Law of Christ

And then this.

What motivated Paul? Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

so fulfilled.

That word bear there, it's the idea of shouldering or helping carry the weight of.

I've never preached through Galatians at harvest.

I hope to someday.

See it there, the law of Christ? Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

What's the law of Christ? I mean, he said a lot of stuff, right? Well, he did say a lot of stuff, but he only said one thing like this.

LOOK, IF YOU WILL, IN CHAPTER SIX AND VERSE ONE, BRETHREN, IF A MAN BE OVERTAKEN IN A FAULT, YE WHICH ARE SPIRITUAL, RESTORE SUCH A ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF MEAKNESS, CONSIDERING THYSELF, LEST THOU ALSO BE TEMPTED.

BEAR YE ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS, AND SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST.

FOR IF A MAN THINK HIMSELF TO BE SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVETH HIMSELF.

BUT LET EVERY MAN PROVE HIS OWN WORK, AND THEN SHALL HE HAVE REJOICING IN HIMSELF ALONE, AND NOT IN ANOTHER.

BEYOND THAT, WE'RE MEMBERS OF THE SAME BODY.

BUT LET ME SHOW YOU THE MAIN REASON THAT WE DO IT.

LOOK IN VERSE TWO, BEAR YE ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS, AND SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST.

SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST.

Do we honestly wanna say that as new covenant believers, "Go commit adultery, go lie, go kill, go covet"? No, absolutely not, because what's reflected in the Decalogue, for the most part, is that which is tied to created order.

So Steve, let me again move to the New Testament here and think through some of these things, both related to the law of Christ, which gets to the next point, but also just the question.

So the law, according to the new covenant, according to Jeremiah 31, is now written on the heart.

What is that law that is written on the heart?

Well, let me kinda ask one final question to kinda bring this to a close.

Steve, I think you already are kinda moving there on what you're talking about as far as fulfilling the law in Christ.

But talk to us about the law of Christ and how the law fulfilled in Christ and the law of Christ that we find in Paul's letters is good news for us.

Yeah, I mean, I, uh, you know, people will differ on what exactly the law of Christ is.

Oh, I got you, McMillan.

James is referring to the law of Christ.

That's what he's talking about.

Hold on just a second.

He does not say law of Christ.

Law of Christ is not in this letter.

And none of those words are referring to the law of Christ either.

Only Paul mentions the law of Christ.

we have this law that we do live by.

Going to chapter six, he says in verse two, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

So the law of Christ A lot of it has been written and discussed about the law of Christ, but here's the question that was before them in the first century and it still is before us now.

How do we live? How do we live under this covenant? And the answer is by grace, through faith, and our faith works through love.

Loving God first and then loving our neighbor.

So love is how we live.

And Then there's all sorts of other things.

For instance, some would say, okay, well, how would the things that the apostles told them to stay away from in the letter, well, how is that living under the law of Christ? Well, here's what I would say to that.

This entails, as scholar Doug Moo suggests, The law under which Christians live is continuous with the Mosaic law, and that God's eternal moral norms, which never change, are clearly expressed in both.

But there is discontinuity in the fact that Christians live under the law of Christ and not under the Mosaic law.

Our source for determining God's eternal moral law is Christ and the apostles, not the Mosaic law or even the Ten Commandments.

Two important implications follow from this.

Unless we see sin for what it is, We will never appreciate God's grace and the salvation in Christ.

We must first see that we are sinners, and one of the crucial ways Scripture does this is by the giving of His good and righteous law that we ought to gladly love and obey, but instead we rebel against it because we are rebels against God.

The law of God as the law of Christ.

As stated, now that Christ has come, Christians are no longer under the law, that is, the Mosaic law, as a covenant.