Galatians chapter 2 is perhaps,
especially the latter part of it, the heart of the gospel,
revealed the error that Peter made. when he was in Antioch
and he was, before the Jews came from James, in Jerusalem, he
was with the Gentiles eating and holding fellowship with them.
But then, when the Jews came, he separated from the Gentiles
and he did with his actions What he did with his actions actually
was a sermon against the gospel of God's grace. So we covered
this in the last few sermons. And last week we went through
verse 16. And I want to begin there and
finish up the chapter today, Lord willing. So let's pray.
Father, we ask your blessing today that you would give us
grace to understand your Word, and we would receive it as the
Word of God, and it would be the greatest joy of our heart
to see the Lord Jesus Christ willingly giving himself for
us, and see you having predetermined from before the world began to
do this. to display your great glory,
to the praise of your grace, and for our salvation, to make
us your own, your own children, and to give us to the Lord Jesus
Christ as his own, his own bride. Thank you, Lord, that in this
salvation you've taken away our sins by our Savior, and you've
clothed us in his everlasting righteousness, which he established
by his own obedience in his death. Thank you for this grace. Now,
Lord, we pray by your Spirit, we would be given grace to receive
these things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In verse 15, the Apostle Paul
says, "...we who are Jews by nature, and not sinners among
the Gentiles." He is referring us, he's referring Peter, and
he's talking, he's included himself. to the fact that the Jews, according
to the law, were separate from the Gentiles, and they considered
themselves not to be sinners, because they had the law, and
they tried to keep the law. And their attempts to keep the
law were their confidence before God, in coming to God. And so
they classified themselves as Jews by nature. They were born
as Jews. They were taught as Jews. They
practiced the law of Moses in whatever way they did. Not perfectly,
not continuously, not completely, but in some sense they had an
outward show of keeping the law and so they were called Jews
by nature. But these who were called Jews
by nature had learned something. They were not sinners among the
Gentiles who didn't have law, who didn't keep the law. They
tried to keep the law and they trusted the law. God had given
it to them. And they had learned something. They learned that
a man is not justified by the works of the law. It took a long
time for them to learn that. God held that lesson back for
over 1,500 years. From the time he spoke to Abraham
until the coming of Christ was about 2,000 years. And think
about the long time they were in Egypt. 30 years, I think. Then they left Egypt and they
were delivered into the wilderness and then finally Canaan. They
were in that land of Canaan until the coming of Christ. All that
time they were under the law. Now, there's a few things about
the law we need to understand. First of all, the law is comprised
of two parts. We think of it, we hear a lot
of times the law is made up of the moral law, the ceremonial
law, and the civil law. Or sometimes it's called the
moral, civil, and ceremonial law. But that's not a good division
of the law. In fact, it's kind of a misleading
division, even though that's commonly used to divide the law.
Really, a better division of the law is what God requires
of sinners. And then the second part is what
God does for sinners in Christ in order to make them acceptable
to Himself. The first part is in the Ten
Commandments and everything that follows that amplifies the Ten
Commandments. Thou shalt not kill, and then
He amplifies what that means. Thou shalt not steel, and then
he amplifies what that means. From Exodus chapter 20 and on
through for a few chapters there, he gives us an amplification
of the Ten Commandments. All that God required of men. And then in the second part of
the law, we know that's the Levitical priesthood, and in that part
of the law, God laid out as a figure, a picture, foretelling of what
Christ would do in order to make his people right with God according
to His justice. And that's the part that the
Jews who believed Christ had learned. They had learned that
they were not justified by their own works. By their own works,
they only drew down greater condemnation from God upon themselves. Greater
guilt, a greater sentence of condemnation. And they learned
this over a long course of time. They learned it not only through
the law, but even God in the law In the first five books of
Moses taught that a man couldn't be justified by the law. Remember
Hagar? We're going to get to that in
chapter four. In chapter four, Paul says, you that want to be
justified by the law, do you not hear the law? The law itself
tells you that Abraham had two sons, and only one was a child
of promise. The other was a child of the
flesh. And so that's what the law is. It can't save a man. The prophets bore witness to
this. Habakkuk says that just shall live by faith. And David
said in the Psalms throughout, in Psalm 32 for example, that
the man that is blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin. So the law itself, the Psalms
and the prophets all testify to the fact that we're not justified
