I'd like to draw your attention
this morning again to the epistle to the Galatians and chapter
5. Read again from verse 1. Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ have made us
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold
I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit
you nothing For I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well. Who did hinder
you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. A little leaven, leaveneth the
whole lump. Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love
he did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey
the truth. As we've noted before in chapter
5 Paul moves on from the doctrinal response to the error found at
Galatia very much to the exhortation towards the practical walk of
the believer in terms of applying the truth that they are not under
the law but under grace. How does that work out? What
does that mean? He exhorts his hearers, those
who are under grace, firstly to stand, then to run, and finally
to walk. First, to stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made them free. Secondly, to run unhindered
in obedience to the truth. And finally, to walk not under
the law, but in the Spirit. For if ye be led of the Spirit,
ye are not under the law. Stand, run, walk. many ways the pattern of this
exhortation, stand run and walk, mirrors not only the walk of
the believer but the whole pathway of salvation. At the beginning there is this
standing in the liberty where with Christ have made us free.
There is then this proceeding to run in the truth unhindered
And finally, there is this exhortation to walk steadily in the Spirit.
Now the pathway of salvation for the sinner that comes to
know that Christ has died for them, that he has taken their
sins away, and that in him they have forgiveness before God,
is one in which they are found in the state in which they are
by nature. They are shown that they are
nothing. They are shown that they are nothing but sin. And
they are shown that their works, their deeds can do nothing to
make them right with God. And as the Spirit of God works
upon their hearts, He brings them to that point where they
cease to work, where they cease to try to make themselves right
with God. And they are brought, as it were,
to a standstill. They are brought to stand. and
to behold what Christ has done for them. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ have made us free. First in salvation, Christ
must make his people free. What he did outside of them,
outside of anything that they have done, what he did is that
which would bring them unto God. It's His work upon the cross
that set them at liberty. It's His work that set them free. It's His work that delivered
them from sin, from judgment, from the wrath to come, and from
the yoke of the law which condemned them. All is in Christ. All is outside the believer.
They as it were stand and behold. Christ having died for his own,
there is that point in time where the Spirit of God will bring
them to hear the truth. He brings the sound of the gospel
to the ears of those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
but those who have come to see by the work of the Spirit that
they are sinners in need of salvation and so the truth comes to them
the truth begins to break them up the truth begins to convict
them and finally the truth leads them to behold Christ their Saviour
and to come to know that which He did for them at the cross
and here in the truth they believe and believe in they run with
the truth, they embrace it, they rejoice in it, they flee from
the wrath to come to their saviour. As babes, as children who receive
the truth gladly with a teachable spirit, they do not question,
they do not resist, but suddenly they who were once captive come
to hear of Him who has set them at liberty, and they embrace
Him and rejoice in Him and love the gospel which they come to
hear. And this is often what we see in a believer. In one
who is newborn by the Spirit of God. They run. They run. They have a zeal for the things
of God. They love this Gospel. They love
Christ their Saviour. They embrace Him. They rejoice
in Him. And they're full of zeal for
His truth. Full of zeal. But they don't run forever. Because
like a child that learns to walk, like a child, when they run,
they easily stumble. When they run, they easily fall. When they run, they're soon hindered. And they soon come to find that
running cannot be sustained, but it must lead on to steady
walking. And so it is in the course we're
salvation. We hear the truth, we run with
the truth. But the consequence of the hearing
of the truth and the coming to faith is that God grants us the
spirit. The spirit of God comes and dwells
in his people. And it's the spirit's work to
lead his people that they might walk in him. Not race ahead. not stumble and not be hindered
but walk walk steadily walk with the eye of faith set upon their
savior walk calmly and carefully walk so we see this mirrored in the
course of salvation but here paul is specifically addressing
his here as walk in three stages. First they're to stand in that
truth, stand in that in which they stood at the beginning.
