Governed by Grace

There's something comfortable about reducing the New Testament to a list of do's and don'ts.

Why? Because you already know at any given time where you stand. And if you're not sure where you stand, please somebody make up another rule. It removes anxiety, but it also removes wisdom and critical thinking and prayer for that matter. Dependence on the Holy Spirit to help you choose the things that are best and godly over the things that are simply acceptable. Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity is not a list.

It is a life. There's a complex relationship between holiness and Christian liberty. We also need to balance biblical guidelines with man-made rules. One key to doing that well is to have a good understanding of grace. What do we mean when we talk about God's grace? In particular, what's the relationship between God's grace and God's law? How does the believer relate to the law as a recipient of God's grace?

We're going to explore all of this today. Welcome to this broadcast of Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen is continuing through a series from Romans 6 called Delivered from the Kingdom of Sin. Today's message is entitled, Governed by Grace. Paul says, you are not under law, but you are under grace.

Can you imagine any more controversial statement than that one? I believe that correctly interpreting this phrase is so important. To err here means to distort every area of your life.

To do it correctly means to inspire every aspect of life. We've got to interpret it so that we catch the same sense that Paul had when he celebrated this truth. You are no longer under law. You are now under grace. So what did he mean?

Let me give you a few things quickly. Number one, he meant that we are not under the law's demands for God's approval. In other words, salvation is by the grace of God, right?

He's been teaching that and delivering that truth now for many chapters. He has already told us there's none righteous, none at one. Nobody can really keep the law in order to get into heaven.

He told us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. So we are no longer under the law's demands for God's approval. Secondly, we are not under the penalty, the eternal penalty of law. The wages of sin that is the penalty for having broken the law is what?

Death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Romans 6 23. Third, we're not under the dynamic of law. We are under the dynamic or the principle of grace. While we live within the law, we are not motivated by the law. In other words, while we are law abiding citizens, we find that the guiding principle and the motivation of our holy living is in the dynamic of God's redeeming grace. One Jewish commentator that I enjoy reading, he wrote something called the Jewish New Testament commentary, a believer, said that Paul doesn't include the definite article before the word law. If you look in your text, you can read that you are not under law.

He didn't say under the law. He goes on to say that Paul would be referring to then that perversion of the law, which is legalism, referring to legalism, which is defined as the twisting of the law into a system of rules for earning God's praise without ever trusting, without ever loving, without ever communing with God, the giver of the law. And I believe he has a fascinating point here that gives this thing a little bit clearer understanding for us. Paul has, in fact, been contrasting the effort of mankind to win the approval of God and the futility of that effort with God's own free gift of grace. Salvation is not given to those who perfectly keep a list of rules.

It is a relationship with a redeemer, a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith in him through grace. And I think that gives meaning to what Jesus said to that first century audience when he said to them, are you tired? Are you weary? Are you heavy laden? That is, are you burdened down? Come to me and I will give you what? Rest. What was he talking about?

Throw a nap. Did you plan to take in about three hours? No, he was talking about release from the burden, the tiresome effort of the flesh to keep all of the observances in order and along with all the prohibitions in order to find their rest and assurance in God. Jesus said, come to me.

Mine is free. That's why he could say it's light and it's easy. Salvation then is not what you can do for God. It is what God has already done, accomplished for you. You are not under then legalisms burden and the religions of the world create their systems of legalism and all of those things that you do. If you ever hope to go to heaven, you're not under that. The believer who has identified with Jesus Christ is free.

He has come by means of and enjoys liberty and the dynamic of life we know as grace. Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges facing the believer is avoiding the extremes. We have on the one hand legalism with his lists of do's and don'ts. And if you do those and you don't do those, you will have spirituality. That's where it crosses the line. Nothing wrong with standards or convictions or do's or don'ts for your life. But when you believe that doing those or not doing those produces true spirituality, that's legalism. The other extreme is licentiousness. These are the people who just throw the list away.

They throw it all away. You can do anything you want. Doesn't really matter. Both extremes are wrong and they are dangerous. So let me spend our time this morning with just simply contrasting legalism and grace so that we can better grasp the joy that Paul had when he said we are no longer under law, but under grace. I'm going to give you four things that contrast legalism or law with grace.

First, it's standard. The standard of legalism is external. The standard of grace is internal. Legalism is only interested in outward compliance.

