Join Bob George in unraveling the profound themes of God’s love, obedience, and spiritual maturity. Through a thought-provoking conversation with callers, this episode emphasizes the importance of recognizing Christ as the end of the law and the beginning of a grace-filled life. Bob offers practical advice to those facing resistance in Bible studies and highlights the essence of understanding and aligning with the truth of Scripture. This episode is not only informative but also a spiritual encouragement for those seeking clarity and depth in their faith journey.
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Today we are pleased to present a special radio show featuring call-in listeners from Bob’s original people-to-people daily radio program that was on the air for over 30 years, offering real answers for real-life problems as he addresses common questions as well as the tough issues of today, directing callers to the centrality of Christ in you, your only hope of glory. We want to remind our listeners that Bob George Ministries needs your financial support to continue to have Classic Christianity Radio on the air. Please visit BobGeorge.net to find out how you can help support us financially. Let’s now join Bob as he presents practical biblical insights as he helps people experience a life of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Fallbrook, California, listening on Kay Bright. And Bob, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, Bob. This is Bob in Faulborough, California. I have a question for you. Okay. And that is, we’ve been in a discussion in Galatians about law and grace, and there are some teachers who teach that when Christ was speaking about the commandments, he was referring to the Ten Commandments. And as Christians, are we to specifically obey the Ten Commandments, or is that just…
SPEAKER 02 :
incorporated in our walk with the lord how is that to be regarded well bob if we don’t die to the law which would include the ten commandments uh… we’re never going to walk in freedom that we have in christ jesus there’s just no way to do that if you’re under the law you’re under the condemnation of the law And if you’re under the law, why, then you’re dead. And that’s why it says that anyone who’s under the law is under a curse, because you cannot have the law, Bob, apart from the punishment of the law. The law of Moses came with a punishment, didn’t it? And the punishment is that the wages of sin under the Mosaic law, the wages of sin is death. It’s not a paddling. It’s not going to the woodshed. It’s death. And so that’s why if you’re under the law, then you’re under the curse of the law. You cannot separate the law from the punishment of the law. So until you die to what killed you, and that’s why it says that we’ve been called to be ambassadors of a new covenant, not of the law that kills, but of the grace of God that gives life. And it’s amazing to me how we sit and call ourselves ministers and pastors when we’re told in the Scripture that we’re supposed to be ministers of a new covenant. And quite frankly, Bob, I don’t know about you, but… In all of my life of being in the Christian world, I never heard a message on the new covenant. And so it’s strange, isn’t it, that we’re supposed to be ministers of a new covenant and you never hear new covenant ever taught. But it says, as an example in Romans, sin shall not be your master because you’re not under law but under grace, which means that when you’re under the law, sin is your master. The purpose of the law was to lead us to Christ. It has a role in the world today, but it’s a role to the lost, not to the saved. It was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. No man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law. And now it says, as in Galatians 3, 24 and 25, which we’re studying, now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Whose supervision are we under? The supervision of the Holy Spirit of God that lives in us. And there’s the difference of being led by a person rather than being led by laws written on stone. So it talks in Galatians, in the third chapter where you’re studying, that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. So there’s a curse of the law, and the curse of the law is… death if you and and has anybody ever obeyed it not only christ jesus and so the curse of the law and it says that if you’ve obeyed the whole law and just violated in one point you’ve broken all of it now who’s going to stand in front of god saying hey god aren’t you glad i’m here with that kind of uh of a regulation toward the law So it says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. In other words, he took our death for us. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. And then in Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law. How come? So that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes because under the law no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God. So it’s very, very clear the laws of Jesus now. Jesus left us with two things. He said, love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. And upon those two ends the fulfillment of the entire law of Moses and of the prophets. And so Jesus told us what to do. The law tells you what not to do. And Jesus says what to do. So when we’re loving God, then we will be loving one another. And, you know, there’s a passage of Scripture, Bob, that really got my attention was the fact that if you love me, you obey me. And I can remember that. When I first entered into understanding grace, I had to come to say, Jesus, I evidently don’t love you because I’m not obeying you in all things. And so I hate to admit this, but evidently I don’t love you. I can remember when I was a brand new Christian, I loved you. At least I felt like I did. But that evidently is not the case. And it was like the Lord took a deep breath and said, God, Bob, you’re finally getting it. And the reason is that you can’t love me until you realize how much I love you. It’s not that you love me, but that I loved you first. And you’re trying to earn my love. You’re out working yourself half to death for Jesus, and you’re trying to earn my love. You’re trying to keep short accounts with God. You’re trying all of this try, try, try. And as a result of that, you don’t understand my unconditional love and acceptance of you. And until you do, you cannot love me back. And until you do and love me back, there’s no way for you to obey me. So obedience isn’t something you go try to do. It’s a byproduct of loving God.
