The Law of Christ

The Law of Christ

Well, this evening we want to turn our Bibles together to Galatians chapter 6, Galatians chapter 6. And when we arrive there, I'd like to begin the reading in verse 1, just a few verses from this passage of scripture, Galatians chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And we'll conclude the reading there in verse 3 this evening.

So, wasn't it two Sunday nights ago we looked at the matter of faith that works, operates, energized by love. Faith that works, faith that operates by love. Love is the motivation, the energizing of our faith in the Lord because it is a response to His love for us. We love Him because He first loved us and we trust Him because He loves us.

If you think about personal relationships, whether it be family or friends or whatever the case may be, you know, a friend loveth at all times. We trust a person because they keep their word, but they evidently love us not merely in their words but in their actions. They love by the way they don't gossip about us, the way that they treat us as they would want to be treated. They think not only on their own things and say, well, whatever is left there you can have it. No, they give you the bigger piece of the cake or whatever the case may be, they come over and help you because they care about you. And the feeling is mutual between those that love one another.

But that's the relationship we have as brothers and sisters in Christ to love one another. But it all stems from the love God has for us and He showed to us in Christ. So love is how faith operates, and Jesus said if you love me, keep my commandments. So if we love the Lord, if we trust Him, it's going to be the result that we keep His commandments, right? And they're not grievous to us, John will tell us how His commandments are not grievous to us because we do love Him because He did and does love us.

So faith that operates by love, we can say that faith fulfills the law of Christ. Faith that operates by love fulfills the requirements of the law of Christ. And the law of Christ is, you know, we're to keep His commandments because He loves us and we love Him in return.

In the Old Testament, we have the law given by Moses. The Old Testament law said, thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. He gave us a lot of things. He gave us a lot of… And there were… I think there's 613 commandments found in the Old Testament. But surprisingly, there are right around 1000 commandments actually given in the New Testament. There are more distinct commands given, some of those are very similar in nature, but there are more commandments actually given in the New Testament.

And yet when we come to the New Testament and we look back at the Old Testament, the New Testament will tell us that by the law, Romans 3:20 says, by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law served to highlight sin, speaking of the law of Moses. There are many things about that law that are no longer binding upon us as New Testament believers. That doesn't mean we throw out any law to Christ, but there are things in the Old Testament that do not any longer apply to us in the sense that we are under that covenant anymore. We are not under the law. But the law even then was simply to reveal sin and man's inability to please God through the works of his own righteousness.

Even in the Old Testament, Hebrews 11 will look back over and survey the Old Testament and hold up as examples to us the men and women of faith who believed God and it was counted to them for righteousness. It was not do all of these things and then you will gain access into heaven. Even in the Old Testament, although the Jewish religious, the Jews in their religion systematized that in such a way that it was viewed that we are going to establish our own righteousness by keeping the law, and yet Jesus came and exposed the emptiness of that vain attempt to achieve righteousness in that fashion. He really pointed out and in so many words said that was never God's intention for you to try to establish your own righteousness. No, the law came that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world might become guilty before God. That we need God's arm of salvation. We need Him to save us from our sinfulness and our sins.

But in Romans 3, I mentioned verse 20, in verse 21 it goes on to say, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of them that believe. There is no difference between who? Did you really agree, right? All have been concluded under sin because the law revealed that, right? The law reveals, it makes known the knowledge of sin to us that we might find righteousness by faith of Jesus Christ.

Now, is it true that if you had faith in the Old Testament that you would still need to… That your faith should be expressed in obedience to the Old Testament law? Yes, I'm not saying that that was the basis of your salvation, but yes, in the Old Testament, an Israelite living under the Old Covenant, their obedience to God would be according to the Mosaic law. That's not the basis of their salvation, but yes indeed, if they believe God, then they should, as nearly as they can by faith, follow those things, not the perfection of it seamlessly, but in obedience to God's law. They were to bring the right kind of sacrifices before God. You can't just willy-nilly do whatever you feel like. You know, come and offer a certain… We certainly see that with… Wasn't it Nadab and Abihu who offered strange fire, I believe it was, before the Lord? And that's not what the Lord commanded. And when they offered that fire, the Lord smote them. He made an example of them because of their disobedience. Just as He did in the first church when Ananias and Sapphira offered an offering in a deceptive sort of way, the Lord smote them as well.

