Grace >Law
Scripture: Galatians 5 v 4
"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever
of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace."
Over the past ten years or so there has been a marked
increase among born again Christians to revert to the Jewish Law and follow its
traditions and precepts. They don't seem to realise that the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ meant that sin was crucified and the season of
grace had arrived.
Grace is not just a prayer before meals but it
encompasses God's forgiveness for all our sins. Without this forgiveness we are
not saved or washed or clean before Him.
Jesus cried out on the Cross "It is finished". He was
signalling the end of living under the Law, over 600 of them, needed to show
man that he was sinful. For each different sin an animal or pigeon had to be
killed as a substitute for the human who erred.
In Hebrews 7 v 27: (Our High Priest, Jesus) "Who needeth not daily, as those high
priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's:
for this He did once when He offered up Himself."
Through grace we are saved, not by works, it is God's
gift to us. So Paul asked the Galatians who had bewitched them that they
abandoned the faith they had in Jesus to return to the Old Covenant Law.
We must ask the same question today of the modern
Galatians who religiously keep all the feasts and sabbath days and generally
behave like the Pharisees of old, whom Jesus called vipers and other
unflattering names.
I have tried reasoning with some of them and was told,
confidentially, that I need to come up higher as I was not found worthy to be
as enlightened as they were to receive this new secret knowledge. This from
people I have prayed for and ministered to for some years, who spent weekends in
my home and me in theirs. Who spent holiday retreats with me when we were in
deep prayer and Jesus was visible in the room with us.
There are so many like them who have been turned aside
from true faith to follow the law that makes Jesus a stranger to them. God told
the Jews in Jeremiah 31 v 31 - 33 that He would make a new covenant with them
because the old one had been broken.
He would write His laws upon their hearts and not on
tablets of stone. He would change the Ten Commandments into just two. Love the
lord your God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. If we follow those precepts we will always be
pleasing to our Father.
Those who now follow the law are actually denying their
salvation through Jesus and are believing that the Law can save them. The Law
saves no-one. It is there to tell people they are sinners. Its a system of
rites, rules, regulations and traditions that saw witches, homosexuals,
occultists, adulterers, etc being put to death as there was no power strong
enough to change their nature.
Jesus is our Saviour and He alone is able to change us
from the sinners we were to saved saints walking by faith to His glory. We all
have sinned and the wages of sin is death and Jesus became SIN and took death
for us all. You have to reject this salvation to follow the Old Law. You are
condemning yourself to eternal death and separation from God if you reject
Jesus.
The happiest people I have met on my journey are Jewish
Christians, who have received Jesus as their Messiah and become part of the New
Covenant of grace and freedom. Their Sabbath is every day as we enter into His
rest when Jesus is in our hearts.
Prayer: Father God, I pray for every person who has
fallen from grace back into the Old Covenant Law to be convicted by the Holy
Spirit of their folly. I pray that they will return to true faith in the Son of
God and abandon the error they now embrace. In Jesus' name. Amen.