Keeping The Law
Catechism • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsDue to sin, we are completely unable to keep the law of God. This means we need a savior. That Savior is Jesus Christ.
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Can anyone keep the law of God perfectly?
Can anyone keep the law of God perfectly?
Since the fall, no mere human has been able to keep the law of God perfectly, but consistently breaks it in thought, word, and deed.
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Romans 3:1-
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
Jeremiah
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Remember that this particular verse is just a short time after God says in
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
So, what happened?
So, what happened?
The Fall happened.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve chose a way apart from God.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve chose a way apart from God.
We became enslaved to sin just as the bible tells us in
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
John
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Romans 6:
Did God create us unable to keep his law?
Did God create us unable to keep his law?
No, but because of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all of creation is fallen; we are all born in sin and guilt, corrupt in our nature and unable to keep God’s law.
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
The answer is NO!
The answer is NO!
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
The Atom/Adam Example
The Atom/Adam Example
Instead of the proton, neutron, electron and nucleus of the atom. I want us to take a look at the trinity. Imagine the nucleus as the attributes of God that we all know.
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
His Love, Goodness, Kindness, Strength, Mercy, Grace, ETC.
The Neutron is now the Father, The Electron is now the Son and the Proton is now the Spirit.
Each revolves around each other continually. Each finds is total happiness, joy and fulfillment in itself and each other. Each, together, make up the Atom/GodHead.
All parts are distinct but all together are God.
One God, Three persons. The Trinity.
We were created in the image of this God.
We were created in the image of this God.
For us to find true happiness and fulfillment, we must revolve around God.
Much like the individual persons of the trinity revolve around their essential core experiencing peace, joy and love.
However, Adam chose to revolve around himself.
However, Adam chose to revolve around himself.
It is not that we do not choose to orbit ourselves around God, it is that the distance is such that we cannot do so. Like two same polar magnets. We push away, not draw together.
Being a parent is a wide-open window into the human condition. For example, I’m constantly having to remind and encourage and cajole my young children to say “please” and “thank you” and to share.
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Two natures-Lion example
Two natures-Lion example
Let’s say you take a hungry lion in the wild. You lay two plates in front of him. One has red raw meat on it and the other has fresh steamed vegetables on it. Which will he choose? Because of his nature, he will of course choose the meat. Why? because he is a lion.
Now picture us in the same picture. Except that our plates now have ourselves/sin on one and the Lord on the other. Which do we choose? According to scripture we will always choose ourselves, our own orbit, our sin.
But I never have to encourage them to say “mine!” or to grab things that don’t belong to them or to hoard toys from one another. Now where does this self-centered impulse come from? The Bible is helpful here because it gives us a vocabulary to talk about why we seem to be born with this self-centered disposition. You see, we’re told that when God created Adam and Eve, he created them in his image. That means, among other things, that they reflected his goodness.
However, the heart of man is so twisted and consumed with itself that we keep repeatedly choosing our own orbit rather than that of God.
The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Remember
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Our orbit does not even come close to God unless He brings it close. That is at least part of why scripture tells us He came to dwell among us and not we came to dwell among Him.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Something had to change the polarization.
Something had to change the polarization.
Something had to make it possible for us to be attracted and accepted by God.
Something had to make it possible for us to be attracted and accepted by God.
To overcome ourselves. To reconcile us to God.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 2
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Ephesians
It was not enough to simply make the old one better. We needed be made new.
New person
New heart
New orbit.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
We cannot fulfill the law of God.
We cannot fulfill the law of God.
However, we can trust in the one who has.
Who draws us unto himself.
Who delivers us by His sacrifice and blood.
Who now is making intercession on our behalf.
Jesus the Christ. Our Good and Great Savior!
Jesus the Christ. Our Good and Great Savior!