Steve’s Blog

There’s an old saying about killing two birds with one stone.  It has been said by someone more cleaver than me that Jesus killed two stones with one bird.  The two stones of course being the two tables the 10 commandments were written on and the Bird being representative of the Holy Spirit.

 ”For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 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 sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. “  Rom 8:2-4

I find that Christians still struggle most with the concept of grace and law.  While we evangelicals are quick to assert we are “saved by grace through faith, plus nothing, minus nothing,” we seemed to get bogged down with telling everyone the have to keep the 10 commandments to be right with God.

I thought I just heard a giant sucking sound as millions of evangelicals all took a deep breath at once.

The first response I am likely to get is that Christians are still obligated to keep the 10 commandments.  After all they are the 10 commandments; we learned them in Sunday school, and heard them preached all our lives.  They are the quintessential proof of Christianity; the litmus test of orthodoxy.  We display them on signs and demand the rest of the world live by our standards.

Now you might be asking exactly what I mean by “Killing two stones with one bird.”  Does it really mean that Christians are not obligated to keep the 10 commandments?  Well yes and no.  Let me explain.

First if you are not a Jew, you were never under the law in the first place, and the heart of the law was the 10 commandments.  Right? 

Eph 2:11-12 “Wherefore remember that you, once nations in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in the flesh done with the hand;  that ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus you who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.” Darby Bible

So the New Testament tells us that Gentiles were never obligated to the law, because the covenant, of which the law was a part, was never made with them.  God never told a Gentile to be holy like He was, because He did not make a covenant with any other group or race of people other than the Israelites.

That is why God, through Jesus, instituted a NEW COVENANT with the Jewish nation and thus the Gentiles. The only covenant that matters is the New one made through faith in Christ.  What does this mean in regards to keeping the 10 commandments.

When Jesus died and rose again He sent the Holy Spirit to live in His disciples. In Galatians Paul is dealing with the problem of the Jews who ran behind Him telling his converts that they still needed to keep the law and Jewish rituals and feast days to be saved.  Paul uses a valid argument in chapter 3.  He asks, “tell me, you who want to be under the law, did you receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?”  Good question!  For 1500 years Israel lived under the law and not one single person got filled with the Holy Spirit or received eternal life because of it. Paul goes on the ask, “Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit you want to be made perfect by the flesh?”  He is basically saying, if you couldn’t get it started by keeping the law, what makes you can finish it by keeping it?

In  Galatians 2:21 Paul says, “I do not frustrate the grace of God, if righteousness comes by the law, Christ is dead in vain.”   That is a pretty pointed statement.

Likewise the point is made in Romans 8:3: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

Here is the point.  You and I will never be made right with God by keeping the 10 commandments.  We are made right with God SOLEY on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.  The scriptures tell us “Jesus became sin for us who knew no sin that WE might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in Christ Jesus.”  You are either righteous because you keep the 10 commandments or you are righteous because you believed in Jesus and it was “counted to you for righteousness” (Romans 4:3-8).

The fact of the matter is this.  We need to stop telling people to keep the 10 commandments to be right with God.  We are quick to hand out list of does and don’ts.  However, most people know they have failed and have at times tried to stop and found they couldn’t.  I am convinced that is a major reason why some people bring up hypocrites in the church.  I think it is because they don’t think they could live like a Christian is expected to live.  They’ve tried and  failed without the power of the Holy Spirit to help them.  They can not know that victory is possible until they come to know the person who was victorious over sin - Jesus!  So, telling a sinner to stop sinning is a bit futile.  We need to tell sinners that there is power for life and it isn’t just about sin, it is about life - abundant life that Jesus promised.

The message is forgiveness and grace through Jesus.  The same grace that forgives also changes us.  One problem with evangelicalism is the definition we place on grace.  It is usually theologically defined as “unmerited favor” or, as a Bible study group I had once came to call it, “unearned advantage.”  However that is only one half of the real definition of grace.  The other half is “divine enablement,” or divine power imparted to us.

If we believe that divine righteousness is imparted, why can we not also believe that divine power is imparted also.  Dr. Strong of the Strongs Concordence and Greek and Hebrew Dictionary defines grace this way.  “The divine influence on the heart AND its reflection in the life.”  True grace that forgives also converts and changes.  A life that doesn’t change has never been touched by the grace of God.

The crux of the matter is telling people they have to stop sinning to be right with God. This is not only impossible, it is Biblically incorrect.  We are justified by faith in Christ and that same grace will begin the transformational work in our lives.  Preaching grace, not law, will get the job done much quicker.

Blessings, Steve