FREED FROM THE LAW BY GOD'S LOVING GRACE.

by Doug Misener

As a believer in Christ for many years I always believed that a man had to be obedient to the law in order to be in right standing with God. I always thought that believing in Jesus couldn't possibly be all there is to being right before God, that I had to do something more than believe, that it took something more than faith in him for salvation. In the past two years I learned something about God that I never knew or understood. That his grace is a gift to us that we don't deserve, and that this gift is given to us by one belief in Christ and not by anything we did to deserve it or earn it. Unearned, unmerited favor with God. Our actions didn't acquire it for us, and our actions no matter how bad won't lose it for us. It was totally a free gift of righteousness to us. In the following letter, I will take you through the unrefutable verses that will tell us who we are in Christ, and why we are set free from the law, and now under his loving grace.

In Romans 6:14, it tells us that we are not under law, but under grace. Eph. 2:13-16, says now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made the two one, (God and man) and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by ABOLISHING in his flesh the law, with its COMMANDMENTS and regulations. His purpose was to create in HIMSELF one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to RECONCILE both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. In Romans 10:11,12, Paul tells us that anyone who trusts in Christ will never be put to shame, for there is no difference between Jew and gentile. Paul just got done affirming to the people in Romans 10:4, that Christ is the END of the LAW, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Col. 2:13-15, says that when you were dead in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that were against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And in doing that he disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Satan had been disarmed, when God took away all the laws because in doing that Satan now has nothing he can take to God against us, that would cause us to lose our salvation, or be separated from God ever again.

Paul asks us in Col. 2:20, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, (which was the law), WHY? Paul asks as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? Do not, do not, do not. Romans 6:6-8, for we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with. We are made perfect that we should no longer be slaves to sin, but understand that we are righteous, because anyone who has died with Christ has been freed from sin. Paul says, now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death Christ died, he died to sin one time for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God, and in THE SAME WAY, Paul says count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. For you are not under law, but under grace.

If we go back to Romans 2:23, Paul speaks out against the law. He says YOU who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written; God's name is blasphemed because of you.

Now if we go back to John 15:10 it sounds like maybe we have to obey the commandments to be right with God, but let's examine what Jesus said there. Jesus said if you obey MY commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. You see Jesus NEVER told us to obey the fathers commands, He said I obeyed the Fathers commands now you obey mine, and this is my command he said: Jesus said, Love each other as I have loved you. Romans 13;9, Paul says the commandments are summed up in this one rule - Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 4:14-16, If you become heirs because you live by the law, Paul says faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression, therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and guaranteed to all. Paul says in Romans 5:13, that sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Romans 5:18, as a result of Adam’s one trespass, condemnation came to all of us, and as a result of one act of righteousness by Jesus, brought justification for all men, you are not held guilty, you are justified so why do we as Christians confess our guilty consciences to God, and tell him you're sorry when He already declares you not guilty? Why do we do it? Religion has us convinced that we should, even when God says we are innocent, and freed from all mortal liability. Paul never once taught us to confess sins to God, and Jesus is the one who taught Paul the Gospel after his conversion on the road to Damascus. Jesus took Paul into the wilderness and taught him for three years the Gospel. I don't think in three years that Jesus would've forgotten to tell Paul that we needed to confess our sins to be right with God. Something that important, Paul surely wouldn't have forgotten to share with the people he later went on to preach to. The only thing Paul spoke on about confession was to confess Jesus is Lord.