The Lord requires obedience. He requires obedient faith, but it has to be a faith that works by love, that operates by love. And this has always been the case because the Lord said throughout the prophets, the law and the prophets, there was this resounding thing, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. On this hang all the law and the prophets, but when we come to Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth in the New Testament, boy, this comes to a new understanding, a new level.

There's a lot of things that were shadows and types that were part of that law. They're now done away with. There are things that pointed to Him coming and there's no more need of a temple now. There's no longer need of these animal sacrifices that never cleansed the guilty conscience in the first place. It was faith in what they pointed to. Yes, faith in the God who ordained those sacrifices, but nonetheless, those are not needed anymore. The earthly tabernacle, temple. There's no need for these sacrifices. There's no need for all these divers washings and ceremonial aspects of the law. All that is done away with.

I have certainly over the years talked to a number of people who would try to bring me into bondage by saying, you must observe these things. You need to come back under some of these things. Hebrew Israelites, or the Hebrew Roots Movement type people, some of the cults will push these things and say, you must do this. You must do this. You must do this. I'm under law to Christ. I'm not under the Mosaic Law any longer. I'm not under those, under that time period. And if I was, well, that would be God's purpose for me in that time period. But now, under law to Christ, and you may say, well, we read in Galatians chapter 6, where are we going with this?

Well, speaking of Galatians chapter 6, let's turn back over there together then. Galatians chapter 6, we read about here in this passage, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And then we must read it in the same breath as we read verse 2, Bear ye one another's burdens. And so fulfill the law of Christ. This is what that's an example of bearing one another's burdens here. And verse 1, isn't it? This is fulfilled. If we bear one another's burdens, basically serve one another by love. Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you, this is the spirit of what the Lord is looking for, that we should obey the law of Christ. If we read it here, fulfill the law of Christ. You fulfill the law of Christ by bearing one another's burdens. By bearing one another's burdens.

You know, we live in a world that is consumed with this love of pleasure, love of self, lovers of their own selves, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, unthankful, inconsiderate, all these things we see in the world. So the mindset of the child of the world that does not know Christ is me, I'm mine. Me, me, I'm mine. What about me? We certainly see that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, has been, all the technology makes it even easier for people to live a narcissistic kind of lifestyle. It's all about me and my image and my pleasure.

But as Christians, we are told that we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We can't produce the fruit in ourselves, but we are to manifest it in our lives as we submit to Christ and walk in the Spirit. We will, what does it tell us there, that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, right? If we walk in the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, that against such there is no law. There is no law against the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We will truly care about our brothers, sisters in Christ. We have to remember that our lives are not our own any longer. Your life, my life, if I'm in Christ, it doesn't belong to me.

Now, does that mean that the world will force me to do something? No. Once again, what is the motivation for the Christian to fulfill the law of Christ? It's love. It's love. And so because He loved me, I love Him, and my expression of love to Him is to keep His commandments. And those commandments have to do a lot with what I say, don't they? They have a lot to do with how I think. We're to think so reminded. We'll let this mind be in us, which was in Christ.

You know, part of observing the Lord's Supper like we did this morning is to truly examine ourselves and say, is my thinking pleasing to Christ? Is my words bringing glory and honor to Him? He loved so much He gave Himself for me, how out of gratitude can I best show that love back to Him? How am I proving? How am I showing? How am I manifesting that love back to Him in the way that I use my words? How am I handling the body that He gave me? How am I using the vessel that He gave me?

I think of what Paul says, and I was just reading yesterday in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 in my own reading, and I was struck by verse 1 there. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1. It's there where Paul makes this observation in verse 1, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 1. He says, furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. How we ought to walk. Now we know how we ought to walk, and we ought to walk according to the Spirit. We ought to walk, if we walk according to the Spirit, then we're going to please God, aren't we? Not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit and walk in truth. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, Paul says, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.

So you ought to walk and please God by abstaining from fornication. Your body is not yours to do with it according to the lust of the flesh any longer, is it? It's not your body, and your neighbor's life or your neighbor's husband, is it yours? You belong to the Lord. Paul says don't be joined to a harlot. You know, lust after the things of the world, lust after your body, your mind, your life is not yours any longer, it belongs to the Lord, and now you're to give it to Him. Paul would say to the Romans, you'd remember, servants to righteousness unto holiness. You're bodily members, there is anyway, but He wants you to yield them to Him in love and say, Lord, take my life and let it be. Take my moments and my days. Take my everything that I have, take it and let it be yours.

