Dr Greg Bahnsen - Law and Grace: The Grace of Law (Part 1)

I have a really tough task ahead of me tonight. It's not as tough as preaching the message that I had to bring you this morning, which I brought with real fear and trepidation. I'm very grateful to God for the grace that he poured out and for the many expressions of thanks and brokenness and renewal that we saw from that. I give God the glory and thank him for that. But that was a difficult message to preach tonight. The difficulty is not an emotional one of the nature of what we saw this morning. It's really quite physical. You are. What's the euphemism? Saturated, Right? You've really been listening to a lot this weekend. Well, you got your money's worth. That's good. Especially those of you who have traveled in. We're really glad for that. I'm really glad for it. It's been quite a blessing to me. And today. We've been at it a long time after an evening and a long day yesterday. And you've eaten a big meal and now you've heard three more messages and it's getting warm and I get to keep you awake for the last hour. I'm not up to that task. I know that. And especially I know that it's going to be difficult because tonight's message is not going to have. I mean, I do look at the way in which these things are presented, and I know that this is not the particular kind of presentation that's the easiest to stay awake listening to. We're going to do some exegesis tonight. We're going to open the Bible. We're going to look at some passages, we're going to break down some text so that we can draw some conclusions that will help us theologically when we leave here. So we're going to be doing some hard work, and it wouldn't have been easy to follow Brother Bowie anyway. But now with this kind of message and with your stomachs full and you're saturated anyway, let's all acknowledge that we're up against that and renew ourselves. I'd ask you to pay very good attention to the word of God tonight. If I see some of you nodding off, I love you and I forgive you, but try not to do that. We're going to turn to the word of God in Romans the ninth chapter, Romans 9 at the 30th verse. And as you're turning to that, I would remind you that the issue that lies behind my three presentations at our conference this weekend is, is law and grace. I've suggested that one of the major reasons, perhaps the major reason that people, when they hear of the theonomic or reconstructionist position, are disinclined to follow it, do not warm up to it, are very suspicious of it, is because they know Paul says we are not under law, but grace. And so in my first message, I asked, okay, well, those who want to protect the grace of God from the law, how's it going in that neighborhood? And sadly, as we saw, the grace of God has actually turned to disgrace. It's as though people are really translating Romans 6:14. We're not under law, but disgrace. And so that is not a technical refutation of our opponents. It's just the proof of the pudding, you know? And when you look at the world around you and you see what the churches are producing and how the light doesn't seem to be scattering the darkness, I want to suggest to you the grace of God has not been understood properly by those who are opposing what we call Reconstructionist theology. You could just call it Reformed theology, you could just call it Augustinian theology, you could just call it Pauline theology. When they opposed these things, what would you expect? It's not going to bring blessing. And then this morning, we had to chasten our own hearts, because as we look in our own neighborhood, those of us who are so often, as I said, the graduate students in Bible study prove, upon examination, to be sophomores. Really? That's an interesting word, sophomore. I don't know if you've ever thought about the etymology of it. Sophia, wisdom. Sophos. Wisdom more fool. Soph more. Sophia more means a wise fool. And the reason why those who are early on in their education got that is because you know how people who are beginning school think they know it all, right? And so they have wisdom, they have knowledge at their fingertips, but they're fools. And in a sense, what I was trying to say about myself and about you and about the Reconstructionist movement is that, sadly, we are really sophomores when it comes to hearing the word of God. But whether it's that neighborhood or our own neighborhood that we're looking at, the issue of law and grace remains. And if I can share anything with you, of the gifts that I hope God has given me, I would like to use some time to do an exegesis of what God's word has to say and pay attention linguistically to some issues that I think confuse us all. So that at the end, even though it's going to be a little bit of tough study for a few minutes at the end, this whole law Grace controversy we're going to see is a major misconception and that it never should have been a problem in the first place. Well, by now you're to Romans 9. Let's begin at the 30th verse. Hear God's word. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, following after the law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby, and the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, say not in thy heart who. Who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down, or who shall descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what saith it? The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And thus far, the reading of God's word. For years, the Christian church has been troubled theologically. It's been troubled within congregations. It's been troubled ethically, individually, psychologically. It's been troubled over and over and over again about the relationship of the Christian to the law of God. After all, to be a Christian is to know God's grace, to be saved by his mercy, by his provision, by his initiative. And so we know that we stand in the grace of God, what then do we make of the law? And so people have said, well, what then is the relationship of grace, law? And an easy sound bite answer which has been very effective, promoted, as you know, in our day, by dispensationalism is we're not under the law, we're under grace. And that has captured the minds of men. They have not understood that verse properly. I'm not going to preach so much on it tonight, but that verse has not been understood properly at all, but taken ripped out of its context and made a slogan. This has convinced people that there's a law grace conflict in the Bible and you've got to choose. And if you don't want to be guilty of the Galatian heresy, you'd better choose for grace. And choosing for grace means out with the law. That is a false antithesis. That's what we call it in logic, either this or that. Well, but you see, the whole problem has been misconstrued in the