God's Grace & Commandment-Keeping #6

Fred R. Coulter—May 8, 2010

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Greetings, brethren! We've been fighting for years and years, as a matter of fact all the time I've been in the ministry, concerning law and grace and that's a topic of Protestantism from end to the other. So we need to understand it in the way that God wants us to and to understand the writings of the Apostle Paul in the way that God wants us to and in the way that he wrote them.

Let's come to Romans 3. Now in some of these things there's going to be a little review, because we need to understand. Let me just mention this, it's important, too—put that in your notes and in Jer. 23—God says to the false prophets of Baal, though He didn't send them, though He didn't authorize them to speak in His name, He said that 'if they would teach My people My Word,' then God would honor that. Now I'm paraphrasing it. It doesn't say it quite exactly that way.

But also Psa. 138 says that God has exalted His word above His name. So all 'sacred namers' need to listen up to that, because if your heart is not right and you don't worship God 'in spirit and truth,' it doesn't matter what the name is in the Old Testament, even if the Jews really knew how to pronounce it. I don't think any of us know how to really pronounce it. As I gave in a recent sermon, that Jesus revealed that the name of God was the Father and we're to be in a relationship with Him. So you listen to that one again. It has to do with now how God works with us, with His Spirit, and His plan, and His purpose, and what He wants done with us that He is going to do.

Also there's a perversity in human nature that is just almost incurable, which is this: men think that they can improve on the Word of God. And they think—and this is true of so many people, this is why in going through and doing the Bible—which goes back well over twenty years now; not that I intended to do the Bible twenty years ago—in understanding the Truth of the New Testament many of you will remember when I first started I was doing study translations because we were going to study the Bible. Even in this small group this amount of people was the number who were in the Church. We had about twenty on the mailing list at that time. Well, now we have over two thousand on the mailing list and many people are sharing the CD's with others, so there are many, many more people listening. Plus we have about 35,000 people a month come onto the website to use it and we have an almost ten minute average stay of someone coming on the website.

In addition to it, we've been putting recently now—and we're getting the number up there pretty good—all the back videos that I have done through the years, even clear back to 1985, when I did my very first test video; it was about twenty-five minutes long…. Aaron Dell did it and he got the first VHS camera, where you put in the VHS tape right into the camera. This was a fantastic advance. Now, this is being recorded on a video camera, the video camera you can hold in your hand like this, and it's being recorded on a little chip. What's it going to be in five years? Who knows! We have 4,000 downloads or streaming viewing of those back videos per month. That's in addition to those coming on the website. Many of these things are going out there.

Let's also understand something very important concerning Jesus' ministry—as I gave a sermon on here some time not too long ago—that God manifested in the flesh Jesus Christ, bringing the Truth of God, the world could only tolerate Him for three and a half years. So we need to understand that. That goes right back to the same problem that we started talking about that men have a disease, or mental sickness, it's actually called blindness. If you're mentally blind, it is a mental disease, or we could put in there, it's part of the 'law of sin and death' that is within us, that we like to think we are good and we like to come to God and tell God what He's going to do. Shall the created say to the Creator, 'What are you doing? I don't like what You're doing. Now, God, You need to do it a little different way.'

So let's come here to Romans 3 and let's look how Paul handles this situation. Before we get there, just one thing to finish off the statement concerning the preachers and worldly Christianity. The more they teach of the Word of God, the more that the people have understanding. But when they say, 'Do you accept Jesus?' they get them to take the first step. Maybe there's another step beyond that, but then there comes the barrier of the blindness. So that they can feel good and because as much as they follow of the Word of God, they can do good; a lot of them have a lot of good works that they do. They feed the poor, they house the homeless, they take care of the widows, but that does not equate unto spiritual salvation the way that God teaches. And it doesn't equate to the work as we started out on this series, God's Grace and Commandment-Keeping, where God is creating in us, through His Spirit, His character.

What we're talking about is completely separate from what Protestantism would do or think. That's why, right now, it's falling apart almost everywhere. Because we're all judged according to our works, even those of us now. Peter said that 'judgment is now upon the house of God and if the righteous are saved with difficulty, where will the sinner and ungodly be.' So we're dealing with quite few things that appear to be great difficulties. People will say, 'Well, how can all those people be wrong when they intend to do so much good?' Granted, they do a lot of good—but are those salvational things?

We've covered part of this, but we need to really understand. We're going to go through some things, Romans 3, 4 & 5, so that we know exactly what Paul is talking about. Romans 3:1: "What then is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?"

Romans 2:25. He's talking of the Jews. "For on the one hand, circumcision profits if you are observing the law... [Now how you going to get around that?] ...on the other hand, if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." And, boy, down at the OK Corral, 'them are fightin' words' with the Jews.

