Turn back to where we were the
last time in our study to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. And I'm going to read two verses. I call this tonight, Justified
Without the Law. If you look down with me to where
we stopped last week in verse 20, Paul says, Therefore, by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Now, Paul comes to what he is about to say in
these verses from having painted that black background. wherein he sets forth the condition,
the state of all people by nature. It doesn't matter whether they
are Jew or Gentile. He says in verse 19, Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God." And then he begins that next
verse with that word, therefore. In light of this fact, in light
of what men are in themselves, therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." Now, I thought about it today. If we read that verse without
any preconceived ideas or notions, If we came to it without any
human commentary on it, what would it say to us? Well, it says, by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, and the Spirit
of God does not stop there, like most commentators and many preachers
do, to qualify that statement. No, he just says, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. It doesn't say that by our deeds
of the law, none are justified. It says plainly and clearly that
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. In other words, two things stand
out there, no deeds, no flesh, no law. Now, the first thing that I would
remind us of is this. What law did all our race fall
into sin under? Well, all you have to do is read
Romans 5, and it says that we all sinned, we all fell in sin,
in that law, or that command rather, that God gave to Adam,
which was, don't eat of that tree in the midst of the garden. And the consequence to disobedience
to that command is this, in the day you eat thereof you shall
surely die. And that's what you find throughout
all of this book, that the wages of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, brings
forth death. And there can never be by us
any keeping of the law in order to undo what was already done
when God gave the law that is being spoken of here to Moses. Not by us and not by Christ. Somebody says, hold on there. It says, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Now, we know that Christ, being
a Jew, was made under the law. We know that He kept the law
in every jot and tittle. And we know that He had to do
that in order to show Himself the spotless, perfect Lamb of
God, the sinless, one who was to be the sacrifice. But if all he had done was come
in human flesh and lived under the law in perfect obedience
to that law, we would still have perished. And not only that, If in some
way, which the Bible never speaks of, by the way, he could have
somehow vicariously lived under the law for us, fulfilled that
law in that sense for us, then we wouldn't have had to die and
he would not have had to die. Isn't that right? You think about
it. No, when God gave the law to
Moses, and I'm talking about that law which was all one. It was not divided like men have
done into the ceremonial law and the moral law. It was given
to this one nation as the whole and called the law. He gave it to Moses on Mount
Sinai. But we as men and women, descendants
of Adam, had already fallen to the lowest depths that any could
fall to. When we sinned against Him in
our father Adam, we fell to an irretrievable condition and state
apart from the grace of God. And the Apostle tells us in many
places, but one I especially like there in Romans 5, that
his grace is that grace that he says reigns in righteousness. But never by the deeds or the
works of the law shall any flesh be justified." All right? Hold your place right there and
turn over to Romans 10. Now, you're just reading without
any prior influence or preconceived notions and such as that, and
you come here to Romans chapter 10, and Paul has just been talking
about his own kinsmen after the flesh, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
and have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
And look at what he says in verse 4. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Now, there are two basic thoughts
that describe that word end there, the end of the law. One of them
is this thought, the point at which something is aimed. In other words, the law was never
given. for any other reason with regard
to Christ than to show and picture Him. But also, equally so, and maybe
even more so, that word is often used as termination. You know what that means? That
means the end of a thing. is the termination of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And then the
very next thing Paul does is he contrasts two things. Look at the next verse. For Moses
describes the righteousness which is of the law that the man which
doeth those things shall live by them." The man that does it
is live or die in perfect obedience. And anything less than perfect
obedience is death. All right? Look at the next verse.
But the righteousness which is of faith, Now, that's a totally
different thing, is it not? But said in contrast to the righteousness
of the law, the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise, say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven,
that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend
into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead? But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we
preach." that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." You see that? And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. The righteousness of the law
has to do with doing. The righteousness which is of
faith has to do with believing on Christ and what He did. There is a big difference. And he contrasts the two things,
and he shows that they are two distinctively different things
And he makes that statement just like Christ does in John 1 when
he said, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Not only that, but this is what
Paul writes in the fourth chapter. He says, for the promise that
he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to
his seed through the law. It was not. But through the righteousness
of faith. Obedience to law had nothing
to do with it, neither ours nor Christ's, as far as righteousness
is concerned. And the Scriptures speak of this
everlasting righteousness. But it speaks of the law as being
added. You know what that means? It means to place alongside. That's what the law is. That which is placed alongside
of what has already from old eternity been established, and
that is the one righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and manifested
through the gospel. You see, the Israelite under
the law was saved by grace just as Abraham was before the law,
and just like we must be saved after the law. Men and women
have never been saved but one way, by the grace of God and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. and by that way that he calls
righteousness. Never been any other way. All
right? The law had a purpose, as everything
God gives and does, and that is, he says, because of transgressions,
or to reveal something of the true nature of sin by transgression. It's kind of like this. If we
have a person who commits murder in a land that is wild and woolly
and ungoverned and untamed, murder is wrong and it's murder. But
if we come and a government is established and laws are passed
whereby Men are told that they are not to commit murder or take
a life. There will be a penalty for it.
