“Without grace, even the New
Testament becomes the Law.” -Pastor Tracy Harris
Everyone knows about the ten
commandments – these make up the foundation of what is called “The
Law.” If you're not sure what they are, let's take a quick look:
Following these commandments bring
righteousness and blessing on someone's life – disobeying them will
bring condemnation and judgment. But we have already established this
fact; no one can keep these commands. Ten simple rules to follow, and
we've all failed miserably.
At least we're living in the New
Testament, right? On this side of Calvary, God's grace has freely
forgiven us for breaking His original commandments. “In Him we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace...” (Ephesians
1:7). Now that we've been freely forgiven of all sin, there's no more
commands for us to follow, right?
Actually,
would you care to guess how many commands are in the New Testament?
Ten? Twenty? One hundred? Would you believe that there are one
thousand and fifty new
commands for the Christian to follow? If we were lost with only ten
to keep track of, we must be completely hopeless with more than a
thousand! There's no way we could even remember all of those – let
alone keep them! Doesn't this put a believer in a worse
place than they were before?
That
would certainly be true
if we had to keep these commands by ourselves.
But we don't have to do this alone; we've been given something that
makes it all possible – grace! Let's look again at Hebrews 12:28,
“...let us
have grace, by
which we may serve God acceptably...”
We can only serve God by grace, not by trying.
When
we try
to obey God, we're depending on our flesh to do what's right. This is
what Paul calls “the
weakness of the Law”
in Romans 8:3. The reason the trying
to
keep the law never works is because your depending on your weak flesh
to follow God's commands. But if you read the end of Romans 7, you'll
discover that the flesh will never be able to follow God's commands.
This
is why we need grace, to empower us to serve God and obey his
commands. Look at what Paul says about grace in 2 Corinthians 12:9
“My
grace is sufficient for you, for My
strength is made perfect in weakness.” Where
the flesh is weak, God's grace brings power. The result of this
empowering grace can be seen in Psalm 119:32 “I
will run the course of Your commands, for
You shall enlarge my heart.”
When
you try to obey God, you'll fail. But when you step into the spirit and have
faith in God, you'll find sin losing it's grip on you! Let's take
another look at Romans 8, this time at verses 2-9:
“For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it
was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the
flesh,
that
the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do
not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit...”
The only way to
keep the righteous requirements of the law is to stay in the Spirit –
by fully trusting in God's grace.
And what is it we
trust in? Put your hope completely in this one truth: God has
never given a command without also giving the power to keep it!
Let's take a quick tour through scripture and illustrate this point:
When God commanded
Moses to move forward – He gave the power to split the sea.
When God commanded
Joshua to capture the Promise Land – He gave the power for victory.
When Jesus
commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it out – He
gave the power to be healed.
When Jesus called
Peter out on the sea – He gave the power to walk on the water.
Now look at
Lazarus. If there was any man that was weak in the flesh, it was this
one! He had been dead for four days – and Jesus commanded him to
come out of the grave! Lazarus didn't have the strength to get
up...he was dead! But what happened? The command carried the power
to obey it! This is what grace does for us, it empowers us to
obey the commands of God – any command.
This
is the power of grace – Grace turns any command in scripture into
the power to obey! As you read the words of scripture, remember this;
any command you read is actually a promise
to empower you to obey. Put your faith in God, and He will enlarge
your heart to obey every word He says...This is the Promise of Grace!
