In this captivating episode, delve into the teachings of Bob George as he explores the transformative power of God’s grace. Drawing from Galatians, Bob challenges conventional beliefs around law, grace, and salvation. Engage with a profound discussion on how believers can live a life unburdened by the law, fully embracing the love and forgiveness offered through faith in Christ. Discover the true meaning behind being crucified with Christ, and the implications of living under grace.
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, let’s turn to the second chapter. of the book of Galatians, you need a continual dose of renewing of your mind every moment of the day. Now that doesn’t mean you sit and read your scriptures for 24 hours, but it means when you do, absorb them so that you can meditate on what truth is. Because once you have truth in you, it’s there. So I don’t need it in front of me anymore. It’s not that I don’t need a renewal of it, but it’s there and it’s also here and here. So now I can meditate on it. And that’s what he’s saying to us. You need to learn to meditate on the word of God, on the truth of the word of God. And what the word of God is going to say, just like we’ve talked before in Ephesians, if you’ve been stealing, that’s one of the big ten. But are they under the big ten? No. So they’re not under the big ten. If they were and said they’re stealing, what would the wages of that sin be? Death. So they’re not under that. So what does he say to you? If you’ve been stealing, cut it out. Go to work. God forbid. Work with your hands and then take what you earn and help people in need with it. Now, when have you had your mind renewed? When you go to work? Well, part of it. When have you had your mind renewed? When you quit stealing. Why? I don’t need to steal anymore. My father owns a cattle on a thousand hills, can sell one any time he wants to. He’s promised to give me everything I need for life and godliness. I don’t need to steal. Used to like to steal, but don’t need to steal. Why? I’m a child of God. I’m being cared for by my Heavenly Father. Now I’ve gone to work and made some money. Lord, see how obedient I am? He said, no, there’s something else that you forgot about. What’s that? Take some of the money you make and help people in need with it. Now when I do all of that, have I completed the deal? Has that been complete now? Have I done what God said to do? Quit stealing, gone to work, work, and taken some of the money that I’ve earned and helped people in need with it. Completed the action? You see anything in there about you are out of fellowship with God? See anything about that in there? Now, if it isn’t there, why do we have it there? You’ve sinned and you’re out of fellowship with God. You’ve got a black mark and you need to get it erased. Isn’t that what’s taught? And so how do you do that? Well, you’ve got to confess your sins to God. And then that erases the black mark. So you can go steal again. Go back next week, steal again. Confess your sins. Erase the black mark. You can just keep that up forever. Go to Mass. Go to wherever it might be. Do it as long as you want to. Is there anything about renewing your mind in that kind of a theology? No, it’s just being diligent to confess your sin. And that’s why everything is, you’ve got unconfessed sin in your life. It doesn’t matter if it’s your sin, that’s okay, just confess it. Just be sure you don’t have unconfessed sin in your life. It’s okay to have sin there, just not unconfessed sin. And so you’ve got the Catholics that they’re Catholic at your confession booth every week, and you’ve got the Protestants at their 1 John 1-9 every day. And God’s sitting up in heaven saying, do you people have a brain in your head? Did you not hear me say from the cross, it is finished? Do you not know that no man will ever be justified in the sight of God through obedience to the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ? And faith in Jesus Christ is that I’m going to continue to forgive you. Faith in Jesus Christ is that I’ve forgiven you. You are a forgiven person. The moment you step out of Adam into Christ and Christ steps out of heaven into you, you’re a forgiven person. just like you’re a saved person. And the only thing that you can do to that is say thank you. There’s only one response that I have when the Lord Jesus Christ cries out and says, Bob, I took that away at the cross. You say thank you. Now, Lord, I can enter into his presence, calling him Abba Father and receiving mercy in my time of need and to receive instruction. So he’s in the business of instruction now. The Holy Spirit of God instructing our minds, teaching our minds the truth. So, if I rebuild this law in my grace system, I’m going to prove nothing except the fact that I’m a lawbreaker. For through the law, I died to the law. Now, that’s a great passage of Scripture. Through the law, I died. What does that mean? When I saw that I couldn’t do it, I died. That’s what Paul said. Sin seizing the opportunity stirred up every kind of covetous desire and I died. And so he’s saying that for through the law I died. Now when I died what did I die to? The thing that killed me. The law. So through the law I died and when I died I died to the law. That’s the picture of submersion of baptism. which we again pervert by sprinkling and hosing people down and everything else. That doesn’t show the picture. Baptism is a picture. It’s not a way and means of salvation. It’s