Unwrapping Our Sixty Fifth Gift of a Blessing of Grace: “Believers Are Set Free From The Law – The Yoke of Slavery” From the Unsearchable Riches of Christ “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” Gal. 5:1. In our previous unwrapping of one of the gifts of God’s grace, scripture revealed that we have been delivered from the curse of the law. We were delivered the moment we believed in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as our personal Savior. We have also discovered through our previous unwrapping of other Gifts of God’s Grace that at the moment we believed many, many eternal gifts of God’s grace were given to us. When I first felt the irresistible yearning, which I liken to a spiritual obsession, to discover every truth the scriptures held concerning God’s grace, I began with a list of about forty of the Gifts of God’s Grace that my pastor and friend, Craig Lacy, had compiled. In fact, he had given the entire congregation the list at the beginning of a series of messages he preached at Lake Country Bible Church in Mineola. The sermon series was on the Gifts of God’s Grace. My wife Dianne and I were members at LCBC at the time. I began my journey of discovering God’s marvelous grace by reading through the New Testament in search of every grace passage. As I read I would underline every verse that I found which contained a gift of His grace. I underlined the verses in red, and then I would add my latest discovery to my master list of God’s Gifts of Grace Given to Every Believer at Salvation. Occasionally, when proof reading my list, I would find that I had identified and recorded a gift on two separate occasions. This usually resulted from a gift being mentioned in different books of the New Testament and set in different contexts. When this happened I would remove the double entree. At present, Craig’s original list of about forty gifts has grown substantially. Last year, while gathering material for a Bible Study I was teaching on the Gifts of God’s grace, I read and reread some of Lewis Sperry Chafer’s books on Grace. Therein, I found a list of 33 of God’s Gifts of Grace along with his comments on each one. They matched thirty three of the forty that was on Pastor Lacy’s list. I incorporated Mr. Chafer’s comments in my bible study. Since that time my list of the blessings of God’s Gifts of Grace has grown to seventy five Gift Blessings of Grace that are given to a believer the moment they believe. You are encouraged to go to my website: hislightshining then click on “All About Grace and More”, then click on “A List of The Blessings of Grace”, then copy and paste the list for your own use. This week we are going to look at Grace Gift Number sixty five: “Believers Are Set Free From The Law – The Yoke of Slavery”. Believers should daily thank God that as a result of our having placed our faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus, we have been set free from the Mosaic Law. It was Jesus who, thru the Holy Spirit and the Apostle Paul, identifies The Mosaic Law as The Yoke of Slavery. Here is the verse, Gal. 5:1, as translated in the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Version. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” Gal 5:1 (ESV); “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” Gal. 5:1 (NASB). Early on in the infant Church the apostles had to deal with the heretical teaching that one had to be circumcised and embrace the Mosaic Law, in addition to believing in the Son of God, to become a Christian. Paul and Barnabus upon returning to Antioch from their first missionary trip began sharing how they had seen a great multitude of gentiles come to faith in Christ. While giving their report to the church which had sent them on their missionary journey, a group of heretics interrupted their meeting and began to proclaim their heretical message that new gentile believers had to be circumcised and conform to Jewish law to be saved. Because of the controversy it stirred up, the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabus to Jerusalem to apprise the Apostles and elders of this heresy and to seek counsel as to how to deal with the heresy. While the two church leaders from Antioch were meeting with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, low and behold some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed the heresy rose up, saying: It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses Acts 15:5. Needless to say, this contradiction of the established doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ didn’t set well with the Apostles. The Apostle Peter immediately stood up and challenged the group of heretics, saying: “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of these disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and gentile, are saved in the same manner” Acts 15:10-11 (TNT). Just as it was in the infant church, so it is today. Anytime, anyone proclaims that it requires more than faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, we need to challenge the lie with the uncompromising truth. Which begs the question: In what manner, or how, are we saved? The correct answer in that infant, 1st century church and the correct answer today is: Lost people are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Salvation for any man or woman since Pentecost has never, does not now, nor shall it ever require any of the following: keeping any law, doing good works, giving the church your tithes, being baptized, or anything else on the seekers part besides believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. For by God’s grace are we saved through our faith and not of ourselves, or anything else, otherwise we would boast. So said the Lord! “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast” Eph. 2:8-9. In light of the truth revealed in the above verse, remember: anytime you hear someone adding anything to personal faith and God’ grace in order for a person to be saved, they are confessing with their mouth that Jesus is not adequate in and of Himself to save a person from hell. And they need to be told this truth. Until next time: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” 2 Peter 1:2-3.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:17:36 +0000
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