Romans 6:18, says you have been free from sin ever being held against you again and become slaves to righteousness. You are made righteous by one belief in Christ and have become a slave to it, you can't lose your righteousness even by your faulty actions. Romans 8:39, Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul even goes on to say in Romans 3:20, that no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin. That is what the law does, and we shouldn't even be conscious of sin, because we are not under law anymore. Heb. 9:9, gives us this illustration for that present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices of animals were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipers sins. They still felt bad in their relationship with God and going forward to Heb. 10:14, how much more, then will the blood of Christ cleanse our consciences from the acts that lead to death. Jesus not only cleansed you of your sins, he cleansed you of the guilty conscience you have about the way you feel toward God when you do something wrong. What does guilt say? It says what Jesus did on the cross wasn't enough for you. Heb. 10:22, says let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. Under the first covenant we would be aware of our actions all the time because they brought death to us, and separation from God, but Christ who is the mediator of a new covenant made it better for us. We needed a new covenant because the first one was faulty. Heb. 8:7, If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, we wouldn't have needed a new covenant, but God found fault with the people, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant. Heb. 8:10, The Lord declares INSTEAD I will put the laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, I will be their God and they will be my people. How do we know what right from wrong is? We know it because God wrote it in our hearts. Heb. 8:13, by declaring this covenant NEW. God made the first covenant OBSOLETE; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear, when the new one comes. It came at the cross. Heb. 9:15, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to SET us FREE from sins committed under the first covenant. Heb. 10:9-17, Jesus said here I am, I have come to do your will. He set aside the first covenant to establish the second covenant, and because Christ did that by that will, we have been made Holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By this covenant the Lord says I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds, and their sins and lawless acts I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.

Are the Law and the commandments the same thing? YES, in 2 Cor. 6-18, it tells us that God has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter, but of of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, (here it is) which was engraved in letters on stone (the commandments) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the spirit (that came with Jesus) be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what WAS GLORIOUS has NO glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory, and if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts forever. If you are in Christ it is taken away, the veil is taken away as it states in verse 14 - 18. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Do you have the Spirit in you? 2 Cor 5:5 God has given us the Spirit as a deposit, GUARANTEEING what is to come. And WE, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. You are no longer under law, but under grace.

If you don't believe this, Paul makes it clearer in Gal. 3:1-3. He says you foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Did you receive the Spirit of God by observing the law, or by believing in Christ? Are you so foolish? After beginning in the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Gal. 4:9, How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles of the law? Do you wish to be enslaved by them again? After you have been set free from them? Gal. 3:10, Don't you know all who rely on observing the law are under a curse? Gal 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Gal. 5:1 tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Notice the word HAS in that verse. It doesn't say he will, or someday you will be free. It says he HAS set us free, so stand firm, then, and and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery, which is the law and all its rules and regulations.

Paul warns us in Gal. 5:2, he says if you obey the law and get circumcised to be right with God, Christ will be of no value to you at all, and he says if you obey one law for righteousness sake, you become obligated to obey the whole law. YOU who have been justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; YOU HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE. This is serious. A fall from grace isn't disobedience, it's obedience that Paul is addressing here. A fall from grace is when you think your obedience makes you right with God, when the truth is, it is Jesus' obedience that makes you right with God. Gal. 3:21 If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. Before faith came (Jesus), we were held by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. SO THE LAW WAS PUT IN CHARGE TO LEAD US TO CHRIST, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith HAS come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Gal. 4:21, tells me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For example,the sabbath day - In exodus 31:14, says anyone who desecrates the sabbath day must be put to death; who ever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. Now the sabbath day is actually Saturday, so now what are we going to do? A lot of us need to be put to death according to the law. Do we just ignore the ones we don't like? It's like Paul says, you who obey the law for righteousness sake are now obligated to obey the whole law. We can’t pick and choose what laws are serious and what ones aren't. Paul says all the law, and doesn't leave the sabbath day law out. Gal. 2:19-21, for through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified WITH CHRIST and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God, I live by his faith, not my own who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, THEN CHRIST DIED FOR NOTHING. Gal. 4:4, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to REDEEM those under law, that we might receive the full rights of Sons, because you are Sons, God sent his Spirit of his Son into our hearts. We are not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ. He has Redeemed us, made us Holy and blameless in his sight, without fault and accusation, we are reconciled through Christ, Justified through Christ, Free from any condemning charges against us - Christ did it all for us.

My conclusion so far is this - Let us not be so concerned about our faults and failures that that is all we worry about, because we are going to continue to do wrong for the rest of our lives. Instead, start observing what Christ really did for us, and focus on his love, and then the love in your heart for God will help you in the weak areas of your life, where you may be failing. I'm telling you I never felt farther away from God than when I thought I had to do right in order to be right before God. I was never close, and you won't do good enough to draw closer to him either, because it doesn't work that way. When I learned about Grace, His undeserved, unmerited favor towards me and understood all He accomplished on the cross for me, it set me free, and I fell in love with God.

God Bless, and grace and peace be with you. My fav. verse, Rom. 4:8, says blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.