On the Law and the Gospel

Romans 3:19-20- “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:7- “What shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

            My wife spent a good bit of her life plagued with headaches. They seemed to get more and more severe as time ticked bye. She was otherwise a very healthy and vibrant person. However, the headaches became an almost daily occurrence. She obviously went to the doctor. She started on all kinds of medicines to try and remedy the problem. She changed her diet. She did everything she could to stop the headaches. Finally, the doctor decided that she needed to get a MRI. This would allow the doctor to get a really detailed picture of what was happening inside her head.  Jennie went to the hospital and got inside the MRI machine. As the machine thundered it took detailed images of her brain. These images were crucial in figuring out what was wrong with her. The images clearly showed the problem. She had a Chiari Malformation. It was a relief to finally figure out what was wrong, but now the question was, “how can you fix it?” No amount of pills or diet change could cure what Jennie had. There was only one option, surgery. She needed a neurosurgeon to go in and correct the malformation. That is exactly what she did. She met with the surgeon and decided on a date and time. The day of the surgery a remarkable thing happened. A lifetime of headaches was cured by that single surgery. Her brain fluid was now flowing correctly and as a result she was cured!

            Here is what I want us to see. The MRI was crucial because it revealed the problem. However, the MRI could never, ever cure her problem. Jennie could have gone back for a MRI everyday for the rest of her life and she still would have never been cured. The MRI is a diagnostic. The MRI was never meant to cure people, but rather to diagnose the problem. In the same way Paul tells us in Romans 3:19-20 and Romans 7:7 that the law is the diagnostic not the cure. In other words, the law shows us what is wrong with us. The law clearly shows us that we do not measure up to God’s standard of perfection. It makes it abundantly clear to us that we are messed up. We are liars, cheaters, coveters, etc. We are broken. No amount of good works can change that. It is akin to Jennie changing her diet and taking pills. No matter what she did she could never cure her problem. She needed a surgeon. The law shows us that we need a Savior!

            The beauty of the gospel lies in the Savior. We are needy. We need a Savior to do what we could never do. We need a perfect Savior who can fulfill the entire law of God. We need a Savior who can be the substitute for us. We need Jesus. His work is the only cure for our problem- death. The gospel is the cure for our brokenness. Since this is true we need to cling to the cure instead of constantly running back to the diagnostic.

            I spent the vast majority of my Christian life running back to the diagnostic. I had accepted the cure (the gospel), but I thought that I needed to constantly go back to the MRI. I clung to my own works (which never measured up as seen clearly by the law), instead of clinging to Christ perfect work as found in the gospel. Let me tell you that is a miserable way to live. I constantly felt condemned because I was constantly running back to the diagnostic instead of the cure. I looked at life as B.C. and A.C. (Before Christ/ After Christ). I really thought that Jesus paid for all my sins B.C. but A.C. it was up to me to never sin again. The problem was that the law constantly showed me that I was still messed up and sinful. I was simply learning to trade “bad” sins for “lesser sins.” (For example, it is not socially acceptable in Church circles to be lustful, but depending on how you word it, it is often acceptable to be a gossip.) However, instead of running to the cure I stayed depressed in the MRI. The law shows us that we are all terminal. The gospel offers us a cure. However, many of us still miss it. We neglect to see that we are still sinners even after we are saved. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t sin, Christian or otherwise. As a result, we need to plant ourselves in the gospel! We need Jesus just as much after conversion as we do at conversion. He is our perpetual substitute!

            The gospel begins to shift the law form condemning to delightful. Where before the law exposed us and left us helpless the gospel comes to our rescue. It constantly reminds us how much we need Jesus Christ and His gospel. This frees us. It allows us to delight in the law (Rom. 7:22- “For I delight in the law of God, in my in my inner being).  However, the law will always pull us back to Christ, because the law will always show us our need for a Savior. (Rom. 7:24-25).  Yet, the law does not condemn us anymore (Rom. 8:1).  We are found guiltless before God because of the glorious gospel! In this way we can delight in the law. Again we see how the gospel makes much of Jesus in our lives. It pulls us back constantly to adoration and worship. It pulls us back to the truth of God’s love for us as seen in the work of Christ. Where the law is powerless to cure us, the gospel is the cure we need.

            So today let’s cling to the gospel. Let’s unashamedly fall into the arms of the only One who has ever met the law’s demands. Let’s bask in the glory of the gospel. Let’s remain in our Savior’s presence today. He has done the work we could never do! Let’s adore Him today! Thank God for our Savior! We needed Him at conversion and still need Him today! We need the gospel.

I would like to point you to a recent sermon from Matt Chandler- “The Diagnostic and Cure.” It is a powerful sermon that helped me to further grasp what we have discussed today. It is form Feb. 26. Here is the link- http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons/