Discipleship: Law & Grace ~ Ganeida

 This is a teaching sermon where we pull apart some of the ideas around a doctrine to see how it works but never forget it needs to be put back together again & actually applied to your life.

Last time we spoke we talked about what Jesus meant, & what His disciples understood Him to mean, when He invited them to Follow Me.

I am going to recap quickly.

Firstly Follow Me, are the traditional Jewish words used by a rabbi to call a disciple.  The first disciples understood they were being asked to come under the Yoke of Torah & learn what the Torah meant & how to apply it in their daily lives according to Jesus.

We have Jesus words in Matthew 5:7  to consider: "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

If Jesus did not abolish the Torah what does Paul mean when he teaches that we are not under the law? Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14/15

What was the purpose that Jesus came to accomplish & how did He do that?

To answer both questions you need to understand that besides the 10 commandments most people know of there are 613 commandments in the Torah; 248 Positive Commandments (do's) and 365 Negative Commandments (do not's).  The Jews were [& are] required to keep all of them. They covered 3 areas: civil law, ritual law, & moral law.

When we look at what Jesus understood by the law He condensed the entire torah & all the prophets into just 2 things: Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37~39

We have 2 other questions that need to be addressed:

·      By whose authority did Jesus teach?

·      What did Paul mean by Grace?

I will try & keep it simple. The Jews were, & are, judged & condemned under the law of Moses.

Here are 2 different translations of Romans 2:12 :

Romans 2:12 (CJB) All who have sinned outside the framework of Torah will die outside the framework of Torah; and all who have sinned within the framework of Torah will be judged by Torah.

Romans 2:12 (GNTA) The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law.

Romans 7:12~13 says But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commands for its own evil purposes.

It sounds complicated but all it is saying is you won’t be judged by what you don’t know ~ but don’t let that make you complacent in sin because Romans 2:4 says it is possible to instinctively know right from wrong! Even Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.

You see the giving of the law was a gift meant to help people.  Firstly the law reveals our sin. The simplest definition of sin is that it is anything contrary to the revealed will of God.

The root word of toreh is yareh. Yareh is an archery term meaning to hit the mark, so torah is instruction on how to hit the mark in our relationship with God & others.  To miss the mark is sin.

If you just consider the 10 commandments you quickly realise why Jesus broke the entire Torah down into just 2 commandments.  The first 4 commandments deal with our relationship with God, the next 6 with our relationships with each other.

As the law reveals man’s sin so it reveals God’s glory ~ & how far short man falls from the glory of God.  We are a people broken by sin: by envy, lust, quarrelling, bitterness, brawling….& we can’t fix ourselves. All the AA programs, the drug rehabilitation clinics, the jails full of recidivists, the shelters for the homeless & the victims of domestic violence, the dead children, the violence & wars, the large corporations destroying the very air & water we need to survive, testify to our brokenness.  They testify to sin but we are mistaken if we think of the law only in terms of condemnation. 

The law reveals God’s grace to us: Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

The law is God’s standard ~ yet it is impossible for anyone to keep the law because we are a broken & fallen people. Try, just for ½ an hour, to keep yourself from complaining or criticising anything or anyone.  It is like the elephant in the room.  The more you try not to think about it the more you do! That is how sin works in us ~ & because of it God sent one who could keep the law.  That’s grace; the unmerited favoured of God poured out for us simply because the nature of God is to love, even when His love is unwanted, rejected, spat upon & nailed to a cross.

 There is yet another blessing the law imparts but I will come back to that because it is a resurrection blessing.

Now we have said that Jesus disciples understood that He was calling them to the yoke of torah yet a cursory read through the scriptures shows Jesus apparently breaking the torah left, right & centre.  The scribes & Pharisees certainly thought so. However Jesus was imparting a new revelation of torah.

 Jesus said :"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD's favour has come." Luke 4:18/19

You see Jesus understood & imparted the heart of the torah, the heart of God. He said in John 14:9 Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!

He could say this because He had the spirit of God without measure [John 3:34] & thus Jesus explained, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing…

Wow!

That is an enormous claim.  No wonder the Pharisees were up in arms: They demanded, "By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?"  Matthew 11:28 & Luke 20:2

Remember we said that the authority to teach a new understanding of torah had to be given by 2 or 3 Rabbis because 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses [Matthew 18:16] '& it was an honour given to very, very few.  The apostle Paul sat under one of them, a man named Gamaliel, considered one of the greatest teachers of all time. So who were Jesus 2 witnesses?

The synoptic gospels [Matthew, Luke, Mark] all mention Jesus baptism & the 2 things that happened: a voice spoke from heaven confirming who Jesus was & the Spirit of God was seen to descend upon Him.…As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy."

This is reinforced at the Transfiguration on the mount: Then a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him." Luke 9:35

God the Father & the Holy Spirit themselves are Jesus witnesses & it is from them He derives His authority. What’s more, as we have already seen, Jesus only ever did or said what He got directly from the Father.

If Jesus got His teaching directly from the Father & if He only did & said that which came directly from the Father then it was impossible for Him to do anything other than keep the Law perfectly. He fulfilled not only the outward commands but it’s intent & purpose & because of that Paul can say unequivocally that we are under grace, not law.

What does that mean?  It means that the Jews relied on the law to make themselves right with God & so there were continual sacrifices for sin. The Christian relies on Christ to make them right with God because He is the only perfect offering for all sin. The law has not been abolished but the resurrection blessing was the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is He who gives us the new heart, who makes us the new creation, who writes God’s law on our hearts ~ a law not of outward things but of a relationship of the heart.

Remember Luke 6:40~ Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.

The Holy Spirit has been given to be our teacher & helper as well as our comforter but even the best of teachers can do little if a student will not listen & obey.

It is distressing when Christians do not know how to hear from God because as Jesus’ disciples we are meant to become more & more like our teacher, Jesus, through the empowerment of His Holy Spirit. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 says: So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 

There are 2 parts to becoming more like Jesus: learning how to hear from God as Jesus did & doing what Jesus did, thus keeping the law of love & grace.

The first is tied to the second.  You will experience little power in the doing until you learn how to hear.

Now I will give you some pointers on how to hear & the first is glaringly obvious  & exceedingly simple but so little practised most people overlook it: shut up.  That’s all.  If you are so busy doing all the talking & doing the doing you are not paying attention to anything God may want to say to you. You will not learn to hear until you learn how to be quiet in God’s presence.

How do I know it’s God & not just me?  Firstly God’s voice will never disagree with His revealed word in the bible & it will never disagree with His character so the second way to hear God is to know what He has already said & who He has said He is.

This is also how you know you have been given the power & authority for the doing things.

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark16:17~20

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” John 14:12

All of this is expressed most clearly in2 Peter 1:3~4

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

We have been given everything we need to keep all of the law & to do all of the law through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. The law we obey is not a law of dos & don’ts, which cannot save anyone, only bring condemnation. Rather it is the law of love & grace which is Christ in us, For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Acts17:28 If we abide in Him & He in us, then all of this, & more, is not only possible, it is everything.

Communion ~ Rabqa

Today is communion in our Church, so we will be

learn that Jesus was obedient to His Father, even unto death, death on a cross. 

At the famous dinner Jesus held for His disciples before He was crucified, we of course call it the last Supper. This Supper took place on a Jewish 

holiday called Passover, the day the Jews celebrated escaping judgements of God in Egypt during the days of Moses. Do you remember the plagues God brought about in Egypt because Pharaoh chose not to let His people go. 

God's judgement passed over the Israelites because they sprinkled the blood of a lamb over the doorway of each of their homes as Moses instructed them. 

The passover holiday actually originated as a prophetic act intended to prepare the world for the Lamb of God, whose blood was applied to the door posts of all our hearts. 

While the disciples were having dinner with Jesus, He explained that He was the Lamb of God who would die for the sins of the world. Jesus death would fulfil the harsh Old Covenant, which said that the person who sins must die.  Ezekiel 18:20. 

Jesus blood inaugurated a New Covenant. Like the Passover in the days of Moses, this New Covenant would cause God to relate to the world through the sacrificial blood that is the blood of the Lamb of God. No longer would God relate to the world as He had Pharaoh & Egypt. Instead, Jesus became the door of destiny covered by the blood of a sinless lamb which would cause the wrath of God to "pass over" the world. 

Let me explain it this way. 

How would God free His people whom He loves so much from their self imposed bondage to the law? How could He extend mercy to those who are guilty, without violating justice? 

Theses questions make it clear that God has challenge on His hands. He had to create justice for all of humankind so that He could extend mercy. Remember God sits on the mercy seat, but the foundation of His throne is righteousness & Justice Psalm 89:14 & Hebrews 9:5 Here is a story that demonstrates His predicament & His profound solution. 

Late on foggy night, a violent man lurked in the streets of a sleepy neighbourhood. He peered at a beautiful home surrounded by a wooded forest. The house was at the end of a long street which was in darkness because of a moonless sky & no street lights. Quietly he approached the front door, taking hold of the door he picked the lock quickly. 

 He was clothed in black & wore a ski mask, he crept through the front room where a wedding dress lay on the floor. Shinning his torch down the hall he noticed a trail of shed shoes & more clothing littering the floor towards the master bedroom. He listened to make sure the newly weds were sound asleep. 

Slowly the masked intruder made his way to the dressing table, where he spied the brides beautiful engagement ring. As he reached to take it, the young bride woke up. Seeing the silhouette of the masked man beside her, she sat up confused & startled began to scream. The robber covered her mouth to silence her, then pulled out a knife, she fought back as her husband still half asleep jumped out of bed. 