a picture of salvation. What is it a picture of? What are you born under? The law. You die. When you die, you normally get buried. So you and the law die. Then you’re raised in the newness of life. What do you leave in the water? In the grave? The law, the thing that killed you. Through the law I died. When I died, I died to the law. Raised in the newness of life to be led now by the spirit living in me, not by the law that is dead. Are we together on this? So it is through the law that I died to the law. How come? So that I might live to God. Now what does that also tell us? Are you living to God under the law? You’re living under the law. You can’t have two masters. You’re either going to be mastered by the law or by God. But it says very clearly that I died to the law so that I might live for God. And you’ve got people who say, oh, they’re under the law, but they’re living for God. Nonsense. They’re living for themselves. To do what? Seeking to be justified by the law. And you can’t live for God under the law. You can live in fear of God under the law. Perfect love casts away all fear. Fear has to do with punishment. A man who fears cannot be perfected in love. Why? Because under the law, there’s nothing to do except fear. Because under the law, what if I missed one? What if my memory wasn’t too good that day? What if I die and I got some sins that I forgot to confess? Then people come along and say, oh, grace cover that. So it’s a memory system. There is no way to go into death without fear under the law. I hope to God I did enough. I hope to God I was good enough. I hope I went to church enough. I hope I read my Bible enough. I hope I prayed enough. I hope whatever I had to do, I did enough of it to get there. What a horrible way. To go to your deathbed. And all of us are going to go to our deathbed someday. And when we do. We’re either going to be looking forward to seeing Jesus. Or I’m not going to know where I’m going to see him or not. I just hope, hope, hope. And so what he is saying. That is through the law. I died to the thing that killed me. And I died to it. Now let’s go to the next one. I. in most translations say, am crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God. I’m not going to set aside the grace of God to follow the traditions of my fathers, the law. And the reason is for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing. And you who are wanting to rebuild what we destroyed are saying, Jesus, your death didn’t mean anything to me. Now, folks, I want to deal a little bit here with verse 20. I am or have been crucified with Christ. Now, what does that mean? Well, we have some dear brothers in Christ and a lot of people who kind of attribute this type of thing to, I love in the Lord, but I just don’t think they’re right in interpretation. You have people who say that eternal life is like a circle, a non-ending circle. And in that non-ending circle, you’ve got the cross back there 2,000 years ago. You’ve got seated in the heavenlies up here someplace, and we’re on that circle. So what I am crucified with Christ means that you zoom back there because God’s not limited by time, and you literally were on the cross with Jesus. They call that exchange life sometimes. Well, there’s only one problem with that. Unless you’re a Mormon, that would be impossible. Because how could I have been back there when I was not here yet? Unless I was in a spirit form. Now that’s what Mormons believe, that you’re little spirit things up there, and that’s why you’ve got to have a bunch of babies so that you’ve got a body to live in. So you’re always alive, but then you get a body to live in down here. And then you can elevate yourself up to being God. So in other words, that’s pre-existence before you were here. Anybody believe that? So in essence, what you’re dealing with, if I was back there before I was here, why then I had pre-existence. I don’t believe that, do you? So to say that I was crucified with Christ means I was hanging on a cross with him. If I was hanging on the cross, what was he doing there? Because if I was hanging on the cross, I was getting what I deserved. And so you’ve got a lot of that teaching that goes on. And There’s no substance to it, in my opinion, at all. Out of this one verse, I am or I have been. So, when did you come into existence? When you were born physically. The breath of God was breathed into you and you became alive spiritually. You had a human spirit, a body and a soul. But you were separated from the life of God. You were born that way. In Adam. separated from the life of God. Was I in existence prior to that time? No, not at all. So some people say, well, what do you do with this thing about then you’re seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus? Well, I’m here. So if he wants to see me seated there in the future, that’s fine. But he didn’t see anything about me prior to the time I was here. So you have to bring some sense to this whole thing that I was not in existence prior And I was not preexistent in all ways. I came into existence physically and spiritually at the time of my physical birth. Are we together on that? And from that point on, it’s all in the mind of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