I've seen this happen ninety-nine percent of the time, that the Jews have bought the thing that they are special and chosen. So the first thing you do when you meet a Jew is, they say, 'I'm a Jew.' I wrote back one woman and I said, 'What profit is that to you if you are a Jew, unless you yield to God?' Become uncircumcision. Why is this such a very dagger in the heart to those who are Jews? When you get the book on Judaism that we're going to publish, you will find that the Jews in reality in their teaching are the most racist of all people on earth. The Muslims call them pigs and swine. That's what they say of the Jews. But what do the Jews say of other people? You'll be surprised when you read it.

What is happening here when it says "…your circumcision has become uncircumcision…. [it's like saying you're no better than a filthy dog.] …Therefore, if the uncircumcised... [The filthy dogs that you don't care about.] ...is keeping the requirements of the law... [And how many people say, 'Well, we're gentiles.' Gentiles are supposed to be uncircumcised—right? Yes! Now why does he say they're keeping the requirements of the law, when all of those who say, 'We're Gentiles today and we don't have to keep the law. That was for the Jews.' How can that be? Notice what standing this puts the Gentile in God's eyes, just like where we started. If the ministers of Baal 'would teach My people My Word, I'll honor it.'] (Likewise, if the uncircumcision): …is keeping the requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?" (vs 25-26). That's why God honors His Word.

The whole thrust of where we're going in all of this is that we keep the laws and commandments of God today with His Spirit through grace. It's not separate from grace, it's through grace, and we'll see that. Verse 27: "And shall not the uncircumcised, who by nature is fulfilling the law... [we have requirements of the law, fulfilling the law] ...judge you, who... [are judging others] ...with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is external in the flesh; rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God" (vs 27-29).

So that tells us an awful lot—doesn't it? Now hold your place right here because he comes to a point in Romans 7 that references back there. Now it's important to realize that Romans 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 and are all one continuous explanation of

• justification
• forgiveness of sin
• commandment keeping
• faith
• grace

So you can't come in here and fight one Scripture with another, which is a tactic that many religionists use. Now we're go through this in greater detail, but most people do not understand Rom. 7, because they think it's talking about the law of God when it's referring mainly to the law of marriage of the Old Covenant. Then talking about Christ Who died to end that marriage law.

Romans 7:6: "But now we have been released from the law... [That is the marriage law he's talking about (vs 1-5).] ...because we have died to that in which we were held so that we might serve in newness of the spirit... [Now the phrase 'died to the law,' means that covenant that God had with Israel ended. Because he says as long as you're married to a husband, if you marry someone else, you're an adulteress, but if the husband be dead, then you're released from that law. So that's what he's talking about here.] ...so that we might serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What then shall we say? Is the law sin? MAY IT NEVER BE!" (vs 6-7). Now we'll talk about what the Spirit of God does with us with the law of God.

Come back here and read Romans 2:29 again. "Rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter... [So that's exactly what it's talking back there in Rom. 7.] ...whose praise is not from men but from God."

Let's come to Romans 8 to show you the end result of what we are talking about here. This is a summary of everything he wrote up to this point. Romans 8:3: "For what was impossible for the law to do... [the law can't make anyone do anything, you have to choose to do it] ...in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh... [Now I want you to understand: He did not condemn commandment keeping in the flesh, He condemned sin. We'll talk about how we are released from sin. That's on an ongoing basis.] ...in order that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (vs 3-4). Meaning, if you're 'walking according to the Spirit,' you must have the Spirit of God. If you are going to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in you, the only way you're going to do that is with the Spirit of God, with the spiritual intent through the grace of God. And it's not just what the words say as a set rule in the letter, it's what they are in our hearts and minds spiritually with the Spirit of God. So you have to tie everything together in this section of Romans. This is why I'm going through it and repeating some of this and then bringing out some of the things in a little different way.

The question is: Romans 2:29—when he's referring to a Jew, was he talking about God-fearers as those who were attending the synagogue? Not necessarily! He is talking about the problem of the Jews who have said, 'We are the chosen people. We are the lawgivers.' They forget Gen. 49 where it says that Judah would be lawgiver until Shiloh came—Christ was Shiloh! The Jews are no longer law givers. All you have to do is understand Judaism to realize that. So this is a first century distinction, because the Jews would say, 'We have God,' when they didn't. And 'You Gentiles do not have God.'

What he's doing, this is really quite taking your thumb and going like this toward what the Jews have thought. Or you could put it another way, as God says there in Jer. 23, 'Is not My Word like a hammer and smashes in pieces?' It's exactly what he's doing here.

