The law is that which chains men, not because the law is evil, but the law exposes how evil we happen to be.
In other words, the law functions somewhat like a beautiful pump.
You might imagine a man, say he’s a farmer … He’s got some stock, and he likes some water for the garden, and he’d like a little fresh water for the house. So he puts down a shaft for a well. He gets the most magnificent, beautiful pump, and he really starts [the pump] going.
What he doesn’t know is that there is a lot of salt water down there, and a lot of sewage which has leaked in from a nearby city.
So he’s got this beautiful pump going, and this pump is bringing up all this sludge and all this mess. There’s nothing wrong with his pump, but he’s getting just a stinking mess all over the place of rotten water because the law only brings up what is down inside.
And so when the law [deal with us] it reveal[s] what [is] in [our] heart. And let’s look and see what the law reveals.
In Mark chapter seven, we discover … Here’s what the law says is inside of us. Jesus here is the spokesman of the law. He’s the law in the flesh.
He says in Mark 7:21–22, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, and fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.”
Good night! What a pump the law of God is in the hands of Jesus as he causes it to bring out what’s inside of men in their hearts.
And so that is the marvelous thing about the gospel is it’s able to liberate us from that.
Let’s look a little bit more what the law does.
In Galatians 3, we find in verse 19, that the law … we’re asked the question, “Why the law, then?” Why this great pump?
Well, the answer is it was added because of transgressions, or for the sake of showing what they were.
Now, in the verse which follows, one commentator, Ridderbos, says that there are 430 different interpretations of verse 20.
Paul goes ahead to say, “The law came through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise has been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one.”
And I myself. I’ve often looked at that passage and said, “Paul, thank you for your explanation in the last part of verse 19 and 20, but it doesn’t explain anything to me. It just confuses me.
And then when I read in Ridderbos there 430 different interpretations of it? I wonder what we’ve got there.
I think the answer is really rather simple. What he’s saying is this. He’s saying, on the one hand, when God comes by way of a promise as to Abraham, a promise only takes one to make it right. It’s unconditional, it doesn’t depend upon you. All you have to do is receive it. It’s free. It doesn’t require partnership.
But the law requires a mediator. It came through the hands of a mediator, that is Moses, until the Christ should come, and the seed to whom the promise had been made.
Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one.
The idea is that when you get a mediator, you get a partnership. The law calls you into partnership.
At Sinai, where God gave the Ten Commandments and all the other rules, he said, look here, at Moses and the rest of you, I’m entering into this partnership. This do, and thou shalt live.
You’re a junior partner and you have obligations, and you live or you die. You do everything. You do every last thing in this law. And that law was terribly severe.
Did you know in Leviticus there is no sacrifice for sins done with a high hand: adultery, blasphemy, murder, insulting your parents. Those are all fatal. There’s no sacrifice for them under the law. There’s no mercy.
That’s the character of the law. [Leviticus] 18:5 says, “Do these things and do all of them, and live. A legal promise. You’re a partner. But you see, you never did it all, and you didn’t live, and you were brought under bondage.
And so the law oppresses, not because it’s evil, but because you’re evil and unable to come up with that which is necessary for life. It exposes, it oppresses.
And then in verse 10 of Galatians 3, it says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.’”
And so what Paul is saying to the Jews: “Do you want to be circumcised?” Well, you’re going back to Mount Sinai and you’re not going to be helped there because only Christ could free us from that.
In verse 13 we read: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”
Jesus, who was cursed for you in order that you might be free from the curse of the law. That awful pump revealing what was inside of you, oppressing you with your powerlessness.
You go up and say “I can’t even turn the pump off. It’s exposing me even to the neighbors. Look at the filth coming out.”
And God says only Jesus can turn off the pump.
Now, one reason some of you don’t really know much about the Holy Spirit is you don’t know much about the severity of the law and what it says to you. You really don’t.
And the Holy Spirit then seems to be to you a kind of a luxury. And you’re kind of halfway in between, a quasi-sinner, a half sinner. You’re half lost and not fully saved because you only need to get half saved.
And some of you have only half joy because you’re only a halfway sinner. And you can’t really conceive of how bad you are according to the law.
But God says you’ve got a rotten heart by nature and left to yourself, apart from Christ and his grace, that’s still what you’ve got.
Now the law then comes with that holy severity from a Holy Father—and as it comes with that kind of convicting power—then the one who comes and sees that Jesus made him free, he’s like a man who was in death row. [He] suddenly realized, it’s not that the governor gave him a pardon, but the governor gave him a pardon by going down death row for him.
And instead of my screams in there [at execution], those are his, and I deserve that every inch of the way.
That substitutionary atonement, the shed blood, is so infinitely personal, because it takes into account how very bad I am, which the law reveals. That my sin is against a holy God. That my heart has sinned against the Holy God, and my Spirit deserves to suffer forever in rejection by him. That’s what the law says.
And only Jesus could come and keep that law, and take its curse upon himself and bring me into this party.
You know, when I preach down the street there in Logan, sometimes it turns into a party. And when it turns into a party, it usually means that some Pentecostal people are out there.
Now, I did say they honored us one day by asking us if we’d come over to their church and teach us about boldness, which was unusual. But I look out there and here’s a black woman. And I say some of these same things to her, and her face lights up like it’s not only 4th of July, but it’s Christmas and 4th of July all thrown into one.
And the name Jesus is like electric light going on because she knows she’s a sinner and she knows that Jesus’ blood cleansed her conscience.
She knows that God now looks upon her as a child of his own, and that her prayer goes straight to heaven. And she knows she’s got the Holy Spirit. And she knows she’s forgiven.
That’s Paul’s whole argument. If you know you’re forgiven by grace, you have the power of the Spirit, by grace.
And therefore, what I’m reasoning is this, if you’re not at the party, it’s because you don’t see much need for the party. You didn’t see much need for the cross. The cross has grown old hat to you.
And you say, “Well, I’m certainly glad that somebody around here is excited about evangelism, and about the cross, you know? But, you know, I’ve heard those things a long time and they’re kind of worn, the records worn, and it’s a little bit stuck in the groove.”
Oh, God, be merciful to the Spirit of a man or a woman or a child here who has heard too much gospel and has been hardened by it? Who has lost that love? Do you realize the power of the gospel?
Taken from “Freedom in Christ from the Law,” (Audio Recording), 1979 & 1985.
Leave a Reply