by the law. But the law, as I said, was divided
up into two parts, these two parts being not the moral, civil,
and ceremonial part, that's three, but the requirements of God on
men in order to be right before Him. And then the provision by
God of salvation in Christ, which was typified by all the sacrifices,
the priesthood, the tabernacle. And then the Sabbaths. The tabernacle
was the place where men meet with God and God meets with men
by the mediator. The mediator does for God all
that God requires to reconcile sinners to himself and satisfy
his justice, magnify his law. That's done in the tabernacle
by the meat-eater. The priesthood, they're the ones
who make that reconciliation through the sacrifice, that's
the third part. And then the rest, the Sabbath is the declaration
to us, our entering into that and giving honor and praise to
God for what He's done for us in Christ. So that's the division
of the law, those two things, the requirements and the fulfillment
of what's necessary to bring sinners to himself in the Lord
Jesus Christ, typified by all those sacrifices by the priesthood,
the tabernacle, and the rest, the Sabbaths. But the law also
is a covenant. It's not something you can pick
and choose. The law is not something you can say, well I want to obey
this law and I don't want to obey that one. If you fall under
the agreement of the covenant of the law, you have to keep
the entire law without failure. Completely, perfectly, continuously. Now we saw that last time in
Galatians 3. The man that doeth those things
shall live in them, and he that doesn't keep all the law is a
cursed man. So the Jews had learned that
we're not justified by the works of the law. That was the lesson
the law had taught them, and it was a painful lesson. And
how painful it is in our own lives when God teaches us that
lesson. But he taught here that we're
justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. In other words, the one
who made Himself one with His people, who took our nature,
who owned our obligations under the law, both the precept and
the penalty, and fulfilled them both to the glory of God and
for our salvation. By Him we're justified. He is
the object of our faith. And He it is we believe in order
that we might receive that justification in our conscience, in the peace
and joy of our soul. And so in verse 17 he says, "...but
if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners." Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God
forbid. Peter had professed before the
Jews came, and he had taught before the Jews came, in a sermon
in many places throughout the book of Acts, that even the Gentiles
were justified by God's grace in Christ. And he himself said,
I am going to be justified like they. That's what he said in
Acts 15, 11. But here, Peter had, by his actions,
had begun to deny what he had been teaching and preaching.
And so Paul says, if while we seek to be justified by Christ,
we Jews, who depend no longer on the law, but like the Gentiles
have forsaken the law and don't pay any attention to the law,
for our justification we look to Christ alone. He says, if
while we seek to be justified by Christ in this way, we ourselves
also are found sinners, Is Christ, therefore, the minister of sin?
Is the Lord Jesus Christ the cause of our sin? Of course not. Is He the one who makes us sinners
by coming to Him and fleeing from the law as a way of being
righteous? No. He doesn't make us sinners
by fleeing from the law and trusting Him alone. We were already sinners
under the law without our abandoning the law before Christ came. But
in abandoning the law, entrusting the law for justification, entrusting
our own personal obedience before God to fulfill His requirements,
and fleeing to Christ, we're not made sinners. though the
Judaizers thought we were, thought that Peter was, thought that
Paul was, and all those believers who wouldn't be circumcised and
keep the law. So he says, if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, And in fact, we are justified by Christ in trusting
Him. We ourselves also are found sinners
by men. Or we ourselves oppose the very
doctrine that we once preached and make ourselves sinners. Christ
is not the minister of sin. He didn't do this. Verse 18,
"...for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make
myself a transgressor." If I try to rebuild... the law as a way
of coming to God, being accepted by God and justified and even
sanctified by the law, then I make myself a transgressor because
I confess that I have to keep the whole law. And therefore,
the law itself condemns me for failing to do so. I deny Christ. I deny the whole reason for the
atonement. I deny the reason for His incarnation and His life
and death on the cross. I deny the reason why God sent
His Son. And then in verse 19, and this is where I want to spend
most of our time. He says, For I, through the law,
through the law, this covenant under which God placed the Jews,
this declaration of God's requirement for men, I, through the law,
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. And then he expands
on how this happened. He says, In verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God. I don't try to mix the law and
God's grace. Because if I do that, this is
what the result is. For if righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He died for nothing.
