Living by the law sounds good doesn’t it? Most of us Americans are law abiding citizens, wouldn’t you say? That is, until you stop and think about how the jails of our nation are over crowded and how the court system is back logged with cases. I was talking with a lady one day who had been coming with her son to court for regular appearances for over a year and had yet to come up on the docket. In fact, most Christians are law abiding citizens wouldn’t you say? Until you stop and think about how frequently each of us breaks a traffic law – even law enforcement officers themselves break those. Well, living by the law isn’t as good as it sounds on second thought!
The Jewish people of Paul’s day lived by the law. In fact here he describes religious Jews who profess to live by and keep the letter of the law, yet they break it. Here Paul’s still trying to convince the Jews that they’re lost, that there’s something wrong with them, that they’re not right with God if they’re depending upon their obedience to the law and fulfilling it’s requirements to make them right with God. The point is, they can’t live by the law and become righteous or right in God’s sight.
So the question arises for you and for me – “How Should We Then Live?” Several Christian writers and theologians have used variations of this question as title of their books, including Francis A. Schaeffer, Wayne Muller and Chuck Colson who wrote “How Now Shall We Live? You live out of who you are – your identity. Those Jews and Gentiles alike lived out of who they were – sinners! “Monkey see, monkey do” as the old saying goes. Or I might more accurately put it, “Monkey Be, Monkey Do.” All a sinner can do is sin. Any good you do being born “in Adam,” apart from God, while spiritually dead is a good act of sin. Likewise, any evil you do is an evil act of sin. A sinner can only do good and evil acts of sin in their behavior. That’s how they now live. To live righteously and godly in this present world you must be a righteous person, a saint, you must be saved from sin, and sealed with the Spirit from God. You must be “in Christ,” born from above, receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. As Paul puts it, “the righteous shall live by faith.” Let’s look to see what he says to those Jews about living by the
law. First of all I hear him saying:
I. This Is Who You Think You Are verses 17-20
In the first 16 verses Paul deals with the Jews in a relatively restrained and tactful tone. However, here his mood changes and his tone becomes a bit more serious and severe as he lays out before them the necessity of bringing what they do in line with who they are – their practice in line with their profession. Paul the preacher is waxing eloquent as he attempts to convince his hearers of their need for a different kind of righteousness.
Verse 17 begins with the phrase, “If you call yourself a Jew.” To be a Jew was to enjoy certain religious advantages over other peoples. They saw themselves privileged with a special role to the world. But that privilege gave way to self-righteousness and bragging about their special relationship to God. This is who you think you are: if you rely on the law, i.e., rest in, trust in the law to make you a better person, right with God. They got their sense of security, their okay-ness with God from their connection to the law and by obedience to it. So they bragged about their special relationship with God.
Verse 18 continues, “If you know His will” – that revealed in the Mosaic Law, i.e., spiritual and moral truth. “If you approve what is superior” i.e., right from wrong or as the CEV translates it, “By reading the Scriptures you learn how God wants you to behave.” Verse 19 gives more of who they thought they were … There’s no one as blind as those who think they can see. Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides” in Matthew 23:16. A light for those in the dark – all a Gentile could do was to hope to be taught by a Jew, so the Jews reasoned. Verse 20 says, “an instructor of the foolish, ignorant; a teacher of infants, immature; because you have in the law – the full expression, embodiment of knowledge and truth. Self-righteous Jews persuaded themselves that they were superior to other peoples. And who they thought they were came from a misunderstanding of what it meant to be favored keepers of the law. They fell short of God’s intention
The question for you is, “do you know who you are?” The only way to live up to God’s intention, standard, expectation is to become a different person. You must become a new being. You must be born again because it’s out of who you are, that you do what you do. Being drives behavior. You need a new identity in order to be who God intends and live like you should. Secondly to those living by the law I hear Paul saying:
II. This Is What You Think You Do verses 21-24
Paul continued his attempt to convince them of their need for a new kind of righteousness by asking a series of rhetorical questions. He begins in verse 21 . . . It doesn’t sound like they had really learned. The CEV says, “But how can you teach others when you refuse to learn?” They were not practicing what they preached as he continues. They preached at others, but failed to listen to their own sermons. He asks in verse 22, “you say people should be faithful in marriage, but are you?” And in verse 23 the NEB translates it, “While you take pride in the law you dishonor God . . .” You’re so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking the law.
The Jews practiced blatant hypocrisy and as a result of their conduct they had led others to blaspheme the name of God. While the Jews were long on privilege, they were short on responsibility. So verse 24 discloses what the Jews did as Paul quotes Isaiah 52:5, “And all day long my name is blasphemed.” the NLT says, “The world blasphemes the name of God because of you.”
How can you keep from doing what the Jews were doing? How can you keep from being a hypocrite? Preston Gillham of LifetimeGuarantee.org defines a hypocrite as he writes, “Hypocrite is defined as a person who acts contrary to who they really are. . . Do you know what God says about Believers? He says we are saints, that we are righteous, holy, and forgiven. That doesn’t mean we’re perfect, but it does mean we’re new people! Act like a saint and it will be in keeping with what God says you are – whether you feel like it or not. You must understand who you are as a child of God if you ever hope to act like it. You will act like the person you believe yourself to be. Once you understand who you truly are, you’ll behave as you never thought possible.” That’s how you live by grace not law.
III. This Is Who You Really Are verses 25-29
While Paul has been talking about living by the law, he now comes to say something about circumcision. You see, this is a sign of the covenant. The importance of circumcision for the Jew says James Dunn is “the single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” However, the point of Paul is it only has value if a person continues to do what the law requires says verse 25. That was powerfully offensive to a Jew, yea, an abomination. If that wasn’t offensive enough, verse 26 was even more so. If the Gentiles keep the law Paul said, they’re as good as you! Then in verse 27 he relates what they really are – a lawbreaker.
Paul concludes in verses 28-29 with what a real Jew is and what authentic circumcision is. Real Jewishness is not outward, going through ceremonial activities. Nor was real circumcision outward and physical. A real Jew is one inwardly and authentic circumcision is the cutting away of the old sinful nature. That can only be done by the converting, regenerating, baptizing, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And those who experience it receive their praise from God and not people.
One thing you need to realize is, if you break the law at one point you’re guilt of breaking it all. The purpose of the law is to lead you to Christ; to lead you to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And having acknowledged your sinfulness and accepted the gift of divine approval, you’re in a position to reveal yourself for who you really are and live out of who you really are – a saint, a righteous one, a holy person. That’s living by grace and not “Living By The Law.” That’s freedom, that’s blessing, that’s grace!
