The Glory of Christian Freedom

0:51A couple of years ago, Tim Keller wrote a book called Making Sense of God. I highly recommend it to you. He wrote this in a chapter that has to do with freedom. Today, as a culture, we believe freedom is the highest good. That becoming free is the only heroic story we have left. And that giving individuals freedom is the main role of any institution and of society itself. It is, we could say, the baseline cultural narrative of our Western culture. It has always been important, but now is ultimately important.

1:28It is the one truth that relative. All other doctrines and beliefs. Well, the Apostle Paul certainly believed that freedom is a wonderful thing. The problem is that the way most people define and then pursue freedom is that it leads to bondage. Last week we talked about the Jewish teachers who came into Corinth and who were leading this kind of back to Moses campaign. They were essentially teaching that Christians needed to submit to the old covenant law.

2:02They had to accept circumcision, they had to accept all of the law, and they had to live under that covenant. Well, in today's text, Paul is going to show them that you can't go forward by going backward. He's going to contrast the old and the new covenants. And he's going to show that living under the old covenant is living under a ministry of condemnation and death, not a ministry of life and righteousness and freedom. And so, what we'll see today in the text is that through the Spirit, we're freed from condemnation and transformed into the image of Christ.

2:45Now, you may recall the final verse in the last section. If you look at that last sentence, verse 6, it says this: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And in today's section, What Paul is going to do is he's going to explain what he means. He points out that the old covenant came with glory, and it certainly did. Take a look on the screen at Exodus 19. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

3:26Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

4:05That is certainly glorious. This is right before God gives his law to Moses, and he descends on this mountain in smoke, in a thick cloud, and fire. With thunder and lightning, the whole mountain is shaking. And when God gives his law, how exactly is it given to Moses? As Paul says here at the beginning of this section, it was curved. Carved in letters on stone. Carved in letters on stone. See, God's law is a reflection of his holy nature and his character and his perfect will for us. His law, his righteous standard, is fixed and permanent and unchanging.

4:54That's why it's carved in letters on stone. Now the glory of the old covenant was seen in how it was given, but it was also seen in the effect that it had on Moses, who was to become the lawgiver to Israel. Look at Exodus 34. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.

5:26Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward, all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out.

5:59And when he came out, He told the people of Israel what he was commanded. The people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. So when God spoke to Moses, he spoke to him face to face as a man speaks with a friend. And as Moses received the law, he beheld the glory of God. When he came down, his face was shining, it was radiant. He would deliver the law to the people, and once he had done that, he would put a veil over his face until the next time that he went to speak with God. Well, why is that?

6:45It's revealed in verses 7 and 13 in this passage. It's because that shine, that glow, that reflected glory from meeting with God face to face, it was wearing off over time. And what Paul is saying is that this is an illustration that the whole old covenant and its glory is coming to an end. It's fading away. It was never intended by God to be a permanent thing. Now, as we said before, God's law is permanent because it is a reflection of his perfect character and standard, his nature, and his will for us. But the old covenant itself was. Was never intended to be permanent.

7:33And the picture, the vivid illustration that we get when we look back here at Exodus 34, which Paul is referring to, this vivid picture that we get is found in the glory fading away from Moses' face over time. So he has to put a veil over his face. So since that's true, Paul asks this question. Look at verse 8. Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

8:09In fact, the New Covenant, what Paul calls the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness, the New Covenant has so much more glory that in comparison, the Old Covenant seems to have no glory at all. And that's because the Old Covenant, as Paul says in this passage, is a ministry of condemnation. It's a ministry of death. Now, when Paul uses the word condemnation, he's not using it in the same way that we would use it in modern times and everyday conversation, where we would say, you know, I feel condemned, meaning I feel guilty, I feel ashamed.