All that does is more fully and clearly manifest what is already
wrong. In a sense, it is to transgress
the law. But the Scripture says also that
the law also came to an end. It was added till the sea come. It was added till the sea come. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul never distinguishes,
like men do, so-called ceremonial law, or the dietary law, or the
sanitary law, or the moral law, you'll never find any of the
New Testament apostles or anywhere in the Old Testament that does.
It's just the law. The law. The whole law. The Ten Commandments in particular,
all of which curses the sinner. And that distinction that is
made of men is just like an old writer said, it is the invention
of man himself who would rather be condemned by the law than
to be saved by the grace of God. That's just the way it is. That's
how self-righteous we are. That's how proud and how rebellious
and how how at enmity the carnal mind is against God. We'd rather
be condemned by the law than saved by free grace. That's it. Turn over to Galatians chapter
3. Galatians chapter 3, and look
down as he takes Abraham as his example. And he shows how that
Abraham believed God, how that Abraham was a saved man, how
that Abraham obeyed God before the law was ever given. Look
down at verse 12. He says, and the law is not of
faith. There's nothing about the law
that is of faith. And we're saved by grace through
faith. There's nothing of the law that
is grace. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. That's not to say that anyone
can or anyone will. That's just to show us that none
can. No honest person would ever imagine
that they could. Look down in verse 17. He says, "...and this I say,
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred
and thirty years after cannot disannul, that it should make
the promise of none effect. The promise given to Abraham
vocalized by God to Abraham in that seed that was to come, that
could not be disannulled or diluted in any way by the law which was
given 430 years later. As a matter of fact, law and
promise are contradictory, contrary,
opposites of one another. Listen to him. For if the inheritance,
he's talking about all of that eternal inheritance the apostle
talks about. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made, and
it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law, but the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. That's exactly what Paul's been
saying here in Romans 3. The Scriptures That Word given
from God puts everybody in the same boat, lost and hopeless
and unable to do anything to save themselves or commend themselves
to God. But the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, We are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now, if you look back there in
Galatians 3 and verse 24, it says, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster,
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now, if you notice in the King James,
there are three words there in italics, which means that they
were added by the translators, supposedly for clarification,
although I'm afraid not the case so much here. It reads, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. Now, some people preach that men must be preached the
law first. I want them to show me
that somewhere in this book. And one of the expressions I've
heard for many years is something like this, you've got to take
people to Sinai first before you take them to Calvary. Just show me that somewhere in
this book. I'll believe it then, but I can't
believe it till then. You never hear any apostle command. You never see in any New Testament
example a preaching of law in order to show grace to people.
What did he say? He said you go and preach the
gospel to every creature. He never qualifies that. He never
adds that the law is a part of the gospel as some have said.
He never does that. And the truth of the matter is,
that men who have had the law, such as the Jews, the Pharisees
in particular, it didn't help their self-righteousness, it
didn't point them to Christ, it didn't do any of these things.
They wore it like badges of honor taped to their garments. And the only people who have
ever been broken and bowed and humbled and found with a contrite
spirit are those who have been brought so under the preaching
of Christ crucified." You'll never, by looking at the law
or listening to the law or comparing yourselves to the law, you'll
never be brought to that state. You'll never find out what sin
really is. You'll only find out by God giving
you faith to look to Christ and see the greatest evidence and
demonstration of what sin is that it will ever be. That is when the Lord God Almighty
imputed the sins of His people to His darling, sinless, perfect
Son, and as a consequence of that, turned His face on Him
and brought the hand and sword of His justice into His bosom
and slew Him. Israel was always saying, give
us some more law. We'll do it. They never did.
They never did. And we're always saying that
by nature. Just tell us how to live. Tell
us what we ought to do, you know, and tell us. We'll just perish with that.