When they first heard of Christ they as it were stood and beheld
him crucified for them, setting them at liberty. So Paul exhorts,
stand. Stand in that. Never move from
that. Never move from that view. Never
move from that experience. Rest in that which he has done
for you. He set you at liberty. Don't
be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't ever move from
that position. Stand firm in it. He moves on
to speak of their running. When you first heard, he said,
you ran well. When you first believed, you
ran well. You received the truth unhindered. You received the gospel. You
didn't question it. You knew that this was by grace
and grace alone. You knew yourselves that you
could contribute nothing. And you ran well. But some things
changed. Now you're hindered. Now you've
ceased to obey the truth in the way you once did. You cease to
believe it clearly in the way you once did. Once you received
it as a child, as a babe, without questioning, without reasoning,
without arguing against it. And yet now, now your running
is hindered. You did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? Who did hinder you? So today I'd like to consider
this running. For the Galatians' trouble was
that their running had been hindered. And Paul would have us run unhindered. We must run how we began. We must walk how we began, in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. The liberty. For Christ has made us free. He has. When he died upon the
cross, he didn't begin a work that we should complete it. He
didn't take 99 steps that we should take the 100th. He didn't
take our sins and take them away and then say right now you by
your own efforts try not to sin anymore. Should you commit any
more sins you're going to have to sort them out yourself. No
he did everything. He took away our sins past, present
and future. He didn't set us at liberty for
a time. to then put us back under the
law later. He set us at liberty for all
time, for all time. His death accomplished everything
necessary to save his people, everything necessary to bring
them not just to the point of believing but to the point of
entering glory. He didn't just die that they
might be brought to life by the Spirit, that they should then
walk in the flesh. But as Paul exhorts in verse
25 of chapter 5, Paul there says, if we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. These Galatians knew that they'd
been brought to life. they knew that they had the spirit
but their confusion was that they thought that with the spirit
they could also walk by the law they weren't turning away from
the spirit or from life in the spirit they knew they had that
but they thought they'd been given the spirit in order that
they might now accomplish that which once they failed order
that now they had the ability to keep that law which once they
could not. This was the persuasion which
had come in. This was that which had hindered
them. At the beginning they'd run well
in grace alone but now this persuasion has come in that yes you're alive
in the Spirit yes you have Christ but as far as your walk goes
you must add the law to it. Paul will have none of this.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. The walk is consistent. It begins
in grace, it continues in grace and it ends in grace. It begins
with faith, it continues with faith and it ends with faith.
It is not by the law. He did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion, this
persuasion to mix works with grace, this persuasion to turn
back to the law in any shape or fashion as that by which you
will live, come if not of him that calleth you. It's come from
others. This was not in the gospel. This
is not of Christ. This is not what I preached unto
you. This is a hindrance. A little
leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. You may say, well, I might be confused on this.
Maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe I'm not right. But God
will forgive. But Paul makes it clear that
a little leaven, a little error, you get it, it's wrong in any
way. and it can ruin the whole thing. You add just a bit of
your works to grace and it's like dropping a bit of ink into
a glass of water, it all goes black. You can't add any. It's either grace from start
to finish or works from start to finish. No mixture. You walk in the truth unhindered. Unhindered. Well what is it to walk in the
truth? What is it? Well it's to flee from error.
It's to receive the truth as it is in the gospel. And to reject
error. It's to run unhindered. So let
us briefly consider some of the hindrances here. A few of the
hindrances which come on this point and the truth in contrast. Those who had come into Galatia
were persuaded in the Galatians to be circumcised again. This
was a sign of them putting themselves back under law. And essentially
the persuasion was that the law of God, the Ten Commandments,
what some call the moral law, could not have been taken away
by Christ's death. Because to them, these Judaizers,
the law is eternal. And if eternal, then we must
forever be under it. They recognized that Christ had
died, died to wash the sins of his people away. But to them,
the law was something that you could not take away and you could
not be delivered from. There were aspects of the law
which they could accept, might no longer apply. But there were
other aspects which they insisted must continue. And this is essentially what
the modern counterparts continue to teach today. They'll accept
that there are parts of the law, aspects of the law, from which
the believer has been delivered and is set at liberty. But there
is that which must continue, they say. You can't be delivered
from it. Paul can't mean this when he speaks of deliverance
from the law. The moral law, they tell us, firstly, is eternal. And if eternal it cannot be escaped
from. If eternal it has forever applied
and forever will apply. There may be parts of what was
delivered at Sinai which were given to Jerusalem as a nation
temporarily. And we can accept that that was
temporary and we are no longer under that. But there is that
which is eternal from which you cannot escape. So they tell us
that the Ten Commandments what they call the moral law is eternal
because this is a revelation of God's character and it's simply
an expression of his character to which we are held accountable. This is a hindrance. It sounds
persuasive Many arguments and many scriptures will be picked
up in support of this. It sounds persuasive but it's
a hindrance because nowhere in the scriptures is it said that
the Ten Commandments are eternal. Nowhere does it say that they
have no beginning. Indeed, Galatians 3 tells us that the law by which
Paul means the Ten Commandments was added because of transgressions
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. This
Ten Commandments, these Ten Commandments, this moral law which people call
it, was added. It came in by the by. It was
delivered at a certain point in time. It remained in force
until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It
has both a beginning in its application and an end in its application.
