14/09/13

Law of God our Schoolmaster

Galatians 3:24
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.


We always hear preachers preaching against the law, they always claim of us being set free from the law. Does being a Christian mean lawlessness? Did Christ come to bring lawlessness (no law)?

Today's message Paul who wrote Romans says that law became our tutor, thus Paul does give importance to law. Did Paul change his mind in his letter to Galatians unlike in his letter to the Romans? To understand this we need to get into the words used by Paul and not go by just the English translations.

The Greek word translated as law means 'something established'. We have different laws some like the law of the land, like that of a country which is formed or established by the people governing the country. Then there is the law of nature which is a property or nature of the things made by God. Then there are religious laws which people have made by their traditions.

If people did not have law in a country then the country would not be able to function. Similarly if nature did not have laws like gravity or inertia or magnetism then this world would not have survived this long, all things would have moved in various directions and would have ceased to be what it is today and no life would have existed. We see law causes a balance of things and helps sustain life and things for the good.

But then when we come to religious laws they are the opposite. Religious laws may seem good but become a yoke to the people, causing guilt and becoming a burden to the lives of those under it. Although it states to be of God but instead causes people to not know God and do the opposite of what God desires. It makes them salves of God and not sons of God.

If we look at religious laws which are formed by traditions of people it has opposite results compared to the other laws we saw. Paul states in his letter that it is this law (Law of Moses which the Jews followed) that leads to death. Because people void of the knowledge of God and understanding of the Word that came from God made up their own laws based on their own understanding. Since these laws goes against that which is established by God and we know God is life thus anything opposing God means death.

Law is good if it is of God but any law that goes contrary to God means death. In today's message Paul says if it was not for the Law we could not have had faith and we know without faith we would not have received the grace that came through Jesus Christ. For without faith we could not have had grace thus grace does not against the Law but came because of the Law. Since by faith we believed in what was established by God that is by the Word of God we come to know and believe in Jesus Christ and it is by this believe that we receive the grace of God.

Yes there is something that grace does to the Law and that is helps us to overcome the consequences of the Law. Law is Yes and No, Right or Wrong but the grace that comes by our believe in the Law takes us from the Wrong to the Right, from the No to the Yes in God and this happens by our faith in Jesus Christ and by the working of the Lord (Holy Spirit) in us. It is the grace from our faith in Christ that frees us from Hell and it is the grace from the working of the Holy Spirit that helps us overcome the sin nature of Adam in us and grafts us to the nature of Christ. Thus we see the Law of God becomes our tutor and brings us out of the consequence of the Law.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord your Word is life and your Law is the pathway to life. Lord it is the grace that comes from our faith in Jesus Christ that keeps us on this pathway and prevents us from falling off the pathway of life. Lord we pray we learn to love your Law and set it always before our eyes...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Galatians 3:22-26
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 1:5-11
5 But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned:
6 from which things some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking;
7 desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,
9 as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for menstealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
11 according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Romans 7:5-14,21-25
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:
8 but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead.
9 And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;
10 and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death:
11 for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.
12 So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
13 Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; -that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
21 I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)