ASI Scandinavia 2013: Transforming Grace

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ASI Scandinavia

Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

Daniel Pel

Part 1: Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

As you saw in the booklet, this is the workshop on the gospel, or Christ Our Righteousness.

It's a title that we have given to this workshop, and subtitled, A Fresh Look at the law, the covenants, and the gospel.

These are things that I think are incredibly interesting and that we definitely need to continue to study because there's just so much depth in it.

And so what we're going to do this afternoon is we're going to look at the 10 Commandments and I think that what is going to be presented by God's grace will be kind of a very fresh understanding of them and also a new look at them as to what their role is in our lives as Christians.

So we will have a word of prayer and since our time is limited we'll get right into it.

So let's let's pray together as we get started.

Father in heaven we are grateful for all the different workshops that are taking place and we want to pray that you will bless each 1 of them.

We ask also that you will be with us now Lord as we study together the role of the law, the 10 Commandments and how this works in our lives as Christians.

I pray that you will be present with us to guide us and lead us and we ask these things in your precious name Amen All right, well we're gonna start our time together if you have your Bible I hope you do otherwise you may be followed with someone that does have 1 We'll be looking at a number of verses together.

And we'll start in the Book of Romans, which has been a book that I very much enjoy studying.

And we'll look a little bit more at the Book of Romans in the course of this workshop session.

Probably our third session where we spend most time in the Book of Romans, but I just wanna start there today.

And if we go to Romans chapter 3, we're gonna look at verse 19 and 20, Romans chapter 3, verse 19 and 20 and we're looking at the role of the 10 Commandments, the role of God's law.

This is written by the Apostle Paul and he says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law.

And that's an expression that Paul uses a number of places in the New Testament, this expression of being under the law.

We're going to talk in a moment about what that exactly means.

Then he goes on to say that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in the sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." So he's talking about 2 things that I really want us to look a little bit deeper at here.

He's talking about being under the law, and he talks about the law being, bringing the knowledge of sin.

And this role of the law is basically widely understood among Christians today, That the law is that which shows us what sin is.

And it's of course a very important function of the law because if you think about it, if you don't know what sin is, if sin is not defined, then yeah, then we might as well just keep sinning.

But when sin is defined by the law, we know what it is, then we also need to start looking at how do we get set free from sin?

And that happens of course through Jesus Christ.

But the role of the law here is really to show that we are sinners, that we have a need of salvation.

You look in that mirror, reveals you who you are, reveals that you're a sinner, reveals your need for Christ as a savior and that's it what we want to do this afternoon in our time together is look a little bit deeper though is there any other function that the 10 Commandments or God's Law has other than showing that we are sinners.

And I'll just say right away where I want to head with this and then we'll kind of develop it.

I believe that the 10 commandments in their first function are like a mirror revealing that we are sinners, it gives us a knowledge of sin, but in its second function that the 10 commandments of the law reveal in a powerful beautiful way the character of God and also in that character of God the purpose that he has for us to reflect that character and so what we're talking about here this afternoon are the 2 functions of God's law, the 10 commands.

Number 1, to reveal that we're a sinner, to reveal our need for a Savior, right?

Number 2, to reveal the character of God that we are to reflect in our lives.

And we're going to kind of walk through this and we're going to go to the 10 Commandments and we're going to see how this all plays out.

Now, let's first talk a little bit more about the first function though.

According to Romans chapter 3 verse 19 and 20 that we just read, Paul talks about the law bringing us a knowledge of sin, but he also used that phrase that we are under the law we're all under the law which really when you look a little bit deeper at that text and other texts where Paul uses that expression What is being implied is that we are under the condemnation of the law.

The law reveals that we are sinners, right?

That expression of being under the law has oftentimes been misunderstood because what you will find a number of Christians saying is that, well, you know, we are now no longer under the law because now Christ has come.

So we are no longer obliged to live by the 10 Commandments.

In other words, the 10 Commandments are done away with.

That's maybe an expression that you've heard.

But let us look a little bit closer at what this exactly means with this expression under the law.

If you turn with me to the book of Galatians, you're in the book of Romans turn to the book of Galatians And we'll go to Galatians chapter 3, Galatians in the third chapter, and verse 24 and 25.

It says, Therefore the law was our tutor, or another word for tutor is like a teacher, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith but after faith has come we are no longer under a tutor or if you some translation would directly say under the law.

So here Paul says we're no longer under the law once we have received Christ by faith, which many have interpreted as, okay, now we are no longer under the 10 Commandments.