Grace is interested in inward character. Law and the right use of law, by the way, does its role and accomplishes its subjective and simply pointing out your failure to keep it, right? It cannot empower you to keep it. It can just remind you when you haven't. I have never been stopped by a state highway patrolman and we've got a number here, so I need to be careful what I say. I've never been stopped by one who says, listen, sir, I've been watching you and I noticed you came to a complete stop at this new stop signs in your neighborhood, which between you and me are ridiculous anyway. But I noticed that you stopped at those and I just wanted to pull you over and commend you. Anybody ever been stopped by a policeman who said, you know, I've been watching you and I got you on the radar here and you've been keeping the speed limit and I want to give you some gift certificates to the mall.

Have you ever had anybody do that? No, that isn't the role of law. The role of law is to stop you when you exceed the speed limit and not give you a gift certificate but give you a summons whereupon you begin to sweat how much of my auto insurance rate is going to go up, right? Law deals with external compliance and it is the role of law.

And the more obedient we are to the role of law, the more orderly our society will become. However, that is external. This dynamic of spirituality living in Christ has to do with this internal matter of the heart and that can never be picked up on radar. No one will ever see it.

They will see symptoms or evidences of it. But God sees the heart and you may keep the speed limit and be an absolutely ungodly man. You may keep all of the rules and chew with your mouth closed and open doors for ladies and stand at the right point and clock in and do your job and listen to the boss and do all of that and be an absolute pagan. The principle of grace starts on the inside. You cannot be governed by grace, I will add, and live in sin. Paul wrote in Titus 2, the grace of God has appeared and it does two things. It brings salvation and it instructs us. We talk about grace bringing us to salvation but there's a second part and that is it instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live godly in this present age. Grace is this dynamic that lives within us by means of the Holy Spirit. By the way, the struggle between this principle of legalism and the principle of grace is not new. Controversy and confusion related to the Christian life and walk and what can you do and what can't you do in any culture at any generation has always been a struggle. I think it began just as soon as the clouds sort of moved back in covering the hole where Jesus Christ went through on his way to sending back to the Father. One church father writing in the second century was asked by a younger believer, how can I live a godly life?

Listen to his answer that was recorded for us and preserved. Forsake colored clothing. Remove everything in your wardrobe that is not white.

Furthermore, no longer sleep on a soft pillow or take warm baths. If you are truly sincere about following Christ, never shave your beard for to shave is an attempt to improve on the work of him who created us. How many of you got up looked in the mirror said I need to improve on this created order that has become great disorder overnight. All of us thank the Lord for that.

So funny because I can remember that those who believed that if you didn't shave, you were somehow not quite as spiritual. Legalism always majors on minor external non essential things of life. The standard for legalism is external compliance, the standard for Grace's internal character. Secondly, since the standard is external, it would only follow that the foundation for legalism is rules, while the foundation for grace is a relationship.

In other words, legalism is interested in what people do. Grace is interested in who people are. And Paul has already made it very clear in this chapter who we are. We are people who are eternally related to Jesus Christ by faith. We have been crucified in him and with him spiritually in the mind of God. We have been buried with him by faith. We have been raised to walk in this new dynamic of living, which now we hear from Paul is this dynamic of grace. He says even so in verse 11, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

That's who you are. You may be called a North Carolinian because you live in the state of North Carolina. You are called a Christian because you live in the state of Christ. Your citizenship ultimately is heaven.

Legalism with the spawning of its religions to this day and our system of rules has violated the very principle of Christ's salvation, which is a relationship. One of the reasons Paul wanted us to celebrate the truth of grace was the fact that God had related to us and relates to us now by means of grace, by faith in his son. Have you ever thought about the fact that the throne of God is referred to in the Bible as the throne of grace? Even though it is awesome and even terrifying, it is a throne called grace, which means that every command that emanates from that throne is covered, wrapped, sealed with grace. That means that you can approach that throne with great boldness.

Why? Because he's less than pure and holy and awesome? No, because you are related in Christ now as his son or his daughter. You have that relationship and you can go before that throne anytime you want. And the truth is the more like this one seated upon that throne we become, the more we will relate to people through the principle of grace. Just as we do not stand before the throne of grace because of anything we've done to deserve it, so we also do not treat people simply because it's something they deserve. There's something though very comfortable about relating to people based upon what they do, things that we can easily compare or observe. It's easy to relate to people that way, isn't it? There's something comfortable about reducing the New Testament to a list of rules, dos and don'ts. Why? Because you already know at any given time where you stand.

And if you're not sure where you stand, please somebody make up another rule. It removes anxiety, but it also removes wisdom and critical thinking and prayer for that matter, dependence on the Holy Spirit to help you choose the things that are best and godly over the things that are simply acceptable. Maybe even things that are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity is not a list. It is a life. And this dynamic of life is grace and grace will instruct you in holiness. Paul tells us grace will encourage you when you fail. Grace will demand your utmost diligence and discipline. Grace will remind you that there is a day approaching when you will stand before that great throne and every motive will be explored in every word, idle word exposed in every sinful thought exposed and rewards will be dispensed based on those things in our lives that were profitable versus unprofitable for his glory. Well, if a list of rules may not produce true spirituality or holiness, then what are some guidelines?

Well, let me give you some very quickly. Some guidelines related to this issue of legalism versus grace. Number one, if the scriptures warn against something, don't play around with it.

Simple enough. If the scriptures warn against it, don't play around with it. Paul wrote in the context of a man with a woman who wasn't his wife, it is good that a man touch not a woman. You want to play around with that or you just want to take it at its face value. Paul said, put away from you lying and greed.

How much of that are we going to play around with and manage rather than refuse? If the scriptures warning and said, don't play around with it. Secondly, if the scriptures forbid it, don't try to justify it.

Be careful if you hear yourself saying something related to something that is questionable or perhaps as close to the edge as you can get, or maybe even something that would be considered sinful and you know it is. But be careful when you hear yourself say something like, well, you know, I am under grace. God is a God of grace. Being under grace does not mean that grace will justify a purity or a lack of discipline or a tolerance of greed or anger or lust or any number of things. You remember the beginning of this chapter, Paul said, can we continue in sin now that we're related to God through Christ?

May it never be. We want to be distinctive followers of God. So if the scriptures forbid something, don't try to justify them. Third, if the scriptures don't say anything about it, don't assume it is right or wrong. Has it occurred to you yet that the Bible doesn't say a lot about a lot of things? Wouldn't it be nice if it said more?

Principles are given that are certainly timeless and profitable, but a lot of specific things are never addressed. Grace means that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ and the teacher of the Holy Spirit living within you with the word of God, which is timeless and profitable for every activity of life, teaching you to find the best things and teaching you the wrong things to avoid. It's interesting as it relates to church itself, even this worship service, how many opinions there can be about what's right and what's wrong, even though the scriptures are silent. I have had over the years, a number of comments directed to me, either through mail or email or even anonymous mail, giving opinions, criticism or disapproval. And I just kind of thought this past week about what that could be. And I came up with a real short list, things like not reciting the Lord's Prayer at some point in our service, not giving a traditional altar call, not wearing a robe when I preach, I actually got that a couple of times, and not holding worship services on Sunday night, not crossing myself before and after praying, not having a steeple and a cross on top of our building, allowing drums on the stage, singing choruses written in the last century, singing those choruses with guitars, having too many choruses, worship services that have too many hymns. It's interesting when I get those two at the same week, it's always fascinating. And it's happened several times for reading scripture during the worship services, for having guest speakers who are not independent Baptists, for not printing an order of service, for not preceding the service with a prelude, for not concluding the service with a doxology. Isn't that great?

I love this job, by the way, I want you to know that. No verses come attached because basically the Bible is silent on so much of that, which is good because of the fourth point, if the Bible is truly silent about it, don't try to use the Bible to prove your point. There are other principles and we don't have time to get into them.

We'll dive in deeper when we get to Romans chapter 14, where Paul deals with questionable things. So far this morning, we've learned that the standard for legalism is external. The standard of grace or for grace is internal. The foundation for legalism is rules. The foundation for grace is a relationship.

Let me give you another one more. The objective of legalism is conformity. The objective of grace is transformation. Legalism finds great comfort in the fact that other people do the same thing you do or don't do. The truth is we all have a lot of that, or at least a little bit of it in us.

It began to show up very early in our years, about when we hit 11 or 12 or 13. It's something we refer to for that generation as peer pressure. Legalism is sort of a sanctified, grown up version of peer pressure where everybody's supposed to do the same thing and look alike and talk alike and do all the same things. It's much more dangerous, however, because it has attached to it the name of God. And anytime you attach God's name to something, it now becomes a bigger issue, doesn't it?

The trouble is, since legalism is based on external things, it's possible for us to conform on the outside without ever being transformed on the inside. One author wrote it this way, conforming to boundary markers, too often substitutes for transformation. He says, the church I grew up in had its boundary markers like this one. People could be proud or resentful or gossip, but if they were ever caught smoking, they would be told to leave. Smoking then became a boundary marker.

By the way, I'm not endorsing smoking, so save your email on this point, okay? He goes on, as I was growing up, having a quiet time became one of those boundary markers. If someone asked me about my spiritual life, I would immediately think, have I been having a regular quiet time?

