IF RIGHTEOUSNESS COME BY THE LAW<\/p>\n
Galatians 2:21 “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in<\/p>\n
vain.”<\/p>\n
The ultimate transgression is at stake when a man turns to the law for<\/p>\n
righteousness. For when you turn to the law for righteousness then you<\/p>\n
frustrate the grace of God and deny Christ and all that Christ<\/p>\n
accomplished. Not only is that so, but when you seek righteousness by<\/p>\n
the law you violate the very law you claim to keep. Paul said to the<\/p>\n
churches at Galatia, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye<\/p>\n
not hear the law?”<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”-Yet, if you<\/p>\n
seek justification by law then you make law your god.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”-But,<\/p>\n
when you seek justification by law then you make law your idol.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”–<\/p>\n
When you seek justification by law, calling yourself a Christian, you<\/p>\n
take Christ’s name in vain.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”-But you who<\/p>\n
seek justification by law break the sabbath, rejecting Christ who is the<\/p>\n
believer’s Sabbath, refusing to rest in him.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Honor thy father and thy mother.”-But when you seek<\/p>\n
justification by law, you willfully disobey your heavenly Father,<\/p>\n
refusing him the honor and glory due unto his holy name.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not kill.”-But all who seek justification by<\/p>\n
law cry out against Christ, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”-But he who goes to the<\/p>\n
law for righteousness plays the harlot and goes whoring after another god.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not steal.”-Yet, all that go to the law for<\/p>\n
justification would rob God of his glory.<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy<\/p>\n
neighbor.”-But when you boast of your obedience to the law you call God<\/p>\n
a liar. He declares, “There is none righteous. No, not one. There is<\/p>\n
none that doeth good.”<\/p>\n
The law says, “Thou shalt not covet thou thy neighbors house, thou shalt<\/p>\n
not covet thy neighbors wife nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”-But<\/p>\n
when you go to the law for righteousness you seek for yourself the honor<\/p>\n
that belongs to God alone. When you teach others to do so, you seek to<\/p>\n
steal God’s bride (his church), and would have her be married to another.<\/p>\n
Galatians 3:21 “IS the law then against the promises of God? God forbid:<\/p>\n
for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily<\/p>\n
righteousness should have been by the law. Wherefore then serveth the<\/p>\n
law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come<\/p>\n
to whom the promise was made.” Christ is that seed. Christ fulfilled the<\/p>\n
law. All those trusting in Him are free from the law, holy and without<\/p>\n
blame. Clay Curtis<\/p>\n
Free grace no more makes a person want to sin than health makes a person<\/p>\n
want to get sick again. The notion of sovereign grace giving people a<\/p>\n
license to sin is the foolish excuse of Pharisees who are not willing to<\/p>\n
give up their own righteousness.<\/p>\n
Paul Mahan<\/p>\n
The law is lawfully used as a means of conviction of sin: for this<\/p>\n
purpose it was promulgated (established) at Sinai. The law entered, that<\/p>\n
sin might abound: not to make men more wicked, though occasionally and<\/p>\n
by abuse it has that effect, but to make them sensible how wicked they<\/p>\n
are. Having God’s law in our hands, we are no longer to form our<\/p>\n
judgments by the maxims and customs of the world, where evil is called<\/p>\n
good, and good evil; but are to try every principle, temper, and<\/p>\n
practice, by this standard. Could men be prevailed upon to do this, they<\/p>\n
would soon listen to the Gospel with attention. On some the Spirit of<\/p>\n
God does thus prevail: then they earnestly make the jailer’s inquiry,<\/p>\n
“What must I do to be saved?” Here the work of grace begins; and the<\/p>\n
sinner, condemned in his own conscience, is brought to Jesus for life.<\/p>\n
When we use the law as a glass to behold the glory of God, we use it<\/p>\n
lawfully. His glory is eminently revealed in Christ; but much of it is<\/p>\n
with a special reference to the law, and cannot be otherwise discerned.<\/p>\n
We see the perfection and excellence of the law in his life. God was<\/p>\n
glorified by his obedience as a man. What a perfect character did he<\/p>\n
exhibit! Yet it is no other than a transcript of the law. Such would<\/p>\n
have been the character of Adam and all his race, had the law been duly<\/p>\n
obeyed. It appears therefore a wise and holy institution, fully capable<\/p>\n
of displaying that perfection of conduct by which man would have<\/p>\n
answered the end of his creation. And we see the inviolable strictness<\/p>\n
of the law in his death, There the glory of God in the law is<\/p>\n
manifested. Though he was the beloved Son, and had yielded personal<\/p>\n
obedience in the utmost perfection, yet, when he stood in our place to<\/p>\n
make atonement for sin, he was not spared. From what he endured in<\/p>\n
Gethsemane and upon the cross, we learn the meaning of that awful<\/p>\n
sentence, “The soul that sinneth shall die.”<\/p>\n
John Newton<\/p>\n
THE TRUE CHARACTER OF UNBELIEF<\/p>\n
In all unbelief there are two things \u2014 a good opinion of one’s self and<\/p>\n
