Grace Gives You Freedom from the Law. Use Your Freedom to Serve Others. Acts 15:29.

Imagine: You are a missionary to the people of Jerusalem in the year 55 A.D. You have invited a crowd of two dozen local Jews to listen to you share about Jesus on the beach one morning. As they walk up, they can smell something cooking. You’ve got a nice fire going, with bacon and sausage popping on a skillet and a few thick slices of ham on the grill. As your new friends arrive, you offer each a plate. How will they react? Will they eat your food?

They will not. In fact, they will be horrified, and they will run back to town, word will spread, and no one will EVER listen to you preach again.

Does your freedom in Christ allow you to eat pork? Absolutely. Does your love for people sometimes require you NOT to exercise your freedom? Absolutely.

A missionary—which we all are—should be careful not to give offense if it is the kind of offense that will keep people from coming to Christ.

Which is more important, my witness as a Christian or my pleasures as a believer enjoying his freedom in Christ?

I have a friend who is so deeply devoted to the doctrine of grace that he considers the law of Moses troublesome. Such thinking can lead people to abandon the Old Testament altogether. That is a mistake. A focus on the freedoms of grace to the exclusion of all other doctrines can result in a self-centeredness so focused on personal freedom we ignore the way our actions affect young Christians or the not-yet Christians.

When the early church was made up primarily of former Jews, people continued to be pulled back into the law. After all, that was all they had ever known! They kept arguing that Gentiles could only be saved if they were circumcised and followed the law of Moses, Acts 15:5. Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James, and others argued against this, but they were outnumbered.

What should Christians do? Shrug and say “too bad” and go ahead and enjoy their freedoms? What if the freedom that you have found in grace keeps another person from coming to Christ?

After all, they may be so scandalized by your behavior that they are unable to wrap their minds around your message. Would you be willing to make some sacrifices if it drew a lost person closer to Jesus? Or is your freedom in Christ more important than another person’s salvation?

Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James found a compromise. They asked no one to be circumcised or to follow the whole law. Instead, they drafted a one-paragraph letter asking believers to make a few sacrifices to avoid offending unbelieving Jews and Jewish believers: “abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things” Acts 15:29. 

Are they following the law? No. But they are making a concession. A sacrifice. You can make a sacrifice to avoid offending the lost or a new believer. Your freedom in Christ should not be an absolute rule but must be exercised with love for people for whom Christ died.

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another” Galatians 5:13.

“It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble” Romans 14:21.

“For if, because of food, your brother or sister is hurt, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food that person for whom Christ died” Romans 14:15.

Enjoy your freedom in Christ. But do not turn that freedom into an opportunity to indulge the flesh. Instead, ask how your choices can best serve others.

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THE RECIPE FOR SALVATION WILL BE RUINED IF YOU MIX IN A PINCH OF LAW. Galatians 5:9.

I love to cook without recipes. When I was a child, I made milk shakes in a blender. I would throw in bananas, berries, ice cream, a raw egg, chocolate syrup, honey, milk, vanilla extract, and more. You really can’t mess up a milk shake. But boy, have I ruined a few meals! I once carved into a salad what I thought was a mild pepper. Instead, it was the hottest pepper of my life. My mouth was numb for hours after only one bite!

We use mercury—the only metal that is liquid at room temperature—in thermometers, barometers and similar measuring devices. In fact, the deadly poison is a treasure with many uses. As a small child, my brother thought he would use a mercury thermometer to measure the temperature of a pot of chili that had been on the stove for hours. Unfortunately, the mercury instantly burst the tiny glass tube and the glass and mercury sank to the bottom of the pot. Dennis had no idea how dangerous mercury was. But that night he went to my mother and told her what he had done. She was upset about her chili. But she was horrified to think her family might have eaten a meal with mercury in it. Mercury is one ingredient that will ruin a chili recipe—and all other recipes.

You know what ingredient will ruin the salvation recipe? The LAW.

Though, like mercury, it is an amazing treasure in its proper place, the law is poison to salvation. But don’t miss that first point: the LAW IS A TREASURE. See Psalm 119:11 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:52.

