Grace - Now That Faith Has Come, the Law Is Obsolete

Hi Everyone,

Something lost in the memory of our society is the truth that covenant determines relationship.  This is also true of how God relates to us.  If we rightly divide the word of truth, then we will see that under the old covenant, God had to relate to a sinful people as a Holy and Righteous God had to:  He blessed those who did good; He cursed those who did evil.  Let's remember that "good" as defined by God's commands is actually perfection--not merely right behavior.  The self-righteous seek to justify themselves, but they misunderstand and ignore the requirement of perfection, focusing on achieving "good" or "right" behavior.  In the same way that we rightly divide truth and correctly understand the purpose of the old covenant with it rules and regulations, we must also see that God now relates to sinful people through Jesus through the new covenant.  People are reconciled to Himself and He is no longer relating to us through the law, since Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law on behalf of all people.  He reconciled the WORLD to Himself--faith has now come and...

the former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.  Hebrews 7:18-19 (See also Gal. 3:10; James 2:10; and James 4:17)

In Matthew 9:16-17 we read about the danger of combining old and new garments and the placing of new wine into new wineskins rather than old ones.  This represents the mixing of old and new covenants.  It does not work; in fact, it's deadly to do so.  Why is it dangerous to mix old and new covenant teachings?  It is here that I make my strongest point in this email:

The mixing old and new covenant teachings will produce the following:

You will begin to believe that God contributes to our problems--that He causes or allow sickness as judgment and punishment.

You will be unsure of God's Will and will never be able to be in faith.  Your "faith life" will be a rollercoaster of faith and unbelief.

You will be focus on your problems, empower your enemy, and will be unable to see the solution.

You will judge people rather than minister to them--your salt will have lost its saltiness.

You will prescribe works to people as a solution to get God to move on their behalf.

You will be in perpetual confusion and experience unending condemnation and guilt.

God demonstrated to us His righteousness (See Romans 3:25) which has now become the very righteousness of those who have faith in Jesus (verse 22).  I find that most Christians do not believe that they are completely righteous, which adequately describes the righteous of Jesus.  In other words, we are just as righteous as Jesus is, because HIS righteousness is our righteousness.

I write these things to you in hopes that you will have the righteousness that comes by faith:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:24-26

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy