The Law Tutoring People to Christ
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Gal_3:24-25) The ultimate ability of the law of God is its capacity to tutor people to Christ. "The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ." It is the plan of God to use His law to inform us about our great need for Jesus Christ. Remember the summaries of the law of God: "be holy, be loving, be perfect." The law demands that we be holy. We are convicted that we are not holy. Thereby, the law is saying to us: "You need Jesus Christ." The law requires that we be loving. We realize that we are not loving. Thereby, the law is declaring to us: "You need Jesus Christ." The law insists that we be perfect. We know that we are not perfect. Thereby, the law is announcing to us: "You need Jesus Christ." In this process the law functions as tutor (schoolmaster or child-trainer) instructing people of their need for that which only Christ can provide through His grace. Now that we have responded to the law's tutoring work, we are no longer under the tutor. Now that we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we are no longer under the law. "But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." Whereas we once were told by the law to be holy, now we look to Christ for all personal holiness. "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . righteousness and sanctification" (1Co_1:30). Whereas we once were told by the law to be loving, now we look to the Spirit of Christ for all the love that our lives are to show forth. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love" (Gal_5:22). Whereas we once were told by the law to be perfect, now we look to the Lord for all of the perfecting process. "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phi_1:6).
O Lord, my Redeemer, thank You for using Your law as a tutor to lead me to Jesus Christ. Your law was so correct regarding my desperate need of a Savior. Now I rejoice that I am no longer under that tutor. What a delight to relate to You by faith and not by performance. What a precious blessing to humbly hope in the Lord Jesus for righteousness and love and growth. How wonderful to look to a gracious, loving Person, the Lord Jesus, instead of to a perfect unyielding standard, the law.
Lord Jesus, please complete in me the good work of Your grace that began when I first believed in You. In Your name, and for Your glory, I pray, Amen.
Bob Hoekstra
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YES ~ By Faith Not By Works, we come to the foot of the Cross
and claim something that's not ours; and yet We Get It.
Not because we're worthy but because Yah/God is a God of Grace and,
through Yahshua/Christ's death, gives us what we never could earn ourselves,
no matter how Faithfully and diligently we seek to obey the Law,
or even the spirit of the Law.
There's no question that those who are justified by Faith will have
a new life in Yahshua, a life of Obedience and Sanctification.
Justification by Faith, without Sanctification (which is by faith,as well),
Is A False Gospel. It's Cheap Grace, which is Not Yah/God justifying
the sinner, but the sinner justifying sin.
It's A Gospel That, In The End, Saves NO One.
In {1Corinthians 1:2}
Notice that Paul calls the church "sanctified in Yahshua"
The Corinthian church, struggled with many serious ethical
and theological problems.
In the Bible, there is no such thing as partial sanctification.
We belong to Yahshua entirely from the moment we are born again,
and we remain that way as long as we stay connected to Him by Faith.
We belong to Yah. We have been sanctified by Him.
Because of what Yahshua, our Saviour, has done on the Cross,
He has the right to claim us as His own.
But in a Moral sence, in the sence of growing in Grace,
we are still in the process of being sanctified.
Through Faith, and in total dependence upon Yah/God,
we are changed by His power working in us, to cleanse us,
to purge us of sin, so that the character of Yahshua is formed within us.
We Are Risen With Yahshua, because we first died with Him.
That is, at the moment of conversion, we died to our old self
and now live a new life in Him, a life by Faith, through the power
of the Holy Spirit, manifest, in our own flesh, heart, words and deeds,
the character of Yahshua, "who of Yah is made unto us Wisdom,
Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption" {1Cor. 1:30}
*I'm Not talking about a slavish obedience to rules or laws,
but the experience of having died to the old man,
in order that Yah can impart to us His own character.
We Love Yah/God because He first Loved us,
and because of the Salvation that is ours through the Cross.
We want to follow Him in Faith, and Obedience.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do this,
resulting in a new life in Yahshua. {2Cor. 5:17}
If we Love Yah/God because we have been Justified by Faith
and we want to Obey Him, We should know what He expects from us.
*See {Matthew 7:24; Romans 1:5; Gal.3:1; Heb.5:9; 1Peter 4:17}
There are admonitions against sin for the Christian,
and the Law still defines the sin.
{John 8:31,32,34; Romans 6:14-18; 7:1,7,12; 1John 3:4}
The existence of sin automatically means the existence of the Law.
You can't have sin or crime without Law.
Yah's Law Is Spiritual {Romans 7:14}, and it is made for Spiritual beings,
beings who are moved by the Holy Spirit to Obey Him.
The Law was'nt made to save anyone, it was to help us understand
how we are to reveal in our lives the Love for Yah/God that we profess.
Anyone can profess that they Love Yah, and people through the years,
claiming to be "Led By The Spirit" have tried to express this "Love" in
some very strange and even hurtful ways.
*The Bible tells us how we are to reveal that Love:
"For this is the Love of Yah/God, that we Keep His Commandments:
and His Commandments are Not greivous" {1John 5:3}
The Spirit is going to lead us, Not contrary to the Law,
but in a way that "the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk Not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" {Romans 8:4}
In order to receive help from our Saviour, we must realize our need.
We must have a True knowledge of ourselves.
It is only when we know ourselves to be a sinner that He can save us.
Only when we renounce All Self-trust,
will we be able to be blessed with divine power.
It's not only at the beginning of the Christian life that denial of self
is to be made. At every step Heavenward it is to be renewed.
All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves;
so there needs to be a continual reaching out from the heart to Yah,
a constant, ernest confession of sin and humbling of our soul to Him.
We are safe only as we feel our weekness and cling to Faith in Yahshua.
With many, sanctification is only self-righteousness.
And yet these persons boldly claim Yahshua/Jesus
as their Saviour and Sanctifier. What A Delusion!
Will the Son Of Yah/God sanctify the transgressor of
our Father's Law_the Law that He Himself came to exalt?!
{Romans 6:17}
But God be thanked that
though you were slaves of sin,
Yet You "Obeyed From The Heart" That Form Of Doctrine
to which you were delivered.
{Romans 7:12}
Therefore The Law I
s Holy, and the
Commandment Holy and Just and Good.
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