His death was a waste. The entire accomplishment of
his salvation really meant nothing if I'm justified by the law. If righteousness comes by the
law. Okay, so in verse 19 he says, I through the law am dead
to the law. A death has occurred. A death
has occurred. When a death occurs, we want
to know who died. Don't we? We want to know how
did it happen. I died. That's who died. I died
not alone, but with Christ. You see, All men are, by God's
decree, married to the law. This is spoken of in Romans chapter
7, if you want to turn to Romans chapter 7. He says in verse 1,
Know ye not, brethren? For I speak to them that know
the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as
he liveth. That's what the law is. It has
dominion over us as long as we're alive. And then he gives an example
from the law. So marriage endures, by God's decree, endures
as long as both husband and wife are alive. Marriage is for life,
but if either the husband or the wife die, the marriage is
broken. And then he says in verse 4, he uses the law to set forth
the principle that we're married, in some sense, to the law. Wherefore,
my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God. This is the same thing as being
taught in Galatians chapter 2, where we just read in verse 19,
he said, I, through the law, am dead to the law, So, who died? Well, I died. I, through the
law, am dead to the law. How did it happen? Through the
law. What was my relationship to the
law? I was married to the law as a wife to a husband. But through
the law I died, which means that my husband killed me. That sounds
severe. That sounds like a husband that's
very strict. The law was my husband, but I
was unfaithful. The law demanded my death, according
to God's justice. My husband put me to death. It
was the death of cursing, even the death of the cross. Galatians
3.13, it says this, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, that's the curse, being made a curse for us. For it is
written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. So the death
required by the law was a death of cursing, the death of the
cross. And we know death is the payback
for sin. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. God was offended. His law required
that I die. But I could not die and live. So God provided for me beforehand. He provided for me beforehand
in His Son. marriage. He provided his son. He appointed him to be my surety,
my substitute. Christ died for me, but it was
more than the death of my substitute. He could not merely die in my
place. He had to first be chargeable
with my sins. How could he be charged with
my sins? How could I live and Him be charged with my sins? How could I be righteous? All
these things are answered here in this verse. How could I, the
sinner, be righteous? Well, I was chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. I was joined to Him then
by eternal election. Chosen in Christ. That's the
joining by God of every elect sinner. It was God's choice of
me in Christ. It was a choice to salvation.
But not merely salvation. It was a choice to marriage.
God the Father chose a wife for His Son. And He joined her to
Him by an eternal decree. It was God's will. It was a union
of God's will and purpose and decree. Nothing could break that
union. God made it from eternity. So I was espoused. I was promised
in marriage to Christ by God the Father. I was joined to Him
by God's decree to be my husband. But at creation, God created
me by creation. He created me in Adam. And in
Adam, my covenant head, by creation I fell into sin. My sin was the
cause of my condemnation. By my sin in Adam I died. I was therefore born dead in
sins. That's the consequence of my
sin in Adam. Born dead in sins. I was conceived
in iniquity. Psalm 51 verse 5. And I came
from the womb speaking lies. Psalm 58 verse 3. Even as others. Ephesians 2 verses 1 through
3. When I sinned in Adam, I came under condemnation. I was pronounced
guilty and sentenced to eternal death. In Adam. When I sinned
in Adam. And my spirit then died when
Adam died. When Adam sinned, I was guilty. When Adam sinned, I was condemned.
