Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00004A
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00:21 Welcome to Books of the Book, I'm Pastor Mark Howard
00:24 of the Global Seventh-day Adventist Church in Global 00:26 Michigan and Director of the Emmanuel Institute of Evangelism 00:29 in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. 00:31 I'm here with my co-host, my younger brother. 00:34 Yes my name is Jim Howard and I am Pastor of the 00:36 Detroit Metropolitan Seventh-day Adventist Church and 00:39 the South Lyon Seventh-day Adventists Church 00:41 in Michigan as well. 00:42 We are studying in the book of Galatians. 00:46 In our last time together we were looking at what I 00:50 believe is the key note, Jim, of the book of Galatians 00:53 and that is Galatians 2:16 were Paul three times is 00:56 very emphatic that we are not saved by the works of the 00:59 law but by our faith in Jesus Christ. 01:02 We are actually going to pick up there and I'm going to 01:04 read verse 16, in fact we will start in verse 15. 01:07 Galatians 2:15 and we are going to read on through the 01:12 end of the chapter here in key in on a key thought 01:16 that he has here towards the end of the chapter. 01:20 Verse 15 says, "We who are Jews by nature and not sinners 01:25 "of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is 01:27 "not justified by the works of the law; but by faith in 01:30 The Jesus Christ, even we who have believed in Christ 01:33 "Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ 01:36 "and not by the works of the law; for by the works of 01:40 "the law shall no flesh be justified, but if while we 01:43 "seek to be justified by Christ we ourselves are found 01:46 "sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? 01:49 "Certainly not. For if I begin those things which 01:52 "I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 01:55 "For I through the law died to the law that I might 01:58 "live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 02:01 "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; 02:04 "and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by 02:08 "faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself 02:12 "for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if 02:15 "righteousness comes through the law, 02:16 "then Christ died in vain. " 02:18 This is what we are going to be expounding on. 02:21 What I want to do is that I want to key in on this 02:24 right here, this term, or this phrase rather that I died 02:32 to the law, I through the law died to the law. 02:35 You know Jim many people read that as they are going 02:38 through Galatians and as we already mentioned, 02:40 Galatians is used as the book that people attempt to 02:45 prove that the apostle Paul is showing the moral law of 02:48 God, the Ten Commandments is something that Christians 02:52 don't need to concern themselves with. 02:54 This is one of those key passages where they say that it 02:57 says very plainly that I through the law died to the law. 03:00 He died to the law he didn't feel like he had a need 03:02 to keep the law anymore. 03:04 Paul realized he was free from that burdensome old law. 03:07 That is a concept that people will read into this, 03:10 but that is not at all what the apostle was saying. 03:13 No it isn't and I think that if this was the only passage 03:16 of Scripture we might be able to conjecture one way or 03:19 another, but the apostle talks about being dead to the 03:22 law in other places. 03:23 Before even going there though there is an important 03:26 point that we can find right in this verse. 03:28 Verse 19 says, "for I through the law died to the law. " 03:33 Who died? Was it the law? No he said I died to the law. 03:38 This same point is brought out in Romans chapter 7 and 03:41 I'm wondering if we could turn to that passage and read 03:45 from Romans chapter 7. 03:47 That is right and another interesting point is that it 03:48 was through the law he died to law. 03:50 So the law was employed in this death, and we are going to 03:53 talk more about that death. 03:54 What did you say Romans 7. 03:56 Chapter 7 yes and let's go to verse 1 so beginning right 04:01 there it says, "or do you not know, brethren 04:04 for I speak to those who know the law ", that the law 04:07 "has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 04:09 "For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to 04:13 "her husband as long as he lives. 04:15 "But if the husband dies she is released from the law of 04:18 "her husband. So then if while her husband lives and she 04:21 "marries "another man she will be called an adulterous; 04:24 "for if her husband dies she is free from that law so 04:26 "that she is no adulterous though 04:28 "she has married another man. " 04:30 This is simply just describing that if you are married 04:33 to someone you can't marry someone else 04:35 unless your spouse dies. 04:37 You can't be married to two people at the same time. 04:40 So then picking up in verse 4 he makes that parallel 04:44 to the Christian experience and he says, 04:46 "therefore, my brethren, you have also become dead to the 04:51 "law through the body of Christ, that you may be married 04:54 "to another! - to him who was raised from the dead, 04:57 "that we should bear fruit to God. " 04:59 So he says, you as a Christian have become dead to the 05:03 law through the sacrifice of Christ. 