My initial thought was not, am I growing in my relationship to Jesus Christ and more loving toward other people, but did I clock in this morning? Now, listen to this profound statement as he summarizes, boundary markers change from culture to culture, but the dynamic remains the same. If Christians do not experience authentic transformation, then their Christianity will retreat within their boundary markers that masquerade as evidence of a changed life.

Wow. The objective of legalism is conformity and it basically retreats within itself and all those that have decided to conform on every issue the same way. Would it be a surprise to you to know that in the early church, there was great controversy and division and angst and frustration and anger over the posture of prayer? In AD 220, in public prayer, I should add, Tertullian, a well-known church father, was asked and he finally set down some guidelines to try to put it to bed. He said this, if you lift your hands toward heaven when you pray, you do not need to wash them every time since they are spiritually clean. It is wrong to sit when conversing with God in prayer. You should never kneel in prayer on Easter because that was the day when Jesus Christ arose.

You can just see the confusion mounting. Another famous third century church father, Clement of Alexandria, said you should always pray with your eyes open toward heaven. And if he's right, I have warped my four kids. Close your eyes, we're praying. Bow your head right to me.

Kind of like that. No, you got to open your eyes toward heaven to really pray. Other church fathers taught that prayer was more spiritual if you stretched out your arms horizontally in the cross position as you prayed in order to mimic the crucified Christ.

All these views brought confusion. And it may even seem silly that they ever asked them, but you have to remember that in that context to those generations, they had not in a too distant past remembered temple era worship where everything was done through the mediator, a priest. Now they can, in this New Testament dispensation, approach God personally. They can confess their sin personally. And privately to God, well, how do you do that?

How do you go to him? Do you kneel? Do you lay down? Are you on your face? Do you stand? Do you look up? And great confusion abounded because of this until finally the council of Nicaea, after a hundred years of this debate, finally stated this. This was their rule that congregational prayer in the church should always be offered standing up, which again missed the point.

It promoted this principle of conformity rather than the principle of grace, which is transformation and a transformed heart can find a suitable posture in prayer in any number of postures. You might have your eyes opened toward heaven. You might have them closed.

They might be blurred with tears. Your hands might be raised. They might be at your side. You might be walking and praying. You might be watching a sunset and praying. You might be in your study or in some prayer closet praying in the dark. The point is not how you look when you pray.

It is that you pray. There are more contrasts, but I'm going to just, well, I got time for one more here. The fruit of legalism is fear. The fruit of grace is fellowship.

And I'll try to wrap it up with this one. Fear. Mount Sinai did not bring liberty, did it? It brought law. It brought civility, not saintliness. Another mountain would be the host for that.

And that would be Mount what? Calvary. The cross of Jesus Christ released us from the spirit of fear and gave to us, Paul wrote, the potential, that spirit of adoption, which is fellowship with the father as legal sons and daughters with all the rights and benefits of a legal son or daughter. The inspiration for the Christian's life, the inspiration for Christian living, holy, obedient living is not fear that God will zap you if you cross the line. It is gratitude because of what God did in loving us while we were yet sinners and the crosswork of Jesus Christ that proved it. The cross also brings fellowship with one another through Jesus Christ. So let me say it this way.

Legalism brings fear, which produces only more guilt. Grace brings fellowship, which produces only greater gratitude. I read this past week the evidence of grace in a man's life. This doesn't really fit the sermon, but I'm going to stuff it in right here at this point and kind of wrap it up. You remember Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians that the grace produces gratitude.

Well, Matthew Henry, a famous commentator who wrote in the early 18 to mid 1800s, wrote his Matthew Henry commentary when some of you have that volume. He showed the work of God's transformation in his life, which produced gratitude even in difficult circumstances, which is the amazing point of Paul's life. You've wondered how could he ever live with such a joy with what he experienced. It was the transformation of his heart through this principle of grace.

Matthew Henry was robbed. And the entry in his diary that evening is very insightful and very convicting. Let me read it. He said this quote.

Let me be thankful. He wrote first because I have never been robbed before. Second, because although he took my money, he did not take my life. Third, because although he took all I possessed, it wasn't very much.

And fourth, I am thankful because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed. No wonder Paul could endure incredibly difficult things with joy because grace was his overriding principle of life so that he could say and cause us with him to exult. You were no longer bound and motivated by the principle of law.

You are now under the dynamic. You are under the standard, the foundation, the fellowship, the governing principle of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. I hope this time in God's word has deepened your understanding and appreciation of the marvelous grace God has given you. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey.

Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. If you haven't already, I encourage you to install our app to your phone so that you can quickly and easily access all of our Bible-based resources. The Wisdom International app will work with your smartphone, your tablet, or a smart TV.

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