Christ came, saved us, died for us, we no longer have to follow the 10 Commandments today.

That's oftentimes understood that way within the larger body of Christianity.

Now, why do we then as Seventh-day Advertisers put so much focus on the Sabbath, you know?

Because there are a lot of verses in the Bible, of course, that also indicate in the New Testament that if we love God, we keep His commandments.

The commandments are written in our heart.

So then we must understand what does it really mean with this expression, under the law?

And once we understand that in the first function of the law that it is to reveal that we are sinners, then we understand that in that function we are under the condemnation of the law, we are under the law.

But in the second function of the 10 Commandments, we're going to find out in just a moment, there is no more condemnation.

Because in the second function, the law that once condemned us is now written in our hearts.

So, Galatians chapter 3 is bringing us to see that we are either living by faith in Christ and then we are no longer under the law or we are living under the law, under the condemnation of the law as sinners and we have no faith in Christ, right?

So here it is reflected basically these 2 places we could say.

Now the function of the law to be like a mirror to reveal us that we are sinners is a function that is very important because again if we didn't know what was sin we would just continue doing it right?

So the law must reveal that, it's very important.

But as we look at God's plan for us, the plan of restoration, the plan of the gospel, obviously God wants to do more for us than leave us in that, you know, in that place where the law merely condemns us, that we are under the condemnation of the law.

What God wants to do is actually revealed in the book of Hebrews in the New Covenant promise, and if you turn with me to the book of Hebrews, look at what the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 10 and verses 16 and 17.

Hebrews the 10th chapter, and verse 16 and 17.

Someone that has the English Bible can go ahead and read that.

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.

Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

So what does God want to do in this covenant?

He wants to take those commandments and he wants to write them somewhere.

He wants to write them in our hearts and in our minds.

The first time that God wrote His commandments, where did He write them on?

In the Old Testament, Moses went up on the mount, God writes with His own finger His 10 commandments in stone and gives it to Moses, right?

Now here in this covenant relationship that we read about here in Hebrews chapter 10 we see that God's purpose is not just to write commandments in stone but he also wants to write it in the hearts of man.

Of course he wanted to do that already at that time that he wrote it in stone.

He also wanted to write it in their hearts.

He wants to write his commandments in our hearts.

And this is a good way of thinking about it, of understanding these 2 functions.

Either the law of God is outside of us or it is inside of us.

When the 10 commandments are outside of us, they are like a mirror.

And even in the book of James, we don't have time to go there right now, but it talks about the law as a mirror.

And when the laws outside of us attend commandments, what does it do?

It condemns us, because we look into those commandments and we see, wow, we come short.

Every single 1 of us, even if we think that we're doing good, the commandments reveal that we're not doing that good.

Even Jesus, he elaborates upon the commandments.

He says, you know, you heard about adultery, but I say unto you that even if you look at a woman's lust after her, you've already committed adultery in your heart.

So he even elaborates upon the commandments to show that everyone is under the condemnation of God's law.

We're all under the law, we're all sinners, but it doesn't stop there.

Because now we must put our faith in Christ and what does God do then when we put our faith in Christ?

He takes those commandments that were first outside of us that revealed us our condition, He takes those same commandments and according to the book of Hebrews chapter 10 he writes those commandments on our heart, in our mind and in this way it is that we're inviting God's spirit into our life because the 1 that wrote the commandment will also be the 1 that lives those commandments in us.

That's why in Galatians Paul could say we are under the law but then we put our faith in Christ and then we're no longer under the law.

It doesn't mean that we're not living by the law, but we're no longer under the condemnation of the law, because the law that was outside of us has now been written in our heart through faith in Christ.

Part 2: Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

Alright, this is the seminar Christ our Righteousness, a 3 part seminar.

And in our first part, I see we have a couple of new faces, so I'll just do a little bit of a review of what we looked at in our first hour together.

That was we looked at the law, the 10 Commandments.

And we looked at the role of the law in the life of the Christian and how it reveals a beautiful picture of the character of God.

And as we look into that character of God, we realize we have sinned as we realize we come short in comparison to Him.

And then He writes those commandments in our hearts, those promises.

We looked at the 10 Commandments as 10 wonderful, incredible, beautiful promises that God gives to us.

So if you want to know more about that, actually this message has already been recorded here, but it has already been recorded because I've been doing this seminar in different countries and different places.

And you can go to our ministry website, which is livingwater.no, and you have a lot of English material there, a lot of English sermons.

And you will, if you're interested in that particular message, it is, I have to think for a moment what I titled it, because I gave it a different title here.

