Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Man by nature is totally incapable
of obeying the law of God, even though religious men of all stripes
and in all ages have presumed to do so and demanded the same
of others, even seeking in many cases to make the law stricter
than even the lawgiver demanded. The scribes and Pharisees were
the epitome of righteous men, as men would judge. They tithed
faithfully, kept the Sabbath, made many disciples, were skilled
in the art of public prayer, and even carried the scriptures
with them wherever they went. Yet the Lord said that they were
farther from entering the kingdom of God than the most immoral
creatures that they could imagine. Verily I say unto you that the
publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
We know that Christ came not to destroy the law in any sense,
yet we are certain that he did satisfy all claims which the
law could ever demand, and that the sons of God are made free
from all condemnation that could ever arise therefrom. The Lord
said, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed. Paul describes the liberty which
has been brought to the household of God, saying, For the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. The Lord has made those for whom
he shed his precious blood to stand in perfect righteousness.
We rejoice not in conditional covenants, which we could never
keep, but in him who is the keeper of the everlasting covenant.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took
them out of the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them
in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall
be to me a people. This new covenant rests in the
power of him who has an endless life and has promised to bring
deliverance to his children apart from any endeavor on their part.
He is the inheritor of all things and has made his people to be
heirs and joint heirs with him. In the book of Jeremiah, we read
of a conditional covenant which the Lord made with the house
of Israel, which they turned from. Jeremiah prophesied unto
Zedekiah that they should now preach liberty to the captives
and set their servants free. Amazingly, the people did so
for a season, but then they reneged on this covenant and brought
their servants back into bondage, making their latter end worse
than the beginning. The Lord was wroth with them,
saying that they had polluted his name by visiting those who
were set free with the same bondage that held them at the first.
This is what Paul admonishes the Galatians and the Colossians
about when he said, But now, after that ye have known God,
or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and
beggarly elements, wherein do ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days and months and times and years. Wherefore, if
ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?
Many today speak of the liberty of the sons of God, preaching
a form of salvation by grace without works, but then they
are fearful of liberty and seek to bring them back into bondage
that they were under before they knew this freedom in Jesus Christ. The station of the sons of God
is not that of servants, but sons, and they rejoice in the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus rather than being
forced to submit to a law they cannot keep, which is able only
to minister condemnation. Their rejoicing is primarily
because the same one who spoke this new law is also the one
who performs it for them. Paul made his joy known when
he said, For I threw the law and did to the law. that I might
live unto God. 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, 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, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
testifies to this glorious liberty of the sons of God, for we have
been given the firstfruits of His resurrection in the work
of His Spirit in us, testifying of the hope we have in Him. We
presently wait in these mortal bodies to be set free from mortality,
even as we are set free from the condemnation of the law.
Have you been made free in Christ? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.