In verse 7 He says, for God hath not called us unto uncleanness. What has He called us unto? He's called us unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth this, not man but God, who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit. In verse 9 He says this, but as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. So what do we see there? We see something very similar to what we saw in James 1:27 the other week. Charity and purity, right? Love, purity, and charity. And here we have purity. My life, I must offer, what is it, present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And pure unto God, loving to others. Pure to God, loving to others because your life is not yours to say I'll do what I want to do with it.

That's the world's philosophy. That's what you listen to songs the world writes, they say it's my way, it's my life, my body. I can do what I want. But the Christian song and hymn is all about the Lord. I belong to you, do with me what you want to do with me. So diametrically opposed to what we see in this world. Be pure in thought and body and mind. Love one another. Don't defraud. Don't take advantage of one another but by love serve one another. Submitting yourselves one to another. That's what Paul told the Ephesians. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. That's part of loving one another, is brethren, we're told in the Scriptures also to serve one another by love. Submit to serve, and even John, when we've been going through the book of 1 John, love sacrifices, doesn't it? Sacrificially give one to another. Lay down your life, your life for the brethren to serve one another and sacrifice for one another.

When we consider what Christ has done for us, we don't say, well, what can everybody else do for me? That's not a spirit, a response. When we have a genuine love for Christ and desire to please Him, we will ask, how can I serve others? How can I best please my Lord? How can I serve others? He got caught up in something and he needs help. He needs some spiritual brothers in Christ to come along, not get caught up in the thing that he got caught up in, but to come along and support him in Christian love.

I can think of brothers in Christ tonight, and I think of different responses to things that they got caught up in and how some didn't help him at all. And actually made the situation worse, and I think of others who came along and helped them. I think about families that are going through family needs with maybe a teenager, a young person. This is a delicate situation. You can either just take the law and pound them into the ground, or you can say, all right, there's a situation here. You want to make this right with the Lord? Let's pray about this. Let's hold your hand and walk with you through this situation. And we want to see you restored instead of just go off into the world, young person, kind of thing.

There's a lot of traps and snares out there, certainly for young people, that they can easily get caught up into even if they're not looking to get into it. And so the way you can serve that brother or sister in love is lovingly and prayerfully supporting and praying with and holding them accountable, yes, but in love to see that they might be restored to the full blessing in their walk with the Lord. That's going to take rolling up the spiritual sleeves. That's going to take getting a little dirty at times, not getting into a sin, but putting some elbow grease in spiritually, it's going to take time and prayer.

I think about how we live in such a time where we want a quick fix for everything, but sometimes we just need to be there and to really invest prayer in situations and sometimes fasting about situations because it's going to take a true brotherly love to help out another in a situation that's very difficult that they may have gotten caught up into. And so we see that this, ye which are spiritual, you restore such a one, show compassion, show firmness in the Lord, but show compassion that you might assist them in their needs. We can lift one another up in prayer. Sometimes we need, maybe there's an issue between brethren. Well, the Bible says where any two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them. And if we're, whatever we do, it must always be done in love.

I'm just reminded that in the body of Christ there are very many different types of people, aren't there? We all come from different backgrounds. We all have different personalities and different expectations, but the one thing that will maintain the unity of the Spirit is if we all walk not according to the flesh, but we walk according to the Spirit in love, trusting the Lord by faith and walking in love, walking in love toward Him and toward one another. We are all to forgive one another, the Bible says. Part of bearing one another's burdens is forgiving where forgiveness is needed. Showing comfort where comfort is needed. Weeping with those that weep, rejoicing with those that rejoice. Sharing in the good as well as in the tough times, one with another.

And so He says here, bear ye one another's burdens, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Each one of us are only what we are by the grace of God. We have been put into this body not to say, look at me, I'm better than everybody else. Look also on the things of others, not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Think soberly. Think lowly in mind.

You know, those commands apply, I'm sitting here tonight, I see several married couples out here, and I think about my relationship to my wife. Those same commands that apply to one another in the body of Christ, they apply to our relationship with our spouse. Bear one another's burdens. This is not something that we can do in our own strength without the Lord, but we also need one another. I was talking about Brother David, and he lives alone. He has different needs than I have because I'm married. And those that are married have different needs than those that live alone, we all need to help one another, whatever we can, to bear one another's burdens. Because we face a variety of different kinds of burdens.