And when Adam sinned, my soul in Adam died so that I was born
conceived in sin. By my relation to Adam, I was
put under the law of God. I was married to the law. The
law was a holy and good husband, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Therefore, the law, being holy
and just, treated me with strict justice. And as a demanding husband
required that I be put to death for my unfaithfulness, the law
served me with a sentence, a death sentence. The law placed requirements
on me, but I failed to meet them. I could not meet them because
I'm a sinner, carnal, sold under sin. Because the law made demands
but provided no way for me to be reconciled, although it anticipated
this in the second part of the law, therefore its demands for
my obedience only served to strengthen sin's grip on me. My guilt could
not be removed. Not by the law. By all that the
law demanded, which I failed to meet, my guilt only increased. And the law sealed to me an eternal
condemnation. Sealed me up to this, like in
a prison. By nature I was a child of wrath, even as others. And
I walked in rebellion. Every promise that the law made
of life was contingent on my own continuous, complete, and
perfect obedience. And hence, the law, as a husband,
kept me under the bondage of guilt, condemnation, and futility. I had a legal husband, but I
got no hope for my husband. Ironically, the law demanded
obedience from me and held out death to me for my disobedience. You have to obey to live. But
if you don't obey, then you're cursed. And I was already a sinner. But all that the law did only
served to increase the strength of sin in me and bring me under
greater condemnation. Because the law is the strength
of sin. My husband made huge demands on me and threatened
me with eternal death. But that husband, the law, provided
nothing for me. But then... Oh, wonder of God's
infinite grace. Then God revealed His eternal
purpose of love and grace and salvation in Christ. To me, the
law was only a servant to my bondage and my death. The law
itself was a holy and good husband. The problem was in me. My problem
was with God. I had offended His law. I had
offended Him. While I was in the prison of
God's law, without strength either to pay my own ransom for my own
release, and without strength to obey one thing of all that
God demanded, Christ came into the world. He to whom I had been
espoused from eternity by God the Father in eternal election.
He who was my surety by his own engagements of love to bring
me back again and reconcile me. by removing my offense to God
in His own death, to satisfy God's law and justice, and fulfill
God's law and righteousness, and raise me up from death to
life, even when I was under the wrath of God and worthy of it,
as pronounced by the law. And while I was without strength,
and the enemy of God as a guilty sinner, corrupt in my heart and
mind, opposed to His law, then stepped forth my heavenly husband,
And I have been joined to him by an eternal decree. He had
willingly already before entered that covenant marriage and owned
me as his espoused bride. Therefore, he stepped forward
as my redeemer to ransom me from sin and death. And he was joined
to me in God's eternal decree. All of my obligations to God's
holy law became his obligations. He took my nature and in that
nature answered every demand of justice for my punishment
in satisfaction to God. He fulfilled every requirement
for my righteousness. He acted as my surety. He answered every accusation
and met every obligation with Himself. He gave Himself for
me. As He was one with me, all of
my sins were therefore charged to Him. As I was joined to Him
when He fulfilled the demands of God's law for my death, I
died. I died with Him. I was crucified
with Christ. And in His life and in His obedience
in death, He by Himself fulfilled every requirement God's law placed
on me. In His sufferings and death,
He endured the curse of death I deserved. He was made my surety
by God from eternity, and He engaged to be my surety from
eternity. God gave me to Him and joined
me to Him by the promise to be His bride. He espoused. He therefore owned my debt, and
He paid my ransom. He redeemed me from all iniquity
and from death itself. His payment of Himself took me
with Him into death, because we were joined together. His
death was my death. His satisfaction was my satisfaction
to God for my sins, my offenses against God. His obedience is
my everlasting righteousness. His justification and resurrection
to eternal life is my justification and my resurrection. Though I
died with Him, I rose with Him. Marriage is only broken by death. When either spouse dies, the
marriage is broken. The law of God can't die, but
in my marriage to the law, I died. By the law's demands for my curse,
I was cursed in the death that Christ died under the curse as
my substitute. But He is more than a substitute.
I was joined to Him in His death, and therefore I was crucified
with Christ. And I died with Him. I died to
sin with Him. I died to sin's guilt. And I
died to sin's condemnation. I died to the guilt that the
law pointed out. And I died to the condemnation
that the law required. By my death with Christ on the
cross, my marriage to the law was broken. By my resurrection
with Christ, in His resurrection, I was made alive to live to God
and to be married to Christ by His Spirit. When it pleased God
in the time appointed, in the time of love, He called me by
His grace, by His Spirit. Christ Himself called me from
spiritual death to spiritual life. Christ came to me. He who was appointed as my Redeemer,
who gave Himself, gave His life a ransom for me. When He paid
my ransom and redeemed me from sin and death, in the time appointed,
also sent His Word, the Gospel, the Gospel of His eternal achievements
for sinners. And He gave me life, and by His
grace He freed me from the enslavement to sin. gave me the liberty to
believe on him who made himself known to me in this saving work."
Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he
sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. That's the
word by which he quickened us. It's a word of love, isn't it?
I am crucified with Christ. By my union with Christ, my sins
were charged to Him. They became His. By that same
union, in His death, I died under the curse of God's law. I satisfied
the demands of the law for my death. I died with Christ. My
death broke my marriage to God's law. I died to the law. My relation
to the law was severed. broken and terminated. By that
same union, His obedience is my righteousness, and life is
the reward of righteousness. By that righteousness which is
mine, by union with Him, His justification to life is my justification
to life. Therefore, though I have been
and remain crucified to sin and to the law by the body of Christ,
yet I live. Who lives? I live. But not I. Christ lives in me. How? My death
with Christ was at the hand of my husband, the Law. My life
with Christ is by the hand of my Redeemer, Christ. Just as
I was condemned when Adam sinned, so I was justified when Christ
rose again. When he was justified, I rose
with Christ, my covenant head. But in my experience, I had no
life until Christ came by his spirit. He killed all my legal
hopes, which were futile, vain hopes, which I held while I was
married to the law. And all my legal hopes died.
And he revealed himself, who is the life. He told me how he
had by himself purged my sins. And in that word of revelation
to my soul, He gave me life and a look of sight to Him as all
of my salvation. He did not merely bestow life
upon me. He didn't just give me life like
an animal. But He who was joined to me by
eternal election, joined Himself to me when He took my nature. And He joined Himself to me by
His Spirit. when he came to live in me, and
gave me this faith by his grace, I died to the law, that I might
be married to another, even to Christ, with whom I died under
the law, and with whom I rose in justification, and now, by
whose spirit given to me, I now live. By the law I died to the
law, that I might live to God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet it is not I who live. The life I live is Christ living
in me. I'm joined in love to the Son
of God by His Spirit of grace and life. Christ is my life. If Christ is my life, then He's
my hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, the cementing bond of my
union with Christ, what holds that bond together? It's the
everlasting love of God. In Romans chapter 8 it says,
who can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. That's the bond, the cement that
holds us to Christ in union. The love of our husband. My life
is Christ living in me by His Spirit. His life is mine because
of this union. By His righteousness, by the
faith of the Son of God, His life is given to me. Because
He was obedient to God in all things, and His obedience was
mine by my union, my everlasting union with Him. Therefore, His
everlasting life is my reward. His sin-atoning death and righteousness
is the only object of my confidence and my hope. Therefore, it says
here, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I live by His
life. I live by His death. I live by
His reign and glory. His intercession and advocacy. I draw upon His life in communion
with Him by this faith which He gives by His Spirit dwelling
in me. Look at John chapter 6. I want to show you this. Jesus had told the people listening
to him, I am the bread of life in verse 35. In John 6, verse
51, he says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. John 6, 51. I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
Not like the manna. But if you eat of this bread,
you shall live, he shall live forever. And the bread that I
will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. And look at verse 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. You see the union? Faith
The faith that God gives to us, this faith that was given to
us when we were enslaved to sin and unbelief, this faith that
looks to Christ only, in that look obeys the gospel. The gospel
which is the law of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people,
the law he fulfilled for them. His love for them and His accomplishments
for them, by which they now believe Him and love Him. By that grace,
we're given this faith to believe and look to Him. And that God-given
faith works by love. It is by this God-given faith
that we're freed from the blindness of our unbelief and enslavement
to our sin. It works by love. It's both the
fruit of the Spirit of God and it produces love in us by the
Spirit of God, by the Lord Jesus Christ living in me. So though
my body is now dead because of sin, my spirit is life because
of righteousness. A resurrection has occurred.
