Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: We are free not by working hard or doing more or following rules and regulations or by dressing right or by having the right language or having our perfect devotions or reading through the Bible a million times. It is by faith. We are made free by faith. The spirit of life that lives in me draws me above and away from the law of sin and death.

And yet it still exists to reveal to me at any time my failure, but I am not bound to it any longer.

Guest (Male): Maybe you grew up in a church that boiled the Christian life down to a list of do's and don'ts. And after you went out there and gave it your best shot, you were left frustrated and discouraged as you simply did not measure up.

Today on Abounding Grace, we will discover that Jesus has set us free from that sort of burden. Instead, he calls us to a life of faith and belief. Pastor Ed Taylor focuses on just a few verses today in Romans chapter eight. They are verses two through four. Before we get there, we will hear a bit about the story of Noah.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Genesis 6, verse 14. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make the rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch. Do you see that in your Bibles? Mark that word pitch and right next to it, kaphar. K-A-P-H-A-R. It is the Hebrew word kaphar.

This is how he was to make it. And in the instructions of how to make this ark, we have a picture of the grace of God. It is interesting because this is the same Hebrew word that is used for atonement. That technical word of God's forgiving our sins. Atonement.

Atonement, the way you can remember that word whenever it comes up in your Bibles, is just to think of the word, break it down into what it sounds like. At-one-ment. The word atonement means that you and I are made one with God. We are brought into unity with God. Our sins have been forgiven and the wrath of God is no longer upon us. This word kaphar is the word for atonement.

So they were to build this wooden ark and they were to cover it with kaphar, with pitch. The ark becomes a picture and a type of Jesus Christ. The ark is a picture of Jesus Christ, and the only way Noah and his family could be saved was to be inside the ark. That was the instruction. Get inside. Get inside.

The ark becomes a picture and a type of the atonement of Jesus Christ, the covering. Noah and his family were told to go in, and the Bible says that the Lord shut the door. They did not have to set up a pulley system or anything. God shut them in.

And for 40 days and 40 nights, the judgment of God, the water came down and began to rise. But they are in the ark, covered, protected, and safe. I think Noah was glad that in the instruction to make the ark, God did not say, "Okay, Noah, the storms are coming and the floods are coming and the destruction, and you and your family, here is what I want you to do."

"I want you to build the ark, and on either side, I want four pegs on this side, and I want four pegs on that side. And for 40 days and 40 nights, hang on for dear life. And if you hang on to the end, you will be saved." But he did not say that because it was not about Noah's ability to hold on to a peg in order to be saved from judgment.

It was not about Noah's ability and his wife and his family to hold on for forty days and think, "Okay, I can do it because I want to be safe. Okay, whatever you say, God." And you are holding on for a couple of hours and you think, "I do not think I can do this." And maybe you make it four hours, maybe you make it six hours.

Maybe some of you are super strong and you make it eight hours, but you are not going to make it 40 days. And even in making it eight hours, what have you accomplished but showing yourself that you have got strength for about eight hours? But it was not enough strength because the first eight hours, it was just drops. There was no flood. It was just drops.

Our life is not hanging on and holding on for dear life. It is "get inside, I will shut you in." You want to be free from your past? Get inside and I will shut you in, God says. The safest place for you and me to be is hidden in Christ. Is that not what the Bible says in Colossians chapter three, verse three?

"For you died when Christ died and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." You are hidden. So many are trying to hold on and hold out to stay away from sin. And you might ask them, they do not realize when you are saying this, but you hear the vernacular. It is typical stuff. "How are you doing today?" "Hanging in there." Really? So you are hanging onto the pegs outside the ark?

"What are you talking about? I am just barely making it. I am hanging in there." Oh, so you are hanging in there. And it is really a reflection of, "man, I am just about ready to give in. I am barely making it." And you are tempted at times just to say, "just let go." "No, I cannot let go." "No, let go!"

"No, if I let go, I will not be able to hang in there." That is the point. Because when we use that vernacular, whether we mean it in a spiritual way or not, the reality for the Christian is it is not about you and me hanging in there. It is about the firm grip of God upon your life.

That even if you were to let go, though a man fall seven times, he will rise again. It is the faithfulness of God. When chapter eight opens up, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. That is where freedom from your past comes. To be in him and the freshness of his work.

When the Father looks at you and me, he does not see us with all our failures and faults. He does not see us, although he does see everything about us, he sees us in Christ. Not only does Jesus come to live in you, but you are also put in him. You are covered both ways. What great freedom there is according to verse two of the freedom of the law of the spirit of life.

