Dr. Couch, are we saved by law-keeping? I find some still saying that we are.
ANSWER: The issue of law-keeping continues to raise its ugly head as it did in the apostolic times. People just want to do something to help God along in salvation, or, in the sanctification process in the daily Christian life. But the Lord is not interested!
While keeping the law and doing sacrifices was commanded in the OT, still what God really wanted was the heart of a person. The fact that the Jews failed in law-keeping proved their helplessness which would in time drive them to repentance, let them see their moral failures, and cause them to wait for the coming of Christ who would bring finality to the issue of sin.
The sacrificial system was the central component to the law. And on that God said in Isaiah 1:11: "'What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?' says the Lord. 'I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.'" And the Lord adds in Hosea 6:6: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
At the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, Peter reminded the apostles and the elders listening to him that salvation is by faith and that they, nor the fathers of Israel, could keep the law - especially for salvation! "Our fathers were not able to bear" the law (v. 10), thus "we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they (the Gentiles) are also" saved (v. 11). The law was a yoke around their necks (v. 10).
Read also Romans 3:19-31; Galatians 3:22-29; 4:4-5.
In the Philippian epistle, after Paul had rehearsed his life of piety before he was saved, and after saying he had lived blameless in law-keeping (Phil. 3:6), he concludes concerning his new life: "That I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (vv. 8b-9).
Finally, the apostle makes it clear that we are neither saved nor sanctified in the Christian life by law-keeping but by faith alone (Gal. 3:1-5).
The "law thing" will never end until people quite inserting the flesh into the Christian life. We are saved by faith, and, we are to walk by faith!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
ANSWER: The issue of law-keeping continues to raise its ugly head as it did in the apostolic times. People just want to do something to help God along in salvation, or, in the sanctification process in the daily Christian life. But the Lord is not interested!
While keeping the law and doing sacrifices was commanded in the OT, still what God really wanted was the heart of a person. The fact that the Jews failed in law-keeping proved their helplessness which would in time drive them to repentance, let them see their moral failures, and cause them to wait for the coming of Christ who would bring finality to the issue of sin.
The sacrificial system was the central component to the law. And on that God said in Isaiah 1:11: "'What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?' says the Lord. 'I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.'" And the Lord adds in Hosea 6:6: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
At the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, Peter reminded the apostles and the elders listening to him that salvation is by faith and that they, nor the fathers of Israel, could keep the law - especially for salvation! "Our fathers were not able to bear" the law (v. 10), thus "we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they (the Gentiles) are also" saved (v. 11). The law was a yoke around their necks (v. 10).
Read also Romans 3:19-31; Galatians 3:22-29; 4:4-5.
In the Philippian epistle, after Paul had rehearsed his life of piety before he was saved, and after saying he had lived blameless in law-keeping (Phil. 3:6), he concludes concerning his new life: "That I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (vv. 8b-9).
Finally, the apostle makes it clear that we are neither saved nor sanctified in the Christian life by law-keeping but by faith alone (Gal. 3:1-5).
The "law thing" will never end until people quite inserting the flesh into the Christian life. We are saved by faith, and, we are to walk by faith!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