There is nothing there that indicates that it's eternal. Romans 5 tells
us 5 verse 20 moreover the law entered that the offense might
abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound the
law entered Adam had sinned at the beginning as Romans 5 tells
us by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and
so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned So by one's man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Moreover, later on, after this,
the law entered that the offense might abound. The law entered. If the law was eternal, it could
not have entered. You might say, well, it was eternal
outside and it was brought in. But if it was eternal outside,
then it would have been abiding since the beginning of the world.
For the Ten Commandments, as they're recorded in Exodus, relate
to man. No, this law has a beginning.
The scriptures testify to it being given. It is not eternal. Secondly, in relation to this,
as an insistence that this law is eternal, we are told in certain
confessions of faith that the moral law was given essentially
to Adam in the command given to Adam in the garden and then
it was repeated in another format Sinai as the Ten Commandments.
So this problem that the Ten Commandments are not recorded
in the scriptures until Exodus 20 and are testified to as having
been given and added and entered This problem that they have come
in later on and are evidently not eternal is tackled by the
theologians by going back to the beginning, going back to
the garden where God commanded Adam and saying that although
the Ten Commandments weren't given to Adam the command given
to Adam in essence was the same thing. He was given a command,
he disobeyed, the consequence was death. the Ten Commandments
that sign in our commands if you disobey the consequence of
death you can see the likeness and yet despite the likeness
that does not make them the same thing there weren't ten commands
given to Adam there was one command it was one command not to eat
of one tree when every other tree he was free to eat of it
was a prohibition there was nothing mentioned to Adam of any of the
other aspects in the law. There was nothing mentioned to
Adam of the Sabbath day there. There was nothing mentioned to
Adam of adultery. All he was told was not to eat
of one tree. It is a leap to liken this with
the law. Yes it's a command. Yes the consequence
of disobeying was that death entered. But that doesn't make
it the same thing. Indeed, if we spiritually understand
what the tree was of which God commanded Adam not to eat, we
will recognize that the command given to Adam is the very opposite
of that law given at Sinai. For there were two trees in the
garden. One was the knowledge of good
and evil, of which Adam was commanded not to eat, and one was the tree
of life. The tree of life is figurative
of Christ and his gospel. He was not commanded that he
could not eat of that tree. He could and if he had done life
everlasting would have been his. The tree he was commanded not
to eat was that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now what brings
to man the knowledge of good and evil? Well is not the law
in its description the conveyance of a knowledge of good and evil
yes it is that tree the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil if you are to say that there was the law from the garden the
law in essence in figure was embodied in that tree of the
knowledge of good and evil and what Adam was commanded was not
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he wasn't commanded
what that tree commands he was commanded not to go to that tree
what God was saying to Adam was don't go and eat of the law for
the day you go to the law you will surely die. And as soon
as Adam disobeyed the Lord's command and ate of the law, the
law slew him and he died. Essentially the gospel repeats
the same command. You may eat of the tree of life
in Christ and live forever, but don't go and eat of the law,
else you will be slain. The command given to Adam is
in contrast, is the opposite of the law given at Sinai. God
said, don't go there, it will slay you. It did when he ate
of it and it has done to man when man has been put under it
ever since it was given at Sinai. The moral law is not eternal. What is eternal is Christ and
his gospel. And what is eternal is God and
his righteousness. God's righteousness in himself
as being God is evidently eternal. And it is this which the theologians
confuse with what they call the moral law because they recognize
that there is righteousness and they recognize that righteousness
is connected with God and God is eternal. So they take the
Ten Commandments and say that that is righteousness, God is
righteous, God is eternal, therefore the moral law is eternal. This
is to confuse things which are separate. The righteousness of
God is eternal and the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. not in the law. It's revealed
in a measure in the law but the law is not simply a revelation
of the righteousness of God, the law is a law sent to condemn
us who have no righteousness. It was never given to give us
the righteousness of God, it was given to show us that we
don't have any righteousness, to lock us up and to put us in
that state in which if the spirit brings the gospel to our ears,
we will then hear and discover that righteousness, eternal righteousness,
is to be found in Jesus Christ and his gospel. But the righteousness
of God in the gospel is not the same thing as the Ten Commandments
or the moral law, which many confound together. Thirdly, they
tell us that the moral law, the Ten Commandments, was highlighted,
was separated from the rest of the Sinaitical law by God. And that he did this to show
that the Ten Commandments were distinct from the rest of the
law and were eternal. That though the ceremonial and
judicial aspects would be later repealed through Christ and the
Gospel, that the Ten Commandments being distinct and separated
by God as he wrote them in tablets of stone and as it was given
set them apart as separate and distinct from the rest of the
law. Now there's a measure of truth in this in that yes God
wrote the Ten Commandments on stone but that is not to separate
them from the rest of the law which he also gave at Sinai.
