Sinclair Ferguson

Only the grace of God and the gospel can deliver us from legalism.

After the morning service, you are really just a little cleaner than you were when the day started.

But in many ways, the problem is not simply that we don't understand the gospel well.

You're just ready to worship.

It is that we also don't understand the law well.

And if we love the Lord, we will want to worship Him more.

So how do we begin to understand the relationship that a Christian believer has to the law of God?

That's why certainly our forefathers recognized that there was wisdom, not only in gathering together once, but in gathering together twice on the Lord's day, so that we might experience this wonderful paradox that Isaiah experienced.

Paul has a very striking way of putting this in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 21.

He says that, yes, it's true that in Christ Jesus, from one point of view, we are set free from the law.

that on the one hand, in God's presence, we become conscious of our sinfulness, and yet the glory of the gospel is that Christ, not merely a seraphim, but Christ Himself comes to us by the Spirit, puts His gospel into our hearts, and says, lo, this has touched your life.

But from another point of view, he says, I am in law to Christ.

And if you just step back from that expression and think about it, Paul is not speaking there in terms of family relationships, but that expression in law is a very good way of thinking about the relationship that we now have as Christians to the law.

Your sins are forgiven.

And to be able to go out into the week knowing that your sins are forgiven, that you have been strengthened by the presence of the Lord, is surely the most wonderful way to live the rhythms of the Christian life.

We are not directly related to the law as though in order to be saved, we needed to keep the law because Christ has kept the law for us.

And to go as Isaiah did,

Not saying, this is my special gift, and I'm going to use this exclusively, but rather saying, Lord, whatever you want me to do, wherever there is need that I can meet, Lord, whatever you hold for me in this week, here am I. Send me.

But as you remember, Paul says in Romans 7, we have had an old husband who has died, and so we are now free to marry another, to marry Christ.

And so through faith, by the ministry of the Spirit, we are united to Christ.