But there's a series on that website, and it's called The Unhindered Gospel, The Unhindered Gospel.

And there it's entitled The Perfect Mirror, The Perfect Mirror.

So if you want to listen to it again, or you missed the first session, go to www.livingwater.no go to the Unhindered Gospel which is under audio messages and then a perfect mirror.

What we're going to look at here this afternoon is the Covenants and I just really look forward to this Bible study.

It's going to be a Bible study, so I hope you have your Bibles with you.

What about all this old covenant, new covenant thing?

So let's have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into it.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful to be at this convention, at this conference.

We are grateful that we can come before you.

We are thankful that we can have a Bible study together.

We think it's worth studying, it's worth reading, it's worth embracing and living by.

But Lord, we also want to freely confess that there are things in your word that are sometimes hard to understand or hard to explain to others.

And perhaps for many of us, the covenants is just 1 of those topics.

And so we do pray that you'll give us clarity this afternoon as we have a fresh look at the 2 covenants and how they relate to us today.

For we ask these things in your precious name, Amen.

Alright, Take your Bible and what we're going to begin by doing is we're going to look at 2 principles regarding a covenant.

And I'm not talking yet about the difference between the old and the new covenant.

We'll get to that a little bit further into our study here this afternoon.

But the first thing we want to do together is simply look what is the principle of a covenant and let me just ask it right here we can have a little bit of participation here what do you think a covenant means if you would just have to describe it in your own words a covenant okay a contract anything else it's not relationship with boundaries okay I love relationship with boundaries I like that any any other definitions or what do you think of when you hear the word covenant?

Right, I agree to do this for you, you agree to do that for me.

We have a covenant, we conceal it by a covenant, an agreement.

Go to Galatians, that's in the New Testament, Galatians written by Paul chapter 3 Galatians chapter 3 and have a look at verse 15 Galatians chapter 3 and verse 15 and whoever has it in an English version Bible you can go ahead and read that Galatians 3.15 My brothers and sisters, I am going to use an everyday example When 2 people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no 1 can break it or add anything to it.

Right, so in the version that you're reading it's even using the word agreement.

Maybe someone else has another version where it will say covenant.

In my Bible actually here, New King James, it says covenant, but it's the same thing, the agreement, the covenant.

Now, what does it say about this covenant or this agreement?

What is the principle that we find in this verse regarding a covenant?

Signed, or there's another word that is used here in the verse confirmed right sign confirmed okay Bob there we got it that's the covenant in our Western world you have you know these legal issues that are oftentimes done with a signature to sign it and okay black on white that's confirmed that cannot be changed in ancient times and biblical times it may be happening a different way but but the principle is the same.

The principle is once a covenant is confirmed, it cannot be changed.

Okay, so that's the principle number 1 regarding a covenant.

We're talking about a covenant this afternoon, principle number 1, once it's confirmed it cannot be changed.

We go from the book of Galatians to the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 9 and we're going to begin in verse 16.

Now the word that is used in verse 16 and 17 is a little bit of a different word in the English actually in the English in my Bible, the New King James, it talks about a testament, but actually the Greek word for testament that is used in this passage is the same word that is used in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 15 for the word covenant.

So we have the same Greek word, which is diantike, which means covenant or agreement.

Now, in the setting of Hebrews chapter 9 that we're about to read, it's the setting of a, what we would call in English, a testament, or we could also call it a will, which is also a simple illustration.

If a father has 3 sons and he's about to die, he writes a testament or a will, signs it, so that when he dies, then they know how his wealth is to be divided amongst his 3 children.

Now when he dies that's the moment that the covenant is confirmed, you cannot change it, right?

If he died and the sons they come along and say, hey, I want actually a little bit more than you, that would be a dishonor, right?

Because the covenant has already been confirmed.

Now look at what the text says here in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 16 and 17.

For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be what?

What must there be for there to be a testament?

Verse 17, for a testament is enforced after men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

And again, why I bring in this text is because the same word is used, covenant.

So you can say, okay, the covenant is only in force after the 1 that made the covenant dies in the situation of a testament, right?

And we're going to see in a moment that when it comes to the Gospel, right, the Gospel Covenant, it is also an inheritance involved.

There is an inheritance involved, there's a testament that is involved, which we're going to see in just a moment.

Principle number 1 regarding the covenant, once it's confirmed it cannot be changed.

Principle number 2 regarding the covenant or testament is that it is enforced when the testator dies.

Now, you're still in Hebrews chapter 9, and let's back up a couple of verses here.

And how does this then play in to the covenants?

