The Law & the Gospel

The law: 10 Commandments, Exodus 20

There are three ways to respond to God’s Word and Law:

JUGGLING

• Jugglers keep doing the commands… 2 keep in God’s favor
• How do you respond to failure?
• Jugglers respond to failure by trying harder
• Jugglers respond to failure by reducing the standard to rules you can keep
• Reading the Bible — “i’m gonna get up at 5 tomorrow…”
• Sexual purity — “don’t have sex before marriage…”
• How do you respond to success?
• Feel like God is more happy, when you’ve had a good day.
• Everything is right in the world.
• Problem: YOU’RE FORGETTING GOD’S HOLINESS
• Galatians 3:10

SKYDIVING

• Skydivers don’t really worry about following any commands. They have left “works” behind and are free to live however they want because they are no longer “under law.”
• How do you respond to failure?
• Skydivers respond to failure by blowing it off. I’ve got a grace-parachute.
• I can do this now because I want to experience it and anyway, God will forgive me.
• How do you respond to success?
• You take all the credit for the good things you do and rarely think to praise God or ask for his help.
• You don’t pray.
• Problem: YOU’RE FORGETTING MAN’S SINFULNESS
• Romans 6:15

BELIEVING THE GOSPEL

• Both JUGGLING and SKYDIVING are fundamentally self-centered. They are not concerned with delight in God or in his law, but with self: “I keep the rules.” or “I break the rules.”
• Matthew 5:17-19 – 1 Corinthians 5:21
• So, every command in Scripture, points us to the bottom line of the chart and the top line.
• The law drives us to the gospel and the gospel frees us to obey the law.
• Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do your will.”

LARGE GROUP EXAMPLE:

Every Scripture passage asserts a moral imperative, either explicitly or implicitly. For instance, a verse may tell you not to lie. You can respond to this imperative in three different ways.

JUGGLING: You can try your very best not to lie. This is what it means to live
under the law. You will inevitably discover that you cannot not lie, even when you lower your standards about what that means.

SKYDIVING: You can admit from the start that you cannot obey this command and simply dismiss it as a biblical ideal you are not actually expected to obey. This is what it means to abuse God’s grace and give in to sin.

BELIEVING THE GOSPEL:
1. God says, “Do not lie.” (Top line of the Cross Chart: God’s holiness)
2. I cannot obey this command because I am a sinner. (Bottom line of the Chart: my sinfulness)
3. Jesus did obey this perfectly. (I can point to countless examples in his earthly life as recorded in the Gospels.) Jesus did what I should do (but can’t) as my substitute so that God can accept me (2 Cor. 5:17).
4. Because Jesus obeyed the law perfectly and now lives in me, and because I am accepted by God, I am now free to obey this command by his grace and power at work in me.

Applying this grid to your study of the Bible will help you believe the gospel and obey the law without falling into legalism or license. This empowers you to experience the reality that the gospel changes everything.