So then he says, 'Okay,' after he smashed them and got them down and condemned them, and said, 'Your righteousness really is not what God wants.' Then he asked the question, Romans 3:1: "What then is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. Primarily, in that they were entrusted with the oracles of God" (vs 1-2). That is within the Jewish community. In the Jewish community you had those of Judah, those of Benjamin, and many from Levi. And it was the Levites within the Jewish community who were entrusted to the Word of God, not the Jews from Judah. Because what did they do? They created Judaism, which put a fence around God's Word.
Verse 3: "For what if some did not believe?.… [Isn't that something? How many have the Word of God and don't believe it? So there are many that fit into that category today—right?] ...Shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God?" No!

• God is always true.
• God is always right.
• God is always good.
• God is going to carry out His Word.
• God is not ever going to be unfaithful in anything.

"MAY IT NEVER BE!.… [And you go through the book of Romans here and the reason I translated that and wrote it all in caps is because it comes from the Greek 'me ginoito,' which means 'don't let this thought come to mind.' It has nothing to do with as the King James says 'God forbid.' That was an interpretation] …'MAY IT NEVER BE!'…. [As a matter of fact, on several of the reviews we got a good review on translating it that way, because that's what it means. Now you can just go through all the verses through Rom. 8 and you will see where Paul is saying this. This then becomes very, very powerful for Paul to do it this way. In the book of Romans it has 'MAY IT NEVER BE!' more times than in any other book. So this tells us how important it is.] ...MAY IT NEVER BE! Rather, let God be true but every man a liar, exactly as it is written..." (v 4). So here he broaches the problem that we started out with, which is: men want to improve on God, even though they're inherently sinners. So how can inherent sinners improve upon God Who is perfect and does not sin? Never asked that question—right?

"'…That You might be justified... [Now I pondered over this many, many times in making the translation here, but this is the correct translation.] ...That You [God] might be justified in Your words, and might overcome when You are being judged by men'" (v 4). Now this is present-tense passive, referring to you. It isn't when God judges, it's when men are judging God. And do men do this all the time? Certainly!

You start talking to some people who are religious and you say, 'Well, you ought to keep the Sabbath.' 'Well, I know the Bible says that, but we meet every Sunday.' Just improved on the Word of God. 'Well, God says you shall not commit adultery.' Other people will say, 'Unless it just happens to work out that way.' God says, 'You shall not steal.' 'Unless it just happens to fall in my hand.' Whatever. God says, 'You shall not make idols.' 'Oh, but I've gotta have my cross.' Catholics are kind of stuck, because they had St. Joseph, and they had the little idol of Saint Joseph that they had on their rosary beads and they put that over the rear view mirror in the car and this was to protect them from accidents. I wonder what the highway patrol thought every time they came to a car that was in an accident that had St. Joseph hanging on these beads. Superstition! They can't trust God enough to say, 'Lord, protect me, place Your angels about me.' 'I've gotta have this little statue here.' But what happened, the Roman Catholic Church in modernizing eliminated St. Joseph as the protector of people. Now what are you going to do?

Verse 5: "But if our unrighteousness brings to reality God's righteousness, what shall we say?... [And it does—doesn't it?] ...Is God unrighteous to inflict His wrath?…. [There's a lot of wrath coming. A lot of people are going to say He's unrighteous, because it's going to be an upheaval of this earth and a slaughter of everything, such as never been in the history of the whole world. People don't understand what men have been doing under the power of Satan the devil to destroy and ruin this world and the human beings.] ...(I am speaking according to man's view.) MAY IT NEVER BE! Otherwise, how shall God judge the world?…. [because God judges the world.] …For if, by my falsehood, the Truth of God has shown itself to be supremely great, to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner?" (vs 5-7).

Because it was exactly the same thing that we find today. 'If you have grace, then you don't need to keep God's law.' And that's what they were saying about Paul. Remember what happened when he came back there—and that's also interesting there in the book of Acts (I think it's Acts 21), when he came back and the circumcision party said, 'Now, Paul, you're here, and so we need to need to solve a political difficulty, because they're saying you're telling the Jews they don't have to circumcise their children out there in the Diaspora. But now that you're here in Jerusalem, why don't you be a charges for those who've taken a vow, so that everyone will know that you're not against the law' What happened? That thing completely backfired—right? Another good lesson, you can never solve spiritual problems with political means. Not going to happen.]

"But not, according as we are being blasphemously charged, and according as some are affirming that we say, 'let us practice evil things in order that good things may come.' Their condemnation is deserved" (v 8).

Come to Romans 6:1. "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? MAY IT NEVER BE! We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?" (vs 1-2). And that's the whole purpose of baptism. Sin is what? Transgression of the law! In the broader sense, sin is lawlessness. Now there are two kinds of lawlessness:

• Elimination of law altogether (as practiced by this administration and this government when they want to come after you.)
• The lawlessness that it's talking about here in the Bible is the lawlessness of this world's religion, called the mystery of lawlessness.

And the lawlessness means substituting the commandments of God for the commandments of men. That is lawlessness! Now what did Jesus say would happen when He spoke of the prophecies the end time in Mat. 24? 'Because lawlessness shall be multiplied, the love of many shall grow cold.' Romans 3:8: "Let us practice evil things in order that good things may come."

Now we can apply this to how many things? What is evil? Transgression of the laws of God!—correct? Most people like to embrace six of them and if the last six are good, the way they divide them, what about the first four? Is it not an evil thing to have another God and say, 'Let's practice good.' Don't you think when they came to all these pagan celebrations with Diana and Zeus and they had their choirs and they had their orchestras with it, and they sang praises to these false gods—don't you think they felt good? But how is that in God's sight? That's evil—right?

Now the Jews are saying, 'Hey, you're telling people don't keep the traditions of the elders, that's evil.' No, God says that's good, keep Mine, not theirs. 'Let us practice evil things that good things may come.' We have the same thing with Sunday keeping—don't we? Christmas, Easter, New Years—right? 'Oh, it's good. Oh, Christmas is a wonderful time.' Yeah, Satan has designed it that way, so you can have fun. Yes! 'Oh, let's get the children and the family involved, isn't that wonderful, a wonderful time.' As a matter of fact they have a song that they play that helps brainwash everyone when they're shopping. I know I was out shopping during that time, and it was, 'Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year.' Well, it's based on many, many lies. All you have to do is just say, 'Okay, add up the lies, and if you can make good come out the lies, you're deceived, because it can't.' Now you may have an emotional feeling because your family is involved, but how can something be good that's based on lies?

He says: "Their condemnation is deserved. What then? Are we of ourselves better?.… [I think I'll remember that verse next time someone says, 'I'm a Jew.'] ...Not at all! For we have already charged both Jews and Gentiles—ALL—with being under sin... [And we're also going to see in a little bit, that all are under law. This we need to understand.] ...ALL—with being under sin, exactly as it is written: 'For there is not a righteous one—not even one! There is not one who understands; there is not one who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; together they have all become depraved.... [Boy, can you imagine getting up in front of Congress and telling them that, have the President sit there and someone give the state of the nation to the President? Yes!] ...There is not even one who is practicing kindness. No, there is not so much as one!'" (vs 8-12).

Now there are some people who do kind things, but when you get down to the end result of it, let's look at the outpouring of kindness that we have given to Haiti. Ninety percent of all the donations go to administrative costs, so is that kindness good or evil? I'll let you judge that.

Verse 13. Now here it's talking about the coming campaigns for President and Congress. "'Their throats are like an open grave; with their tongues they have used deceit; the venom of asps is under their lips, whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood'" (vs 13-15). Now there was a clip on the news, I don't know if it's still available—I'll see if maybe Randy can find it, because he can do a search—remember when the Waco thing came up when they had David Koresh, they were Seventh Day Adventists. Yeah, they had some kooky ideas, but they didn't have any guns and they weren't doing any harm. But there were those in Texas who were absolutely—and in Congress, in the hearings—saying, 'Get those dirty BBB.' If you can get that clip, that'll be very instructive. So then Janet Reno said, 'Go get 'em.' So against these innocent people, what did they have? Tanks, flame-throwers—there's much more to the whole thing. So they burned them all to a crisp. Now they weren't hurting anybody.

"'Their feet are swift to shed blood... [You can apply to crime, to murder. Right here today as we're here in Fairfield, they just found the body of a girl who was missing some time ago and her body's all decomposed out here in some field in the county.] ...Destruction and misery are in their way; and the way of peace they have not known…. [Tell me, what peace conference ever brought peace.] …There is no fear of God before their eyes.' Now then, we know that whatever the law says... [I want you to note this clearly.] ...it speaks to those who are under the law... [Who are under the law?] ...so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (vs 15-19). All the world is under the law for judgment.

Now if you've got a King James, let's go to 1-Corinthians 9:20 for just a minute—it tells us Paul's approach: "Now to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to those who are under law... [Now notice the distinction here. Jews are one category.] ...those who are under law, as under law, that I might gain those who are under law... [How does he gain them? Because they are under law for judgment because of their sins and they need to repent.] ...to those who are without law, as without law... [Notice this parenthetical statement here:] ...(not being without law to God, but within law to Christ)... [Now the King James says, 'under the law to Christ'—does it not? Yes, it does! The Greek says 'ein,' which means within, 'nomos,' to Christ, within law. Now what does that tell you? That tells you that you're within all the bounds of the laws of God.