Just absolutely perish. The law's purpose A purpose which
can only be known and seen when we are quickened by the Spirit
of God was to display the exceeding sinfulness of sin and to show
us how much we need grace, to show us our death, not give us
life. And the only time that happens
is when we are enabled to see what He has shown us in this
nation of people who for hundreds of years had the Law of God. And not one of them was ever
justified by their obedience to it. Somebody said, well, the Scriptures
say we love the Law of God. We do. We're not saved by the law. We're
not sanctified by the law. We're not improved on by the
law. We're not kept by the law. We're saved by grace. Grace is not against the law. Oh, that's the glory of it. That's
the glory of it. But the law, which did not produce
sin, nor make sin worse, or was in itself sin, it entered in,
given of God, because of the transgressions of men, and to
expose sin for what it is, and the sinner for what it was."
Look at those people. Because we wouldn't have done
any better. He showed us in that That Jew or Gentile, those who
were given the law, those who were not given the law, it's
the same. Their sins are the same. Paul says in Romans 5, moreover
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. the law as the Bible gives it. That's all I've got to go on.
But as the Bible gives it. As the whole. Now, I realize
there are times in Scripture when that phrase, the law, is
actually referring to the Word of God. But Paul, here, in Romans and
also in Galatians in particular, he's dealing with this notion
that men were saying that we have to go to the law and have some association with
it when all it can do is condemn us. But the law as we find it in
the Bible is given, first of all, as typical, as a type. In other words, the mediator
of the law was a type. The priests of the law were types. The sacrifices of the law, the
blood of the law, the nation of people under the law, the
cleansing, the diets, the ark, the tabernacle, they're all typical. That tabernacle is not the true
tabernacle. That priest, that's not the true
priest. It pictures the true priest.
That sacrifice, that's... Why then would we think that
the ten rules on those tablets of stone, why would we think
they're any different? You can't go to the law like
you would a buffet dinner in the local steakhouse and just
pick and choose what you want. It's all one. And the things under the law
were all types of Christ. and heavenly things. Hebrews,
it says that these things serve unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things. As Moses was admonished of God
when he was about to make the tabernacle, for see, saith he,
that thou makest all things according to the pattern showed to thee
in the map. Then a little later in Hebrews,
it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the
heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. All these things
pictured Christ, the priesthood, the sacrifices for sin, but he
said the heavenly things, the real things, They had to be dealt
with with better things than these. And then in the Bible, the law
is presented as that which is temporary, like I said, from
Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary. Christ said, did not Moses give
you the law? And yet none of you keeps the
law. Why go ye about to kill me?" The people who supposedly
revered the law, defended the law, maintained the law, practiced
the law, all these things, more than any other, they rose up and crucified the
Son of God. Absolutely. Then the law is given
in Scripture in this way, and that is given to one nation.
Now, I have seen many an attempt to make people think that this
law was given to everybody. That's not what this book says. It was given to one nation. It was given to these Jews, to
this nation of Israel. And Paul says that in Romans
2. He says, For as many as have sinned without law, without law, shall also perish without law. He's talking about the Gentiles.
And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the
law. Here's a group without the law.
Here's a group with the law. But they both sin. And they're
both, outside of Christ, going to meet the same consequence. He says in Romans 2 and verse
14, "...for when the Gentiles, which have not the law..." Do we need it every place where
the law is mentioned here, especially in Romans and Galatians? Do we
need to jump back and qualify this and say, well, he's talking
about our obedience to the law? No, he's not. He's talking about
the law, lock, stock, and barrel. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are law unto themselves." And when the apostle at that
council of Jerusalem sent this message out, he says, "'For as
much as we have heard that certain went out from us, and they trouble
you with words subverting your souls, saying you must be circumcised
and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment. That's the true way it is when
men go out to preach the law. God would say, I gave them no
such commandment. I sent them to preach the gospel.