The law is our TEACHER, Galatians 3:24. Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and thus, none of it would pass away, Matthew 5:17-18. The law of Moses has incredible value.

But the law cannot save anyone. Adding the law to your salvation “recipe” will ruin the recipe. “If you get yourselves circumcised [to follow the law], Christ will not benefit you at all” Galatians 5:2. Paul explains you can’t sprinkle in a pinch of law. If you try to be justified by law, then you have to follow the WHOLE law. “You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from GRACE … A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough” vv. 4,9. Paul is saying that adding any law to your salvation recipe requires you to perfectly follow ALL the law.

And as every Jew in Israel knew, no one could follow the law perfectly. We all sin. We all were corrected a thousand times as children. We have broken so many rules. We KNOW we will never be saved by perfectly following rules, because we are not perfect.

Faith in the God Who will provide another way is humanity’s only hope—and always was our only hope.

From the beginning of time no one was ever saved by following the law. The law reveals our sin, convincing us we will only be saved by our faith that a good God will provide for salvation another way. The law is our schoolmaster, teaching us that we can only be saved by trusting in the Man who became the perfect sacrifice. Jesus was “God’s Son, born of a woman, born under the law, sent to redeem those under the law [everyone], so that we might receive adoption as sons” Galatians 4:4-5.

The law of Moses is a priceless treasure. But following the law has never saved anyone.

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AN ALLEGORY OF GALATIANS 3.

Imagine a KINGDOM called FAITH. The head of the kingdom is KING ABRAHAM. Before King Abraham leaves for a long journey, he places his child and heir, PRINCE ISRAEL, in the hands of a guardian. The guardian’s name is LAW. Guardian LAW will raise the heir while the king is away, teaching the heir all the things he will need to know when he joins his father at the head of the kingdom.

When King Abraham and Prince Israel are reunited, there will be feasting and great celebrations and the Royal Family will be full of joy. Until then, Prince Israel is to study and prepare until he reaches the age of 21. At 21, Prince Israel will no longer need his guardian, Law, recognizing that the royal blood of FAITH—ABRAHAM’S FAITH—flows in the veins of all of Abraham’s children.

But then something goes wrong. When Prince Israel reaches 21, doubts set in. He has grown attached to Guardian Law, and rejects the king’s plans. What about the feast? Preparations have been made! So the king sends workers into the kingdom. They search among aliens and foreigners for any that will come to the feast. All they need is a drop of faith—Abraham’s faith—and if they love Guardian Law, they must leave him behind. Law cannot enter the kingdom.

Thousands upon thousands, ten thousand times ten thousand, come by faith alone. And finally, Prince Israel comes too, persuaded by Guardian Law himself that faith, after all, was always the heir’s destiny.

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM EXISTED 430 YEARS BEFORE THE LAW—THE LAW’S PURPOSE WAS ALWAYS TO POINT THE KING’S CHILDREN TO FAITH.

Salvation by faith is not a New Testament idea; Abraham was saved by faith. The law has its important role as Israel’s guardian and teacher, Galatians 3:24. But the law could never provide salvation. In fact, when the law gets mixed up with salvation, it leads only to death, being the “extra piece,” that can distract from God’s plan.

“The law was added 430 years later…” Galatians 3:17.

God, teach us to embrace godly habits without turning them into laws that separate us from the lost, from believers, and from our Savior. Remind us that we are saved by grace.

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RICHES. Revelation 18.

Energy creates value. When man discovered oil and ways to reach it, mine it, refine it, and use it, the world instantly became fabulously wealthy. Imagine an animated graphic: as oil was brought from the depths to the surface, buildings rose from the surface into the clouds. Cities exploded. Trails became superhighways. The globe is criss-crossed with roads and bridges to everywhere and nowhere.

And the night sky is never dark. Seen from space, our cities glow like diamonds spread across black velvet on the glass-topped counters of a jewelry store. During the last century, remote places grew into world-class cities: Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Rio De Janeiro, Perth, Jakarta, Singapore, Denver, Calgary, Dubai, and of course, Houston (the oil capital of the world). Meanwhile, the most populated cities are bigger than anyone could have imagined: Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, Dhaka, Osaka, New York. Here are the world’s cities with the most millionaires: New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, London, Singapore, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston (Houston has 132,000 millionaires).