So you say, well, I don’t, okay, I’m not going to go along with that teaching that I was back there. So you say, well, what does this mean? I have been crucified. I am crucified with Christ. Well, God gave me an example of that, which you’ve seen in my books, but I think it’s worthy of repeating, of the time that our grandson was being born. And I was very interested in what was going on inside of my daughter. And she’s married to a doctor. And so I sat down with John and said, John, are you telling me that that little baby is in a sack of water? Yeah, that’s right. I was totally surrounded by water, yeah, living in a sack of water. Any of you, were you ever living in a sack of water? Yeah, for nine months in a sack of water. Well, my response to that was, John, people don’t live in water. Fish live in water. Is Debbie going to have a bass? And so we were sure that wasn’t going to take place. I said, well, then, John, how does that baby breathe? You can’t breathe in water. Well, because Debbie breathes. Well, how does that baby eat? Well, because Debbie eats. And how does that baby live? Well, because Debbie lives. And I got to thinking about that. And I thought, you know, if you could talk to that little fellow. He would say, I am crucified. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but mom lives in me. And the life that I live in this womb, I live by faith in mom, the one who loved me and gave herself for me. And I came to understand a truth. That that baby is on a totally different support system than its own. Isn’t it? That baby is on its mother’s support system in the womb. Isn’t it? And if the mother goes, the baby goes. And so that baby can say, I’m dead, yet I’m alive. I’m dead as far as being able to live on my own, but yet I’m alive because mom’s alive, living through me, in me and through me. And so he’s saying, yeah, in and of myself, I’m dead. But in Christ, I’m alive. And I thought what a marvelous thing it was for God to give us that physical example of a spiritual truth. Because when we are in Christ, we’re on a different support system. We’re on His. We’ve been plugged into His umbilical cord. We are fed by Him. We are instructed by Him. We are led by Him. So that we can say, in and of myself, I’m dead. And yet I’m alive because of Christ who lives in me. And the life that I live now, I live by faith in the living Jesus who lives in and through me. The one who loved me and gave himself for me. I’m on a different support system than my own. Is that true or not, guys? Now, until you plug into that support system, can you say that? Can you say that being religious? No. You can only say that when you’re in the womb. When you’ve been transferred from one place into another, we have been transferred from darkness into what? Light of the sun. And in him, I am alive. Apart from him, I’m dead. And so I believe that that is exactly and precisely what this passage is talking about. I’m crucified. I’m dead in and of myself. Nevertheless, I live. Is this body of ours in which we live, in essence, dead? In essence, it’s alive, but it’s going to death, isn’t it? And where is it going? Back to where it came from. I came from the dust. I’m going back to the dust. And when this body falls into the ground, it becomes worm food. I came from the dust. I’m going back to the dust. But God gave us another promise. I’m going to give you a glorified body. It’s going to be made up of this stuff that can go to the ground. It’s new. It’s brand new. It’s going to be recognizable. But now say, well, what does that mean? Does it look like I look now? I hope not. Be better when I was 18. What if you were born a crippled? Is it going to remain a glorified crippled body? No. What if you’re missing parts? Is it going to come back as a glorified missing part body? No, it’s coming back a pure body. What does that mean? We don’t know. We act like we know, but we don’t know. Paul said, how stupid. You sow an ear of corn, does it come back or sow a seed of corn? Does it come back a seed? No, it comes back an ear of corn. Something looking totally different than what the seed did. So what are we going to look like? I don’t know. Maybe an ear of corn I don’t know but it’s going to be a glorified body sown corruptible sown incorruptible now that to me is all I need and after this year I’m glad so I’ve had about all I need in this body for a while so we have to see that all of this is ahead of us but we don’t know all the details of this we like to write books about it and act like we do we just don’t know But one thing we do know, it’s going to be wonderful. And one thing I do know, that if there’s a God in heaven, he’s a God of love, he ain’t going to let me look like I do now. So that I’m convinced of. Okay, does that make sense to you? And I don’t think we can spiritualize that any more than that. I do not believe in that concept that we were back at the cross because, again, we were not preexistent. And that to me annihilates that thought. Okay, so I don’t set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Now, folks, do we see the argument that Paul is trying to say here? You are under grace. Stand in it. Is there any room for the law under grace? No. Is there anything wrong with the law? No. It says it was holy and good. What was the problem? When it flowed through me, Paul said, it killed me. Nothing wrong with the law. It’s us. It’s the problem. But what was the purpose of the law? To show me I’m dead. If I don’t know I’m dead, why would I ever turn to Christ for life? If I didn’t know I was a sinner, why would I ever turn to Christ for forgiveness? So the law has a purpose. It’s to show us it’s a mirror. And like I say, you look