Desperate to safe his wife, the young groom grabbed the intruder by the head trying to dislodge the knife from his hand. Freeing herself, the bride kept screaming for help as her husband fought to subdue the attacker. Suddenly she went silent & limp falling onto the bed, blood pooling out under her. 

The robber wrestled his opponent to the floor, the husband was able to dislodge the knife as they fought on the floor. When the robber jumped up to flee, the desperate young man grabbed him from behind & pulled his ski mask off. Time seem to stand still as the men glared at one another. The attacker then sprinted towards a plate glass window, jumped through it shattering it. The husband turned back to his wife, but it was too late. Her lifeless body lay slumped across the bed. 

It was months latter when the young husband met his wife’s murderer in court. His heart yearned for justice, both for his bride & his own pain. But as the arraignment began, something about the process seemed to go terribly wrong. 

The judge turned to the defendant & said, "Henry Hamstead, your father & I were best friends & room mates in collage. He used to brag about you when you were a little boy. I loved your dad. You are free to go." 

Outraged the young husband jumped up & began shouting in protest, "Your Honour, are you serious? That man killed my bride! He took the love of my life. You can't just let him go free. ''

The judge replied that he was in charge & that he chose to be merciful to this man. 

The young man said "Yes your Honour, but aren't you also just?'' he demanded."Doesn’t justice matter to you? Or don't you have any integrity?" 

While the judge hesitated over his dilemma, apparently waging war in his mind between justice & mercy, there was a sudden commotion in the courtroom as an elderly woman forced her way to the stand. 

"Your Honour," said the woman through her tears ''Henry is my son & I choose to offer my life up for his. Take my life & let him go.''

The merciful judge turned to the magistrate & whispered in his ear. A few tense moments passed as the magistrate pulled out a thick book marked with an "H" off a large bookcase that covered an entire wall. All the books were identified with letters of the alphabet, which were in order on the shelves from "A to Z". The magistrate put on his glasses & searched through the book. Finally he looked up with grief on his face & proclaimed, "Mrs Hamstead, I have found your name in the Book of Fugitives. You can't die for your son because you are also wanted for crimes punishable by death.'' 

The courtroom was stunned as the woman cried out for mercy for her only son, pleading for his life. 

"He was stealing to try to keep the bank from foreclosing on my house!'' she wailed. ''It was an accident he didn't mean to kill the girl.'' 

But the constable ushered her out of the courtroom in handcuffs. 

A moment later, a young man in his thirties stood up at the back of the room. 

"Your Honour," he shouted, his voice quivering, ''I choose to die for Henry!" 

Shocked exclamations filled the courtroom. 

"Your name?" the magistrate demanded. 

''My name is Jacob," the young man replied. 

His eyes met those of the magistrate & Judge, & they stared intently at each other. 

Suddenly the expression on the faces of the Judge & magistrate changed. They seemed to recognise something about the young man. The Magistrate turned to the book shelf & finding the book marked "J", he began to turn the pages nervously. The courtroom grew silent as the Magistrate looked up in amazement. 

"His name is not listed in the Book of Fugitives, Your Honour," the Magistrate said. "I don't understand it! We are all guilty somehow..." 

Seeming to fear what this could mean for the brave young man who had offered himself up as a sacrifice for the murderer hung his head & stared at the floor, not wanting to meet Jacob's eyes. 

"If he is not wanted for any crimes," the judge declared, "then no one can refuse to let this innocent man pay the price of this guilty man." 

The young groom jumped to his feet & protested again, "Your Honour, how can he take the killer's place when this man is guilty?" 

"I had the magistrate check" the judge explained, "& even you & your wife are listed in the Book of Fugitives, wanted for crimes punishable by death. You are no less guilty then Henry here. Yet something is different about this man, Jacob, whose sacrifice will preserve the cause of justice. He is the only one I have ever met who can take the place of a guilty man & justice will be served through the innocent so that mercy can be extended to the guilty." 

This imaginative story illustrates how Jesus' death on the cross changed the conditions of all humankind standing before the judge of heaven. Jesus was innocent; He never sinned & therefore deserved to live. But He chose to take our place. 

Each one of us are fugitives, guilty of sins punishable by death. But the judgement that provoked the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus when He died for the sins of the world. With the cause of justice having been fulfilled by His Son's blood, the Judge of heaven is free to extend mercy to all sinners without being crooked or corrupt. 

Paul said it was best when he wrote For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.2 Cor 5:21. 

In the book of Romans Paul wrote that He (Jesus) was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Rom 4:25 & in Rom 5:9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 

The point is that not that God can judge sin in the life of a sinner; He is God & can do whatever He wants. The point is simply that He is not obligated to punish sin to create justice on Cavalry’s cross. God has now the right to release everyone from sin without being an unjust judge. 

The blood of Jesus creates a new agreement between God & mankind, which reconciles the world to our Creator once & for all. Luke records the last Supper like this LK 22:19-20. 

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. 

Acknowledgements Kris Vallotton.