Those that work versus those that are retired, those that are going through school and the challenges of that versus those that are no longer in school. You know, some of those that work in a, maybe in a hostile environment, I think about sometimes some of you talk about your workplace, and it can get kind of sticky at times in the things that you face there. So sometimes just lending a listening ear is part of helping to bear one another's burdens. You're not in this alone, brother. You might have to face that trial by God's grace on your own as you go out into it tomorrow or the next day or whatever the case may be, but know that we're supporting you with prayer. Know that we care. That's part of bearing one another's burdens. But all of this is under the law of Christ. It's motivated. It's the motivation of love that we are able to obey and keep the law unto Christ.

If you'll turn with me as well this evening, I mentioned Romans 6, but look over it with me really quickly. Just for a moment, to Romans 6 this evening. Romans 6 in verse number 1, first of all. It's here in Romans 6 in verse number 1 that we see this question. What shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? We are dead to sin because we have put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and we are identified by faith with His death on the cross for us. Know ye not, so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. We should walk in newness of life.

And then down in verse number 12, we notice here in verse number 12 it says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin, the law revealed sin, but sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law. What are we under? Grace, you're under grace. And it says, what then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. We are not under the law, but we are under grace.

Jesus came, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law. He might redeem them, even before He came, those who had faith in the Old Testament, believed the promises, right? They believed the Old Testament promises that are found even in the law, but are certainly found in the words we read in the prophets of the salvation of the Lord. In the Old Testament, when we have those in Jerusalem that were looking for redemption. How? I think. And Jesus would say to His own disciples, that there is resurrection, as we mentioned this morning. So fools, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. Believe. Believe. Salvation never came by perfectly keeping the law because nobody can do it. The law revealed sin, but thank God Jesus Christ brought truth, brought grace. And we are now under the law of Christ, we are under grace. We are under grace.

And so we notice in 1 Corinthians 9, let me read this as well. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19. What does Paul say? We just read a moment ago. He said, we should not continue in sin that grace may abound. We're not under the law, but we're not lawless. We're under grace. But here he says in 1 Corinthians 9:19, you know it so well. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law.

Paul makes it clear he loved and cared for and had compassion on, as Jesus did, because he had the Spirit of Christ. Right? Just as we have the Spirit of Christ. He cared about lost souls. And he was willing to do whatever he could to reach the souls of men. He cared for them. And he would even do whatever was necessary to present the gospel to those that were without law. Not only his Jewish countrymen, but he went into the Gentile world. And he spoke using the language of philosophers that they understood. They recognized in their own worlds. He would use analogies they understood. And yet he would say that even in that he was still under the law to Christ. He said, we don't live lawless. It's not the keeping of the law that saves me, the faith. It is faith in God whereby I am counted righteous in the sacrifice of Christ. And I want to present myself pure to God. Yield my members to Him. Here Lord, take everything I have. It's not mine anyway. It's yours.

You know, once I lived for self alone, now my Lord is on the throne. We sing sometimes, naught have I, all I call my own. I belong to Jesus now. That's what Paul was essentially saying here. He's saying, this is the spirit of faith. I belong to the Lord. And I also owe my love and service to my brethren as well as to those who don't even know the Lord. I need to serve others. Love God with all my heart. Present myself a living sacrifice to Him but also serve others by love. That is in essence what it means to fulfill the law of Christ. It is not… There are roughly a thousand commandments in the New Testament, but they're all boiled down to that. They're all fallen into one of those two categories: have a pure heart of praise to God in body, mind, spirit, words, anything that I do. It's all to be done to the glory of God. And then my life is not to be lived for me. It's to be lived for others.

So may God help us in faith to be motivated by love that we might honor God, fulfilling the law to Christ, not to attain salvation, but because we have salvation and because we want to please Him, although we would abound more and more as Paul told the Thessalonians. As we walk with God, that we would walk unto all pleasing, abounding more and more into things that He's shown us, remembering that we have a responsibility to the law of Christ.

Father, thank you for these moments we've had in your words tonight. Help us to remember that thank God we're not under the law. We're under grace, but that means that we do have a responsibility now, being saved by grace through faith. We do have a responsibility to you and to our fellow man because of that faith that is operating by love. We have that responsibility that even as the hymn we sing says, for mercy is so great, what return can I make. I love Him. I'll serve Him with all that I have as long as my life shall endure. So help us to do that one day at a time, one moment at a time this week in the response of gratitude for all that you have done for us. Help us to do it towards our own family. Help us to do it on the job. Help us to do it wherever we may be found among our brethren. Help us to show forth your praises and bring glory to you. And in Jesus' name, amen.