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Romans 3; the sum of it is going to be this: We keep the laws and commandments of God through grace. I will show how the writings of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians show exactly that. We don't keep them in the letter of the law, we keep them in the spirit. The only way you can keep the commandments of God in the spirit is if you have the Spirit of God. So if you haven't gone through all of those in the series up to this point, be sure and do so, because this is very important for us to understand.

Romans 3:20—in the King James this is the one that causes a lot of problems, so I direct your attention to the Appendix R in the back of the Bible, What is Meant by the Works of the Law? You need to read that and understand it thoroughly. Here we find where the Protestants rant and rail along with Gal. 2 about 'under the law.' Cursed is everyone—you know, of works of law. They don't even understand that.

Now before we get started I'm going to mention this to you: No law anywhere, under any circumstances, can substitute for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—period! The operation of forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is separate from law-keeping. It does not exclude it, because you can't live in sin. This verse in the King James—and even William Tyndale added in there what shouldn't be there. But at least he was humble enough to write that later those who had more knowledge—and I'm not saying I had more knowledge than William Tyndale, but combine all the knowledge of all the scholars and all those who studied the languages, which I did to translate the New Testament, so I put that caveat in there—would make the corrections to his original translation because he knew there were things that were wrong.

Romans 3:20 "Therefore, by works of law..."—a broad statement. Now the King James says, 'the works of the law.' In the Greek the definite article is not there for 'the' before works and 'the' before law. It is literally translated here 'works of law.' Now remember, the problem in the first century was not Protestantism vs Sabbath-keeping, it was Judaism vs Christianity. Now there are two forms of works, actually three forms of works of law:

• The sacrifices that God gave to the children of Israel in Lev. 1-7 for the remission of sin.

Those sacrifices only justified the person to the temple that was on earth. And in understanding that, God never made the Holy Spirit available to the twelve tribes of Israel, only certain select kings and priests and prophets—that's it. So those rituals would be performed, but as Paul said, they don't change the conscience.

• Works of law of the 'code' of Jewish law.

And this was all written down after the destruction of the temple, though it was supposedly not written down before that. I don't see how they couldn't have it written down before that, but that's what they claim, it was all verbal and oral tradition. They especially went into great detail so that a person could be justified and clean as a priest would have been at the temple if the temple were standing. So all of these works of laws that the Jews had to make themselves justified to God were put as a fence around the laws of God, supposedly to keep them from transgressing the laws of God. But by their very keeping of it, they transgress the laws of God. That is a form of works of law.

• The pagan works of law in the pagan religions. They all had them.

"Therefore, by works of law there shall no flesh be justified before Him... [And that could be in His presence.] ...for through the law is the knowledge of sin" (v 20). Law can only tell you what sin is. Law cannot do any more than that. No law can do what the sacrifice of Christ in the forgiveness of sin has done. You'll understand that as we go.

Come to Romans 2:13. "Because the hearers of the law are not just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Now how on earth do you reconcile those two statements?

If by works of law you're not justified, how is it that the doers of the laws shall be justified? Is that not a contradiction and a conundrum that is most difficult to understand? Well, when you put it all together:

• What is the first thing you need to do when you come to God? Repent!
• What is repentance? Repentance is turning from sin!
• What is sin? Transgression of the law! Which means you stop law breaking and start law keeping.

No unrepentant sinner will be justified before God under any circumstances. So this means that you must come to repentance and start keeping the laws of God, so that then through the operation of belief and the sacrifice of Christ, you will have your sins forgiven. But you can't live a lawless life and have your sins forgiven. So you need to think on that. This is why Peter said that Paul 'wrote some things difficult to understand.' I can tell you this for sure, first time I read this it blew me away. I said, 'What then am I doing keeping the Sabbath and keeping the Holy Days and the commandments of God?' Because I didn't understand it! And many people don't. They read it there and say, "Therefore, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before Him, for through the law is the knowledge of sin" (v 20). They forget that last statement, they say, 'Therefore, since you're not justified, you don't have to keep it.' But notice—law tells us what sin is!

Remember what we read in Romans 6:1? Let's read it again. "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? MAY IT NEVER BE! We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?" (vs 1-2).

Now let's see how that operation takes place, back to Romans 3:20: "...for through the law is the knowledge of sin.... [Now here comes a verse that's really tricky. So for us to understand v 21, we are going to go to v 28 and then we'll come back. Sometimes it's good to read the conclusion and then come back and fill in the blanks.] (v 28): ...Consequently, we reckon that a man is justified... [Justification means put into right standing with God, we can add there, through repentance and belief in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.] ...justified by faith, separate from works of law.... [The King James says 'without,' doesn't it? Yes! Because 'without,' what does that imply? The absence of law! This is why this translation is very important.] ...separate from works of law" (vs 20, 28).