Look at verse 13 to 15, Hebrews chapter 9, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 13.

I can read these, it says, For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God and for this reason He is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." Now there's a lot here so let's kind of try to unpack this together.

The writer of the book of Hebrews first of all reminds about the sacrifices that were made which pointed forward to what?

What were all those sacrifices actually really about?

Was it just in vain that all this blood was being spilled with animals or was it pointing forward to something?

It was pointing forward to Christ, right?

So all of these offerings were pointing forward to Christ, right?

And Christ, it says in verse 15, is the mediator of the new covenant.

Part 3: Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

Welcome to our third and final workshop session entitled Christ Our Righteousness A Fresh Look at the Law, the Covenants and the Gospel and we have indeed already looked at the 10 Commandments in our first session.

In our second session we looked at the covenants, which I really enjoyed that study.

And this evening, or this afternoon, we're going to look at the Gospel.

Now I can say right up front that it's impossible to go into everything regarding the gospel in 1 hour but what we are going to attempt to do is to get kind of the big picture the larger picture an overview of the gospel through the book of Romans.

Romans is a New Testament book written by the Apostle Paul and specifically the first 8 chapters of the book of Romans are going to be some of what we'll be looking at and again we're not going to be able to look at all the, everything in there, but we're just gonna, I'm just gonna kind of pick out some gems that portray the gospel in the first half of the Book of Romans.

Before we get started, Let's have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into it.

Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful to be here at the ASI convention.

We are thankful that we can be gathered together like this, that we have the opportunity to study your Word.

And we do pray that now you will inspire us through the Holy Spirit to understand the deep things that you have written to us.

We ask you Lord that you will remove all distraction from us and that your Holy Spirit may move upon our hearts, help us to see Jesus more clearly, and may He become everything for us.

Yes, the book of Romans, a little bit of, Let's get a little bit of facts together here.

What do we know about the Book of Romans?

Even Bible scholars don't really question that.

He introduces himself in the first chapter.

It was written in the first century and it was written to the first believers or the Christian church in which city?

Now isn't it interesting, just think about this for a moment, that of All the letters that Paul wrote and write in a lot of the New Testament is really the letters of Paul.

A letter to Ephesus, the city of Ephesians is the letter to the believers in Ephesus.

Galatians is a letter to the believers in Galatia, which is a province.

So you have all these letters written to different parts of the Roman Empire where you had these Christians, these believers and Rome was 1 of them.

Now think about that, Paul writes to the believers in Rome which was the capital of the empire, and he writes, and in his letter he in a beautiful way portrays the gospel.

Later Rome became the center of the perversion of the gospel, right?

In later centuries, when you look at the time of the Reformation, or time before the Reformation and leading up to the Reformation and into the Reformation, you have the papal power in control in Rome, and in many ways, tradition had taken the place of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so in order for us to recapture the beauty of the gospel, we can find it in many books of the Bible, but particularly the book of Romans is a beautiful explanation and exhibit of Paul through the gospel.

And he addresses this to a place that we would maybe not connect so much with the pure gospel today.

When I say Rome, You don't immediately think of the pure gospel, you might think of much else that has happened, and it surely has, a lot has happened.

But here we are, back in the, for a moment, we're back in the first century when this was written to the believers there.

And the Book of Romans has 16 chapters and you can basically divide the book into really 2 portions.

The first 8 chapters, so half of the Book of Romans, is this picture that Paul gives us of the gospel message.

And then from chapter 9 to 16 is really the practical application of the gospel amongst the believers.

I really wish I had time to go through a lot of this material but of course we're limited here so we're just going to pick out a couple of things and hopefully this will kind of create an interest for you to go back and study this book, the Book of Romans.

If I could right away just give you a study tool, what has shaped my understanding of the Gospel and of the Book of Romans has been a book written by A.T.

Have anyone heard of those 2 individuals?

They were Seventh-day Adventist pioneers of our church, lived at the time of Ellen White, and they were both preachers, writers, and they wrote a book, and this book is called The Gospel in the Book of Romans, quite simple.

And it goes verse by verse, basically through the Book of Romans, and it's been very helpful for me, it's been very eye-opening, very beautiful, and so that's just something that I could recommend as a study tool when you're looking at this book.

And this fits right into our theme, Christ our Righteousness.

There was a general conference meeting in the year 1888.

And at that general conference meeting, A.T.

Wagoner presented the subject of righteousness by faith, or Christ our righteousness.

Series

Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

Part 1: Christ Our Righteousness- A Fresh Look At The Law, The Covenants, and The Gospel

Transcript

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