Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zions 4. But many Bible teachers oppose
the preaching of free grace because they believe that the preaching
of salvation by grace alone will cause men to sin without restraint. The reason that they feel this
way is twofold. The main one is that they do
not understand the pervasive nature of sin, man's inherent
love of it, and his complete inability to avoid it. The other
is that they think men can be delivered from sin by the promotion
of the law as either a threat or as a guideline by which to
order his steps. It is this same line of thinking
that causes men in natural matters to think that the passing of
laws which outlaw guns or drugs will keep outlaws from obtaining
and using them. When a man is born again by the
Spirit of God, he is confronted with his own innate depravity
and acquainted with the spiritual nature of the law. It does not
take him long to realize the sheer impossibility of his ever
keeping that law partially, let alone without any mixture of
error. Then as he comes to understand the power of the law to condemn
all who do not keep its every jot and tittle, he is even further
terrified and brought to despair of ever standing before the Lord
in anything but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Few religious
folks would actually say they could be justified by the law,
yet in practice they actually deny that the righteousness of
Christ is completely sufficient and efficient to address the
issue of sin in the children of God. They turn back to the
law as a hedge against unrighteousness in the flesh and believe that
the preaching of the law is a necessity if sin is to be subdued. Religious
men will always promote the keeping of the law because they are trying
to cause natural men to abide by a spiritual law, having no
understanding of the depravity of the natural man nor the lofty
nature of the law. When the Lord told Nicodemus
he must be born again, he set forth the only ground upon which
true righteousness can be entered into. The kingdom of heaven cannot
be gained in any sense or fashion by the efforts of the flesh,
however noble, sincere, or timely they may be. There can be no
mixture, therefore, of that which is carnal with that which is
spiritual, and a man cannot be justified by Christ if he is
seeking any form of righteousness by the principle of law. This
error, which Paul discovered in the Galatian church, is still
prevalent today and can usually be identified by religious demands
that men keep particular days, such as the Sabbath, and fulfill
other requirements that may be set forth under the umbrella
of law-keeping, such as tithing, manner of dress, abstaining from
various substances, etc. The notion among them is that
Christ is sufficient for a standing of justification in the court
of heaven as far as eternal salvation is concerned, but that in order
for them to be sanctified in the present time and earn blessings,
it is required of them to meet various demands which are set
forth in the law of Moses or other religious standards which
may even exceed the demands of Moses' law. Paul addresses this
issue head on when he asks, is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? This is in response to his hypothesis that if we seek
to be justified by Christ alone, are we then judged to be in sin
because we believe that Christ alone is our sufficiency in both
sanctification and justification? Paul was often accused of encouraging
men to sin because he preached salvation by grace alone. He
administered the death blow to these legalist deceivers when
he said, For I through the law am dead 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 very foundational principle
of salvation by the free grace of God is that he will perform
all requirements unto our legal acceptance with God. He is our
life. He is our hope. He is our salvation. Those who assail the gospel of
free and sovereign grace in reality assail Christ himself by contending
that his righteousness alone is not sufficient for the perfect
acceptance of his elect bride. Is Christ the minister of sin?
God forbid that such a question should even be asked.