Growing in the Grace of God-The Law of God.

The message of the Law is thus: Be as holy as God if you want to relate to Him-be as holy as God if, by your best effort, you wish to measure up to His commands and standards. The message of the Law of God is that if one wants to relate to a perfect God through His performance before His standards and Laws, then there is one thing that person must be: PERFECT.

Galatians 4:22-For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman.

Galatians 4:21-tell me, that ye desire to be under the Law, do ye not hear the law?

The Inability of the Law of God: Hebrews 7:18-19-Speaks to us from God Himself concerning the inabilities of the law of God. *There is a better hope. It is called the grace of God. And it is by which that we do draw near to God. Hebrews 7:18-19-For there is verily a disannuling of the commandment going before the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. for the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

Galatians 2:16-Emphasizes that the law cannot in the same area of justification -as well as sanctification-the law cannot provide what is needed before a holy God and perfect. Justification (the beginning of our new life with God)and sanctification(growing and maturing with God): these are experiences foreign to the work of the law. The law makes nothing perfect, neitherin the area of justification.

Justification-Being declared innocent, not guilty-and that the one declaring it is the holy, perfect, righteous judge. We are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. So the law cannot save us. It cannot give us a perfect standing before a holy, righteous, and perfect God. The Law cannot justify. We have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ. No one can be a Christian unless they understand it is not by works of the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ that men are saved.

Galatians 3:2-This only would I learn of you;Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or bythe hearing of faith.

Galatians 3:3-Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye made perfect by the flesh?

Romans 3:19-20-Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

First: the law is able to silence every mouth. Second: The entire world is accountable to God because all have violated His standard. Third: The law gives us knowledge of sin. The law does have ability and we want to let the law do its works.

Galatians 3:24-Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: The greatest ability and greatest purpose of the law os God is to tutor us, teach us, train us, and instruct us of our absolute and total need for the Lord Jesus Christ. **Because of the measure of the law, we,recognize we need something better than the law. We recognize our need for Christ. The law says,”Be perfect”, [holy”]. And we can only respond, “Perfect? But I am far from Perfect”. Yes, you need Christ. This is the message of the law; it leads us to Jesus Christ.

First Timothy 1:8-But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully; **If we use it for the reasons God sent. The law has still more interesting work that it can accomplish in the life of a Christian-even once we have found Christ. The law deals with rebelliousness and carnality.

First Timothy 1:9-Knowing this, that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profain, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

First Timothy 1:10- For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers,for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Galatians 5:18-But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. **When led by the Spirit, God’s children are not under the law. If we are being led, day by day, by the Holy Spirit, Walking in the Spirit, depending on the Spirit, then we are not under the law.

Rather, we are relating to God by the Spirit’s work in and through and with us. But if we are walking in self-sufficiency, walking according to the flesh, we throw ourselves in the midst of our rebellion back under the law. So then, the law can have a work in our lives as Christian. The law can minister rebuke from a loving, heavenly Father. It can minister to our need for humbling in light of rebelliousness and self-suffiency in our lives. It speaks to our redeemed hearts, reminding us that we need to return to God; dependence on Christ and His Holy Spirit. We need to flee back to grace.

*In the message of the law is that we must be holy and be perfect. But the inability of the law is this: it cannot make us perfect, neither in justification nor sanctification. So then, its ability thus: its power to reveal God’s character, His standard, and His will; its power to hold us accountable to God; its power to strip men of every defense before God; and most importantly, its power to reveal the truth and depth of our sin and thereby tutor us to Jesus Christ.