It makes them stand out as the summary of that law. But the law was a whole, it was
given as one. Indeed in its giving, after God
had uttered out of Sinai the Ten Commandments, it was not
God that chose no longer to speak with man. But it was the people
that cried out and said, speak no more with us. Speak unto us
through Moses thy servant. We cannot abide the thunder and
the lightning and the storms which are coming from the presence
of God upon the mount. The people in fear cried out
that they could no longer listen. And so the rest of the law was
given to Moses, who then delivered it to the people. they could
not stand the voice of God. It brought them to trembling
and to fear. So this distinction of the Ten
Commandments as separated is as much the fact that man cannot
take any more than that as the fact that God distinguished them.
But it is also true as I've said that God did write the Ten Commandments
on stone but that is as a summary of the whole of the law. If you're
delivered from the ceremonial and judicial aspects and all
the other commands which were given, you're delivered from
those 10 commands too. If you're still under those 10
commands, you're under all the rest of the law. Paul makes this
clear in his dealings in Galatians here with those who would be
deceived. He makes it clear that they are
a debtor to the whole law. several places he says that if
they if they break one part of the law then they are a breaker
of the whole law. I testify again to every man
that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
You may speak of circumcision you may speak of the moral law
the Ten Commandments you may say I'm keeping that well if
you put yourself under that you're a debtor to the rest of it. It's
one The distinctions between moral, judicial and ceremonial
are simply what man has given to it. The scriptures never divided
up into these three sections like this. There is the Sinaitical
law, the law of God given by Moses at Sinai. The law, as Paul
speaks of. Fourthly, they will tell us that
we're delivered from the ceremonial and judicial aspects of the law
only, but not the moral law. or to get past other verses they'll
say that we're delivered from the curse the penalty of the
law as it says in Galatians 3 that we're delivered from the curse
but not its rule hence it remains for us for sanctification as
a guide. Yet firstly in many places where
Paul speaks of the law he speaks of it as an entirety he never
divides it up If you're delivered from the ceremonial and judicial
aspects, you're delivered from the moral, from the Ten Commandments.
Indeed, the very passages where Paul speaks of deliverance from
the law, Romans 7 for example, Galatians 2, I through the law
am dead to the law. Romans 7, we're delivered from
the law by the body of Christ. In the context in these passages
if you read around them it is evident that he's talking primarily
of the Ten Commandments in context. When he says we're delivered
from the law he is not speaking of being delivered from the ceremonial
or judicial aspects there primarily but especially from the rule
of the Ten Commandments. and not only from their curse
but from the rule from their command we're not under the law
we're under grace many many places here he calls us to not walk
under the law but to walk in the spirit to walk in the gospel
to not to look to the law but to look to Christ when we're delivered from the
law we're delivered in its entirety. A fifth hindrance in this regard
is that we are told that the law is as binding on the believer
as on the unbeliever. The Westminster Confession of
Faith, the Baptist Confession of Faith, 6 and 89, will tell
us that the law is binding equally on the believer and on the unbeliever.
