Faith Over Law: The Path to Righteousness

The Apostle takes up the whole question of the position and the condition of the Jews he by the end of chapter 8 had outlined the great plan and sche and purpose of Salvation and had shown it in all its fullness but a question seemed to arise if salvation is the result of God's purpose well then what about the Jews because clearly they had been brought into being as a part of the purpose of God and yet nothing was more evident at that time than the fact that the Jews were rejecting the gospel and the Gentiles on the other end seem to be receiving it with alacrity and crowding into the kingdom of God. [00:02:40]

The mistake was of course to assume that it was God's purpose to save everybody who belonged to Israel that was the Cardinal error so he puts it in that great statement that they are not all in Israel that are of Israel there was an Israel within Israel and it was only this peculiar Israel that God had ever purposed to save and he done so throughout the centuries and he was still doing so that leads him to say this that salvation is entirely a matter of God's free Sovereign Choice. [00:03:50]

The Jews had entirely misunderstood the way of Salvation they had misunderstood the law and its object and its purpose and clinging to the law and trying to establish their own righteousness by the law they were altogether wrong and their outside salvation it was that action on their part that is responsible for it this stumbling at that particular stumbling Stone so I suggested that chapter 10 is in a sense a parenthesis in which the Apostle expounds and explains more fully this tragic error on the part of the Jew. [00:06:19]

They have a Zeal of God yes but in a sense that's the whole cause of their tragedy and their downfall they have a Zeal of God but it is not according to knowledge and you remember we work that out there's nothing more fatal than to trust to Zeal Zeal is a wonderful thing as long as it is Guided by knowledge and by understanding but if it doesn't it can lead to fanaticism which can make havoc in the church and elsewhere and it can lead to this sort of blindness that Afflicted the Jews. [00:08:36]

They were ignorant of what God demands they were ignorant of the sort of righteousness in which God is interested and which he demands of his people secondly they were ignorant of their own inability because here they are going about to establish their own righteousness trusting to themselves making this great effort going about to establish their own righteousness and thirdly and most serious of all because of that they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. [00:09:39]

He really wants to establish this so he does it by making a kind of comparison and contrast between the law and the gospel as ways of righteousness and of Salvation Moses describeth righteousness which is of the law like this but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise you see there's his compass in verse five he puts up what the law says in verse six he puts up what the righteousness of Faith say. [00:11:04]

The question is as urgent tonight and as important tonight as it has ever been you see this is the great question of course that came again into the center into such prominence at the Protestant Reformation it was the thing that made the Reformation this Doctrine had been hidden covered over for so many centuries by the western church the Roman Catholic Church Eastern Church so-called Orthodox Church in exactly the same way but Luther suddenly had his eyes open here he discovers this great thing that just shall live by faith. [00:12:49]

If you have a tendency to feel when you happen to fall into sin if you have a feeling that you're not a Christian at all and have never been because of that sin well then you're still thinking in terms of justification by works if you can be filled with doubt when you fall into sin like that or something else happens to you any kind of uncertainty about it because of some inadequacy or deficiency in yourself if that makes you doubt whether you're a Christian at all you are just confessing that you've reverted to think in terms of justification by works. [00:17:13]

The Apostle wants to nail this matter and to settle it once and forever so he takes it up like this now then he says come along you people who want to justify Yourself by works very well he says let's consider the position Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law in this way that the man which doeth those things shall live by them now here's a great statement he says Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law. [00:18:04]

The trouble with people who resent the doctrine of justification by faith only the trouble with people who think that they can make themselves Christian or that they become Christian and are Christian as the result of their good lives or good thoughts or anything else the trouble with them really is that they have never realized what they have to do that's the whole of their trouble as I'm going to show you that was the whole of the trouble with the Jews and the first point of course which we make is this it is God who decides what we've got to do not us. [00:20:39]

The law was never meant to be a way of Salvation the law was given that men might be condemned the Apostle has already told us that he told us that in chapter 4 he says the law worketh rough for where no law is there is no transgression he says the same thing in chapter 3:20 therefore by the Deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin it was never meant to save it was never meant but to bring the knowledge to pinpoint it to to produce the idea of a transgression to establish guilt that's its one and only purpose. [00:42:12]

The moment people realize the truth about God's law they stop thinking that they can justify themselves or put themselves right before God do you want to know what the law is like well listen to this here it is given in a description by the author of The epistle to the Hebrews he puts it in tremendous terms you he says are not come to the mount that might be touched this is the giving of the law of God and that burned with fire nor ENT Blackness and darkness and Tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of Words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken unto them anymore. [00:43:47]