Look at Romans chapter 8. I'll show you these things. Romans
chapter 8. He says in verse 9, but you are
not in the flesh, you're not in the unregenerate state of
a person who is a natural man. A person of the flesh. Unregenerated. He says, but in the spirit. You're
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you." If the Spirit of God dwells in you,
you're not in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. Christ is your
life. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. But if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Christ's
righteousness, but it's mine, because it was given to me by
God, a free gift. Whose life? It's His life, but
it's given to me because of His righteousness. Whose spirit is
life in me? His spirit is life in me. And
because His spirit dwells in me and His life in me because
of His righteousness, in verse 11 it says, "...but if the spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So, even though my body
is dead because of sin, because Christ dwells in me, I cannot
die. Jesus said in John 11 verse 25
and 26, I am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. That's the first
resurrection. And whoever believes in me and
lives shall never die. That's the second one. We'll
never die. Our verse 11 here says that the
spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in
you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies. That's the consummation of our
redemption, when our bodies are redeemed. And so though my body
is now dead because of sin, my spirit is life because of Christ's
righteousness. I shall never die, for he who
is the resurrection and the life is my life, and I now believe
in him. And this faith that God gives by His grace is the evidence,
according to the Lord Jesus, that I have passed from death
to life. One more verse. Look at John
chapter 5. John chapter 5 and verse 24.
Jesus said this, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, Hath everlasting
life, he already has it, and he shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death, from condemnation, to life. That's
justification. That's life, isn't it? How did
it happen? The Lord Jesus Christ gives us
life because of His righteousness. He tells us what His Father told
Him to say and do, and He did what He did because of His Father's
Word. And believing what His Father
gave Him to tell us about Himself, His own accomplishments, He says,
the one believing, so believing, has already passed from death
to life. He has everlasting life. Faith is the evidence of it.
Verse 25, Verily, verily, I say to you, the hour is coming, and
now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. That's the life. Now, back in
Galatians 2, just briefly here. We'll close this down. I want to read this to you. Put
it together. Galatians chapter 2, and verse
19. I, through the law, am dead to
the law, that I might live to God. I'm not just dead to the
law. I've been made alive that I might
live to God. And how do I do that? Well, I
died with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. My
husband, the law, killed me. The law is the ministration of
death. Nevertheless, I live. How? Because
I rose with Christ, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God. I live by looking to Him who
is my righteousness, who loved me and gave Himself for me. That's how I live. I don't live
by the law. My relationship to the law has
been broken, severed. Abolished. I've been put to death. I have no more connection to
the law than a dead man. Because I died with Christ and
now I live to God. Not without law to Christ, but
I have the law of the gospel. The gospel that pronounces life
because of the righteousness Christ revealed, which I received
by God-given faith, and with that faith now I love the Lord
Jesus Christ by His Spirit. The fruit of His Spirit is love,
joy, peace, and all those things. Faith works by love. Faith doesn't
consider itself able to be separate from others by what it does.
Faith sees itself as a great sinner, and when it sees its
brother overtaken in a fault, it considers itself that we might
also fall were it not for God's grace. And so we uphold one another
in this grace that God's given us. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. To try to go back to the law
and live by the law, either for justification or sanctification,
or for rewards and glory, or to answer God in judgment, or
any of those things, is to frustrate the grace of God. It's to pretend
to do one thing and do another. It's to say one thing like Peter
and practice another. It's like the Israelites, when
Elijah said, Why halt ye between two opinions, if Baal be God,
serve him? But if God did serve him, we've
been raised from the dead that we might live to God. May God
give us grace to see Christ and so live in him. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you that you prearranged and predetermined everything,
everything in this world, from the smallest matters to the largest.
You determined the course of the butterfly, numbered the hairs
of our head, and it's because of you that the sparrow falls.
Sin entered into this world, we in Adam fell, but are now
in Christ made alive. You brought all of this to pass
in order that you might show your great grace and demonstrate
your great grace and your mercy towards us in the Lord Jesus.
Such grace, it's one thing to save us from our sins, but to
join us to the Lord Jesus Christ in eternal union. And to give
us your Spirit and make us one with Him by your Spirit. And
to cement this union with the bond of your love, your eternal
love. And give us this faith to know it and live upon Him
and draw this life from Him by faith. And now to look for your
salvation and to rest upon His accomplishments. both fulfilling
the requirements and fulfilling all the pictures of the law that
would bring us to God, we who have sinned against you. We stand
in awe and we say, Lord, we're not worthy of the least of your
mercies, but we pray that you take glory to yourself and magnify
our Savior. In his name we pray, amen.