in a mirror and see that your face is dirty… The mirror’s done its work. Now you go try to wash your face in the mirror and you’re going to have trouble. It’s going to get smeared. But you’ve got someone behind you tapping you on the shoulder saying, turn around, Bob, and look back and say, what did you see in there? I saw my face was filthy. He said, do you want to be clean? I said, yeah. He said, let me cleanse you. Now Christ has done his work. The mirror’s done its work. So once the mirror has done its work, are you under it anymore? Don’t need it anymore. You’re now living with the cleanser. Okay. Let’s go to the next one. Now Paul here becomes as subtle as a meat cleaver. He’s saying to those that are trying to commingle the two. You foolish idiotic Galatians. He could say you foolish Dallasites. You foolish Los Angeles. whatever it might be, you foolish people who are trying to commingle law and grace. And he said, you’ve been bewitched. Now in the scripture, does it talk about people being able to be deceived and bewitched? Sure. He said, you’ve been bewitched. You’ve been conned. It’d be another way of saying you’ve been conned. Now who conned them? These people that he talked about in the earlier chapters who crept into the assemblies and perverted the gospel. But if we or an angel from heaven should come and teach any other gospel than the one we gave you, let them forever be what? Condemned. So they came to Christ by grace and then in came the Judaizers to put them back under the law. Why? For what purpose? Control. You can’t control people under grace. You’re led by the Spirit. So, I can’t lead you. I don’t want to lead you. The Spirit leads you. Now, under the law, the law has to have a mediator. That’s me. I’m going to lead you under the law and control you and manipulate you. And that’s exactly the purpose of the law. Now, the purpose, who used the law to manipulate people. You can’t manipulate people under grace. You can, but only if they rebuild what’s been destroyed. Are you free? Are you free to be led by the Spirit? Do you have to come here? If you don’t, are you going to go to hell? Why do you come here? Because you want to. And if you don’t want to, you won’t be here. Now, should we go folly and check you and put you on guilt trips? When you come back six months later, say, oh, it’s nice to see you. I thought you’d been raptured. It’s not our job. It’s our job to check up and see how many of you give and tithe. Couldn’t do that. Got records. Don’t look at them. Wasn’t none of my business. Couldn’t do it. Come back, put you on guilt trips for not supporting the work of the Lord. Who are you to be led by in that? The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God works in your heart and says, this is what I want to do. I want to give generously. I want to give according to what I have, not according to what I don’t have. That’s the Spirit’s work, not mine. So he said, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Christ Jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified. The Living Bible says you used to see the meaning of Christ’s death as clearly as though it waved a place guard in front of you. I’d like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Which is it, folks? How did you receive the Spirit of God? By believing what you heard. And what did you hear? Well, first thing, what do you hear? Yeah, the Gospel. And what’s the Gospel? Yeah, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And not just for everybody, but for who? You. And when you internalize that, you were born again. So he said, I wonder, did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? So the answer to that is what? Believing what you heard. So again, he says, are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, you began by grace, didn’t you? Now it’s not begin by grace and again are the law. It’s you begin by grace, live by grace. Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? And he says, Have you suffered so much for nothing? Now, how were they suffering? Suffering against the Judaizers. Who were doing what? Trying to put them under the law? In many cases, chasing people around, persecuting them, just like Paul did, and in some cases, putting them to death. Have you suffered so much for nothing? If it really was for nothing. Does God give you His Spirit? and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard. Is this getting clear to you all the time? You see, there’s one thing to say you’re no longer under the law, but it’s another thing to let this stuff keep getting hammered and hammered and hammered into us as to why. Because why? It keeps coming back, doesn’t it? It keeps coming back. And those of you who grew up in churches under the law, it’s there. It’s there in your memory bank, isn’t it? And all Satan has to do is just kind of push the button and back it comes. Now, what do you have to do with that? You have to do the same thing a computer does when you put bad software in it. You’ve got to spew it back out. And you have to refuse to believe many times what the traditions that you’ve been taught in. So when that occurs, those of you who have been into that type of thing, and some of you were into it very deeply… And when those things hit, you have to stop there and say that is not truth. And this is what is truth. That you’re justified by grace and grace alone. And then to walk in that grace.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
