Seventeen Points on why the believer is not under the Law. Part 2.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Point 7. Seventeen Points from the book of Galatians on Why the Believer is Not Under the Law.
a. If the believer is under the Law, it makes Christ a minister or partner with sin, GAL 2:17.
b. The believer has died to the Law, GAL 2:19.

c. A believer has received all the benefits of the Holy Spirit through faith, GAL 3:1-5.
d. The Law Brings Nothing but Condemnation,
GAL 3:10-14.
e. God’s promised blessings to Abraham, of which Abrahamic root all believers partake of, (Rom 11), precede or came before the giving of the Law, therefore, the law cannot be a prior claim, GAL 3:15-17.

f. The Law has no power to give life or to sustain life, GAL 3:21.
g. The Law is intended only for the immature, while positionally, believers are full-grown sons, GAL 3:23-4:7.
h. The Law is a bondage to the believer, GAL 4:9.
i. Law and grace are mutually exclusive principles; therefore, choose one or the other, GAL 4:21-31.

The son by the bondwoman [Ishmael] was born according to the flesh [human plans and ingenuity]. The son by the free woman [Isaac] through the promise [of God or divine ingenuity or power].

The child of the slave woman, Hagar, was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth; the son of the free woman, Sarah, was born in fulfillment of the promise.

The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. These two women represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai, where the Law was given, and bears children destined for slavery; this is Hagar.

Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to and belongs in the same category with the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage together with her children.

The Jerusalem above refers to the Messianic kingdom of Christ. There is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother - this is the way of Sarah.

For the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband.
ISA 54:1 the children of the barren woman now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

We are children, not by physical descent, as was Ishmael, but like Isaac, born in virtue of promise.

Just as at that time the child of ordinary birth (Ishmael), born according to the flesh despised and persecuted him who was born remarkably according to the promise and the working of the Holy Spirit, so it is now also,GEN 21:9.

Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern?

Cast out and send away the slave woman and her son, for never shall the son of the slave woman be heir and share the inheritance with the son of the free woman, GEN 21:10.

We who are born again are not children of a slave woman, the natural, but of the free, the supernatural.

j. The believer has an abiding freedom in Christ, GAL 5:1.

k. The believer must keep all the law, if he would attempt to keep even part of it, and that is an impossibility,
GAL 5:2-4.

When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and programs, you are cut off from Christ and you fall out of grace.

i. The persuasion to put the believer under the Law is not from God,
GAL 5:8.
j. Legalism of the believer does away with the offense of the cross, GAL 5:11.
k. All the Mosaic Law is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit, GAL 5:16-24.

What is the flesh? It is the human nature without God.
Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit, and then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.

The desires of the flesh are opposed to the Holy Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to the flesh, the godless human nature.

For there is a root of sinful self-interest in all of us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.

There are no rewards and no blessings of their divine inheritance because they are loser believers who will be filled with shame and embarrassment at the Judgment Seat of Christ,
1JO 2:28.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the work which His presence within accomplishes in our lives.

l. The life of the believer must be sustained on the same principle as his new birth or regeneration, GAL 5:25.
m. The believer’s proneness to sin calls for his dealing with grace, not dealing according to the Law, GAL 6:1-5.
n. All who advocate the law for the believer cannot keep it themselves, and their intention is ultimate glory in the flesh, GAL 6:13.

Point 8. The Basic Law the Church-age Believer Is Under.
a. The perfect law of liberty.

Many people think that the law of liberty is some sort of “see you later God” type of lifestyle.

The law of liberty is a reference to the freedom we have to serve the Lord not the freedom we have to sin. The law of liberty means that no one else has the right to tell you how to live your life.

The word liberty is defined as the state of being exempt from the dominion of others or from restricting circumstances. The law of liberty is not carnality.

Grace is not a way of escaping obedience to God; it is the only way in which true obedience can be achieved.

b. Then there is the law of love.
The law of liberty is directed toward self.
The law of love is directed toward others.

The liberty and the freedom that believers have is revealed by the love that they have for others.

c. The law of expediency.
The law of expediency = in order for the gospel to be made clear and that false issues do not come in and sidetrack the gospel, it is expedient that certain types of procedure be followed.

This law takes into consideration the danger to the believer’s own life in the matter of personal habits or trends and the responsibility to others in the matter of edification.

When considering the law of expediency we do not ask what harm is there in this or that? But rather what is the good in that which I am doing?

EPH 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,

d. Then there is the law of supreme sacrifice.
Paul in 1CO 9:12 illustrated this when he said he could not get married because of the nature of his ministry.

Point 9. The Present Purpose of the Mosaic Law in the Church-age.
Point 10. The Present Value of the Mosaic Law.
Point 11. The Spiritual Freedom of the Church Inside the PPOG Exceeds Any Freedom Defined by the Mosaic Law.

Point 12. The Pre-salvation Function of the Mosaic Law.
Point 13. The Mosaic Law Defines the Enmity Between God and Man.
Point 14. Salvation Is Not by Keeping the Law, GAL 2:16.
Point 15. Keeping the Law Is Also Not Spirituality, 1Co 13; ROM 8:2-4;
GAL 5:18,22-23.

Point 16. Nomenclature for the Mosaic Law.
Point 17. The past Purpose of the Mosaic Law in the Jewish-age.
Point 18. The Mosaic Law and the Dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.