(This message series is inspired and excerpted from Heaven is Now by Andrew Farley)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (Hebrews 10:19-23 NLT)
“In 1920, alcohol sales became prohibited throughout the United States. Within a matter of weeks, people all over the country were purchasing portable alcohol stills and large quantities of ferment-able foods to begin “bootlegging.” Organized smuggling from Canada quickly developed, and alcohol was sold from ship to ship as “rum rows” were a regular site at the three-mile marker off American shores. Within months, massive corruption arose among law enforcement officers and public officials. Ultimately, Prohibition resulted in increased consumption of alcohol, mostly in secretive, uncontrolled environments. Many who had originally supported the idea of Prohibition began asking that it be repealed. Their wish was finally granted in 1933. What happened during Prohibition here in the United States is a good reminder of what can happen to any of us, spiritually, when we are under the curse of the law. Sin actually increases! The more we are told not to do something, the more fleshly desires seem empowered to bolt into action.” (pg. 29) In what ways has being under laws or rules excited sin in your life?
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” [8] But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. [9] I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. [11] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (Romans 7:7-11 ESV)
“Even one of God’s most devoted servants, the apostle Paul, said it was impossible for him to stop coveting when he was under the law: “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting”. Did you catch that? The “opportunity afforded by the commandment”? The law gives sin an opportunity to thrive. Not only that, but “Thou shall not covet” is the moral law. You know, the Big Ten.” (pg. 30) Why would God give us something that “proved to be death”?
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, [8] will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? [9] For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. [10] Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. (2 Corinthians 3:7-10 ESV)
This important truth brings us back to covenant theology. The law, the “Big Ten” was a beautiful gift given to the Israelites at a time when no one could figure out how to appease the gods. Arbitrary rituals and sacrifices were frustrating attempts to make sense of the world. Christianity remains the only worldview without an arbitrary ruler.
“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. (Acts 14:15 ESV)
“Why does sin naturally increase under the law? Because sinful passions are “aroused by the law” (Rom. 7: 5). The bottom line is that we Christians can expect more struggle and more sinning if we are living under a set of commandments or laws. This is precisely why we’re invited to live apart from law, in the radical freedom of heaven’s grace. Heaven proclaims to us the counterintuitive truth that “the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15: 56) and “apart from the Law sin is dead” (Romans 7: 8 NASB).” (pg. 31) How “radical” does your walk of faith feel?
Consider these Scriptures:
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. [5] For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. [6] But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6 ESV)
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:25-26 ESV)
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4 ESV)
“But doesn’t God ask us to keep the law with his help? Pause to consider that one for a moment. Has God placed within you an innate desire to avoid pork and shellfish or to refrain from work on Saturdays? Of course not! That’s not the new covenant message. No, it’s not on God’s heart for us to keep the law, nor is he helping us keep it.” (pg. 31)
“Instead, the fruit of God’s Spirit is enough. In Galatians, we find a list of what we can expect as we trust heaven’s new way— qualities like love, patience, and self-control. Then Paul says, “against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5: 23). Everything we’re so worried will happen if we take the law out of the picture is not really a concern. God’s Spirit won’t lead us in the direction of sin. He motivates us to live upright lives without any so-called assistance from the law. As we’ve seen, the law only hinders the Spirit’s work in our lives (Gal. 3: 1–3), causing sin to thrive. Grace does the opposite.” (pg. 32)
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14 NASB)
“Being under God’s grace is what frees us so that sin won’t master us. So are you willing to invest fully in heaven’s new way of grace?” (pg. 32) Does this feel too rebellious for you?
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:31)
“It is only those who have fully embraced God’s new way of grace who hold the law in highest esteem. If any person believes they should “give it their best” by trying to obey the law, they have not recognized or respected its impossible standard. They do not esteem (“uphold”) the perfection of the law. They insult the law by thinking they can obey it or by merely cherry-picking portions of it to obey. This dishonors the law. We only truly respect the perfection of the law when we opt out of it entirely, recognizing our need for God’s grace.” (pg. 33)
Heaven Speaks [What Jesus might say if He were sitting right here]
“I have called you to a covenant of greater glory. In my faithfulness to you, I have secured for you a permanent cleanness and a permanent closeness to me. This is my new covenant promise to you. Count on it. Live from it. You have something superior, something new, something unbreakable, now and for eternity. In light of this better hope, I have set aside the old way, as it was weak and useless to you. It could never perfect you or draw you close to me. While you were merely of this world, operating in the realm of the flesh, sin was constantly aroused in you. Law-like demands that you called morality and ethics prodded you to do your best in human strength. But you only bore dead fruit. Now you have been released from the law that condemned you so that you can live from the desires I have placed in your heart, not from any religious “have to(s).” This makes all the difference, as you are motivated by me in the midst of an incredible freedom. Do not fall victim to the old way of obligation and rules. While rules have the appearance of being effective, they have no value in restraining the lust of the eyes and the pride of the flesh. But as you walk in childlike trust with me, you walk in the victory over sin that I already purchased for you. You were never meant to focus on avoiding sin. You are meant to fix your eyes on me. As you look to me, I enable you to overcome the pull of the world and feel the true freedom of my heavenly grace. I love you, my dearest child.” – Jesus (inspired by 2 Corinthians 3:10-11, 17: Hebrews 7:18-19; 8:6; 12:2; Romans 6:17, 20; 7:6; Galatians 5:1, 16; Colossians 2:20-23; 1 John 2:16.) (p. 34) Share your thoughts.
Awakening to Heaven [A sample prayer to close.]
“Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to participate in your amazing new covenant. Thank you for securing so much for me through your efforts at the cross and through your resurrection. Thank you for making me clean. Thank you for making me close. And thank you for making it forever so. This means I don’t have to spend my life trying to live by rules to avoid sin. Instead, I can fix my eyes on you and walk by your Spirit. That’s the only way I can really avoid sin. You’ve made it about relationship with you, not a long list of obligations. For that, I am so grateful. I love you, Jesus, and I love your new way of grace.” (p. 36)
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