SPEAKER 03 :
I had a teacher say that when Christ was referring to keep his commandments, he was referring to The Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, of course. How could that be when he said Christ is the end of the law, unless you’re going to throw out all of Paul’s writings? So what did Christ mean when he said keep my commandments? The commandments? Read on. His commandments are this, to love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. You’ve just got to keep reading in 1 John. That’s the only commandment he left us with. Remember, Bob, when they asked him what’s the greatest of the commandments, he didn’t name one of them. He didn’t name any of the ten. He said this is the greatest of the commandments. Love your God with all your heart and soul and your neighbor as yourself. They’re not in there. So they were trying to get him to name the greatest of the ten, and he didn’t even name the ten. And so you have to realize that the law of Moses, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ our Lord. And until a person dies to the law, they will never come alive to grace. There’s no way to do that. There’s no way to be walking in grace and walking under the law at the same time. You can’t do that. So you have to die to that that killed you. Paul said it’s through the law that I died to the law. Now, Paul said he died to the law. And this guy’s trying to tell you you’re alive to the law. So the issue is until you die to the law, you cannot come alive to grace. The law came to kill you. The purpose of the law was to show you your sinfulness so that you will turn to Christ by faith. And again, I’m just going to read one more passage in Galatians. What’s the purpose of the law? It was added because of the transgressions until. So when you have an until, you’ve got a before and after, don’t you, Bob?
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. So it was added until the seed. Now, who’s the seed? Christ. Jesus, absolutely. So it was added because of your sins until Jesus, whom the promise referred, had come. But the scripture held that the whole world is a prisoner of sin so that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before this faith came, before you were saved, it says you were held prisoner by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. And so what’s the purpose of the law? Just told us. It’s to lead us to Christ. It’s like a mirror, Bob. What’s the purpose of the mirror? To show you your face is dirty. You ever tried to wash your face in the mirror? You’re going to smudge it. That’s not the purpose of the mirror is to wash your face. The purpose of the mirror is to reveal it’s dirty. Then you’ve got to look to another source for the cleansing. So the law is the mirror. It showed me my sinfulness. Now I’ve got to look for a source of cleansing, and that’s Christ Jesus. The law has done its work. It showed me what I was, dead, a sinner, fallen, in darkness. And the mirror was gracious enough to show me that. I then was able to turn to Jesus for my cleansing and for my salvation. And from that point on to live now guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God living in me rather than the demands of the law which killed me. So Paul says it’s through the law that I died. And when I died, I died to the law. Until you die to the law… You’ll never come alive to the grace of God. Know about it. Talk about it. Never come alive to it. Period.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Bob, thank you very much for your support. That was the opinion I took during the Bible study, but I met with a lot of resistance. I don’t think a lot of Christians understand that, and I think that is contributing to our spiritual immaturity in this day and age.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. I’ll tell you what they don’t understand, Bob, is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If they understood that they were indwelt, the first thing that I have to do with a person that’s still trying to stand in the law is to try to ask them a question in your understanding, what is salvation? And I’ll guarantee you nine times out of ten, they’ll say Jesus died for your sins, and that’s what salvation is to them. As you know, that’s not salvation. In Romans it says, while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Now what was the reconciliation that every sin that we have ever committed has been reconciled to God through the cross? And so that’s where he took away the sins of the whole world. Then it goes ahead to say, this being an accomplished fact, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? You’re not saved by the death of Christ, you’re saved by the life of Christ. Now, what does it mean, say, by the life of Christ? We are saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. Sin has a consequence to it, and it’s called death. And the only solution to death is life, not forgiveness. But in order to give us eternal life that could never be taken away, he had to eternally deal with the cause of death, which was sin. And that’s why that act on the cross was as eternal as his resurrection. The results of his act on the cross had eternal value to it, and that is he took away the sins of the entire world. How come? So that he could offer eternal life to you and me, resurrected life. That life that raised him from the dead can now raise you from the dead. Now, if we don’t understand that, Bob, then we don’t understand what it is to be led by the life of God. We don’t even know we’re alive in Christ. And if Christ is living in us and we have the mind of Christ and we have the ability to participate in the divine nature that lives in us, then that begins to enable us to see that, hold on a minute, this is how the life is lived. It’s lived by Christ. The life I now live, I live by the faith in the Son of God. Now, if you don’t understand that, then you have to go out and try to live by faith in yourself to keep the law. And so the problem with dropping the law to a person is you’re leaving me with nothing because they don’t understand they’ve been indwelt by someone. And so they find themselves helpless. You can’t take the law away from me. I have no guidelines. And so that’s an insult to the Jesus who lives in you to say that because Christ Jesus is the one who lives in you, guiding you into all truth and taking the things of the Lord Jesus as the Holy Spirit does and making them known to you. What I would do, Bob, I’d get a hold of our little book, A Spiritual Journey to Discover the Grace of God. And as a matter of fact, I’ll get our people to send it to you as our compliments. But go back to the sessions on Freed from the Law, Standing in Grace. And I would just go to these people and say, okay, guys, here we go. Scripture. Not going to even talk about an opinion, just Scripture. And you go through those scriptures and you’re going to, if a person after reading that is still in that camp, they’re a helpless case. They’re in the camp because they don’t want to get out of it. Because there’s too much scripture testifying to the truth of it. And then after that, I would go to the new covenant and just teach the new covenant and let people see that we’re under a brand new covenant of grace that
SPEAKER 03 :
and not of the cabinet of the law thank you bob for your help i really appreciate it and i really needed that because you can get discouraged sometimes you know even when there’s people with reputations who are teaching other things you kind of start to question yourself sometimes you know i know well you have no reason at all to question yourself you’ve got the truth and uh… and you stand firm in it brother
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, sir. And we’ll send you that book. And, again, when you’re standing in the truth of Scripture, nobody can argue with it. They can, but it’s an exercise in futility. Right, right. All right, Bob, we’ll put you on hold, brother, and we’ll get that book to you, and you share it with the group and pass it on, okay?
