Knowing Christ: From Legalism to Life in Grace

The word of God comes like incorruptible seed, alive and full of power, sent by God to nourish, stabilize, heal, and make a heart fruitful. The enemy attacks communication because warfare is won when words get corrupted, intercepted, or twisted. The flesh is dumb, just plain dumb, because it pushes away the very word that gives life and keeps wanting the junk that kills, addicts, and beats a person down.

Grace does not talk like the law. The law is man centered and keeps saying, “You have to do this,” but grace is Jesus centered and points to what he has already done. The law disqualifies by disobedience, but grace qualifies by Jesus’ obedience. The law makes a person chase acceptance, while grace announces that God loved the rascal first and gave the Son before any performance could impress him.

Paul in Philippians 3 counts all former gain as loss because Christ is worth more than every religious credential. His old Pharisee righteousness becomes rubbish because it came from the law, not from faith. The righteousness from God by faith brings a person near enough to know him. The whole point is “that I may know him,” not that a person may keep jumping through religious hoops and never arrive.

The little word “in” carries the weight of the gospel. Paul says believers are found in him, in Christ, in the Lord, in the Spirit. Christ is the champion, the victor, life, peace, provision, holiness, and glory, and the believer is not standing outside trying to get in. The believer is in him and has to get the mind renewed enough to see it.

The old religious spirit looks holy, talks Scripture, prays long, and still calls God the devil when God stands in front of it. Jesus exposes that hypocrisy because it is a mask, a wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothes. Sin is not small, because it took the Son of God to the cross, and Jesus uses extreme language to wake people up from playing with death.

The believer’s old man died with Christ, was buried with Christ, and was raised into newness. The battle sits in the mind, where the enemy says quit, where the flesh says it is tired, and where old limits try to shut down the huge life of God carried in the spirit. The Spirit calls the Christian to press on, forget what is behind, seek things above, and lay hold of the reason Christ laid hold of him.

The blood of Jesus declares worth, because worth is defined by what someone was willing to pay. Communion remembers the broken body and shed blood that brought access, healing, forgiveness, cancellation of penalty, and daily relationship with him.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Grace rests on Jesus’ obedience. [01:13:42] The law measures a person by personal performance, and that scale only exposes failure. Grace measures the believer by Christ’s finished obedience, which means acceptance begins with his work, not human effort. Good works still matter, but they flow from sonship instead of trying to purchase it. [73:42]
• 2. The flesh loves what kills. [01:10:01] The flesh pushes away the word that gives life and reaches for what wounds the soul. That contradiction is not harmless weakness, because it shows how deeply unrenewed thinking can crave its own destruction. The believer needs the word of God not as religious information, but as the living seed that grows a different appetite. [70:01]
• 3. In Christ means real location. [01:38:15] Paul’s “in him” language is not decorative church talk. It names the believer’s actual position in the Champion, the One who has victory, peace, provision, holiness, and life. Faith begins to work differently when the Christian stops thinking like an outsider trying to get close and starts thinking like one already placed in Christ. [98:15]
• 4. Religion can hide dead bones. [01:43:21] The Pharisee spirit can act holy, quote Scripture, and still resist God when he comes near. Hypocrisy is a mask, and Jesus tears it off because religious performance can keep a person from truly knowing him. The danger is not merely bad behavior, but a false holiness that calls legal control righteousness. [103:21]
• 5. Communion honors finished access. [02:02:54] The bread and cup are not hoops to jump through or ceremonies to earn nearness. The broken body and shed blood announce that Christ already brought the believer near. Communion becomes weighty when it recognizes healing, forgiveness, covenant, and the open door to know him better tomorrow than today. [122:54]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [68:14] - Hearing God’s Word in Warfare
• [71:12] - Law, Grace, and Legalism
• [73:42] - Qualified by Jesus’ Obedience
• [76:51] - Inheritance, Not Earned Wages
• [80:53] - Seeing Through a Glass Darkly
• [83:07] - Resurrection and the Mortal Body
• [85:32] - Mind Limits and Spiritual Potential
• [91:40] - Co-Crucified and Made New
• [93:57] - Philippians 3 and Counting Loss
• [98:15] - Found In Him
• [103:21] - Religion, Hypocrisy, and Sin
• [110:43] - Life Is In Christ
• [117:58] - Communion and Daily Relationship
• [130:01] - The Broken Body and Blood

Bible Reading

Philippians 3:7-9
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” [01:33:57]

John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” [01:50:43]

Romans 6:4
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” [01:21:13]

Observation questions

1. In Philippians 3:7-9, what does Paul say he counted as loss, and what did he want instead of a righteousness of his own? [01:33:57]
2. In John 15:5, what picture does Jesus use to describe the relationship between himself and believers, and what does he say happens apart from him? [01:50:43]
3. What repeated phrase in Philippians 3 stood out—“in him,” “in Christ,” “in the Lord”—and what did that language show about a believer’s position? [01:38:15]
4. According to Romans 6:4 and the message around it, what happened to the old man, and what kind of life are believers raised to walk in? [01:31:55]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says the goal is to “gain Christ” and “be found in him.” What does that suggest about the difference between merely being religious and actually knowing the Lord? [01:49:13]
2. If grace is centered on what Jesus has done, while law is centered on what a person must do, how does that change the way a believer thinks about prayer, obedience, and good works? [01:11:56]
3. Jesus says that apart from him believers can do nothing. How does that challenge the idea that a person can produce spiritual fruit by effort alone? [01:50:43]
4. If believers were buried with Christ and raised into newness of life, why does the battle still show up so strongly in the mind? What does that reveal about the need for the mind to be renewed? [01:30:13]

Application questions

1. The Word of God gives life, but the flesh still reaches for what kills. Where has that tension shown up most clearly lately—in thought patterns, entertainment, habits, relationships, or something else? What would it look like to open the heart again to the living seed of God’s Word there? [01:10:01]
2. Grace says acceptance begins with Jesus’ obedience, not personal performance. Where is there still a tendency to think, “If I pray more, do better, or clean myself up, then God will finally warm up toward me”? [01:13:42]
3. Believers are not outsiders trying to get close; they are already in Christ. In what part of life is there still a tendency to think like someone standing outside—unworthy, far off, or trying to earn a place? [01:40:23]
4. The old man died with Christ, but old patterns can still try to speak loudly. What old label, old failure, or old voice keeps trying to define the present, and what would it look like to answer it with newness of life? [01:32:15]
5. The enemy works hard in the mind to get a person to quit. What kind of thoughts have been the most draining lately—discouragement, fear, shame, weariness, accusation—and how can those be confronted before they settle in? [01:30:32]
6. Paul says, “one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward.” What is one specific thing from the past that needs to be left behind so there can be a stronger pressing on toward Christ? [01:55:13]
7. Communion remembers that the broken body and shed blood already brought believers near. How can that truth shape this week’s daily relationship with Jesus so that it becomes more than a ceremony or church moment? [02:03:17]