And one day it’s all gonna burn.

The Bible uses “Babylon” to describe man’s ultimate sin.

“Babylon the Great has fallen… The kings of the earth and merchants have grown wealthy from her excessive luxury. Her sins are piled up to heaven… The kings will weep over her when they see the smoke of her burning… The merchants will weep and mourn because no one buys their merchandise any longer… gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fabrics, marble… In a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed” Revelation 18.

There is nothing wrong with wealth. God used it to bless Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and many others. But money can be “the root of all sorts of evil.” James warns us: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries which are coming upon you…. You have lived luxuriously, you have fattened your hearts….” James 5:1,5.

Wealth is sometimes connected to God’s judgment. BE CONTENT.

“Do not wear yourself out to get rich, be wise enough to restrain yourself” Proverbs 23:4.

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“DO YOU SWEAR?!” James 5:12.

When Hurricane Camille came ashore on Sunday, August 17, 1969, three people showed up at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge: the pastor, there to keep an eye on the building, and Willie and Vercie Wales. Paw Paw, my grandfather, figured it was Sunday morning, time to go to church. What’s a little rain? He was a man of legendary integrity. His son was like him, a man so honest he would not open mail addressed to his wife.

When I was a child, I often overheard other children having scenes like this:

“Do you swear?”

“I swear!”

“Do you swear on the Holy Bible?”

“I swear on the Holy Bible!”

“Do you swear to God?”

“Umm … No.”

“See—you’re lying! Hey everyone, he’s lying! He won’t swear to God.”

We put a lot of stock in oaths, as if our fellow man is happy to lie, but afraid to lie under oath. But an oath makes little difference to liars; it certainly makes no difference to those who only tell the truth.

“Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No,’ so that you do not fall under judgment” James 5:12.

The Bible says stop swearing. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, tell the truth consistently, so people will accept your yes or no answer without requiring you to buttress it by attaching oaths to it. Be honest.

The Pulpit Commentary adds that James is addressing a bad habit among Jews and Christians in the early church:

James wants to eliminate “those profane adjurations with which men who have no deep-seated fear of God garnish their common talk.”

In other words, ‘stop swearing’ means ‘stop cussing.’ Clean it up. Rid yourself of the “profane adjurations with which men garnish their common talk.” Willie and Ernest never cussed; James 5:12 is one of the reasons.

God, give us honest and clean speech. May we honor You with our words.

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WORD CHOICE. James 4:4-5.

Research says most hear 30,000 words a day, and speak 7,000 words a day with some (like my family!) speaking many more. Stephen King encourages new writers to WRITE 1,000 words a day. That’s 40,000 words a day. That being said, when was the last time you looked up a word to ensure you were using it correctly? (Google “ensure vs. insure,” for example.)

This morning I was trying to remember the difference between ENVY and JEALOUSY. English speakers constantly get it wrong, using the words interchangeably, though they have different meanings.

Envy is when I want what you have: “I envy David who bought a new truck.” Jealousy is when I fear losing what I have: “I am jealous of Brian who studies with my girlfriend.” Another distinction: envy requires two parties, but jealousy requires three. If A fears girlfriend B may begin dating C, then A is jealous of C.

Now that we know they are NOT the same, which word does God use to describe Himself? Jealous or envious?

“For I, the Lord thy God, am a JEALOUS God” Exodus 20:5.

God is jealous; He fears losing us to a third party.

“Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you imagine that the scripture has no meaning when it says ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that He has placed in us’?” James 4:4-5.

God describes Himself as jealous.

And if jealous, who are the three parties?

(1) GOD is jealous that

(2) HIS CHILDREN

(3) will forsake Him for the WORLD.

The third party is the world. Do you love the world? Are you FLIRTING with the world? Are you spending too much time with the world? You are IN A RELATIONSHIP with God. Your days of courting false gods are over. No more flirting with the gods of this world.

