Judges: Chap 2: How does a sinner mature in grace?

Title: Judges: Chap 2: How does a sinner mature in grace?         

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

The Law of Moses contained 613 commandments and being a conditional covenant, it provided blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, EXO 15:26.

 

613 commands is a sobering reality, but if one truly did love the Lord then these commands were a source of rejoicing and not a burden. All the commands in some way pointed towards the salvation on mankind through the Messiah as well as Israel's salvation and deliverance, they just had to be understood in this light, and when they were, they were a joy to fulfill.

 

PSA 119:18

Open my eyes, that I may behold

Wonderful things from Thy law.

 

PSA 119:72

The law of Thy mouth is better to me

Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

 

PSA 119:97

O how I love Thy law!

It is my meditation all the day.

 

In the Mosaic law the blood of the animal only covered the sin, but it did not remove it, HEB 10:1-4. It did provide for forgiveness of sin and restoration to fellowship.

 

HEB 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

 

HEB 10:2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

 

HEB 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

 

HEB 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

In these first four verses the author makes it as clear as can be that the OT sacrifices were insufficient. He gives the facts concerning the Law.

 

The Law was a "shadow" or a mere indication of the reality as it existed in heaven - the good things to come - the finished work of Christ.

 

Secondly, the Law was not the very form of things. The Greek word "form" means an image that is an exact representation, which Christ is. The Law could not permanently deal with the sin issue but Jesus could and did. The sacrifices could never make a man perfect or complete. The level of maturity available to the OT saint is some level below that of the NT saint since the believer in the church is blessed with a greater position and a greater knowledge.

 

The OT saint could never enjoy the consciousness of being thoroughly cleansed forever from the guilt of sin. They were continually reminded of this by the sacrifices.

 

Such a fact, that the church-age saint has been gifted by God with a purely clean conscience, intensifies the focus on our freedom in Christ. A freedom that is not an opportunity for the flesh but an opportunity to serve one another in love.

 

The NT saint has perfect freedom:

 

GAL 5:13-14

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, " You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

 

Today, the believer no longer has to feel the guilt of sin. He will be conscious of it but the consciousness of the guilt of sin is gone; the guilt of sin has been taken away. In the OT, when a believer walked away from the feast on the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur] he was very aware that it would be repeated the next year due to the sins of Israel, including his own. There was a sense of guilt as these sins were brought to mind. There is no such reminder now. The Lord's supper is not a reminder of sin but a reminder of the Person of Christ and His glorious sacrifice.

 

HEB 10:5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says [PSA 40:6-8], "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired,

But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;

 

HEB 10:6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure.

 

HEB 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come

 (In the roll of the book it is written of Me)

To do Thy will, O God.'"

 

Animals did not offer their blood with perfect obedience and faith:

 

1SA 15:22

"Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams."

 

His obedience brought perfection to all who would believe in Him. Obeying is better than sacrifice. Saul disobeyed God and attempted to atone for that with the sacrifice of the very animals he was commanded not to take but to destroy. Such a sacrifice is useless without faith. A NT believer may be a severe ascetic or he may discipline himself in some way that fits into his own plan or his own making, but this will never mature him. God has given each of us a tailor fit plan and it is up to us to obey that one plan, and if we do, we will mature to the stature that belongs to Christ.

 

Only obedience brings perfection or completeness. We are not to create our own plans.

 

In our study of maturing in Christ we should remember that.

 

HEB 10:8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

 

HEB 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

 

HEB 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

The author uses a perfect participle with a finite verb to grammatically emphasize the believers are in a permanent, continuous state of salvation and positional sanctification.

 

We are permanently holy in the sight of God and hence we are free and without guilt because of the blood of Christ.