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LESSON 1 * PART 1 * BOOK 5
Law – Weak and Beggarly
Genesis 21-23
Remember, we covered the allegory that Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. In the Book of Galatians Paul uses the allegory that Ishmael represented the "Law" which was fleshly (and here I’m expecting some flack!). Here Paul quotes from Genesis:
Galatians 4:30,31
Paul was writing to Gentile believers in the province of Galatia, who were being besieged by Judaizers. These Judaizers taught that Gentiles could not be saved unless they also kept the Law. Paul, however, was adamant that legalism could not be brought into Grace. Remember, the Law was carnal; it was fleshly; it was weak (I know that will not go down easy with a lot of people because we know that the Law was spiritual, it was perfect and holy – from God’s point of view. But from man’s side, the Law was what we said above – carnal, fleshly, and weak!). Paul wrote to the Galatian Gentile believers who had been saved by Grace, but who were being tempted to go back under the Law.
Galatians 4:9
"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"
Paul was referring to the Law. Remember, Paul was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he said, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." "The Law of sin and death" – does that sound like something very beautiful? The "Law of sin and death" was the Mosaic system!
Romans 8:3
"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, condemned sin in the flesh:"
Now, because there are many people who don’t like the writings of Paul, even though the epistles of Paul are the very bedrock of our Christian faith, (I’ve even heard some say the letters of Paul shouldn’t be in our Bible!), let me show you another scripture where the apostle Peter referred to the Law in the same way. When the Jewish believers in Jerusalem got wind that Gentiles were being brought into a relationship with "their" God, they got "all shook up!" Was Paul, a Jew, really permitting Gentiles to claim they were saved without becoming proselytes of Judaism?
Acts 15:1
Plain English. That’s what the Jewish believers from Jerusalem were trying to convince the Gentile believers at Antioch! There was a tremendous argument between Paul and the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. (Read Galatians 2 in your spare time, where Paul continues to say that the Gentile believers could not be forced to stay under the Law, for they were under Grace!) In Acts 15, Peter enters the controversy. God reminded Peter (and the others through him) of those special events when the first Gentiles were saved through Peter’s preaching. God certainly wanted the house of Cornelius saved, but in the bigger picture, this was a preparation for Peter in Acts 15 to come to Paul’s defense by reminding the brethren that God had saved Gentiles by Peter’s preaching years before. Verse 9:
Acts 15:9
We are continuing here to see that the Law was weak and beggarly. Peter calls the Law a "yoke," a "burden." The Law was never intended to save even the Jew who was under it. Turn to Galatians 5 where Paul uses exactly the same word to describe the Law.
Galatians 5:1
It was torn down stone-by-stone by the Roman army; totally destroyed because the Age of Law had faded off the scene and the Age of Grace had commenced. For now, we are not under Law, we are under Grace! Let’s pursue a few more verses about the Law. Turn to Romans 3. Paul makes the statement for the first time that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. At the word, "Gentiles," they went berserk. Romans 3:19
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."
Of all the peoples of the earth, there was only one group that were literally under the Law – the Jews. God didn’t expect the Gentiles to keep the Law or to have Temple worship. Israel was under the Law, but the Law also condemned the whole human race, "...that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Romans 3:20,21
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Whereas the Law condemns and proves everyone is a sinner, unfit for God’s Heaven, but now, the righteousness of God is manifested without the Law!
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