Living by Grace Not Law
Living by grace is amazingly poorly understood, probably because what happens to a person at salvation is so poorly believed. If we do not understand the changes God makes within a person when He saves him, then we have poor doctrine to build on to understand how to live after salvation.
In Romans chapter 6 where Paul tells us how to live by grace, he says we need to know some things, reckon some things true, and yield to righteousness. If we do not believe the things we are to know, we can hardly reckon them so, and steps to follow are then quite beyond understanding. Although he states specifically that we are free from following the law; yet commentators still find ways to keep us trying to live by laws.
One of the methods to deny the Scripture is to define terms so they fit cherished (false) doctrines. For example, the word flesh is defined to not mean a part of the body. It can be defined conveniently as sinful nature, man’s carnality, a power sphere in which a person lives, human nature considered apart from divine influences, etc. Other words are multiply defined are well.
Another problem is that Bible scholars are determined to assign everyone the same salvation whatever dispensation they live in. Trying to mash together things that are different only leads to confusion for everyone. Or some just mash together some select dispensations, like trying to say the New Testament Church is under the New Covenant for Israel.
Then with essentially one complete Pauline Epistle dedicated to arguing that the Christian who has been justified by faith without works cannot then be sanctified by works of the law, commentators go right on arguing that a person must be sanctified by works after salvation. Essentially all good works are fulfilling the righteousness of the law. Good works do not sanctify anyone in this age.
Scripture says we are to reckon ourselves resurrected in Jesus Christ so that we are new men created in righteousness and true holiness. Commentators evade such truth to argue that we are to try to improve what God has already made fully righteous. And/or they argue we should try to improve a body that will only be changed by physical resurrection.
Another way to undermine the truth of what Paul tells us is by assigning Paul’s description of his Christian life to the time before he was saved. Then the argument is that what bought failure in Paul’s life, we can now overcome because we are saved. This leads to lives of frustration.
This set of slides Living by Grace Not Law presents a Scriptural view to straighten out these mistaken views. The discussion will consider all verses from Romans 6:1 to 8:17 and various other pertinent verses. The word “flesh” will be consistently defined as part of the human body.