first place. And the wisest thing to do, I'm not just speaking as a philosopher, but as a pastor of souls here, because it never helps to be unclear in your thinking. The wisest thing to do here is to step back and say, what's wrong with the question? How have our concepts been misconstrued? So that now we're led to this difficulty. During this last couple weeks, I've been teaching a history of philosophy course at Christ College on 19th and 20th century philosophy. We have a couple of my students over here and they know very well that toward the end of that I explained to them that I had been trained in analytical philosophy, specifically linguistic analysis. And it would take my whole time to explain to you what that's all about. But the point is that in the approach to philosophy that's known as linguistic analysis, many of our philosophical problems, we maintain, arise from. From a misuse of language, misconception and imprecision. And so if you've ever run into somebody trained in linguistic philosophy, you'll find that they are people that are always saying, now what did you mean by that? What exactly? How are you using that term? Be more precise. They're the sort of people that irritate you. They'll be asked a question in public and they'll go into all these qualifications and so forth and take a lot of time trying to give an answer. That's just an affliction they have because they want to be clear on things. And then they're the sort of people that irritate you just to death. When you ask them a real simple question, they start going, well, now, do you mean it in this way or do you mean it in that way? Where are you coming from? How will you be using this information? I'd like to be Real clear about this. I sometimes tell my students, you see, that's why they killed Socrate. We can be a real pain. But on the other hand, those who want to be precise in the use of their language know that we are not that way. We are going to be led into all kinds of misconceptions and what are called equivocations, and we're not going to draw conclusions that are helpful to us. And I am convinced, without any sense of moral superiority, no sense of intellectual superiority, I'm convinced the Church has been hurt in a devastating way. We have seen the disgrace around us and the poor thinking has been hurt because we have not done our exegesis and we have not thought clearly. Now, There's a little P.S. here. I'll come back to the main point, but can I just say, as a little devotion to all of us who are reconstructionists here, let's remember this, that if the Church has gotten into trouble by not. Not preaching exegetically, not being precise, let us not duplicate that problem in our own midst. God has not called us to carry the banner of slogans and themes and interpersonal relationships. Though I love you all and I'm sure you love each other, in the end, the test of our preaching is God's Word and it's proper handling. Do you faithfully. Do you faithfully handle the word of God? And I hope that God gives me the grace and the faithfulness to do that with you. Tonight we're going to want to look in detail at God's Word to see how this law grace issue has been misconstrued. When I went to Russia, obviously I was speaking to people who do not know my language or not many did anyway. I'm speaking English, but they speak Russian. I don't understand their language, they don't understand mine. And so how am I going to preach the word of God? How am I going to give lectures? How am I going to defend the faith? What's going to make this possible? Well, I had to have a translator, right? That's obvious enough. But you know, the work of translation is a lot more difficult. It calls for a great deal more skill than most people realize. In one of the questions yesterday, I was explaining as fast as I could that sometimes people have the idea that if you've got a Greek sentence, if it has seven words, then the best thing is to find the seven English words that correspond to them, put them in the same order of appearance, and then you get a translation. Well, in the first place, Greek doesn't use the same syntax as English, okay? So where we have a subject, verb, expectation in English, in Greek, it's not that way at all. So you don't want one for one correspondence at all. And moreover, if you'll stop and think about it, this stands for reason. There's no one to one correspondence on words. Now, there may be some, but it's not automatic. So when I went to Russia, just to illustrate this problem to you, you have different conceptual schemes and different idioms and different uses of words, the way in which we understand words and the connotations of. Of our particular words or phrases in English. There's no reason why there's a cultural parallel in Russian. So being trained in linguistic analysis and being sensitive to my translator, we went over my lectures or my sermons. Every time when we were in the van going to the place where I was going to speak. And so I'd go over my notes. And then Gennady every once in a while said, well, now, what's that word? And we'd talk about it and go, okay, okay, I've got that. So we really tried to be prepared. But you know the problem for the poor translators? Dr. Bonson doesn't read from a manuscript. And so while I think I've gone over my notes and so forth, and we've got all the words, as I'm going extemporaneously here, using words that are very obvious to me, every once in a while, Gennady looks at me in horror, like, what? So I'm standing before the Moscow City Council one night. I'm giving my lecture. Now, I don't even remember the context, but I remember the illustration. I talked about being guinea pigs. And I look back at Gennady. What do you do to a fellow who speaks Russian to explain guinea pig? And so the fellow who brought us into Russia, Lukov, is over at the table, and he calls out to Gennady. He knows English, and he says something in Russian to him. So Gennady thinks about it and goes, oh, pig for science. So what do you think? That a pretty good translation, Pig for science. If we were to take pig for science as an expression or just pig in this country, you know, it would not connote to people what we mean by guinea pig. And yet we do use them for science. And they are pigs of sorts. You see, You've got to be careful. And now why am I telling you this story? Because when we come to the word of God, the word that we in English hear as law, does not have the connotation not fully. I mean, there's an overlap, but does not have the connotation that we take from it as we use the word law in English. It probably be a major accomplishment if I can just get that point across to you tonight. But I have a lot more I want to say, and it's going to be very hard for you to follow this because every time I use the word law, you will