SPEAKER 03 :
Keep up the good work, Bob. Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re welcome, Bob. God bless you, pal.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Atlanta, Georgia, listening on WHUN. Danny, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Danny.
SPEAKER 04 :
I have a question concerning how people act in church. I went to Revival Church. and I’ve never been to stop a revival before. The pastor, at the end of the service, they had a prayer line, or a pastor laid hands on people. Well, I saw some people, just very few people fell on the floor, but some people, they started, like, started screaming, praise God, and started swinging their arms, and they were very out of control, and they had people surround them to keep them from hurting anybody. And now, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, and I’m wondering, how does that play? You know what I mean? I don’t understand… How they’d be full of the Spirit without self-control.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, they couldn’t.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s what I’m thinking.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, they’re under the control of a different spirit. You have to understand, again, people talk about what is it to walk in the Spirit. It’s the opposite of walking in the flesh. What is it to pray in the Spirit? The opposite of praying in the flesh. What is it to stand in the spirit opposite of standing in the flesh? It’s not complicated. You’re either going to function in the flesh or you’re going to function in the spirit in accordance with the truth of the word of God. You understand that God is spirit and you must worship him in spirit and in truth. So you can’t separate spirit from truth. So again, what does it mean to pray in the spirit, to pray in truth? What does it mean to pray in the flesh, to pray in error? And it’s the same thing there. How can you be out of control when God says my spirit gives you self-control? So what you’re seeing is a bunch of emotionalism of people that, quite frankly, I believe, has more of a resemblance to a mental hospital than it does a church. And I’m saying that, quite frankly, quoting exactly what Paul said. If you have an unbeliever that happens to come into your assembly, they’re going to think you’re all crazy. And that is exactly what you think. And so my advice to you is to eliminate those kind of services and go someplace where the word is taught and where people are functioning with a sober mind, not with some goofy mind, but a sober mind, and where you’re going to hear the apostles’ teaching and have some fellowship and prayer.
SPEAKER 04 :
His pastor’s on the radio, and he talks a lot, but I was wondering, why do pastors allow that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, because he’s a part of it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, why do they allow it? They allow it because he teaches it.
SPEAKER 04 :
I see.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure, absolutely. He teaches it, and he’s for it. Yeah. Because that’s what gets emotionalism. That’s what raises money, and that’s what draws crowds. It’s amazing what will draw crowds. You know, when you stop to think that people would pay money to go see a bullfight, and they’ll pay money in some places to see a cockfight, and they’ll pay money to go see people in the gladiator days go out and kill each other. you find out that people will pay money to see anything. And so there’s nothing unusual about going to those type of assemblies in order to see something that they call the spirit, but has nothing to do with what the spirit produces in us, which is a sound mind and of love and of a sound mind. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Do you think it’s ignorance, though, of the word?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, I don’t think it’s ignorance of the word. I think that they hopefully know what the word says, possibly don’t know what it means. I think it’s intentional. I think it’s intentional deception and techniques that are used, and there are worldly techniques that are used in order to produce some kind of a feeling, because all of this is around feeling, and to produce a feeling instead of appealing to the mind of man.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, thanks, Bob. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, Danny, good to talk to you, brother. Bye-bye. Bob, I appreciate your discernment. We’re going to go to Atlanta, Georgia, listening on WGUN. Ethel, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Ethel.
