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I Fought the Law....

Writer's picture: David WarrenDavid Warren

If you want to fire up someone who is living their life by the Law of Moses, just tell them God's grace covers all their sins, past, present, and future. World religions all have one thing in common "You must do some duty to be acceptable to their belief and that duty makes it all about what YOU do." This is just another expression of self pride and that brings us being "right" back into our hands and not dependent on some other source. For born again believers the Word of God says the "opposite." We have nothing to offer to make us right and there is no way possible to be made right by accomplishing something. Paul emphasized this point again and again and those who followed the law were willing to kill him or jail him for presenting a message that did not include the law of Moses.

If we can do something to make our selves right with God then we have a "works" faith and it is based on our righteousness. The Word of God says our righteousness is as "filthy rags." So we are in trouble if we think we can work our way into being right with God and that includes eternal life in heaven. This very teaching is what Paul had to refute again and again, especially in the church in Galatia. Paul preached God's grace resulted in God's righteousness and the only way we could get that righteousness was to believe in Jesus and accept him as Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 10:If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Those who believed Paul's teaching was wrong believed you could have levels of Godliness and that affected their standing in the religious community and without it would lessen their power and their clout. Pride of position has no place in the community of true believers because we are bankrupt when it comes to what we have to offer for our salvation. Paul wrote this in Romans 3: 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Paul goes on to say what Jesus did for sinners in shedding HIS blood. Romans 3:24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Here is where Paul "puts the hammer down" on us relying on our righteousness or works. Romans 3: 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. In Acts 24 Paul is in trouble to the point of execution by the Jews because this is the message he was preaching and that message is also our hope today. In Acts 24 look at what is happening to this man of God as they try to convict him with a high powered lawyer named Tertullus.

The only problem they have is Paul cannot be indicted by God and God's Word is on His side.....again. We even have people who cannot realize and just "accept" God's grace and that leads to a judging attitude and that attitude kills the wonderful grace given to us by Jesus. This attitude will water down the effect of the blood of the Son of God given for us on the cross. It ushers in a very me-centered salvation instead of a Jesus-centered salvation and the gift given to each of us who are born again is not a gift at all. It becomes a man polluted act of making ourselves right, which is self righteousness. But God's grace is real, even though we don't understand it. To fully come to a deeper understanding of His grace you must study God's Word and that will confirm your trust in Jesus' righteous gift of salvation. In Acts 4:12 God's Word says There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Do you know why the Jews, who were after Paul, could not accept the above scripture? Because they didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah. They refuted the prophecies they had spoken of for many years and ignored the FACT that Jesus was the very fulfillment of those prophecies. He was right before their eyes, but they could not see him. John the Baptist said these very words when he introduced Jesus as the Messiah in John 1: 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

Our new birth or born again is not from any of us, but only from Jesus. This is what God's Word says whether you believe it or not. I BELIEVE IT and rely on this truth. I am a lousy sinner who because of God's great love has forgivenesss or grace and it is a gift I received. Not because of me trying to be righteous. It was because I believed by faith in what Jesus did on the cross was ENOUGH for even me. I didn't fight the law I surrendered to Jesus and received Him by faith. END OF STORY. Quit trying to impress God to get Him to love you more. He has given ALL of His love to make us right with Him and we had nothing to do with it!! Here is how Paul had to put it to get the Galatians back in the right place in Galatians 3:How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? Jesus' death WAS NOT in vain!! Jesus fought the Law and He won, because HE is the fulfillment of the Law.


Vesselogical Out,


David Warren

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