3
1 It is clear that our Lord sprang out of the tribe of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood; and therefore in order to be High Priest, as He is High Priest, Jesus must be High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
2 And the priesthood being changed from Levitical to Melchizedekan, there is of necessity a change also of the law.
3 Therefore has even one jot or tittle passed from the law?
4 Every jot and tittle of the Old Testament remains inspired and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
5 Every sacrifice points to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
6 Every moral tenet speaks to me on how to more specifically love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself.
7 The change in law therefore refers to the transition from looking to obey a set of do’s and don’ts, to walking according to the Spirit rather than the flesh.
8 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, relegated sin to the flesh.
9 Therefore the law is now this: anything I do according to the flesh is sin.
10 If I give in to fleshly desire then I walk according to the flesh.
11 If I do anything in my own ability or strength, I also walk according to the flesh.
12 And if I do anything contrary to the love of God, I am also walking according to the flesh.
13 However the law of the Old Testament properly lays out, in its set of do’s and don’ts, what it means to walk according to the flesh if I were to disobey any of its tenets.
14 If I disobey a law in the Old Testament that is not fulfilled by the New (in that Christ is sacrificed for us), I am walking according to the flesh.
15 And therefore the Old Testament law is still valid as an old way of defining what it means to walk according to the flesh and to walk according to the Spirit.
16 By the Old Testament law is still the knowledge of sin.
17 Sin is still the transgression of the Old Testament law.
18 And yet in the New Testament we also find moral tenets given as a set of do’s and don’ts that also tell us what it means to walk according to the flesh and according to the Spirit, defining sin for us.
19 Because of certain things the wrath of God falls on the children of disobedience!
20 We are to mortify such things as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
21 Also no whoremonger nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
22 Therefore the New Testament is not nullified by the Old, and neither is the Old Testament nullified by the New: but the moral tenets of both together produce a codified law.
23 And this is what it means when “the law” is mentioned in scripture: the combination of moral tenets found in the Old Testament and the New.
24 The law says to those who are under it that they are not righteous; sinners in need of a Saviour.
25 But sin shall not have dominion over you and you are righteous if you are in Christ: for you are not under the law but under grace.
26 In that you subject yourself willingly to the law of God, being spiritually-minded, you are under the law to Christ: and this is the exception to the rule, because you are under the law not by obligation but by free will; and therefore you are righteous in Christ because you are at the same time not under the law.
27 Is Christ therefore become of no effect to you because you are not under the law but under grace? Sin shall not have dominion over you; are you not therefore justified according to the law in due process of time?
28 As it is written, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
29 And yet in another place it is also written, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace!”
30 Therefore I am justified before God by faith in Christ, which produces the obedience whereby I am justified before man according to the law.
31 God knows that I am the chief of sinners: And that I am made righteous through His blood, and that this changes me from the inside out so that I become blameless in the sight of God and man.
32 Therefore in the sight of God I am not justified by the law but by faith in Jesus Christ: for He sees what is invisible and what can become visible because the effect is not very far from its cause.
33 Now I am face to face with the wet paint principle once again, if I begin to think that I am justified by the law.
34 Wherefore, since grace makes me blameless according to the law, I find that I am justified according to the law because of grace.
35 I must therefore consider that the root is grace; and the fruit obedience to the word of God.
36 And if I were to make the root of grace obedience and the fruit of obedience the grace of God in my life, I would have the cart before the horse and would indeed be justified by the law.
37 But because the root is grace, truly by grace am I justified before God and am justified by the law only in the sight of man.
38 And God alone sees the whole of the reality: for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
4
1 What shall I say then if I come to Christ as one who is blameless according to the law? How does my life then change? I will count my blamelessness as dung in order that I might be justified by grace, and be found in Christ.
2 If in seeking to be justified by Christ it becomes evident that I am a sinner, does that make Christ a minister of sin? God forbid.
3 For if in my blamelessness I think that I am justified, I might forget that the root of my blamelessness is Christ: even faith in Him.
4 Therefore shall I sin in order that I might abandon my blamelessness so that I will no longer be justified according to the law? God forbid.
5 But I will place the highest value on my faith in Christ and the lowest value on its result in order that I might keep a proper perspective on faith in Christ.
6 If I was ever blameless according to the law, I will count that blamelessness as dung in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
7 Therefore I conclude that righteousness is imputed to me through faith in Christ apart from anything I might do.
8 All that God requires of me is faith. And my faith is counted as righteousness although I am an ungodly man. Romans 4:5.
9 All the godliness I can muster will never save me in the eyes of God.
10 It is only Christ: what He has done for me is all my righteousness.
11 Knowing this makes me desire not to sin: not because of fear or obligation.
12 But the Cross of Christ consumes me as I realize that Christ died for me and that this is all my righteousness.
13 I am undone: all my self-effort availed for nothing. I see the light in knowing that Christ and His sacrifice is everything.
14 All my righteousnesses I count as dung and as filthy rags as my eyes are opened to the fact of His righteousness and how nothing I could ever do will ever measure up to His holiness.
15 And I simply trust therefore in the complete work that Christ has wrought on my behalf. And I simply enter into His rest.
16 Shall I then sin because I have entered into His rest? God forbid. If we have learned anything, we have learned that the wet paint principle is dealt with when we cast ourselves upon Christ for our salvation.
17 Therefore by trusting in Christ I will find that I have victory over sin; because I have taken my focus off of the law for salvation and have placed it on my Saviour, even on what He did for me on the Cross.
18 No longer must I strive not to sin in order to maintain my salvation; but as I focus on the Cross, my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will keep me from sinning against Him because the Cross is clearly in view and therefore the poison of the serpent is nullified because I look on Christ in faith.
19 And as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, even so has the Son of man been lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:14-16.
