Today we will continue our series entitled “God’s Grace & Our Faith.” We are looking at The Law given under Moses vs. the Grace provided by Jesus. Our primary scriptures are John 1:14 & 17. In our last message, we also looked at Galatians 5:17. Today we will look at Galatians 5:18 from four translations.
(John 1:14 New International Version)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:17 New International Version)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
(Galatians 5:18 Easy to Read Version)
“But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law.”
(Galatians 5:18 New Living Translation)
“But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”
(Galatians 5:18 The Passion Translation)
“But when you are brought into the full freedom of the Spirit of grace, you will no longer be living under the domination of the law, but soaring above it!”
(Galatians 5:18 Amplified Bible)
“But if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. As a New Covenant believer, Spirit-led believer, you are no longer under obligation to the law of Moses.
The Bible says, in no unclear terms, that once you are led by the Holy Spirit (meaning that you are Born-Again, God’s Spirit is IN you, and you are actually allowing Him to lead you in all things), you are not under obligation to the Law of Moses. These are not my words. They are God’s words (Galatians 5:18), penned by the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself. You can argue against it. You can reject what the Bible says, even though it is written in plain English. But what you can’t do is change what God said. If you are led by God’s Spirit, you are NOT under The Law. Period.
2. The Holy Spirit is the key to living like Jesus in this world.
In this series, we learned that The Law of Moses was given as a tutor (Galatians 3:24). It served as a “guardian” until Jesus came. We no longer needed a tutor or guardian once Jesus came and ushered us into the New Covenant. Our Heavenly Father Himself, in the form of His Spirit, lives down on the inside of us. Please allow Him to lead you today. This is how we get to live as Jesus lived in this world. This is how we become human conduits of the divine. This is how we get to the point where people come in contact with God Himself when they come in contact with us. And that’s the goal!
Once we are Born-again, everything in God’s realm is supposed to be natural to us. But for that to happen, you must renew your mind and be led by God’s Spirit, so God’s norms can become your “new normal.” If you fight the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will be a new man (or woman) in the Spirit, but not in practice. It’s not that you have not been made new. You have. It’s just that you don’t know how to live in the new reality yet. This happens by getting God’s Word down in your heart and by learning to discern (and obey) the divine impulses of the Holy Spirit.
3. In this series, I have provided a few “macro” views of the Bible. Let’s do that again today. Let’s take a macro view of what God did.
God created Adam in His image. He placed His Spirit down inside of Adam. Adam was given divine authority and power. He was created to rule and dominate this planet. To ensure Adam had the freedom to make his own decisions, Adam was given one rule. This made Adam a free moral agent. He had the right to choose. Guess what? He used that right to disobey God, and he broke the one rule he was given. As a result, sin and death were introduced into the world, Adam was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and every human being born after Adam was born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Billions and billions of people were made sinners because of one man.
God then chose to bless Abraham. God did not give Abraham any rules. Had God given Abraham even one rule, he would have surely broken it. Because we, as humans, are not perfect. Since we are all born with the nature of Adam, we are born rule-breakers. You don’t have to teach a baby to lie or to say “no.” We are all born that way. This is why we need to be Born-Again.
430 years after Abraham, God gave The Law to Moses. There were 10 commandments written on tablets of stone and 603 more commandments. These rules were NOT designed to make men right. Rules cannot make you right. They can only show you when you are wrong. These rules were designed to prove to man that we need a Savior. Guess what? That Savior came. His name is Jesus. He saved us from our sin. He delivered us OUT OF everything Adam got us INTO.
Jesus restored us to the fellowship and intimacy Adam had with God the Father in the Garden. Like Adam, Jesus walked around with the Holy Spirit inside of Him. Jesus did not focus on rules. He only said what He heard the Father say. He only did what He saw (by revelation) the Father do. Adam (before the fall) and Jesus (in the New Testament) were not rule-based. They did not live performance-based. They were both Spirit-based and grace-based. This is how we are supposed to live today.
The Bible tells us that if we are led by the Holy Spirit, we are NOT under the bondage associated with The Law of Moses. The New Living Translation of Galatians 5:18 reads, “But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.” That’s about as plain as Paul could make it.
Once you are Born-Again and filled with God’s Spirit, you are free to live like Adam lived before the fall. You are free to live like Jesus lived when He was on this planet. You can now be led by the Holy Spirit every day, in every way. This is how we are supposed to live. This is the gospel. Don’t fight it. Embrace it. This is the only way you will ever become the man/woman you were born to be. Living led by God’s Spirit, empowered by His grace, and doing all you do for His glory!
4. You may not be under The Law of Moses, but that does not mean you will experience VICTORY. That only comes when you win the internal conflict between God’s Spirit and your old nature.
Today we have been looking at Galatians 5:18. But for this point, we need to go back to verse 17. That reads, “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” (Galatians 5:17 New Living Translation).
— While it is true that Jesus ushered us into a dispensation of grace, it is also true that we must embrace this same grace in order to enjoy the full benefit of it. Said another way, if we don’t embrace the grace of God (so we can walk in the full weight and power of the anointing that is on our lives to do what God has called us to do), we can be Born-Again and still live a fruitless, powerless an ineffective life.
— The fact that the Covenants changed does not change human nature. There were lazy believers under the Old Covenant, and there are lazy ones under the New. There were people who failed to make the most of the life God gave them under the Old Covenant, and the same is true today, under grace. Actually, I would venture to say that today it is worse. Because God has given you His grace (His empowerment to do what you could never do without Him), and yet and still, many people waste the grace. They don’t do anything with the anointing God has placed on their lives. Some even know what God has called them to do, but they are either too lazy or too selfish to do anything about it.
— Just like grace is not a license to sin, grace is also not a license for laziness. If you are committed to walking with God and allowing Him to walk with you, to embracing His grace to do what you are called to do and to allow God to live through you, you will live an amazing life. Because: a) it is the life God destined you to live, and b) you are allowing God to live through you (which is the only way you can live this life). To be clear, YOU CANNOT DO WHAT GOD CALLED YOU TO DO WITHOUT HIM! If you try to do it on your own, you will fail over and over again because human effort and self-effort will never be good enough to measure up to the size of your calling. The only way to do it is BY GRACE. This means the only way to do it is by NOT doing it and allowing God to do it through you!
*** I pray you win your internal conflict, you yield to the Holy Spirit, and you allow Him to do, through you, what you could never do without Him. This is #TheGraceLife.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith as I am led by Your Spirit. You live inside of me in the form of Your Spirit. This means I am walking around with God inside of me. I am a God carrier. Therefore, my focus is no longer on external rules. My focus is on the internal leading of Your Spirit in all things at all times.
I say what You tell me to say. I do what You lead me to do. You lead me to do things that far exceed my power, ability, and strength. And because You are leading me, I know I can. Without You, I am nothing. With You, I can do all things.
So I boldly declare that I am led by Your Spirit, I obey all I am led to do, and as a result, You change the world through me today and every day! You do, through me, what I could never do without You. Living this way, I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