The spirit of life. What great freedom there is. There is this spirit of life in Christ. What is the spirit of life in Christ? It starts with a capital G. It is called the Gospel. The Gospel is the freedom of the spirit of life. The Gospel, the good news.

What the law was not able to do, we know that the law was not done away with because we need to have the law to understand our need. So the law was not done away with. It is still doing its job. It is holy, it is just, and it is good. But in Christ, you are no longer bound to it. You are under the law of the spirit of life.

He set us free from the law of sin and death. Not only does the law reveal to us now where to go, but Jesus empowers us from the inside out. The law has a lot of different definitions. It could be a reference to the Ten Commandments. It could be a reference to the first five books of the Old Testament that is known as the Torah.

Sometimes it is referred to as the Mosaic Covenant. It is the reality of God's demands upon our life, his teachings and instructions to the Jewish people revealing his desire for their purity. And all the law says to us over and over again is that you are a sinner, you are a sinner and you must surely die. That is the root of the law.

The law says when you sin, you die. That is the law. The law of sin and death is like the law of gravity. As we walk through the terminal over at DIA, we would see plane after plane sitting there parked. Why? Because they are held down by gravity. Or there is a massive delay and they have not taken off yet.

But even then, it is gravity holding that plane back. I am not speaking anything personal, but I just saw the receipt from the time we went to the airport and had to go home. We were there 12 hours and had to go home. I am free from my past. The planes there are held down by gravity.

But just in a few minutes, as they push that plane back, they will be in flight. Why? Because a new law will take place. A new law. The laws of aerodynamics with thrust and lift. Laws that I personally do not even understand, but I trust them all the time.

But with the new law of aerodynamics and thrust and lift, does that mean the law of gravity goes away? No. It still has its job and still works perfectly. So too with the law of God. Grace supersedes the law of God, but the law of God still has its place and its purpose. There is always that higher law that will release, just like that plane, from the law of gravity.

So it is in Jesus Christ. Lifted up above the gravity of the law of sin and death, we are free to live for Jesus by faith. Remember they came to Jesus, they asked him this question: "What shall we do that we may work the works of God?" That is a common question asked today. Give us something to do, Jesus. Tell us how we are doing it wrong.

We are tethered to the law, motivated to do it, striving to attain it, working hard for God to please him. And Jesus answers this, John chapter six, verses 28 and 29. They came and asked him what must we do to do the works of God, and listen carefully to the answer. Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God: that you believe in him that he sent."

We are free not by working hard or doing more or following rules and regulations or by dressing right or by having the right language or having our perfect devotions or reading through the Bible a million times. It is by faith. We are made free by faith. The spirit of life that lives in me draws me above and away from the law of sin and death.

And yet it still exists to reveal to me at any time my failure, but I am not bound to it any longer. Notice, I love verse three as we wind down here. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." And remember, let us just clarify: what the law could not do was give you life. Give you power.

The law had no ability in and of itself to forgive. It could only point you to the ordinances by which God would honor and he forgave. Because it is not a law and it is not a rule that sets us free and forgives us. Forgiveness only comes from God through Jesus Christ. That is the only way it comes.

And so when you see that what the law could not do, God did. How? By sending Jesus Christ to die for you and me. To live by the grace of God sets you free from the past. It gives you freedom. The law, the Ten Commandments, the Torah, the rules, they were weak because they could not change my flesh.

My inability to keep the law showed its weakness. It could not change me from the inside out. I could not follow enough rules and lists. I could not read enough books to make me right with God. You can write out your goals if you are still unconvinced. You can still write out your goals on little three-by-five cards, post them all over your house.

That is great and that is good. But all you will find every time you see those cards is your weakness and inability to follow them. Because if you had the strength to follow them, you would not need a reminder on the mirror. Are you with me? It is good to be reminded, that is not the issue.

But every time we need to be reminded, all it does is reveal our weakness. I cannot remember everything. It shows my weakness, not my strength. And even if on one of those three-by-five cards you memorize it, you have got it everywhere you go. It is on the milk, it is on the cheese, it is on your car, it is on your shoes, everywhere.

And you wrote this out: "I will be a good person today. The best person I could ever be." What a burden you have placed on yourself. Why? Is it not good to be good? Is it not good to be best? Every day that little goal, every day you have to be better than the last or you have failed your card.