05:07 It is not the law itself that died, but my selfish will, 05:15 my selfish passion are what died. 05:17 This is in verse 5, "for when we were in the flesh, 05:21 "the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were 05:25 "at work in our members to bear fruit to death. " 05:27 So my sinful passions had to die through the sacrifice 05:32 of Christ, that I might be married to Christ resurrected 05:37 and live a new life. 05:39 Okay so the woman who is joined to her husband and 05:42 was joined by the law, when the husband died she sought 05:46 to marry another in the same law testified to that 05:49 marriage, so in other words the law did not change, 05:53 but the woman's relationship to law changed and Paul 05:57 applies that experience to us through conversion really. 06:02 That is exactly right. 06:03 So this idea of a law being that which we died to doesn't 06:09 change the law at all, it only changes us. 06:12 I died, but then the law is still is governing the 06:17 situation, it's just that now I am free to marry another. 06:20 My relation to the law changed and we see that in verse 6 06:23 where it says, "but now we have been delivered from the 06:26 "law, having died to what we were held by. " 06:30 So it's like a man who is sentenced to death, he has 06:32 committed a terrible crime and is sentenced to death 06:34 and the law demands the death of that criminal. 06:37 But when he pays that penalty, if he goes and dies the 06:42 law and no longer has any claim upon him because the 06:45 penalty has been paid and he is died to what he was held 06:49 by, died in relation to the law. 06:51 His relation to the law has changed because of that death. 06:54 But if somebody else were to break the law, 06:56 it is still valid. 06:57 That is right, we can term it another way. 07:00 I could be a criminal or a thief and he could have 15 to 07:03 20 years in prison and after he serves his 20 years he is 07:06 free to go, and that law that once condemned him, 07:10 no longer condemns him because he is died to the law 07:13 in that sense. 07:15 Paul is bring unity to the debt that we experienced through 07:18 Christ and we are going to see it as we go on. 07:19 Notice, because he says, "now we have been delivered from 07:22 "the law, having died to what we were held by, so that 07:25 "we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and 07:29 "not in the oldness of the letter. " 07:30 The whole idea is the death brings the opportunity 07:34 for service and not for dis-service. 07:37 And when we were in the flesh, we can only serve God 07:40 outwardly, we can only serve Him in the letter because 07:43 the heart attitude wasn't really in harmony with God. 07:47 That flesh, those sinful ways had to die in order for the 07:50 Spirit of God to create a new person inside and we now 07:54 serve God in a totally different way. 07:55 The flesh had to die in order for the Spirit to really 07:59 have its place in our life. 08:00 That's right, it's interesting here in Romans chapter 7 08:04 that it is the same chapter where someone would look in a 08:08 superficial reading and say wow we have become dead 08:10 to the law and the law is not important. 08:11 But right on in chapter 7 we find evidence's of the law 08:14 of God right there and this is one of the important 08:17 things that I think we need to recognize and I think our 08:20 viewers would appreciate this. 08:22 In the New Testament, the Ten Commandment law is 08:25 validated as still the will of God for Christians. 08:28 I just want to look here in Romans 7 mentioned in verse 12. 08:33 Right there it says, "therefore the law is holy, 08:37 "and the commandment holy and just and good. " 08:40 Right there it is clear he is talking about the 08:43 Ten Commandments because if you look back at verse 7 08:47 he says, "what show we say then? Is the law sin? 08:50 "Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have 08:53 "known sin except through the law. For I would not 08:56 "have known covetousness unless the law had said, 08:59 "you shall not covet. " 09:00 Now which law says you shall not covet? 09:01 That is the Ten Commandments. - are pretty plain. 09:04 - that is the law he is speaking of specifically 09:07 in Romans when he says it is holy and just and good. 09:10 Then you look down in verse 14 and he says, "for we 09:13 "know that the law is spiritual, but I am Carnal. " 09:16 The law is being spoken of as still valid for the 09:19 Christian, it is still good, it is still holy, 09:21 and it is right. 09:23 What is fascinating about that Jim is that when it says 09:25 the law is spiritual but I am Carnal. 09:27 It draws this distinction and then the reality is if something 09:31 was Carnal does a change apply here? 09:35 Is a change needed? 09:36 If one thing is Carnal at one thing is spiritual 09:38 you will have to change one or the other in which one are 09:40 you going to change? 