automatically nothing wrong with that, but you're going to automatically think about law as it's used customarily in English. And I want to teach you something about the use of the word law in the Bible so that you can see how we got into trouble on law versus Grace. And the first thing I want to do this is in two phases. The first thing I want to do is just illustrate the many different uses of the word law in the New Testament because it doesn't always mean the same thing in the New Testament. And by the way, there's more to what we could do in that kind of a survey than I have time for tonight. I'm just going to show you five different uses of the word law to make my point. Please turn with me in your Bibles now to John 12:34 and try to stay awake. Now we're getting into the detailed exegesis. John 12:34. The multitude therefore answered him. We have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever. How do you say the Son of man must be lifted up? We have heard out of the law. Well, here the word law is being used in the broadest sense for the old covenant scriptures. It doesn't mean the Mosaic section and it doesn't mean the commandments of the Old Testament. It simply means the Old Testament. Another example, John 15:25. But this cometh to pass that the word may be fulfilled. That is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Now the difficulty is that quotation from the Old Testament is not from Moses at all. It's from the Psalms. And so here you have the Psalms called the law, or another good example of that same thing, Romans 3, the 19th verse, the first clause of Romans 3:19. Resist the temptation to read on, because Romans 3 is one of the best illustrations of how Paul uses law in a lot of different ways. But in the first clause of Romans 3:19 Paul says, Now we know that what things soever the law says, it speaks to them that are under the law. The law says. Well, look at the quotation that precedes this and you'll find that he is quoting the Psalms he's quoting Isaiah, and yet he calls that the law. So we see that the word law sometimes meant to people who spoke New Testament, Greek, the whole Old Testament. And yet, just as surely, secondly, the word law could refer to the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, Luke 16:16. The law and the prophets were until John. From that time, the Gospel of the kingdom of God is preached. The law and the prophets. Well, here law doesn't mean the whole Old Testament because you have law and prophets. And so law now refers to the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. Luke 24:44 makes this even clearer. And he said unto them, these are my words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. So now the Old Testament is broken down into law, prophets and psalms. Okay, so now we have two uses of the word law. And I hope from context, it's obvious to you the entire Old Testament or the five books of Moses. But thirdly, the word law could be used very simply, not for the literature of the Old Testament so much, but the covenantal arrangement that predominated in the Old Testament period. It's used for the Mosaic administration of God's covenant. And this is most clearly seen, I think, in Galatians 3, verse 17. So turn now to Galatians 3:17, where we find Paul saying, now this, I say, a covenant confirmed beforehand by God. The law, which came 430 years after does not disannul. I mean, he tells you explicitly. He's talking about a covenant that came later, 430 years later. And he calls it the law. So here we have the law, covenant. Covenant. That arrangement where God related to his people and expressed his grace through Moses is called the law. So now we have three uses of the word law. And that's not the first one that comes to American minds. I mean, none of these three are the first one, because when we hear the word law, we think, what? Regulation, commandment. But the Bible uses the word law for the whole Old Testament Scriptures, a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, a covenantal arrangement. But then, of course, it does use it for the legislation of Moses too. Turn to Luke, the second chapter, verse 22, Luke 2:22. And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem. Well, that's an obvious one, isn't it? Here the law of Moses means the commandments governing purification after a child is Born. So the law can refer to the legislation of Moses, the whole Old Testament, that's one possibility. The writings of Moses, another possibility. The covenantal arrangement God revealed through Moses. The or the legislation that Moses brings. And then I'll give you one more, a fifth, and then I'll stop the survey for the sake of time. Another use of the word law is legalism. Now before you get upset, you say, now wait a minute, in English, law and legalism are two different words. Remember the guinea pig. I understand that. And this is something that's difficult. But if you think that translation is this wooden process of word for word, you can't make sense of the four illustrations I've given you already. That word should be used the same way every time, but it is not. And it so happens that there was no Greek phoneme for legalism. There was nothing the Greeks said they didn't have an ism, type of suffix that they used to identify words that give an idea or a perversion or whatever it may be. And so the law, law stands also for the misuse of the law. In Romans 3:20, the first clause there, Romans 3:20, Paul says, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight by the works of the law. Here law stands for those who want to work their way into heaven, who want to obey God and be saved, to merit their justification based on their own accomplishment. And it's because the word law is used in that way that many Christians have been misled to think, well, if I don't want to fall into legalism, I must throw out the law of Moses. Everyone see what's called an equivocation. You notice the word's being used in two different ways. If I follow the law, that is to say I'm guilty of legalism, then I am separated from the grace of God. So in order to protect the grace of God and my own salvation, I must throw away the law. Now, when we say throw away the law, if we mean it in the very same sense as when we said law means separation from the radiance of God, then that sentence is correct. Because what that means is I must be done with legalism altogether. The works of the law cannot be my standing before God. I mustn't think in that way. That would be fine. But you know that's not what the church has done. In fact, my guess is many of you, I would confess the same. You know, I didn't come full blown theonomist from the womb of my mother. Many of you made this very mistake in your early Christian life, well meaning people, and I want to give