a bad opinion of God. Man’s good opinion of himself makes him think it<\/p>\n
quite possible to win God’s favor by his own religious performances; and<\/p>\n
his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case<\/p>\n
wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit’s work (in<\/p>\n
convincing of sin) is to reduce his estimate of his own character that<\/p>\n
he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it<\/p>\n
possible that he can be justified by any excellency of his own. The<\/p>\n
Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that<\/p>\n
the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace!<\/p>\n
Horatio Bonar<\/p>\n
GET THEE OUT OF THY COUNTRY<\/p>\n
Genesis 12: 1 “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy<\/p>\n
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land<\/p>\n
that I will shew thee:”<\/p>\n
Within scripture we find one of two things happening to the Lord’s<\/p>\n
people. One, the Lord God sends them his faithful messenger to reside<\/p>\n
with them and feed his sheep with the word of the risen Lord Jesus<\/p>\n
Christ right where they are, or two, the Lord gives them a heart to<\/p>\n
depart from the place where they reside to the place where they will be<\/p>\n
edified and God will be honored. In this text we find the Lord directing<\/p>\n
Abram [Abraham] to do the latter.<\/p>\n
This country was Abraham’s country. This kindred was Abraham’s kindred.<\/p>\n
This house was the house of Abraham’s father. The Lord told Abraham, I<\/p>\n
will make of thee a great nation\u2014when in fact, his wife Sara was barren<\/p>\n
and Abraham had no children. From the viewpoint of the natural heart,<\/p>\n
Abraham had every reason to stay right where he was.<\/p>\n
The natural heart looks at the sentimental\u2014this is my country, my<\/p>\n
kindred, my father’s house\u2014this place has been passed down for<\/p>\n
generations. The natural heart looks at what seems impossible\u2014where will<\/p>\n
I live? How will I make a living? What will become of my family? The<\/p>\n
natural heart looks at past failures and future difficulties, the steep<\/p>\n
mountain ahead and the green pastures behind. The natural heart looks to<\/p>\n
its own wisdom\u2014anyone with common sense would have told Abraham he was a<\/p>\n
fool. Remember this: Whether it is concerning salvation by the free<\/p>\n
grace of God in Christ or it is concerning God’s sovereignty or any<\/p>\n
other thing which is godly\u2014the enemy of righteousness always says the<\/p>\n
opposite of what God says, hence the serpent beguiled Eve with\u2014Ye shall<\/p>\n
not surely die! The natural heart says to the one in whom it resides, to<\/p>\n
you, and to anyone who will listen–“I can’t” but it is really saying,<\/p>\n
“I won’t!”<\/p>\n
However, by the Spirit of God, true faith trusts God to do what he says<\/p>\n
he will do. Thus sincere faith obeys God. The spiritual heart looks to<\/p>\n
Christ. Even against all natural reasoning, the spiritual heart believes<\/p>\n
God. Thus Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken to him. And through<\/p>\n
God’s promise to Abraham came the seed of promise\u2014Christ Jesus the Lord.<\/p>\n
A man made wise by God, once gave me a word of encouragement set forth<\/p>\n
in scripture, I will pass it on to you. Though the believer is faced<\/p>\n
with many daily trials in life, God gives the true believer only a few,<\/p>\n
weighty trials by which he proves the sincerity of our faith. As you<\/p>\n
face the trial of your faith, in whom will you trust to deliver you?<\/p>\n
Abraham believed God.<\/p>\n
Clay Curtis<\/p>\n
SALVATION<\/p>\n
It is most refreshing to hear a sinner confess his need of the Lord<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ. Knowing that salvation is only by grace through faith,<\/p>\n
God’s sheep rejoices in that effectual calling by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
The religion of this world preaches that salvation is man’s response to<\/p>\n
an offer by God. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Salvation is<\/p>\n
not walking an aisle, giving the preacher my hand, repeating the<\/p>\n
sinner’s prayer, and then being baptized. Man by nature does not have<\/p>\n
the freedom of will to do anything. He is dead spiritually and can not<\/p>\n
respond to anything that is spiritual.<\/p>\n
Salvation is a person. Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by Him<\/p>\n
and totally to His glory. Salvation has been from beginning to end, a<\/p>\n
work of God Almighty. Faith to believe that which God, for Christ’s<\/p>\n
sake, has done is the gift of God. What He has done is secured salvation<\/p>\n
by satisfying all the demands that the holy law would ever claim against<\/p>\n
a sinner. Having satisfied the law, a royal righteousness has been<\/p>\n
charged (imputed) to every sinner that Christ came to save.<\/p>\n
The carnal heart will always try to give itself the honor, glory, and<\/p>\n
praise for accepting the offer when others refused … but one truly<\/p>\n
born from above will have this one confession, “Salvation is of the<\/p>\n
Lord.” Marvin Stalnaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IF RIGHTEOUSNESS COME BY THE LAW Galatians 2:21 “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” The ultimate transgression is at stake when a man turns to the law for righteousness. For when you turn to the law for righteousness then you frustrate the grace of God and deny Christ and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions\/3478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}