God, thank You for loving us so much that You desire us jealously.

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IMAGINE PEACE. James 4:4-10.

What if we were all on the same side? What if everyone loved everyone, and there was no judgment, no hate? No politics? No right and wrong?

“Imagine there’s no countries. Nothing to kill or die for… Imagine all the people living life in peace…. Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”

Unfortunately, this writer was a dreamer. Consider how he died—murdered on the sidewalk by a fan. But there is nothing wrong with John Lennon’s dream. God put inside each of us a deep sense of what the world SHOULD be. We know we were made for more, for a lost paradise, postponed until Christ completes His work and we live in the paradise of a new earth. Everyone longs for peace. Everyone knows there must be more to this life. C.S. Lewis says that that longing alone proves we were made for something more.

But meanwhile, FACE IT: You do not live in a world of peace. And if you belong to Christ, the world is AT WAR with you. As is the devil. “Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world HATES you.” 1 John 3:3. You have been drafted into a military campaign, a life-or-death battle you did not ask for, but you’re living it—and YOU MUST WIN. How?

Walk with Christ, obeying His word.

“Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God! … But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be miserable and mourn and weep…. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you.” James 4:4-10.

We are drowning in worldly influences: TV, movies, music, social media, friends, and more. Admit that MOST of the voices you hear every day are the ungodly voices of the world. You are influenced every moment by the voices of lost people outside you—and in your thoughts. They have gotten in and only God’s word can defeat those voices. Study it.

*The picture above is a painting of John Lennon by Iryna Kastsova, 2022. Prints can be purchased online https://www.artsper.com/us/contemporary-artworks/painting/1542282/john-lennon .

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ARE YOU A FRIEND OF THE WORLD? James 4:4; 2 Cor. 6:17.

The Voice translates James 4:4 this way:

“You are adulterers. Don’t you know that making friends with this corrupt world order is open aggression toward God? So anyone who aligns himself with this bogus world system is declaring war against the one true God.”

Are you trying to “make friends” with this “bogus world system”? Do you fill up on a constant diet of the storytelling, movies, and social media of the lost?

Have the lyrics of the world become your Bible?

Because that’s what happens. If you are not reading the Word of God, feeding yourself God’s messages every day, then you are going to fill up on the word—the messages—of the lost. And who are the lost? Almost everyone. We live in a world like Noah’s; we are surrounded by the voices of the lost, mocking the voices of the Godly. When Noah’s Ark floated away, how many were saved and how many were left behind? The ratio of believers to non-believers in our world may be similar. Not only that, many entertainers who do believe spend their whole lives telling stories that are 100% worldly, sharing Godly messages only once or twice in their entire careers.

The lost are BLIND and live in DARKNESS. Why do you listen to them and follow them? Why do you believe the lies in their songs, slogans, posters, and protests? Jesus commands us to be different.

“COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM AND BE SEPARATE,’ says the Lord….

Do not be bound to unbelievers. For what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and the Devil? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” 2 Corinthians 6:14-17.

Come out from among them. Be separate. Do not be a friend of the world.

Re-read James 4:4 above and ask God to stop you from seeking friendship with the world. Pray for the DISCERNMENT of spirits so you can know truth from lies and then walk in the truth.

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IF WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE, THEN WHY ARE THERE SO MANY LAWS? Galatians 3:24.

How many laws are there in America? One thousand? Ten thousand? One hundred thousand? The truth is, no one knows. In 2013, a Senior Legal Research Specialist with the Library of Congress wrote that “trying to tally the number” of federal laws “is nearly impossible.” [1]

The laws governing life in ancient Israel were also numerous. Many laws were created by rabbis as part of an oral tradition later codified in the Talmud. But the laws given by Moses—laws actually written down in the Old Testament—CAN be numbered.

When you read the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it can seem like the law goes on forever. But the actual number of Old Testament laws is 613.

Honestly, that is still a pretty high number isn’t it? Why so many? Because God was removing an oppressed people from slavery in Egypt, giving them a new land, and training them to govern themselves.