I sent them to spread the good news, the glad tidings of Christ
and Him crucified to a people He redeemed by His blood and
to bring them out from bondage, not to put them into bondage. And the law is given in Scripture
to show something very clearly. And that is, God used this nation
to demonstrate the inability of man to save himself by any
law principle, by any obedience to rules, by any of the things
that man set forth as a way of pleasing God. There's no way that a sinner is saved but by
the dying of Jesus Christ. You can't go back and make what
some call an active – they divide the work of Christ in what they
call an active obedience and a passive obedience. I never
read that anywhere. I never hear it hinted or suggested
or anything. I've read it lots of times in
commentaries. But I'm to the point in my life
and ministry that if it ain't in this book, I want nothing
to do with it. And I'm going to this book And
it'll have to be what thus saith the Lord. It may seem logical. It may be traditional. It may
be this, that, and the other. But if it's not what God says, I don't want any part of it. He says, by the deeds of the
law, there's not going to be any flesh justified. And not
by Christ's deeds to the law. Because you and I had fallen
so far that we could only be delivered, we could only be redeemed
by the one thing God has always said is the only way sin is ever
put away, and that's by the shedding of blood. By the shedding of His sinless,
perfect, holy blood. There wasn't anybody in Israel
ever justified by law, not even that man that's said
to be the man after God's own heart. Paul says, Wherefore, the law
is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good made deaf unto me? God forbid! But
sin, that it might appear sin, working deaf in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Sort of like this, you know,
you're cruising down the highway and somebody has come along and
ripped up all the speed limit signs. And you're doing about
75. No troopers, no signs, everything
must be fine. And all of a sudden you come
to that sign that they missed. It's flashing that 55, 55, 55, and there's the law over there. He didn't make his speed. Was it bad? No. Maybe you'll
slow down and keep from killing yourself and somebody else. That's
all it can do. That's all it can do. It's to reveal something. It's
shown in Scripture to reveal something. And that's the motions
of sin. That's just what I'm talking
about. Because, and you know this as
parents, all you have to do is lay down a rule. Don't you come in after 11 o'clock. Don't you say a curse word now.
Don't you say that word. I know you heard it at school.
Don't you say it anymore. There's something in our fallen nature,
the motion of sin against any command to do right. Paul said, that's all it did
in me. To show it was impossible to
be saved any other way other than the grace of God. Turn back
over to Romans chapter 8. And look down at verse 3. For what the law could not do. This is everywhere. for what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh."
And the weakness there is because of our weakness. God, sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the
flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." What he's talking about there
is that which men seek to gain by their obedience to the law. can only be found in Christ's
obedience, which is his obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross. My friend, that's active, 100%
active, all the way through. They say, no, his active obedience
was when he was living under the law up to the cross, and
when he died on the cross, that was past. No, there never has
been a time that the Lord Jesus Christ was any more active, any
more totally in control than when it says, he laid down his
life, yielded up the ghost. Turning back to our text in Romans
3, I'll quit, but I'm going to look at it further next week,
but I want us to, I don't want to leave right here, I just want
us to look at this, that 21st verse. He's got through sin. By the law, by the deeds of the
law, no flesh will be justified. Well, we're hopeless, aren't
we? No. But, but, now, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Here you make, he says, a rule
upon which to obtain righteousness in the law when the very thing
that the law taught, that righteousness was in a coming one, that righteousness
was through God being satisfied by this sacrifice of blood He said, that's what the law
and the prophets witnessed to. But it's the righteousness of
God without the law. Totally apart from and aside
from and on a different footing from the law. May the Lord help us to see that. Because of a number of reasons.
One of which is, our attempts to obey the law
just simply make us more lawless. Our attempts to obey the law
for salvation or sanctification just make us more self-righteous. And it puts us in an awful bondage. And we never know the true joy,
the true peace, until we know something of that justification
which is through the dying of Christ without the law. We'll never praise God aright
until we're brought to that understanding. And we are, in believing on Christ
and Him alone and His sacrifice, we are the ones who magnify the
law. and free justification without the deeds of the law.
Free justification through that redemption that's in Christ is
the only thing that motivates the Lord's people to do what he commands them to
do. This faith works by love. Not threat of punishment, loss,
not promise of reward, but love for Christ because of
what He's done for us. Somebody said, well, if you don't
preach the law, if you don't give the laws the rule of life,
and if you don't hammer people pretty good with the law, There's
just no telling how they live. Bless those poor people's hearts.
I can't understand where have you been looking? How do men
live anyway? And the only thing the Apostle
says that will motivate them to follow Christ, sacrifice,
love Christ, love His people, keep themselves clean and pure, is this justification freely,
by His grace, without the law, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is glorious. Blessed Father tonight, God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we know that the law is
just and holy and good. If we look at that law you gave
to that nation, Israel, and you enable us to see how it typifies
and pictures Christ and Him crucified, that justification that is by
your free grace in Him. Lord, help us to have understanding. Help us to glorify You for Your
grace and mercy to us. Help us to believe what You say
clearly and plainly and without any manipulation of things to
bring people into bondage or to get them to do what we want
them to do Get them to follow us or be fearful of us. Help us to know that spirit of
liberty and to serve you accordingly. For you're worthy of all the
glory and all the honor and all the power forever and ever. Amen.