That though we're delivered from its curse, like I've just mentioned,
it as a rule for us, a rule of life remains binding. And they
use this term binding. Well how can something be binding
unless it has that by which it binds us? How can advice, as
they sometimes tell us that the law is, oh it's a guide, it's
advice, how can advice be binding? Advice by its nature is something
you can take or leave. But though they would use the
term advice out of one side of their mouth, Out of the other
side they'll tell us it's binding. Well it's only binding if it
has that by which it binds us and that by which the law binds
us is its penalty. You're either under it and condemned
by it or you're delivered from it. If it has no more bite, no
more penalty, then it is no longer binding. Paul tells us in his
first epistle to Timothy that the law is not equally binding
upon the believer as on the unbeliever. How anyone can look at verse
9 of Timothy and get such an idea past this verse I do not
know. Paul says in verse 8. We know
that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this
that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless
and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was
committed to my trust. The law was made for the ungodly. not for a righteous man. Now we need hardly say any more
in response to the idea that the law is equally binded upon
the believer as on the unbeliever as to repeat that verse it is
not made for the believer the believer in Christ is the righteous
man. yes he has the flesh yes he sins
because of that which remains in his flesh but as he who has
had his sins forgiven in Christ and as he who has the new man
of grace within the heart he is a righteous man the law is
not made for him it is not equally bind he's been delivered from
it. It was his husband once as Paul
refers to it in Romans 7 and he was once married to that husband
but he's now died and he's loose from that husband and he's married
to another he's married to Christ. Wherefore my brethren ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should
be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We are delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
The law is that from which we've been delivered. It is not made
for a righteous man. Sixthly, we are told that the
law must remain because the law is the definition of righteousness. If we are to know what righteousness
is, what God's righteousness is, then the law defines it. The law is the definition of
righteousness. You either are righteous according
to the moral law or you're not. Then how can you be delivered
from it, we're told, we're asked. Surely we continue under the
law, surely it's our rule of life because it defines righteousness. They go further, they tell us
that it defines righteousness because the moral law, the ten
commandments is the transcript of the divine nature. Where they
get that from in this book, I do not know. But that's what we're
told, it's the transcript of the divine nature. When God uttered
the commandments of the law at Sinai, he was opening up, he
was revealing his own divine nature, it's a transcript of
it. And I've heard them go further yet. One very well known acclaimed
preacher of our day and generation, wrote an article in the Sword
and Trowel, in which he once wrote that the law, the moral
law, is the express image of God. Not simply the divine, a
transcript of the divine nature, but the express image of God. If we're to know God, if we're
to see his face, know what his image is, know what he's like,
know what his character's like, the law tells us. To him it's
not the gospel. To him it's not Christ. To these
it's the law. The law towers above all. This
glorious moral law of theirs towers above all. And Christ
as it were comes in its shadow merely to deliver us from its
condemnation. And having delivered us he wanders
off into the darkness again to leave us bowing the knee to this
glorious law that tells us the divine nature and reveals the
express image of God's person. Now I could say several strong
things in response to what that is, to say that of the law, but
I'll leave it for you to conclude by reading Hebrews and chapter
1 where it says that in these last days God have spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he have appointed heir of all things by whom also
he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged
our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high being
made so much better than the angels as he have by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. Who is what is the
express image of God's person It's not the law it's Christ
and to put the moral law in Christ's place borders on blasphemy. Christ is. Of course these people think
that Christ as God as righteous fulfilled the law on our behalf
that he is righteousness and in the sense in which they try
to argue they try to make the law and the moral law synonymous
with Christ but the moral law falls far short of being Christ
does it not? Christ is rather more than just
ten commandments is he not? That Christ kept that law in
perfection in the purity of his person throughout his manhood
is not denied. That Christ makes known the righteousness
of God in the gospel is not denied. But he, he himself is the express
image of God's person not a law which merely reveals 10 facets
of the righteousness of God. but not the entirety. The law
is as it were ten little windows in a wall through which God's
light shines, through which he makes known various aspects of
truth. but it's only in Christ and in
his gospel in which that wall is taken down and there's no
longer 10 little windows but there's just open space and the
light of the sun shines forth in its full power. And we see
not just 10 facets of truth, of righteousness, but we see
the righteousness of God without the law, without the law getting
in the way, without the law as this grill of a window, without
the law the righteousness of God is revealed. revealed in
the son of righteousness, revealed in Christ, revealed in the express
image of God's person, in him, in him. And a final hindrance
which I draw your attention to is the claim That justifying righteousness,
that by which we are saved, was wrought by Christ's legal obedience
to the law of God. That we're made righteous when
we're delivered from our sins. And that the righteousness which
God imputes to us is that righteousness which Christ himself kept in
his manhood in his 33 years of life under the law of God. that
he set himself to keeping it and that his obedience to its
commands is that which is laid to our account. Now this is a
very very common persuasion and I don't say that its effects
are as deadly as the former's but it still stops short of the
truth. For Christ's life upon the earth
was not his striving to keep the law but it simply was a revelation
of the righteousness of God in him in his own person. A righteousness
which soared high above the commands of the law, which reached wider
and deeper and further. He is God, he is righteous. As a man the law commanded and
it could find no fault. The law tested and measured as
it were and found nothing wanting. But that righteousness which
Christ made known in his life wasn't wrought by the law. It
was in him as God. The law simply found no fault
in him. He made known in the Gospel the
righteousness of God without the law. He is the righteousness
of God. And the righteousness by which
we are justified through his blood is not merely a legal righteousness
simply extending to the terms of the Ten Commandments and no
greater. is the very righteousness of
God made ours through Christ's death on the cross where in the
hours of darkness he wrought righteousness in the sense that
he took the sins of his people those who were unrighteous and
he blotted them out as God judged them in his own person and having
judged them and blotted them out there was nothing to be seen
anymore no blackness getting in the way of the pure perfect
purity and light the righteousness of God in Christ. In these hours
of suffering righteousness was wrought through the judgment
of God against the sins of his own and this made known his righteousness. This is that which is imputed
to the believer that which fulfills the law and answers it every
charge in every measure yes but a righteousness far far greater
than anything the law envisioned. Now why do I mention this as
a point and why do I connect it with the former well it's
a hindrance because and it's brought in as essentially as
extra weight as extra evidence for the ideas of the former six
points I've mentioned. If people can get you to buy
the idea that Christ himself lived with the law as his rule
then they set before you an example to follow for you to live with
the law as your rule. But if you see rightly that Christ
lived by faith, and the righteousness he had was the righteousness
of God by faith, it was not a legal righteousness, then you will
not be persuaded that the law itself is our rule, but you will
recognize that the gospel is. the gospel. You did run well,
who did hinder you? Who did hinder you? Who was hindering
you? Are these things hindering you?
Do they confuse you? Do they weigh you down? Or do you look by faith for the
hope of righteousness? Do you through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith? Do you live by faith? Do you walk in the Spirit of
God, looking unto Christ alone, standing in the liberty wherewith
he has set you free, running in the truth of the Gospel, that
Christ delivered us from sin, from judgment and from the law,
that all is of grace from start to finish, that his death upon
the cross was that by which we are delivered, entirely forever. Do you run well in this truth?
Do you run well in it? Paul would set before us the
truth that faith is that in which we run. Faith which works by
love. These are the motivating factors
for the believer, not a law And not a promise of reward if you
keep that law. Not some carrot dangled above
a stick. Not something where if you do
good you'll get this and if you don't do good you'll get a bit
of a whip on the back. Not a putting back under the
old legal yoke. But a walk in with Christ. with
his yoke which is easy, looking under him alone by faith, faith
which works by love. The world hardly knows two greater
forces than love and faith. And this is that by which the
believer walks. He walks by the rule of a new
creature, as Paul mentions in chapter six to conclude. new
creature, he's alive in the spirit and as he that's alive he lives
by faith and that faith works by love. He loves his savior,
he loves the gospel, he looks entirely to Christ and rests
entirely to Christ and he listens for the leading of the Spirit
of God and here in him he walks where he would have him walk.
He walks, he follows Christ and the pathway in which Christ walked. When Christ died, his death was
an act of faith. His death was the greatest act
of love ever performed. An act of love wrought by faith. A work of faith
wrought by love. He died because he loved his
own. And he looked unto his father
knowing that his father would give him all those for whom he
died as his bride. And that that inheritance to
come would be his and theirs with a certainty. He went before
our forerunner in faith. Our forerunner. He walked by
faith through his lifetime. His righteousness was the righteousness
of faith, not that of the law. He lived by faith. He died in
faith. He loved God and he loved his
own. And his children are exhorted
here by Paul to run, to run in the truth, to run, to walk, to
follow Christ, to follow him by faith, to follow him with
love. that our faith might work by
love. Christ fulfilled the law, how?
Through faith, by love. Paul tells us here that love
is the fulfilment of the law. All the law is fulfilled in one
word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. You want to keep the law? You'll
do it through faith. want to keep the law you'll do
it not by looking to the law but to Christ alone. For the
new man flees from the old way, flees from that law of condemnation,
flees from the mount of fires and storms and lightnings and
thunders and dark skies and flees unto mount Zion from which Christ
comes, glorious in his apparel in the gospel with blood-soaked
garments that testify to a salvation accomplished, a righteousness
wrought by faith, a righteousness freely given and salvation to
come freely by grace. Salvation which he gives unto
his own as a gift that he might bring them in for an eternal
inheritance, that they with him, believing the gospel, looking
unto him by faith, loving their saviour, might enter into a new
world, a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,
and where there's no more tears, for there's no more sin, and
where all that there is, is love. Where are you looking? Where
are you looking? Where are you running? How are
you running? You did run well. Who did hinder you? Throw away
the hindrances. Obey the truth. Look unto Christ. Look unto Him by faith. See His
love for you. And love Him who first loved
you. Who's done it all. Praise God. Amen.