God glory for that. There's a lot of good will, though there's a great deal of confusion. Well meaning people taught you as a young Christian, don't get entangled with the law because then you're throwing away the grace of God. They have not been precise. They have not looked at context, they have not understood what the original writers were intending to tell us. Now, the second thing I want to do this evening is to go back and look at the Hebrew word law. There are many Hebrew words that stand for commandments, institutes, regulations, ordinances, laws, and so forth. The word that I'm going to be looking at is Torah. You've probably heard it before. The Hebrew word Torah, I want to maintain, is somewhat, not entirely, but somewhat misleadingly rendered namas in Greek. If you look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament and look at the New Testament obviously, which is in Greek, the word namas appears for Torah. And that's usable, that's fine. But you're going to have to think hard about this because Torah does not mean what law strictly means to an English reader. As I already told you, most readers associate the word law with rules, regulations, codes, things that can be communicated in literary form, prescriptions in writing. And of course the Torah contains regulations. You wouldn't expect me to stand before you tonight with my reputation and deny that I know that there are commandments, there are prescriptions, injunctions in the law. But it's really important for you to see that Torah should not be reduced to regulation. That is not the Hebrew word. That is not correct. And I would also say that the non legal aspects of the Old Testament that we be reflecting on for the next few minutes, even the non legal aspects, have the authority of law. However, Torah is not strictly equivalent to law, any more than pig for science is equivalent to guinea pig. The connotation of the Hebrew word Torah is not primarily legislative, statutory or formal. The Torah of the Old Testament was much, much more than rules, much more than regulations. The concept is much richer than authoritative formalized commandments, much richer than a code. The term itself derives from the Hebrew verb yara, which means to throw or to shoot something. And in the hipphale stem of that. I realize not many of you want to hear this part, but you need to see where it comes from in that particular stem. Yara means to teach or to point the way. And so I think it's interesting, for the sake of time, I can't share all of this research with you, but there's a really fascinating play on words at points in the Old Testament where you have in English the word law and the word teaching and instruction, whereas the same Hebrew root is being used. Let me give you an example. Exodus 24:12. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law Torah and commands I have written for their instruction. And the word instruction and the word law have the same root in Hebrew. And he says, I will give you the Torah and the command. Well, it's not impossible that you have what's called an EP exegetical use here, two words to cover one concept. But it's also possible that Torah is broader than commands and connotes the instruction of God, which includes commandments. Isaiah 2, 2, 3. In the last days, many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out of Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will teach us his ways, same Hebrew root as Torah. The law, that is to say, the teaching of God will go out. And so I'm going to suggest that when we're in the Hebrew Old Testament and the word Torah appears many times in your English translations where law appears, that doesn't exclude commandments. I don't want to go to the other extreme and make that mistake. But more broadly, the word has the connotation of instruction that guides you in the way. And so to reduce the Torah to rules and regulations would be quite mistaken. I'm going to give you some quick illustrations here in Deuteronomy 28:58. What does Torah stand for, if you will not observe? To do all the words of this Torah that are written in this book, that you may reverence this glorious and fearful name, Jehovah, thy God. All the words of this Torah written in this book. Doesn't that prove my point? That's all the words of this book, not just the regulations of this book. All the words of this book are our Torah, our instruction pointing the way. Deuteronomy 29, 29. But the things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever. That we may do. All the words of this Torah, all the words that have been revealed by God are Torah to the Hebrew mind. Deuteronomy 32:46. Set your heart unto all the words which I testify unto you this day, which you shall command your children to observe, to do even all the words of this law. Here, all the words of the law mean all the words that God has testified through his servant. I hope this is sinking in. I'll give you one more illustration. Joshua 8:31 refers to the book of the Torah of Moses, which includes, by the way, instructions for the altar. Here the Torah is all that Moses wrote in the book, including what we call ceremonial law, the prescriptions for the altar. And so you see that the Hebrew mind begins with what we now are calling law, begins with Torah as God's instruction for life, all his testimony, the entire covenant, everything that he says. It's important to take note that the instruction which is God Torah pertains to salvation and points out the spiritual way of life. Let me say that again for you taking notes. This is a crucial point. The Torah is not just do this, don't do that. It's instruction pertaining to salvation and points out the spiritual way of life. Psalm 19:7 the Torah of Jehovah is perfect. Doing what? Restoring the soul. Now how can rules and regulations restore the soul? The Torah which contains rules and regulations restores the soul, though, but not in virtue of it, saying, do this and don't do that. The Torah is broader than this. Deuteronomy 31:12 Assemble the people that they may hear and that they may learn and reverence Jehovah your God, and observe to do all that. The words of this Torah, that they may what? Learn, hear and reverence God. Here the law is not beating them down, condemning them, finding that they are guilty of infraction, it's leading them to reverence God. Deuteronomy 33:9 10 the blessing of Moses on Levi says, for they have observed thy word, and keep thy covenant they shall teach Jacob thine ordinances, and Israel thy Torah. They keep thy covenant, and will teach Israel by Torah. Psalm 78:10 they kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his Torah. There you have the very well known device of parallelism. In the Psalms, covenant and Torah are parallel to each other. Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, but rather his delight is in the Torah of Jehovah and in his Torah does he meditate day and night. Now look at that one for a moment, because I'm going to use this figure of speech as my major point. Psalm 1 says, you have some people who walk in a certain way, called the council the wicked. But on the other hand you have people who take delight in the Torah of Jehovah, you have two ways of life being laid out before you. Think about that. A way of life, a way of life is not just a way of morality. I don't know, maybe you never have thought about that. What we mean by a worldview, a perspective, is more than just do's and don'ts. It includes do's and don'ts. But it's more than do's and don'ts. It's an entire outlook on life. It's a way of believing and relating to this world. It's your understanding of yourself in the midst of the cosmos before God and how you should live. It's your conception of what is good and right and delicious and those things which are ugly and perverse, right and wrong are included. But it's the way of life. Life. So one man has a way of life, walks in the counsel of the wicked. But the blessed man doesn't do that. Rather, his delight is in the Torah of God. You see, the Torah is his way of life. Psalm 37, 31. The Torah of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. The Torahs the way you walk, it's your lifestyle. And then compare Deuteronomy 11:22. Here we have the word commandment used, but we pick up on this idiom that I want you to use. For if you shall diligently keep all his commandment, which I command you to do it, to love Jehovah, your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him. See, God wants us to love him and to walk in all his ways. That's what the commandment is about. That, more broadly, is what the Torah is about. So now let me give you a translation of Torah that isn't just this very simplistic English notion of regulation or code. The Torah is divine instruction guiding his people for their walk in the path of life. Divine instruction for guiding his people, God's people, for their walk in the path of life. Deuteronomy 32, 46. Set your heart unto all the words which I testify unto you this day, to observe, to do all the words of this Torah. For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life. I hope if you're able to stick with the details here and stay awake tonight, that this may be somewhat revolutionary for you. What the Bible's telling you is the notion of Torah, which we sometimes call law, is our entire life. It's our love for God, it's his covenantal arrangements with us. And Moses says in Deuteronomy 32, we're to set our heart unto all the words of the testimony, the Torah, because it's our life. The Torah is simply the way of life for God's people. Leviticus 18:5. You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am Jehovah. Now we have to stop and take note. This is an extremely controversial verse because the Pharisees and the Judaizers laid hold on it to try to prove their point. And Paul uses this against them. Because you'll notice if you were to forget the context of what Dr. Bronson's been giving to you. That is, if you just approach this as most Americans. Well, it's not just an American tradition. Most modern Christians make the mistake of thinking they can just go zoom right into the Bible, yank out a verse, and then they've got their understanding. We really have little appreciation for understanding context for the concepts of God's people, putting this in the proper perspective. And so if you do that here's the good zoom in, zoom out approach, it says here, you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. So that proves it. By keeping the law, they earn their salvation in the Old Testament. What a dreadful, shallow, in fact, almost the very opposite notion of what Moses was trying to say. He said that the law is what? It's the way of life. It's a life that comes from God. It's a covenant. It involves reverencing him and loving him and doing what he wants. But we do what God wants. Not to enter into life, but what as our lifestyle, our outlook. This is our life. This is not the stairway to heaven. This is the beginning to enjoy heaven on earth. It is our life, the law. Boy, that makes it completely different, doesn't it? I would maintain, in fact, I'm going to, I hope, prove it in just a minute or two from Romans, that in the Old Testament, there was never an offer of life based on your accomplishment. Never did God say to his people, do all these things, and then you'll be worthy of me. I'll save you. But rather, God says, let me show you how much I love you. I've called you to be my people. You've entered into covenant with me. You are to reverence me. I'm going to show you the way of life. So it's not a matter of entering into life. It's a matter of living life out, a life that's been given by grace. And if we were to be better students of Scripture, if we are to have read things in context, sometimes the very sentences themselves, maybe the more broad context, certainly the entire context of Deuteronomy or the books of Moses, we could never have thought that the Torah was a stairway to heaven. It's rather the working out of heaven on earth that God has given us by his grace. Deuteronomy 4:1. And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto the ordinances which I teach you to do them, that you might live. How do you take that? That you might live? The assumption being you're dead, enter into life by obedience, or hearken to these things, because this is the life I give you. So the Torah and the commandments that are found in the Torah are constantly presented in the Old Testament in a way that mystified dispensationalists sadly mystify some reformed people too, who are not theonomic, because the Torah is given for the blessing and good of God's people that they might live and that they might live abundantly. I have to be quick about this, but I want you to appreciate this. Let me give you a few passages. Deuteronomy 10:12. And now Israel, what does Jehovah your God require of you but to fear Jehovah your God, to walk in all his ways, remember lifestyle, the way of life, to love him and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes which I command you this day for your good. What does God require of you? He requires of you to enjoy life for your good. Here are commandments in which you can walk. Deuteronomy 5:33. You shall walk in all the way which Jehovah your God has commanded you that you might live, and that it may go well with you. Now, if this was supposed to be the stairway to heaven, merit your way into God's favor, why would it say, and it will go well with you. The whole presupposition is, this is God's life granted to you, now enjoy it abundantly. One thinks here of the New Testament parallel. Jesus said, I've come to give them life, and to give it to them abundantly. So God says, I am saving you, you are my people. Here is your life. Now live it abundantly. He's not talking about entering into his favor. He's talking about enjoying the favor they already have. Deuteronomy 12:28. Observe and hear all these words which I command you that it may go well with you and with your children after you when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah your God. Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 and 16, and then 19 and 20. I know I'm breaking some hands for those of you taking notes. Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 and 16, 19, 20. See, I set before you this day life and good, death and evil. In that I command you this day to love Jehovah your God, to walk in his ways and and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and Jehovah your God may bless you. God's given you life. Walk in the way of life, multiply, be blessed. No prosperity. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I've set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life that you may live in your seed to love Jehovah your God, to obey his voice and to cleave unto him, for he is your life. You see, there's just too many passages. And it occurs over and over again for us to think that we can be deemed innocent or others can be deemed innocent for having missed it. The law was not permitted presented. The Torah was not presented as some kind of narrow regulation. That was the stairway to heaven. It was rather a way of life. God says, I will give you life, that you may live it abundantly. Here's my law. Approach life this, enjoy the world, enjoy what I've given you. But if you don't wish to follow me, if you don't wish to be in covenant with me, if you will not love me with all your heart, and if these commandments are not good enough for you, then death will be your experience. Proverbs 13:14. The Torah of the wise is a fountain of life that one may depart from the snares of death. If you will not accept the Torah of life, then of course death is what you will experience. But that doesn't mean that you will enter into life by keeping the Torah. The Old Testament Torah is literature that made faith in God's promise the crux of religiosity. Faith in God's promise was made the key to obeying his commandments. Obedience to the commandments begins with faith. If you read the Old Testament, it's not that you obey the commandments and then you add faith to it, and finally you get the mix that God wants. God says, you're not obeying me. If you don't Begin by trusting me, receiving from my hand graciously the life that you will live. Obedience to the commandments made faith in God's promise the crux of religiosity. And so In Hebrews the 11th chapter, verses 4 to 29, where the author of Hebrews looks at that section of the Old Testament known as the Torah. Isn't that amazing that the author of Hebrews didn't write like dispensationalists do? When the author of Hebrews looked at the Torah, he saw what the hall of fame of legalism, right? No. He said, here's faith. Let me illustrate. Faith here and faith. Faith here and faith here. That's because he understood the Torah. And in Hebrews, the fourth chapter. Well, let me begin with Hebrews 3:19, where the author of Hebrews summarizes the wilderness wanderings, which of course take up four of the five books of the Torah. He says in chapter three, verse 19, and we see that they were not able to enter into the promised land. Why? Because of unbelief. It was lack of faith that kept them from the promised land. And now here's the fascinating thing. Not only does that prove the dispensational conception that they broke the laws of God so they couldn't enter in. That's true. Also, Hebrews tells us they lacked faith. And then he turns around and says the very same thing, but doesn't speak of faith. Hebrews 4:2. For indeed we have had gospel preached unto us, even also they did, but the word of hearing did not profit them because it was not united by faith with them that heard. You see, they had the gospel presented to them in the Torah, and it wasn't united with faith. And they came under the displeasure of God. The disobedience of the Old Testament people of God is tied not to their trying to jump high enough to get into heaven, to get through all the hoops and do all the legal regulations of God. It was that they didn't trust God, they had good news given to them, and they didn't enter into the way of life. Who are the key figures in the Torah? Which two come to your mind? Well, if you know the Torah, you have to say Abraham and Moses and of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Paul found this crux text in the Torah to typify his salvation. And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. See, when Paul wants to prove the doctrine of justification by faith, he goes to the Torah and can prove it very easily. The law of Moses, whether It was broadly the Torah, or narrowly the legal commandments of Moses was always in the Old Testament an expression of God's gracious dealing with his people. Let's look at Exodus 19:4 8. Exodus 19:4. 8. You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be mine own possession from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. And and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and set before them all these words which Jehovah commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that Jehovah hath spoken, we will do now. What has Jehovah spoken? He says, I've borne you to myself. I took you out from among the nations. I've given you life. And the people respond to God's grace by saying, all that you have told us to do will do. Redemption is the basis for the proclamation of God's commandments and full enjoyment of the redemption God has given. Full enjoyment of that saving blessing comes through covenantal obedience. It works this way. God saves by his grace. They were not worthy of this. He pulled them out from Egypt, he gave them life, he redeemed them. They already were his people. And then he said, and here's a law, and if you live in this way of life, you'll enjoy the covenant all the more with me. This blessing is repeated in the New Testament description of the Church in First Peter chapter two. Now how can the Church. How can the Church be an expression in a trophy of God's grace being described this way? But Israel in the Old Testament was legalistic being described this way. This makes no sense theologically. It makes no sense hermeneutically. And yet, if you will read CI Scofield in Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, he says that when Israel said, all that Jehovah has said we will do, and this is his word, he calls that a presumptuous reply which departed from the relationship of grace which they enjoyed previously. There's the dread error of dispensationalism. Scofield did not come to the text looking to have law and grace explained to him. He already had his concepts, he already had the relationship. So that when he comes and he sees what is obviously in context, God being gracious to his people and they're responding in faith. He goes, there they go. Legalism. By what definition? By the one he brought to the text, not by the context of Scripture itself. Another illustration of this. And then we'll look at Romans, Deuteronomy 6, verses 20 to 25. And when thy Son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which Jehovah our God hath commanded you, what does this law mean? And notice the reference to statutes, testimonies, ordinances, commandments. When your Son asks you, why these commandments? Why this law? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, this is the meaning of the law, friends. Now would CI Scofield approach the text believing in advance? Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And Jehovah showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house before our eyes. And he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as at this day. And it shall be righteousness unto us if we observe to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as he has commanded us. You know, that's beautiful. Once you've understood the relationship of law and grace. Here's the meaning of the law. God saved us and he brought us into a good land and he wants us to enjoy life and for our good. He said, here's how you walk, here's how you enjoy relationship with me, here's how things will go well with you. And so the law was in the Old Testament an expression of grace. Now if the law, I mean the question is what does this law mean? And the answer is grace. If the law means grace in the Old Testament, how can we today come and say, all right now, how are we saved? By law or by grace? Which is it? How can we come to the New Testament and think that the problem of the law is the problem of Old Testament legalism and versus New Testament faith as a way of salvation? That's just a total misreading of the Old Testament. And Paul came to understand that that's the glory of the text we read in our scripture reading this morning and the one that I want to leave with you this evening. Paul has expounded for nearly nine chapters on the grace of God, justification by faith. And he comes to verse what we call verse 30 of chapter nine. And he asked the $64,000 question, what do you say about it? What do you make of all this? What shall we say then? Look at this. Paul says, what a situation we have, the Gentiles who didn't follow after righteousness, and yet they found it the righteousness, which is of faith. On the other hand, we have Israel that followed after the law of righteousness. They followed after the Old Testament law for righteousness, and they didn't find it. They didn't arrive at that law. And so he says, why? Why didn't Israel that had the benefit of the written law of God, why did they not arrive at the righteousness of the law? Now, before you read on, if you've been trained in dispensationalism, you'd say, well, obviously they tried to do it by law rather than by grace. That isn't Paul's answer. He says, they tried to follow the law of righteousness, but they didn't attain it. And the reason is verse 32. And I'm going to do this in terms of Greek, and then I'll fill in the words, because not by faith, but, as it were, by works. Paul doesn't use a complete sentence here. In fact, most of your translations should have italicized words, showing you what's been filled in by the translators. That's not unusual, by the way, in conversation, if you ask me a question, I might not give you a complete sentence as my answer. I'll only give you the part of the sentence that is relevant to answering the question. And that's all Paul does here, because he says the problem here is not that they were seeking after the law. He doesn't even repeat that. He says the problem is the way they sought it. It's the adverb that he emphasizes. Not the predicate, not the verb, but just the adverb. Why didn't they attain it? Because they sought it. Not by faith, but as it were, by works. You know, Paul won't even bring himself to say they sought it by faith rather than they didn't seek it by faith, but by works. He wants to make it clear there is no approach by works, as it were, by works. As if. As if God ever approved of the works approach. That's what they did, and that's why they never did what the law told them. That's why they fell short, because they didn't approach the law by faith. They approached it as it were by works. And here's the climax of Paul's point and what I want you to hear in my message tonight. Having said that, Paul says immediately they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And he who believes on him shall not be put to shame. Because Israel approached the Torah by works, as it were, rather than by faith, then they completely stumbled over the Messiah to come. When Israel misconstrued the relationship of law and grace, when they didn't see that faith was the way that they approached the Torah for righteousness, then when the promises of the Messiah were given, they just completely fell down. That breaks our heart. It broke Paul's brothers. My heart's desire, my supplication to God is for them that they might be saved. He's talking here about his brothers after the flesh, the Jews who had all the privileges of God, they had Torah given to them. How could they miss it? Because if you understand God's covenant, if you understand that keeping the commandments is because of God's life giving grace, then when he says, here's how I'll accomplishment through my Son the Messiah, that should lead you to say, of course. But instead they said, we want nothing to do with him. And they stumbled. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They want to do what God would have them do, but they don't understand properly. I maintain that many Christians don't understand properly. They have a zeal for God, but it's not knowledgeable. And why is it not knowledgeable? For being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. When you approach the Torah of God not by faith, but, as it were, by works, then you don't establish God's righteousness. You're trying to establish your own. And that's what Paul says they missed. How can Paul say they missed it in the Old Testament? If, as so many of our opponents tell us, the Old Testament was legalistic, Paul should have said, well, they had the Old Testament right. But praise God, he's got a new dispensation for us. He doesn't. He says they didn't understand the Torah. Had they understood it and approached it by faith, they would not have stumbled at the promise of the Messiah. They would not have tried to establish their own righteousness. And then he says in verse four, for Christ is the end of the law unto Righteousness to everyone who believes. People sometimes ask me, well, Dr. Bronson, do you think you've made any mistakes? No kidding. Yeah, I have. Well, no, no, no, no. You've defended this theonomic thesis. Have you made any mistakes? And I know that I have. I don't think any of the mistakes are so systemic or central that they change the thesis or its application when they want an illustration. This is the one I usually give people because for years I read Romans 4 saying, Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness, meaning Christ is the end of the law, the end of using the law to establish your own righteousness. And that, by the way, is theologically correct. But I'm now convinced that is not what Paul is saying in context. Can't we see better what he's saying if they stumbled at the stone of stumbling because they didn't approach the Torah? Right. Christ is the aim of the law. Christ is the very purpose. In the Greek word telos, that's the meaning end comes because you've reached the aim or the purpose of the race. When you get to the telos of the race, then you stop running. But the point is you're running to the goal. And Christ was the goal of the law for righteousness. And since Christ was the goal of the law for righteousness, and the Jews didn't approach the Torah in faith, they tried to establish their own. For Moses writes that the man that does the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. Now, we're getting close to closing here. Trust me, appreciate your attention. But you're going to have to probably correct your translation, because what happens is most commentaries will tell you that chapter. Excuse me. Verse 5 of chapter 10 presents one approach, and then it's contrasted to another approach in verse 6. Verse 5 says, For Moses writes that the man that does the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. We've already looked at that verse, haven't we? And we know what it means now. But according to the majority interpretation in our day, Paul saying, well, Moses sets out legalism, so you've got to follow the law if you would live. And then verse six is supposed to be, but the righteousness which is of faith says this. So you have the righteousness which is of the law set over against the righteousness which is of faith. The only problem here is that that isn't what Moses meant in the Old Testament. So you got a problem. And the Greek conjunction that's used at the beginning of verse 6 can mean either but or and notice the difference it makes. Cross, but out and put and in there. And all of a sudden the text flows perfectly. For Moses writes that the man that does the righteousness of the law, which is of the law, shall live thereby, because doing that righteousness is the way of life for God's people. And the righteousness which is of faith says, don't say in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven, who shall descend into the abyss? But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That's the word of faith which we preach. Don't say, this is a hard thing. Moses in Deuteronomy said, don't call this hard. God's not laying this big burden of legalism on you. He's just giving you a way to enjoy life. And that's why it's in your mouth and it's in your heart. It's great stuff. Enjoy it. And Paul's saying, they never understood the Old Testament. Hasn't he just said that three times already? They are ignorant. They have not got this right. They've stumbled at the stone of stumbling. Paul now goes to the Old Testament, said, if they read the Old Testament, they'd see all along it was never meant to be hard. All along it was pointing to Christ. And the righteousness which is of faith says, don't say in your heart you have to do superhuman feats, go up to heaven, go down into hell, and so forth. And then he says in verse eight, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That's Deuteronomy 30, 14. I won't turn back to it for the sake of time. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30. In Deuteronomy 30, Moses is talking about commandments. He's talking about law in the narrow sense that we understand it. And so how can Paul then say, if he's a dispensationalist? This quotation from Deuteronomy 30, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is, the commandments of God are near you. He says, that is the word of faith which we preach. Well, you can forget this great wall of dispensational distinction between the old Covenant and the new. Paul quotes Deuteronomy the Commandments, and describes them as the faith which we preach. That's the word of faith. Because if you'll confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you'll be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. He doesn't say, by all your good deeds you'll become righteous. But with a heart you believe unto righteousness, and with a mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I maintain, brothers and sisters, that this tortured question of law and grace throughout the ages of the church, this intense debate over law and grace that we see in our own generation in the 20th century, is all predicated upon a fundamental misconception of what the Old Testament law was all about. And Paul, when he came to the Lord Jesus Christ, realized that. He said all along the law was a matter of faith and grace. Pointing me to Christ. And his heart's desire for his brothers was that they'd come to understand that. I hope it's your heart's desire for your brothers in the Lord who have yet to understand that. Let's pray. God, thank you for giving us your law. Help us to never reduce it to mere regulations. We do thank you for those regulations, for your commandments, for the light that they give to us, that we would not be confused, that we would not hurt ourselves, and above all would not disgrace you. But Lord, we know that your law is your entire testimony and covenant. And there never has been a question but that life is enjoyed by entering into the salvation that you give us. Help us to be more diligent students of your word. Help us not to take a sound bite approach to what you have taught us. Keep us from sloganizing. And Lord, I ask also you'd keep us from having a superior complex when we talk to brothers and sisters who are mired down in a misreading of your word and preconceptions that have led them astray. Give us a gracious spirit as we explain to them that a cautious, faithful reading of your Word will not lead them to think they must choose between law and grace. Lead them to understand the psalmist who could say, lord, grant me thy law graciously, for we pray in Jesus name, amen.