Now let's come down here to v 21: "But now the righteousness of God... [This righteousness means God's gracious forgiveness to forgive your sins and justify you. So this righteousness has to do with justification. Now let's talk about righteousness for a minute. 'All the commandments of God are righteous' (Psa. 119:172). Is that part of the righteousness of God? Yes, indeed. So righteousness of God includes His commandments—does it not? Yes, indeed! If God forgives your sins and counts you righteous upon repentance, you are justified. So this righteousness has to do not with commandment-keeping or the lack thereof, or the keeping thereof, but this righteousness has to do with the righteousness of God to justify you to Himself personally. That's what this has to do with. So what I'm going to do to make it easier to understand as we go along, I'm going to read 'righteousness' as 'justification,' because that's what it's really talking about, as we read up here. We'll see that when we finish.] ...But now the righteousness [justification] of God that is separate from law has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets…. [They foretold it. When I first read that, I could not understand it.] ...the righteousness of God... [And all Your commandments are righteousness.] ...that is separate from ['the law' (KJV), and the definite article is not there] ...has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets... [Now that to me was reasoning in a circle. How could that be? How could the Law and Prophets reveal doing away with the law and yet we're to keep the law? Protestants just throw their hands up and say, 'Hey, you don't have to keep any law.' That's why they rely on the King James.] ...Even the righteousness [justification] of God that is through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe, for there is no difference" (vs 21-22).

You must believe in the sacrifice of Christ, you must have faith in the Word of God, you must have faith that your sins are forgiven. "...upon all those who believe; for there is no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But are being justified... [from past sins] ...freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (vs 22-24). The truth of the matter is this: All sin is against God Who is Lawgiver, so therefore only God can forgive you because you've sinned against Him personally.

Since Christ is the Creator of all human beings, He was the one of the God family who came to the earth to save His creation, to die for all mankind so that they may be saved. But that does not eliminate law, as he says here at the end, 'We establish law.'

"But are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God has openly manifested to be a propitiation through faith in His blood... [Now propitiation is greater than an atonement. Propitiation means a continual mercy seat upon repentance of forgiveness for your sins.] ...Whom God has openly manifested to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness [justification] in respect to the remission of sins that are past" (vs 24-25).

Let's stop right here, because there are people who believe that it gives justification to all future sin, too. Protestants believe that. We will examine the Scriptures that they think justifies that. Again as we're going to find out, all of these false beliefs coming from the Bible are based upon wrong translations found in the New Testament. 'The sins that are past.'

Now come over here to Romans 4:7, quoting David. "'Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.... [That's what we're talking about right here in Rom. 3:25.] ...Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute any sin'" (vs 7-8). I got a phone call from a man saying, 'This means any sin, even on into the future.' I said, 'Well, how can that be?' So I said, 'I'm going to ask you a question. What sin are you going to do tomorrow? Now if you're a Catholic you could buy an indulgence and you'd be home free. Tell me what sin you're going to do tomorrow.' I don't know. 'When you sin are you supposed to repent?' Well, I don't have to because will not impute any sin. So then I said, 'It says here in respect to the remission of sins that are past, because the truth is that which has not yet been, cannot be forgiven.' Sin is only equated after the transgression has occurred.

Let's use a real-life situation. We'll use Bob Elway here for an example. The police come in and arrest you and say, 'Bob Elway, we are arresting you for the murder you're going to commit tomorrow.' Really? 'Yes, and we're taking you to court to be tried right now.' Hand cuffs, take off to court, you get to court and the police said, 'We've arrested this man for the murder he's going to commit tomorrow.' The judge looks down there and says to the prosecuting attorney, 'Why did you issue this arrest warrant?' Because he's going to commit murder tomorrow. 'How can you arrest him for something he hasn't yet done and you don't know if he's going to do it tomorrow—case dismissed.' Same with us. It's only past sin. Say you're going along today, it's a good day, and all of a sudden, bang, you sin. In a moment of time is not that sin already past? Because you just committed it, it's past. You say, 'Oh, God, forgive me.' Yes! There can be no forgiveness of future sins, because God doesn't even know what you're going to do, because He has given you free choice. So what is your free choice going to be tomorrow? Well, after you've been dismissed, Bob, you're going to make sure you don't do that—right?

Now that'll help you to understand, because it says here: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute any sin" (v 8), does not mean all future sin. Now what verification do we have of this?

Let's come back here to Luke 11. Let's see one here. When Jesus forgave sin and sickness, what did He tell him to do? He said, 'Go and sin no more'—right? Yes!