If Monday is your best day and you wake up on Tuesday and think, "This will be my best day." However good you were Monday, you are going to have to be better on Tuesday. And so you hit it on Tuesday. "I am really good." But then let us say on Monday you set the bar so low so you can hit it.

Now you feel guilty about that because you know that was not your best day. And the way we set up rules and regulations, whether you admit it or not, consider it before the Lord, you will always set up your rules and regulations so that you can do them, but others cannot. What do I mean?

Well, let me put it this way. Haven't you noticed yet in your relationship with God that your sin looks really bad in someone else's life? "I cannot believe she's... And oh!" And the Lord is always saying, "Is that not so interesting? That is all you ever notice." "I know, I am just... That is my gift. I find that sin everywhere."

All right. "That is my gift. I am the sin-sniffing Pharisee." And you are just walking around the church. "Sin over there, pastor. Sin over there, pastor." But then over time, God reveals to you, "You know what? That is actually something I want you to deal with in your life." "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, that is actually an area in your life."

"You are seeing it in others because I am showing it to you. I want you to see it because as you are angry..." There is an example of this in the Bible. You remember his name was David. David's friend came to him with a story. And as the story unfolded, it was a great injustice. The little ewe lamb and taking it, and David just got so incensed, and what did he pronounce on that story?

Death. The death penalty was not even appropriate for the crime. Giving back a couple lambs, maybe two or three, but it was not even appropriate. But what was on David's mind? The death penalty. Why? Because he is a murderer. You see, the law does not bring you freedom. Only Jesus Christ.

What the law was weak in doing in its inability, God did. And by faith in Jesus Christ, freedom is yours. God did by sending his own son, and by faith in him you fulfill all the requirements of the law. Let me end here and go over to 2 Corinthians chapter three, and let us just look briefly.

You see, you want to be free from your past, you need to be in Christ. The place of freedom is by faith in Jesus Christ. He does the work. He empowers. He helps. He strengthens. He gives the ability. He gives it all. He gives the command and the power to fulfill it. And so notice with me in 2 Corinthians chapter three. Pick up with me in verse four for the sake of the context.

"And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything of being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." That is the language of grace. The language of grace is, "I have nothing to offer. My sufficiency is in Christ. It is from God."

He has made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious?

For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what was passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. So let me walk you through.

The old covenant is the law of sin and death. The new covenant is the law of spirit and life. The old covenant is the ministry of death, but the new is the ministry of life. The old covenant was written on stones. It was external. It was demanding. It had this external outward change and conformity to a list.

But the new covenant is actually written on hearts promised in Jeremiah chapter 31, Ezekiel 36. It was promised that God would do a work on the hearts of men. It is a change of our nature. We have a new nature. It is an internal change where now I desire to do the will of God. I do not desire to follow a list or some outward list of change.

It does not make you any more righteous, ladies, if you cover your ankles. There is a whole system of theology that the way you dress makes you more spiritual. The Bible speaks of modesty for men and women for sure. But whether you cover your ankles or not, ladies, you are fine. It is fine.

Somebody says, "I got freedom! I got freedom!" You have always had it. Enjoy it. The externals is not what God is looking for. It is the internal work of his spirit. The old covenant, notice, was temporary. Its glory faded away. But the new covenant is eternal in glory and righteousness.

The old covenant was condemnation, but the new covenant gives justification in the forgiveness of sins. How are we set free from the past? We are reminded that God has released us from the law, set free so that God dwells in us and we are able to live. Because here is the thing, and we will just break it down.

Your inability to let go of the past is a reflection of your own human effort. And you have subjected yourself to the law of sin and death. But when you choose to obey God and release yourself to the law of spirit and life, you are instantly free. Now you may go back and you got to be free again. And you may go back and you got to be free again.

But that is what chapter seven is all about, is it not? Where do you want to live, Christian? Chapter seven of Romans or chapter eight? You see, that is why seven comes before eight. Because you want to be in seven and be released in eight. Go home and read the book of Romans. Read it all the way through and notice the progression of victory and joy and life that comes when you get all the way to the end.

The promises of God. When we emphasize the promises of God, which are great and wonderful, let us emphasize the promises of God secondarily to the God who keeps his promises. Our faith is in his ability to keep his promise, not our ability to remember them. Our faith is in the God who gives power, not our ability to submit to it.

Our faith is in the God who does the work, not even in our ability to recognize it. Do you know that God does a lot more in your life than you even recognize?