Flotsam and Jetsam

People say, ‘Are Christians under the law or not?’ How you answer this question will have a bearing on the way you live.

Paul responds by giving us an illustration. He tells us that mankind is the wife of a husband called law (Rom. 7:1-6). Mr Law is an austere figure who has complete authority over us.

Day after day we live under his condemnation: ‘You’re wrong! Stop this! Don’t do that!’ He points out our shortcomings but never lifts a finger to help.

To make matters worse, we can’t argue with him because we instinctively know that he is always right.

Mrs Law may say, ‘I want Christ to be my husband,’ but she cannot marry him because she is already married and would be committing spiritual adultery (Rom. 7:2, 3). To point the picture totally black, the law will never pass away (Matt. 5:18). We are permanently married to an overbearing, fault-finding, unhelpful husband – and he will never die.

What’s the solution? This: we have ‘died to the law through the body of Christ’ (Rom. 7:4). When Jesus died on the cross He took the curse of the law.

At our conversion, we were placed into Christ and were crucified with Him. The law didn’t die. We did! Christ fulfilled all the demands in the law and we have been totally released from its power.

Our freedom from the law can be likened to a soldier’s discharge from the army. For a time the young recruit is subjected to harsh military training. Then one day he is discharged.

When his sergeant sees him strolling carelessly across the parade ground, he is horrified and barks out the order to stand to attention.

At first, the recruit cringes, then he remembers that this man no longer has any authority over him. The sergeant can scream and yell as much as he likes but he has no control over someone who has been discharged.

The answer to the question, ‘Are Christians under the law?’ is ‘No’. The law is designed for those who have not been born again. We are no longer under its power.

Although the law may continue to make endless demands of us, we are dead to it (Gal. 2:19). ‘Christ is the end of the law … for everyone who believes’ (Rom. 10:4).

To Meditate On

Jesus gave His life to fulfil God’s commands for you.

‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them’ (Matt. 5:17).

‘God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons’
(Gal. 4:4,5).

To Consider

WRITE DOWN five character traits which will contribute towards a good marriage or friendship (e.g. fidelity).

• Do the same exercise with reference to your relationship with Christ.

• If you are married, note the areas of greatest difficulty, pray about them and, with God’s help, work at them.

To Apply

The quality of your marriage relationship with Christ is seen in your relationships with others.

WHAT are your:

• strongest traits?
• weakest traits?

WHAT practical steps do you need to take to overcome your weak areas?

Food For Thought

READ ISAIAH 62:2 AND ROMANS 7:1-6.

When a woman marries, she changes her name. What Scriptures can you find that refer to our change of name? Write them down.

When people marry, everything belonging to their fiancé(e) now belongs to them. Write down some of the things that now belong to us in Christ (e.g. security).

Be Inspired

If you do not see Law being honoured on the Cross of Calvary you have never seen the true meaning of the death of Christ: it is essentially an honouring of the Law … and because the Law has been honoured in that way we are now free to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES

‘(Christ abolished) in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations’ (Eph. 2:15).

Most of us have been taught from the early days of our Christian life that prayer, Bible study, fellowship and evangelism are what you ought to do if you want to be right with God. We assume, therefore, that once we have received salvation as a free gift, we then reign in life by working hard at these ‘rules’.

Sadly rules do not liberate, they imprison. We follow them for a while, then we get behind, fall into condemnation and eventually end up in defeat. Periodically we do escape into an excellent conference or worship time. But the liberty we feel then is short-lived, a far cry from the daily reality when we’re ‘never quite making it’.

Have you ever wondered whether ’striving to please God’, is the way to reign in life? ‘Well,’ you might say, ‘how else can we reign?’

The Galatians thought that they could ‘reign in life’ by keeping various rules. Having received salvation as a gift they were now trying to please God ‘by human effort’ (Gal. 3:3).

They were ‘observing special days and months and seasons and years’ (Gal. 4:10). Other believers may have been impressed by these self-imposed rituals.

Paul was horrified. ‘You foolish Galatians!’ he rebuked them (Gal. 3:1). He realised that they were putting themselves back under law (Gal. 4:21).

Others may have argued, ‘They’re just developing a slightly different emphasis.’ Paul said, ‘You are turning to a different gospel!’ (Gal. 1:6).

We may not realise it, but like the Galatians, many of us have turned to a ‘different gospel’. Quite rightly we receive salvation as a free gift. Quite wrongly we try to reign in life by working hard at various rules.

If Paul were here, he would gaze at us in disbelief and cry, ‘You foolish Christians! Don’t you realise that reigning in life has nothing whatever to do with your accomplishments? It’s about what Christ has already accomplished for you. It concerns not what you do but what you receive. You reign in life when you “receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness”‘ (Rom. 5:17).

Grasp this truth and it will totally liberate you!

To Meditate On

JESUS WANTS YOU NOT JUST TO BE SAVED BY GRACE BUT TO CONTINUE IN IT

‘Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace’ (Heb. 13:9).

‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand’ (Rom. 5:1, 2).

To Consider

READ GALATIANS 4:9.

What did Paul call the rules that the Galatians were observing?

What did he say these rules would do?

To Answer

Paul once put all his confidence in the flesh. How did he view his ‘faultless legalistic righteousness’ after he had become a Christian’
(Phil. 3:6-8)?

Are you clinging to anything that you think will gain you merit before God (e.g. prayer, Bible study, etc.)?

Food For Thought

READ through GALATIANS 3:1-14.

ASK God to make the truth in the passage clear to you.

Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus’ (2 Tim. 2:1). Strength doesn’t come from gritting your teeth and willing yourself to be strong. It comes by drawing from Christ’s inward strength. Think about this.

Be Inspired

Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

JOHN NEWTON
‘Amazing Grace’

Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Gal. 3:5)