Part CXVII on Galatians Study

Romans 8:4a
"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,..."
Now we need to stop here for a moment. When we start talking about Law and Grace we can't be confused. The Law from God's view point is perfect! It was the very mind of God, it was spiritual. God expressed so far as being the best for mankind's benefit and his own good. But from the human standpoint the Law was weak and beggarly, it was a yoke. Because natural man, those unredeemed can only see it as an outward expression, external worldly and of mans sufficiency of the works of his flesh. Which means man fails to comprehend its true meaning and purposes. Now why those two seemingly contradictory statements of the same Ten Commandments? Well we can see God revealed His righteousness and His Holiness when He gave those Ten Commandments. But man over there without the power of the Holy Spirit and in his own flesh couldn't begin to keep that perfect Law. It became to him a corral or tutor as an aid to keep sinful man inline. But they failed because they tied to do it under a system of self sufficiency or works of the flesh which in no way pleased God.

And so it became weak and beggarly, a yoke that old Israel just chafed under constantly. So here's the whole concept: Yes the Law is perfect, spiritual but we can not keep it in the flesh because it had no power to impart to man to keep it. Now we hope we've made that plain. The Law had no power to help mortal men to keep it. That was its weakness! And consequently man couldn't keep the Law, in fact they couldn't even come close to keeping it. But now under our new economy of Grace we've been given something far better. It was good under the Law but under Grace it's far BETTER! Now looking at verse 4 again.


Romans 8:4
"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Now that the Law might be fulfilled in us, not that we're better at Law-keeping than Israel was, but because of our position, because of the power of an Endless Life and the Holy Spirit we no longer walk after the flesh or after old Adam, but after the Spirit. Now here it is - Just as soon as old Adam-Satan nature is crucified in our flesh, and in God's eyes he's completely dead, he's out of the picture, but in our experience he's still here, but he's defeated. He's not to remain uppermost. If he remains uppermost it means we're not fighting the battle, we're not totally or truly born again and separated from the spirit of the world. We have no illumination of the power of this Gospel in us and so we remain weak and beggarly and so we seek and search for the light. And thereby we don't make light of this Gospel of Christ. Its usually during the seeking that we stumble into the Holy Spirits operating and ask Him to do His works in us. And this He then does. But without the help of the Holy Spirit empowering our spirit we can't live victoriously, but always remember that old Adam-Satan nature is powerful and he will come to the forefront at times, and that is where the warfare exists, and there would be no warfare if it weren't for the indwelling Holy Spirit. If we didn't have Him helping us there wouldn't even be a battle line. We wouldn't stand a chance against the forces of old Adam-Satan nature, and forces of Satan if we didn't have the Holy Spirit. That's the secret. New Life through death (John12:24).

In fact the word Pneuma Hagion in the Greek, do you know what it really means? In the English it is that Power from on High. That's what this is. The Holy Spirit is the Person of Holiness, but when He gives us that which we need to confront the old nature and its desires, to live victoriously in the flesh we can't do it without the Pneuma Hagion which is the Power from on High that is exercised through the Person of the Holy Spirit. And we have to understand we take it all in by Faith - "But Lord I have the Holy Spirit, I can draw on Him, and I don't have to force myself to be a law keeper." It just simply now comes naturally to let the Spirit run the race for us. All right while we're here in Romans chapter 8 and this fits with Galatians so perfectly come on down to verse 5.


Romans 8:5
"For they that are after the flesh (they're still living in the realm of old Adam-Satan nature, and know nothing of God's saving Grace) do mind the things of the flesh; (now you want to remember that's the grand majority of the world's population. All the lost and unbelieving out in the world today are there for this to gratify their flesh. They have no concept of eternity, they have no concept of Spiritual things, and all they are concerned about is to gratify the flesh. Oh they may do it with pomp and circumstance. They may do it in high echelons of society, but it's still just the gratification of the flesh. Now on the other hand the flip side of that is ) but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."  A thought just came to us that they have no understanding of Matthew chapter 22 verses 1 through 4 for they are guilty of verse 5. Lets take a quick look at it:

Matthew 22:1-4
"And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king (God the Father of spirits), which made a marriage for his son (Christ Jesus), And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding (Israel): and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage."  Now here's the verse of interest verse 5:

Matthew 22:5 -7
"But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Do you see the word "made light of it" they did not believe the servants words to be those of the Fathers. Many of our day are in the same boat as Israel was and still is because this parable was spoken directly to them. The to see what saw instore for them and the rest who refused this Gospel read the next few verses. Now picking up where we were:


Galatians 5:18
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."
Now that's what the Book says. Remember we're not saying them, but rather the Bible is, God's Word says it. When we're under Grace and under the working and power of this Pneuma Hagion this power from on High, then we're not under the Law. In other words we don't have to check the Ten Commandants every day to see if we've broken one or more today. See, that's not the way we're to look at it, that doesn't even enter our minds that we have to keep the Law, because the Holy Spirit is in place of the Law. Well we've got to look at another verse in Romans chapter 7 verse 6 and this says it better than we can. We're going to keep on repeating it, and repeating it until people know it forward and backwards.
 
Romans 7:6
"But now we (as believers) are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."
Well what are the two concepts there? Are we going to work and live under the idea of the new nature who is being prompted and encouraged by the Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, or are we going to still try and satisfy the old Adam-Satan nature by some sort of religious works. See, old Adam knows enough that maybe he should try to keep the Law, as a lot of people realize that it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to do those things, and so old Adam can recognize that, but we see on the other hand he knows he can't keep the Law anyway so pretty soon he gives up. But we see the new nature doesn't have that problem. Our new nature under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, realizes that we can't keep the law by the energy of the flesh. It's impossible. So when we let Him lead us and guide us and direct us then the Law takes care of itself. Read that verse again.