Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
May 18, 2014 - W1420

Man has made some very dumb laws. Here is one that is attached to the cord of a hair dryer: “Do not remove under penalty of the law” or another one on an iron which read, “Warning! Do not iron clothes while on body.” This is one on a set of Christmas lights, “for indoor or outdoor use only”. Is there any other way to use them? On an airline riding back to Honolulu, I received a packet of peanuts and when I turned the bag over it read, “Open packet, eat nuts”. All I could think about was that someone got paid really good money for writing that. One of my favorites was on a set of Korean knives: “Keep out of children”. I think something got lost in the translation.

These were some of my favorite man made laws which really sound dumb. But I want you to see how important God’s laws are and how they never change. When you read through the Bible you read about the many laws established by God. Some people (maybe even some of you) probably wonder why there are so many.

Many believers in the time of Christ, had so much difficulty trying to follow the countless laws that they began to circumvent and rationalize. They began asking, “How can we keep such laws? We are only human. If God promises us eternal life and blessings, then why does He give us so many laws? They seem so contradictory.”

The Apostle Paul answers this question in the book of Galatians. These verses will help us understand how law and grace intersect each other. Can’t we do away with one of them? No, we can’t, but one will trump the other if we have the correct response.

“For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise. Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the Child who was promised. God gave His law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 3:18-22 NLT)

Here’s an important point: It says here that there’s only one way to get to God and that is in believing in Jesus Christ.

“Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.” (Galatians 3:23 NLT)

This means that the law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. God gave the Ten Commandments but the people couldn’t keep up with it, so God gave us a substitutionary redemption called The Sacrifice. God sent His son to pay the sacrifice for us and because of Jesus, God gave us Grace. But in order to receive that Grace, we have to repent and believe as it says here in verse 24:

“Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.” (Galatians 3:24 NLT)

I recall a conversation I had with a non-Christian college student who questioned all the different laws that God established in the Bible. He told me that Christians need to “lighten up”, because culture is changing so our religion needs to change to “fit” the culture. Then, he said, maybe more people would buy into our belief. He said we are too narrow minded and called us all bigots because we say that there is only one way into Heaven.

Well I simply said to him, “you want truth to be narrow.” And he said “What?” Well I went on to explain that if he was a teacher and he asked the student what two plus two is, he’d want the student to answer four, right? After all the answer isn’t 4 and any fraction thereof is it? It’s 4 and nothing more. I gave him another example, if he was driving on the freeway and he got stopped by a policeman, he gets pulled over and asks why he was stopped because he wasn’t speeding. Then the cop tells him “Oh it’s my birthday today and I just turned 40, so I changed the law to 40MPH today.” Or how about if his landlord changed his rent overnight from $800 to $1500? Would that be fair? You see the stability or our lives is determined by the stability of right and fair laws.

Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” So are His laws. It becomes unchangeable, dependable, immutable and trustworthy. Even the stars and the moon reflect God’s laws in effect. The inertia, the gravity, and motion depends on the stability of God’s Laws.

But just as there are physical laws, there are also Spiritual Laws, and the consequences are the same if we violate them. If we reject those laws and decide to be cut off from God, then we are caught in sin. So if we don’t steward our bodies correctly and we are immoral with sex and murder and other things, then we will experience death.

It’s like a cut flower. When you cut a flower from its life sustaining bush, it will still remain beautiful and healthy for a time, but the longer it is away from the nourishment that the roots of the bush gives, it will eventually fade away and die. For us, God is the Life Source. We may look good, feel good for a time, but inside of us we are dead. We need to reconnect. How do you reconnect? Well we will learn how to do that now.

LAW & GRACE

1. TAKE TIME TO KNOW GOD AND HIS LAWS.

“Jesus replied, ‘Your problem is that you do not know the Scriptures and you don’t know the power of God’” (Matt. 22:29).

The Pharisees in the time of Jesus, did not want to obey all of God’s laws because it was just too difficult for them, so they began to adjust and change His laws to better suit their lifestyle. They did this because they did not know the heart of God. Oh they knew what the laws said, they just couldn’t obey them because they did not understand the true meaning of God’s heart. We need to get to the heart of knowing God, which means we need to constantly be reading God’s word. By reading God’s word daily we not only get to know what is right or wrong but we also get to know God. As we read, we get beyond just the knowledge of what God has to offer, but we also get to His heart.

2. LEARN TO LOVE AND OBEY HIS LAWS.

“Those who love Your laws have great peace and nothing will cause them to stumble”

(Ps. 119:165).

Jesus told the Pharisees that even though they know what the law says, and they put it on the people to obey them, they are actually living contrary to what is actually God’s way. Knowing is good but God wants us to graduate to a higher level. He wants us to aspire to that point when we actually can truly love God and love what He says to us.

Often, when I read the devotions for the day, I find myself praying as I run my hands across the page, “Lord, help me to love Your word, and to love Your ways because my human heart wants to find ways to rationalize around Your ways. But Lord, help me to know and love Your ways and to be fully open and transparent to receive and love Your laws.”

When we learn to truly love God’s ways, then when we stumble, we are able to question “How would God respond to this?” Then we could realize that it’s okay when we stumble, because God loves us so very much and that God may use this in some way as an example to show others how by knowing and loving Him we are saved.

Proverbs 7 says to treasure the commandments in us, not just know them otherwise we would be Christians but with a rebellious heart. So treasure God’s word. In other words, the people we truly are in the world, are the same when no one is watching us. We can come to church every Sunday and listen to a thousand sermons, but if we don’t change then we haven’t learned to love God.

Which brings us to our third point:

3. LEARN THE POWER OF REPENTANCE.

“When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)…and they repent and if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul, then hear from heaven and forgive Your people…” (2 Chron. 6:36-39 selected).

When we violate God’s laws, it just simply says that we are human. The response to violating His laws is more about us than about the failing. If we make excuses for our sins or blame someone else instead of saying to God, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, then the enemy has won. The road to repentance is the most powerful weapon against the enemy, because repentance enacts the Grace of God to start the healing process. If we don’t take the responsibility, expecting others to clear the way for us then we have lost. If we ask forgiveness and repent then the healing will start. How? It is because of Jesus Christ.

There is a story about a benevolent king who had a very rebellious sister. She lied and cheated contrary to the laws of the land set by the king. One day she was brought before him for having been caught bribing an official. There was a strict and stringent law of punishment if caught performing such a violation.

Just as the sister was about to be punished for her crime, the king stopped the lashing. He took off his royal clothing and told the guards to untie her. He said the law will be paid and he told the guards to tie him up in her place to receive the lashing. Grace was given to her by the king.

That’s exactly what Jesus did for us. When we couldn’t pay, He did. Remember this: God will not bend the laws but He did bend His posture in humility and became a man. He took on our form and humbled Himself to the point of death. Through Jesus we receive Grace and the law was paid. All He asks is for our repentance and love. God humbled Himself because He loves us, can’t we humble ourselves because we want to know and love Him?

Study Suggestions

1. What steps have you taken to get to know and love God?

2. As you read God’s word, what do you get from it?

3. What should you take time to do in regards to God and His Laws? Why?

4. What else should we do along with obeying His Laws?

5. What is the power of repentance?