SPEAKER 05 :
I listened to your program, and it was a while back that I listened to you explain, I think it was 1 John 9, about if we confess our sins at Christ’s faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I tried to explain this concept to a friend of mine, and I think I boggled it terribly. So I wanted another hearing explanation from you, because this is the asking for forgiveness when we first come to Christ. And once we’ve done that, we never need to go back and ask for forgiveness for our sins. And my friend was stressing the fact that as we grow in Christ, that we will still sin because we are maturing, and that we should still, when we do that and it’s brought to our attention that we have done something wrong, that we should confess that. And I was saying no, and I sort of kind of got a good feel about it when you were just speaking a few minutes ago to the young man, because when Christ died on the cross, All of our sins, the present and the future, were forgiven. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 02 :
Taken away. Absolutely taken away. Ethel, what you have here is, again, and I heard you say that we should confess our sins. We’re not talking about agreeing with God concerning our sins. You’re dealing, are you agreeing with God that you are forgiven, or are you trying to agree with him that you’re getting forgiven? Because if you’re trying to agree with him that you’re going to get forgiven, that’s not faith, that’s presumption. In fact, it’s a total repudiation of truth. If you’re thanking him for the forgiveness that he gave to you at the cross, and then to admitting to the fact that, yes, I did act like a jerk to this person, and go back and straighten the thing out, which is what he wants us to do, that is biblical. But confessing for forgiveness is not biblical. And so what you’re dealing with is this person in you and everybody else was born into this world, reconciled to God through the death of his son. That is something Jesus did for every person that ever comes into this world. But it’s not salvation. I mean, it’s the forerunner to salvation, but it’s not in and of itself salvation. Salvation is life, being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. And the only life available to us is not from Buddha or Muslims or anything else. It only comes from Jesus. It’s not sitting there and being narrow-minded. It’s just the way it is. Only Christ resurrected life is the only life available to us. And so there’s no passage in the New Covenant of any of Paul’s writings or Peter’s or any of the rest of them that ever tells a person to ask God to forgive their sins. The Lord’s prayer that we use was before the cross and goes ahead to say that if we do not forgive our brother here on earth that we can see, your Father in heaven will not forgive you. Now, could that be true after the cross where it says God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their sins against him? It’s either double talk or contradiction of themselves, or you have to realize that the new covenant did not go into effect until the day that Jesus died, which is what it says in Hebrews. And we’re under a new covenant today. Now, from that day forth, there’s not a passage of Scripture telling a person to ask God to forgive him. 1 John 1, 8 and 9 that you’re talking about doesn’t say that. It’s speaking to a lost person. It didn’t tell a lost person that. What that verse says, what that verse says, Ethel, is this. And he’s basically dealing with the Gnostic heresy that we do not have a sin nature. If we claim to be without sin, now, you’re a born-again believer, aren’t you?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I am.
SPEAKER 02 :
Do you ever claim to be without sin? No. Well, of course, it would be idiotic, wouldn’t it? Because we’re not without sin.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So who would claim to be without sin? Someone that’s not saved. A saved person knows truth. A lost person doesn’t know truth. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In 2 John… Same author, written about identically about the same time. In 2 John, it says, Now, we know that if truth lives in you, according to the same author, truth will be with us forever. Okay. So now if truth is with you forever, then how could you say to a saved person that if we agree with God concerning our sins, or excuse me, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth’s not in us. If the truth isn’t in you, it’s because it never has been in you. Because if it has been in you, it says it’ll be with you forever. So you’re not talking to a saved person, you’re talking to a lost person. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. On the other hand, it says, and this if, it’s the only construction in the Greek language where it does this. It’s an if with a question mark. It’s I don’t know whether you people are ever going to come to your senses or not. I’d say the same thing to this woman that you’re talking about. I don’t know if you’re ever going to come to your senses or not. But in the event that you do, today, tomorrow, the next day, or whenever it might be, and you come to your senses and begin believing what Jesus did on a cross when he cried out, it’s finished. He is faithful and just, not to forgive, but to have forgiven and to have cleansed you of all unrighteousness. It’s an aorist tense. It’s a snapshot, Ethel, with continuing action. It’s not a movie picture. It’s a snapshot. That was done 60 years prior to John writing that. It’s done, it’s accomplished, it’s finished. And that’s why the only construct that you can put on that is not that he’s faithful and just to forgive, but he’s faithful and just to have forgiven.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, so all we can do is just thank him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank him. That’s what you do when God gave you. Same reason if you’re born again, you have eternal life. You don’t ask him for it, you thank him for it. And we’re out of time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, Ethel. God bless you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Bye-bye. God bless you. Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
This episode challenges listeners to examine their beliefs about forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Bob George questions prevalent misconceptions,…