09:41 Are you good change to spiritual thing into Carnal? 09:43 No, God for bid Paul says. 09:45 You are going to change the Carnal into spiritual and 09:49 notice that the law is spiritual so Paul is making 09:51 a point in there is nothing wrong with the law. 09:53 - that's right and to just be clear, our Carnal mind, 09:57 the nature we were born with, cannot be changed. 09:59 Romans 8:7 says, that it is opposed to God and it can't 10:03 be changed, so we need a new birth, we need the Spirit of 10:06 God to come from outside of us to bring us into harmony 10:09 with this spiritual law. 10:11 But that law is still validated in the New Testament. 10:13 I think of another example that we might want to turn to. 10:16 Ephesians, we have been looking at Galatians but to the 10:19 right of Galatians is the book of Ephesians and in 10:22 chapter 6 the apostle Paul says something very affirming 10:25 about the Ten Commandments, he says in verse 1, 10:28 "children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is 10:31 "right. Honor your father and mother," 10:33 now he is in quotes. 10:35 "Which is the first commandment with promise: that it 10:39 may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. " 10:42 Here very clearly he is encouraging the Ephesians to 10:45 keep the fifth commandment. - that is right! 10:47 So to say that the law is no longer valid and what 10:50 Paul was saying in Galatians was that the law is no 10:53 longer needed would be to contradict him in what 10:56 he is telling Ephesians here in chapter 6. 10:58 That is right in fact he would be guilty of putting them 11:01 under the law, as some claim, that the apostle Paul is 11:05 fighting against, now he is actually upholding it 11:07 like you have said. 11:08 It makes me think of a text in the book of James too. 11:10 If we can go to the book of James which is further on 11:12 in the New Testament after the book of Hebrews 11:14 you will come to the book of James. 11:16 James talks and James 2, and he makes this point in 11:21 James 2:10, where he says, "for whoever shall keep the 11:27 "whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11:31 "For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, 11:35 "do not murder. " 11:36 So here we have the law he's talking about which is 11:39 the Ten Commandments, here we have the law once again. 11:42 James is pointing out the importance of observing the 11:45 Ten Commandments, but notice what he says and this 11:47 is very important here. 11:49 He says, whoever basically stumbles in one point is 11:52 guilty of all and it doesn't even seem fair. 11:54 Like you mean if I steal I have murdered? 11:57 But notice his reasoning in verse 11. 11:59 Verse 11 starts with this word for which means because 12:02 here is the explanation, this is an explanatory text. 12:06 "Whoever breaks one, breaks all because he who said 12:09 "do not commit adultery also said do not murder. " 12:12 So the whole idea is, is not about the particular 12:16 commandment as much as it is the lawgiver. 12:18 If you break one commandment, if you steal but you don't 12:21 lie you still have disobeyed the lawgiver. 12:24 So the point is the law is the product of the lawgiver and 12:28 if we serve the lawgiver why would 12:30 we not be obeying His commandments? 12:34 You know there is another verse we might want to look 12:38 at and that is in Romans 2 and beginning in verse 21. 12:46 Here the apostle Paul says and he is speaking to Jews. 12:49 He says, "you, therefore, who teach another, do you not 12:52 "teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not 12:55 "steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit 12:59 "adultery, do you commit adultery?" 13:01 What law are we talking about here? 13:03 The Ten Commandment law again, "you who abhor idols, 13:07 "do you rob temples?" 13:08 Idols of course is Commandment number two. 13:10 Then he says, "you make your boast in the law, do you 13:14 "dishonor God through breaking the law?" 13:17 It seems pretty clear that he is saying if we break 13:20 the law, we are dishonoring God. - that's right! 13:22 That's right and he goes on to say, "for the name of 13:25 "God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. " 13:29 So here he is telling us that we have dishonored God and 13:32 blasphemy His name among nonbelievers when we resist the 13:36 law of God, fascinating and New Testament theology here. 13:39 We could go to the core of this and say it is not just 13:43 these statements that talk about the law in a direct way, 13:47 but the statements that talk about sin. 13:49 The Bible says in 1 John 3:4 that sin is transgression 13:55 of the law, or sin is lawless- ness it says in the New King 13:59 James, but the idea there is that sin still in the New 14:02 Testament times was being spoken of as breaking the law. 14:05 That's right, and it is about time for us to take a break, 14:09 but when we come back from our break we will pick up 14:11 right there and really get into a little more of the depth 14:14 of the point of this whole idea of being dead to the law. 14:17 and how it points us to Christ in the new birth. 14:22 So stay with us! |
Revised 2014-12-17