Luke 11:1: "Now it came to pass that as He was praying in a certain place, when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us how to pray, as John also taught his disciples.' And He said to them, 'When you pray, say, "Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed by Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also upon the earth. Give us our bread as needed day by day. And forgive us our sins, as we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us..."'" (vs 1-4). Does this not tell us we're to repent every day? Yes, indeed!

If we are to repent everyday, what does this tell us? There's no such thing as forgiveness of future sins carte blanche. Now if you don't believe that, then just wait for the sermon on Day 49—2010 about the seven churches. Did Jesus correct the Churches for their sins? Yes! People in the Church are converted—correct? Yes! If, once they have been forgiven their sins, there is no imputation of any sin at all in the future of their living, why then would Jesus correct His own church for the sins that they had? Wouldn't be any need to. Born again, once born again, universal salvation, cannot sin, all bound up in wrong translations in the King James Version of the Bible. Since that are past.

Now let's go to Romans 3:26: "Through the forbearance of God; yes, to publicly declare His justification in the present time, that He might be just... [Now you see how justification fits? Yes, indeed!] ...and the one Who justified the one who is of the faith of Jesus." If God the Father is the one Who justifies you through your faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, He does this personally. Now you understand why no law can forgive you of and by itself, because no law is God. Does that make sense?

I know some of this is a little heavy. Now maybe your brain is a little taxed right now and kind of feels like its weighting down. If that's the case, go back over this sermon again till you get it. We're talking about something, brethren, that really in fully understanding this, even being a minister and going through this many, many times I've grown in grace and knowledge and understanding of this through the years. So if it seems a little much for you right now, hang on, go over it again, you'll understand it by time we get done.

Verse 26 again: "Through the forbearance of God; yes, to publicly declare His righteousness in the present time, that He might be just, and the one Who justified the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Therefore, where is boasting? It is excluded. Through what law? The law of works? By no means! Rather, it is through a law of faith" (vs 26-27). Now when I first read that, having this controversy in my mind about law opposing faith, I could not understand how could you have a law of faith? Well, the truth is this: the law of faith involves

• repentance
• baptism
• forgiveness
• receiving of the Holy Spirit

a—that's the law of faith.

Now hold your place and come back here to Romans 8:1 see where he summarizes this again: "Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit... [And he shows over here you have to have the Spirit of God in you in order to walk according to the Spirit.] (Now here's another contradiction): ...Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has delivered me from the law of sin and death" (vs 1-2). What is the law of the Spirit? The law of the Spirit is the operation of the Spirit, which works with the law of faith—together. So here in this case you could say, through the operation of faith, through the operation of the Spirit, because faith is spiritual. Keeping the commandments of God through the Spirit of God are spiritual—is that not correct? And we'll see that here pretty soon.

Romans 3:27, again, so we really understand it: "Therefore, where is boasting?...." One could say, 'Well, now, God has said that if you keep the Sabbath for every Sabbath for a thousand Sabbaths you will be saved and enter into the Kingdom of God.' So someone does five hundred, they don't make it. Some does seven hundred, they don't make it. Boy, here's a man he's really coming up on it, he's hoping to make it, so here he is at 999 and he dies on Wednesday. So he's resurrected, he comes up before God and says, 'God, I almost made it. I almost made it. I did 999.' 'But the law says one thousand. Disqualified.' All of those who did over a thousand, they're right up there with God. 'Yeah, God, get him. We got in here because we kept the Sabbath more than thousand times correctly in our lives in a row.' Boy, wouldn't there be boasting? Whoa!

"...Therefore, where is boasting? It is excluded. Through what law? The law of works? By no means! Rather, it is through a law of faith. Consequently, we reckon that a man is justified by faith, separate from works of law…. [Not meaning without the works of the law, that is where they say the 'absence of.'] …Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? YES! He is also God of the Gentiles, since it is indeed one God Who will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.... [Then he asked the penetrating question which we've come to many times in understanding this, the grace of God and commandment-keeping]: ...Are we, then, abolishing law through faith? MAY IT NEVER BE! Rather, we are establishing law" (vs 28-31). And so we'll review and see how you're establishing law.

The Protestants say, 'Yes, we are abolishing law. We have faith; you don't need law. If you believe through grace, you don't need to keep the commandments of God.' And as Franklin Graham said on CNN—now know this, he is well accepted by the Catholics because he presents no problem to them. So his reward is to come on Fox News. And like he said, 'I'm a sinner.' Okay, all men are sinners. Are you congratulating yourself? or what? No! And he did say we all need forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

That's like saying, 'Let's make some water here in this chemistry class. We have some oxygen in this tank and we have some hydrogen in this tank. Now, we have these two tubes coming together and if we turn on the valve together, notice it's water.' You have the perfect formula. Now what if you are missing either one of those elements, what do you have? Water puts out fire—does it not? Yes! If you think you have water in this tank, but it's only oxygen or hydrogen and you run over to put out the fire, what are you going to do? Intensify it, because you only have half the formula—right?

