We want to continue our study in trying
to see the difference between the old covenant
and the new covenant, between law and grace.
This is so important, because if we don't
know the difference, we will live at the
low level that many Old Testament people lived
in.
God wants to lift us higher.
We want to look at a verse in
Romans chapter 6 today, which I think puts
in a nutshell, in a very brief sentence,
the essential difference between the old covenant and
the new covenant.
There we read in Romans 6, in verse
14, Sin shall not be master over you,
for you are not under law, but under
grace.
The word law there symbolizes the old covenant
and God's agreement with Israel, and the terms
and conditions of that covenant are all included
in that one word, law.
And grace, in one word, sums up God's
new agreement through the Lord Jesus Christ, and
all the terms and conditions of that new
agreement.
And here it says, you can be either
under law or under grace.
And the proof is this, when you are
not under law, but under grace, sin cannot
be master over you.
We could put it another way, that on
the other hand, if you are not under
grace, but under law, then sin will have
the mastery over you.
So ultimately, the way we discover whether we
are under the law or under grace, is
not by testing whether we are legalistic in
relation to a lot of rules and regulations,
but on the other hand, by a far
more deeper test.
Does sin have the mastery over you?
Or do you have the mastery over sin?
This is a very, very important question, because
a lot of people do not understand the
difference between what Jesus has come to give
and what Moses came to give under the
old covenant.
Now if I were to ask you a
simple question, who is greater, Moses or our
Lord Jesus Christ?
That's clear.
Moses is a servant and the Lord Jesus
is the master.
It's so clear that Jesus is far greater
than Moses.
Now let me tell you, since you understand
that clearly, that the covenant or agreement that
God mediated with Israel through Moses, is as
inferior to the new covenant that God mediated
through Jesus, as Moses is inferior to Jesus.
The implication is that if Moses and the
law could bring people in the Old Testament
to a certain standard of life, Jesus and
the new covenant should be able to bring
them to what?
To a higher standard or an equal standard?
Of course, you'll say it has to be
a higher standard.
It would be something comparable to walking and
flying, you know, to a bicycle and an
aeroplane.
I mean, there's a lot of difference between
a bicycle and an aeroplane.
Both the speed and the ability to move
from place to place.
And if you can compare a bicycle with
an aeroplane, there you see the difference between
the old covenant and the new covenant.
The old covenant could also take you from
one place to another, like a bicycle can.
And the new covenant can take you from
one place to another, like an aeroplane can.
And there's a world of difference between the
two.
The old covenant could bring a man to
a certain point of fellowship with God, but
not beyond that.
And in the Old Testament tabernacle, God illustrated
this by putting a thick curtain between the
holy place and the most holy place.
It was called the veil and told the
Israelites, nobody can come into this most holy
place.
This veil blocks you.
You can come so far, but no further.
You know, and beyond that veil, God Himself
lived in that temple, Old Testament temple, and
nobody could go there.
Even the high priest could go only once
a year, and that was only as a
token.
But nobody could go there whenever they liked.
But when Jesus died on Calvary, that veil
was rent, torn from top to bottom, showing
that the way into God's presence was open
now.
So now let me ask you, now that
the veil is torn and the way into
the most holy place, into God's presence, is
open, should our standard of life be higher
or lower than people in the Old Testament?
The answer is clear.
If without personal fellowship with God, with just
the law, people could come to a certain
standard of life, how much higher our standard
of life should be once we come into
fellowship with God Himself inside the torn veil?
And yet many, many Christians don't seem to
have understood this.
Why, for example, do we find or hear
sometimes of Christians falling into some terrible sins?
Can you imagine Elijah or John the Baptist
running after women or running after money?
No.
And yet they did not have grace.
They did not have this open access into
the most holy place like we have.
And without it, they came to such a
life.
How much more we can come to if
only we would have faith and rise up
to our privileges under the New Covenant?
And that's what Paul is saying here, sin
shall not be master over you, for you
are not under law, but under grace.
Jesus once said in Matthew's Gospel in chapter
11, He said that even though John the
Baptist was the greatest human being born up
until that time, Matthew 11, verse 11, Jesus
said that the greatest human being born up
until that day was John the Baptist.
Of course, apart from himself, he was not
born of a human father, so Jesus Himself
is excluded.
But among all others, John the Baptist was
the greatest.
And then Jesus went on to say, But
the one who is least in the kingdom
of heaven, in God's kingdom, is greater even
than that.
What He was trying to say was that
the highest that the law could take a
man was still inferior or less than where
grace could take the weakest of God's children.
So it's not going to be just an
occasional believer who rises to a higher standard
of life than John the Baptist.
God's will is that every single one of
His children who come under grace rise to
a higher level than John the Baptist.
But whether they will actually live that life
is quite another thing.
That's quite another thing.
But the possibility is there.
If they understand and receive grace as God
offers it to us through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now, when we compare the word mercy, as
we read, for example, in Hebrews 4, verse
16, we're told there that we are to
come with confidence to the throne of grace
that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
And as I mentioned in a previous study,
there is a difference between mercy and grace.
Mercy is essentially an Old Testament word.
It's a word which you find very frequently
in the Old Testament.
The Lord whose mercy endures forever.
And David often speaks about it.
And as a result of that mercy, people
in the Old Testament had their sins covered
and forgiven.
They could not be cleansed.
David could only say, blessed is the man
whose sins are covered.
Nobody's sins could be cleansed until Jesus died
on Calvary's cross.
But they could be covered until Christ came.
They were forgiven.
That well-known psalm, Psalm 103, David says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget
not all his benefits, who forgives all your
iniquities.
That was mercy.
And all of us need it, too.
We need mercy.
We need our sins to be forgiven.
But there is something more that we have
in the New Covenant.
And that is grace.
Something more than mercy.
Something to help us in the future.
Something to help us overcome the passions in
our nature.
And it says here, we can come to
the throne of grace in the same place
where we received mercy.
We can find grace to help us in
our time of need.
Now, what is our time of need?
Our time of need is when we are
under tremendous pressure from the lusts in our
flesh, tremendous pressure from the devil to sin.
And in that moment, when we are tempted
to sin and to fall, God says, Grace
can help me.
Grace is help.
Help for my need, whatever it is.
If my need right now is that I
need help to overcome a particular sin, it
says, Grace can help me in my time
of need.
It's like if I were climbing a mountain
and I'm about to slip and fall.
If I ask for help, God can lift
me up and make me stand so that
I don't fall.
But if I don't ask for help and
I struggle on my own, I slip and
fall and break my bones and then I
ask God for help.
And an ambulance comes and picks me up.
Well, that's help too, but that's mercy.
That's after I have fallen that God picks
me up, forgives me, takes me to hospital,
patches me up and restores me.
Now, that's the experience of many Christians.
They fall, then they ask God for help.
But isn't there a better way?
There is.
Grace to help me in my time of
need.
Now, why don't you do this next time,
when you find the pressure of temptation so
strong that you're about to fall.
Try this out and see if it doesn't
work.
You ask God at that moment, say, Lord,
I'm not able to overcome this.
I want you to help me.
Give me help, grace to overcome this.
And you will see in that moment, grace
coming to carry you through.