The law teaches the people how to prepare sanitary food, maintain health and hygiene, raise families, educate children, exercise religion, cooperate with neighbors, conduct business, mediate conflicts, prosecute criminals, maintain healthy cities, and defend the nation. But most importantly, the Old Testament law taught the Jewish people how to have a relationship with God. It taught them to know right from wrong.

But the law did not save anyone. The law COULD NOT save anyone.

Paul explained that “no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith” Galatians 3:11. “We who are Jews … KNOW that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” Galatians 2:15-16. This was not a new concept, but was stated in the Old Testament: “The scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and told the GOOD NEWS ahead of time to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed because of you” Galatians 3:8.

But why is justification by faith good news? Wouldn’t it be easier to be justified or saved by doing good works? After all, people want to DO SOMETHING. That gives us security. We want God to give us a holy TO-DO List so we can check the box as we complete each task. Wouldn’t that be easier? No. Because you would never complete the list. It would be an impossible list. Box number one would say: “Always obey all 613 Old Testament laws” and you would fail. Box two might say: “Never have hatred, jealousy, or pride in your heart” and you would give up. Box three might say: “Always flee lust” and you would realize your soul is doomed.

The good news is, we are justified by faith.

But if we are saved by faith, why did God give us the law? Why do children and young Christians spend so much energy on rules, sometimes obsessing over them to the point of legalism? Because the law is a valuable teacher.

“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” Galatians 3:24. We need the law to humble us and to reveal our sins and our sinfulness. Attempting to perfectly obey God’s laws proves to us that we cannot perfectly obey. We will never be holy by following the law because we can’t follow the law. But what we can do is learn from the law.

The law is our teacher, teaching us right from wrong and teaching us that we need a Savior to cleanse our sins and transform our hearts.

A personal word: as a young Christian finishing high school and beginning college, I became quite legalistic. For several years, I was obsessively focused on Christian disciplines such as having a quiet time every day, reading my Bible every day, memorizing Bible verses, praying with a written prayer list, and sharing my faith whenever possible.

Then, just about the time my compulsive habits became burdensome, God changed everything by teaching me about GRACE. The book of Galatians and other letters of Paul were a big part of that. Surprisingly, no book made a bigger impact on my discovery of grace than Ecclesiastes, a book that says study is burdensome, we should eat and drink and tell ourselves our labor is good, and we should remember our Creator every day.

All of the Christian disciplines are important—and time spent studying the Word will ALWAYS pay off. But WALK IN GRACE. Walk with Jesus. Enjoy Him. Relax a bit and rejoice in the beauty of the world around you. Thank Him for His blessings and thank Him that you do not have to earn salvation.

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[1] https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/03/frequent-reference-question-how-many-federal-laws-are-there/

The Demons Also Believe. James 2:19.

Does belief save you? Is it enough to know Jesus died for you? Is believing He died to take away your sins the same as placing your faith in Jesus? Consider:

“A man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue. He cried out, ‘What do you have to do with us, Jesus? Have you come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’

But Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit convulsed him, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him…. But He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him” Mark 1:23-26, 34.

“Demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But He would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah” Luke 4:41.

As His ministry began, Jesus cast demons out of many people—and every time He had to shut them up. It was too early to have anyone calling Him “the Holy One of God.” He was the Son of God and the demons knew it. But it was not yet time to upset the powers-that-be with talk of a man claiming to be God. That time would come, but not for another three years.

(*Plus, who wants demons on the marketing team? Jesus chose John the Baptist as His publicist.)

On the question of belief, James writes: “You believe that God is One. You do well. But the demons also believe, and they tremble.” James 2:19. THE DEMONS ALSO BELIEVE. They knew EXACTLY Who Jesus was—and it terrified them because one day He would destroy them.

Thus, accurate belief or “head knowledge” is not enough! If you were drowning and saw a life boat (pictured), BELIEVING it could save you is only the first step. You must CLIMB ABOARD. Salvation is belief plus action: we must place our life in the hands of Jesus. Correct belief by itself is not enough.

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