The Lord’s Prayer: Temptation to go back under the Law.

Tuesday January 31, 2023

One of the ways that we can discover areas in life that are very dangerous to our spiritual lives is to see the major themes of the Scripture. It takes some doing. We have to read and digest and read and digest some more and then pray for insight, and with a humble and energetic mind, we will see main themes jump out. Some of these are easier to find than others, and the easier ones are those that entire epistles address. For instance, Colossians deals with the spiritual life in the midst of persecution and false doctrine. We come to know, therefore, that we have to be careful in how we deal with suffering, and also that we have to weigh everything we hear from other people against the sound and clear doctrines of the Bible. The theme of Corinthians is living the spiritual life while dealing with our own flesh, in particular, temptations to immorality, arrogance, and tribalism. God is telling us to be leery of them and to put on the armor of God and hold our ground.

The theme of Galatians is that salvation is by faith in Christ and not the works of the Law, but this wasn’t written to unbelievers but believers. The danger addressed in that book was that believer can be drawn back under the authority of the Mosaic Law.

The use of the Lord ’s Prayer in averting temptation – preventative medicine.

The temptations from the evil one are coming upon us no matter what. If our hearts are right, if we calibrate our hearts every morning before we face the world of temptation, we have set ourselves spiritually healthy before the attacks come that work mostly on the spiritually sick.

Think of it as a spiritual immune system. Things like good diet, exercise, enough good sleep, low stress, and happiness boost our immune systems. The Lord’s Prayer is a boost to the spiritual immune system.

In the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord Jesus wants us to pray every day concerning our desire to walk the right path of righteousness (the narrow road, the new and living way), and to desire it so badly that we prefer to avoid all temptations that would call us away from it.

It is the final petition; after we have worshipped God’s person, holiness, work, and will; and after we have desired contentment with what God has given and we have confessed ourselves sinners (having more sin than we know) and receiving God’s forgiveness in gratitude while forgiving others of all they do to us; knowing then that our love of God is true and our life on earth is provided for, we pursue the new and living highway that is the life of Christ with everything we’ve got.

It is the strength of the new self, living in the way of the new world, while dwelling as an alien in the old world and moving around the old world in the crucified old body.

It is truly, an electrifying plan that God has devised for mankind.

It is one of the devil’s highest goals to remove you from this position of spiritual power in Christ Jesus and filled by the Holy Spirit and in loving worship of the Father.

Mat 6:13

And do not lead us into temptation (from Satan), but deliver us from evil (the evil one).

We find ourselves easily confused by this since we are still bound to the ways of the Law. Stealing, coveting, adultery, and murder are all still sins. But as Christ showed us in His Sermon on the Mount, the Law didn’t, and couldn’t reveal all of the commandment.

Mat 5:43-45

“You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven;”

Under the Law, an overt showing was considered keeping the command, but all could see if they did have love in their hearts. All of us violated the Law, and when Jesus revealed just how deep the commandments really go, we were further condemned. However, those who do keep the law of love are the sons of the Father in heaven. So, we either have to fulfill the commandment and then apply to be sons and daughters, or God makes us sons and daughters by adoption and sets us up and gives us the power to fulfill the commandment. We have to know which path is open to us or if both are.

Jer 31:31-32 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

What is vital to know is that the Law was a gift from God to the old world.

The Law served two purposes.

1) It distinguished Israel from all other nations. This was important because all Scripture would come from them, and the Messiah Savior would come from them. The world had to know the oddity of Israel, and they did, but, in old world fashion, the world persecuted Israel and even Jews scattered throughout the world. The term anti-Semitism came to be known by all.

2) The Law was a direct and judicial confirmation to all mankind that they are sinners.

The Law came directly from God and not from man. If we break man’s laws, we might have a case that the laws are unfair or unjustified. However, if we break God’s laws then there is only one conclusion – we are sinners.

Gal 3:19

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

The “until” Paul uses means that the Law would be fulfilled and its authority removed. The Law was for the old world and not the new.

We must understand what the Law is for, and if we do, when the tempter tempts us to return to its authority, we will be immovable responding with an emphatic; No!

We find this in Galatians.

The Law was given to the old world without supernatural help. In other words, you had to attempt it with faith as your power over the temptations of the flesh and the world and the devil. We see how most of them did in the OT and we see how even those of great faith, like David and Moses, failed.

What do we mean by supernatural help? If God forced us to obey, that wouldn’t qualify as a definition for help. Help is assistance, and if we’re the ones assisting then we’re not calling the shots, but if we are being assisted it is up to us to decide what to do. It is the later. We are not assisting God but He is assisting us, and so we make the decisions and find help that is supernatural. The OT saints didn’t have this. Why? They were in the old world.

Speaking of the New Covenant, God says through the prophet Ezekiel:

Eze 36:27

“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

This is supernatural help that was given to every church age believer. He is not going to force us to walk in God’s statutes, but when we chose by faith to walk in them, He is going to do what it takes to make our walk a success.

First, the new world can only be walked by new creatures.

Gal 2:19-21

"For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

Not only does Christ live in us, but so does the Holy Spirit.

Gal 3:3-5

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Satan’s very dangerous temptation is to draw us back into the world where we think we are on our own to do what we ought and ought not to do, and that our performance in these matters are what is going to determine our standing with God.

After Paul departed from them, the Galatians were infiltrated by false doctrines centered on salvation by the works of the Law. It is impossible to know if it came from outsiders or those from within their ranks, but the source we know to ultimately be the devil. Enough of them fell for the lie so that they abandoned the freedom of the spiritual life that produced joy and fruit and rewarding service. [And think of it. The Law is from God. They false teachers surely would have used that argument. But though it is from God, it was not given to the new world, but to the old. Christ fulfilled it and showed us its eternal morals and ethics. Naturally it would have goodness in it that was eternal in nature. God is truth and love and righteousness, and so His Law to the old world would have these things in it, but they were not there to the extent or depth that they would be revealed in the Person of the Son of God as a Man living among us. He was given the Holy Spirit so as to be empowered and led and He gave us the Holy Spirit for the same reason. Live by faith that the Spirit will assist you supernaturally, but He will only do so towards will of God.]

Know that if you desire the will of God you will accomplish it by the Holy Spirit.

If you say you desire it but do not, then you can fool others, but you will not fool God the Holy Spirit.