This is true; we are establishing law. Where? How? Let's just quote a few Proverbs. Remember the one we covered recently, 'As a man thinks in his heart—or woman—so he is.' Isn't that true? Yes, indeed! Now if you have the Spirit of God in you, in your mind, as a begettal from God the Father, which we'll cover and see that is what has to happen next, how are you going to think then? What is the Spirit of God called?

• The Spirit of Truth
• the Spirit of love
• the Spirit of faith
• the Spirit of hope

All of those come with the Spirit of God—right?

Now how are we going to establish law? Hebrews 10:16, because this is talking about the New Covenant. This is why we are going through in great detail understanding how we are to keep the commandments of God through the faith and grace of God. "'This is the covenant... [That's the baptismal covenant.] ...that I will establish with them after those days,' says the Lord... ['I'll let them do whatever they please. I'll not hold them accountable for any of their sins. I've done away with My law and I no longer exist.' Because if He really did away with the laws of God, He would no longer exist—correct? Now I say that to show the incongruity of the thinking of modern Christianity in this world. No, that's not what He says.] ...'I will give My laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds.'"

Now if that is in your mind, how are you going to think and how are you going live and how are you going to operate? Are you going to be obedient to God? Yes! Does that take away forgiveness of sin? No! All sin and come short of the glory of God. That is true. And we're going to see that the writing and inscribing the laws and commandments of God in our hearts gives us then the tools mentally and spiritually to combat the carnal, sinful mind. Rather than being like modern Christianity which is 'all sin, so what's the use of keeping the law, no one can keep the law, so therefore we don't keep it, we just all be nice, happy people.' Well, how are your congregations? Filled with adultery, lying, hypocrisy, sin. And most of the ministry is hooked on porn; 30-million 'Christian' women are hooked on porn. You think they have the law of God written in their hearts and minds? Do the ministers? No! They don't teach it, so most of them get discouraged within a number of years, some more or less, and they give up. Their brand of Christianity is not God's.

This is the covenant of the New Covenant right here: "'…I will give My laws into their hearts and I will inscribe them into their minds; And their sins and lawlessness I will not remember ever again'" (vs 16-17). Isn't that something? So that's how you establish law through faith.

What we are finding that what Paul wrote when we really understand it, is the exact opposite of what is practiced in Christian churches in the world and even some Churches of God. There are some pretty wild Churches of God out there, too, as well. There are some pretty 'Protestant' Churches of God out there as well, because they have not studied the Word of God to really understand what's in the Bible, so therefore when they become weak in the faith, when they become slack in the Word of God, and it's not being written in their hearts and in their minds, then when they come to try and understand these doctrines, they can't, and they fall by the wayside and accept the Protestant teachings. It's easy, there's no struggle. You just do what you want, but you're not converted. You may be good, dedicated, sincere people and have a zeal for God, but are you converted? This is what it's all about.

Then someone's surely going to ask, 'Well, how come you don't have more people?' Well, how come Jesus ended up after His entire ministry with only twelve apostles and 120 altogether? Because He wasn't done! Not everyone is going to believe what we've just covered here. So that's why 'many are called, few are chosen,' because of these things that we're covering here.

But when we understand this, when we read Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, then we understand how we're keeping the commandments of God through grace. And combined with that and repentance, that's what lifts the great burden and drag that so many people carry around in their lives.

We'll go ahead and end it here, because if I get started on something else, we'll be another hour and I can't be doing that.

Scriptural References:

• Romans 3:1
• Romans 2:25-29
• Romans 7:6-7
• Romans 2:29
• Romans 8:3-4
• Romans 3:1-8
• Romans 6:1-2
• Romans 3:8-19
• 1-Corinthians 9:20
• Romans 3:20
• Romans 2:13
• Romans 3:20
• Romans 6:1-2
• Romans 3:20, 28, 21-25
• Romans 4:7-8
• Luke 11:1-4
• Romans 3:26-27
• Romans 8:1-2
• Romans 3:27-31
• Hebrews 10:16-17

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Jeremiah 23
• Psalm 138
• Romans 7:1-5
• Genesis 49
• Acts 21
• Matthew 24
• Galatians 2
• Leviticus 1-7
• Psalm 119:172

Also referenced:

Sermon: Day 49--2010

Books:

• Judaism—Revelation of Moses or Religion of Men? (coming soon)
• The Code of Jewish Law by Solomon Ganzfried & Hyman Goldin

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 5-19-10
Formatted: bo—5-20-10