't work, what's more it never will and that's why we need Jesus.