The Unbeliever And The Law Of God Series

The Unbeliever and the Law of God

Matthew 5:19

In our message last Sunday we dealt with a foundational subject in regard to our faith, and that is the relationship between the Christian and the Law of God.

I made some points that I would like to now reiterate before moving on to the message for today, as they set the stage for our message.

Last week, we discussed how Christ “fulfilled” the Law of God.

He did not abolish it, but rather He obeyed it perfectly and fulfilled every requirement of it.

His life was one lived in perfect obedience to the Law of God.

He “filled to the brim” all of God’s Laws, the ceremonial, the governmental and even the moral laws.

He satisfied the requirement of them all.

Now, the believing Christian is said to be “in Christ”.

As a result, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to the believer.

Which is why the Apostle Paul can say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

Likewise, all of the sins we commit have been charged to Christ - and He paid for them on the cross.

Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Thus, for the believer, the Law has a very specific function.

It first showed us that we were sinners, in need of a Savior.

Paul calls it our “School Master” which leads us to Christ (Gal 3:24).

The Law shows us how helpless we are to be righteous on our own.

In addition, the Law shows us why Christ came.

Christ did not come simply to live a “good” life, or an “exemplary” life.

Christ came to live a “Perfect” life in regard to the Law of God.

His was the only life to ever “fulfill” the Law of God.

Now, that was a condensed version of what I said in our message last week.

This week, I want to key in on one portion of the text which we looked at, specifically in regard to the “relaxing” of the Law.

Sometimes Christians are accused of “relaxing” the Law because of our refusal to practice sacrifices, obey strict dietary laws, etc.

But what I want us to see is that it is actually the “UNBELIEVER” who relaxes the Law, and as a result is under the condemnation of Christ in this passage.

READ: Matthew 5:19

I have entitled my message today, “The Unbeliever and the Law of God.”

Now, before we get into the meat of the message, I want to make sure we have a proper definition of terms.

“Unbeliever” can mean different things in various contexts.

I am an unbeliever about many things.

I am an unbeliever in regard to Islam... they would call me “infidel”.

I am an unbeliever in regard to the “Word-Faith” movement... I think these charlatans are using the Gospel for financial gain.

I am an unbeliever when it comes to the promises of most politicians.

So, being an unbeliever can have many connotations.

But in today’s message, we are going to be very specific with our definition of “unbeliever”.

We are going to use the term to describe someone who does not have a genuine and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

An unbeliever, in this sense, is an unregenerate individual.

Simply speaking, he is not saved.

Note: There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians, and are not. Lip service to Christ is not faith, and faith that does not give a desire to follow Christ is not genuine. James would call such faith, “dead”.

The simple reality is that all people in the world can be boiled down to two categories.

Those who are in Christ.

Those who are not in Christ.

Those who are NOT in Christ are “unbelievers” in him, and this is how we will be using the term today.

Within the realm of unbelief, there is a great deal of variety, but for today I want to simply examine three types of unbeliever:

The Religious Unbeliever

This is the person who has strong religious convictions, but have no allegiance to Christ.

The Atheistic Unbeliever

This is the person who has strong beliefs about the non-existence of God and by extension would have no belief in Christ as His Son.

The Unconcerned Unbeliever

This is the person who doesn’t really care one way or another, possibly attends religious services occasionally, and possibly might even call himself a Christian because he was born in America.