8:49No, rather, he's using it in the way that it would be used in a court of law. When someone is found to have broken the law, then what happens? The court condemns them. Him. The court finds him guilty and then sentences him accordingly. The old covenant, the law that God commanded to Moses and gave to us, that is the law that condemns us. You see, we've been commanded to put God first, to have no idols in our lives, to honor God's name and honor the Sabbath and honor our parents.

9:28We've been commanded not to murder or steal or commit adultery or lie or covet. And yet, we have not kept those commands completely or consistently in our lives. We have broken them over and over again, if not with our actions, then with our hearts and in our minds. And as a result, we are lawbreakers. Our sentence for breaking God's law, according to Romans 6, our sentence is death. The wages of sin is death. So that's why the old covenant can rightly be called the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of death.

10:07So the old covenant has real glory because it really reveals God's perfect character and holy will for us. It reveals our need to be saved from the power and penalty of sin. But friends, the commandments, glorious as they are, they cannot give us power to keep them. So 400 years ago or so, there was a man named John Bunyan, he was a Puritan, and he wrote this when he reflected on the law: Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands.

10:45But there is good news. There is good news because God has made a new covenant with us, a more glorious covenant, a covenant of righteousness and life, not a covenant of condemnation and death. So let's pick up now in verse 12. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

11:47See, because the new covenant is a ministry of righteousness and life, and because its glory is permanent, all believers have a great hope. And having that Great hope makes us very bold. Not like Moses. You see, Moses had to be modest, as it were, with the glory of God reflected in his face. He had to be modest with it because the glory of the old covenant was being brought to an end. It had no permanent glory because it was a temporary covenant.

12:23So Moses would speak with God, and his face would be glowing from beholding God's glory. He would come down the mountain, he would deliver the law to the people with an unveiled face, and as soon as he was done, he would put that veil back down. And what I want you to see, friends, is that this is a perfect illustration of the limitations of the old covenant. When Moses came down from speaking to God face to face, he delivers the law, his face shining and glowing. He delivers the law to the people. The people receive it, they hear it, but then the veil comes down.

13:04There's no ability to understand or to rightly apply the law. They've only heard it. They've only received it. And so at the end of his life, when his ministry is about over, the people are about to go into the promised land, Moses says this in Deuteronomy chapter 29. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt. To Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. Now, listen to this.

13:43But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. See, the Israelites had seen all that God had done, his miracles, his signs, all that he had done in Egypt, and they had received God's perfect law, and yet God can say to them, Yet to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. Why couldn't they understand?

14:18Well, that's what Paul explains in verses 14 and 15. Look at what he says: For to this day, do you see how he's using the same language that came out of Deuteronomy 29? For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. See, the reason that the Jews in Moses' day and the Jews in Paul's day. And people who hear God's law read today cannot understand it is because their minds are hardened and a veil lies over their hearts.

15:14There's a problem with both the mind and the heart. We lack both the ability and the desire to rightly understand and apply the law. So you can read it, you can hear it read hundreds or thousands of times, you can memorize it, but you will never understand it as long as your mind is hard, as long as a veil lies over your heart. But thankfully, there's this big shift in verse 16 with the word but. Take a look there.

15:53But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. What does that mean? Paul is saying that Christ is the key to rightly understanding the old covenant law. He is the key. Remember what we talked about last week, Matthew 5, 17, what Jesus said? Look at what he says. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. God's righteousness. Law could not be ignored. It could not be set aside. And so Jesus, the Savior, he came not to abolish it, but to fulfill it. That's what he came to do.

16:42And after his death and resurrection, which he foretold numerous times throughout his life and his ministry, Jesus finds a couple of disciples who are walking on the road to Emmaus. And these two brothers are just despondent. They're so upset because they had hoped that Jesus was going to be the one. That Jesus of Nazareth was the promised one, who was the Christ, the Messiah, who had come to fulfill all of the promises and redeem Israel. And look at how Jesus responds to these two guys. Luke chapter 24. And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Listen to this.

17:31And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they get to this city, they sit down and they break bread together, and then Jesus leaves them. And the two disciples turn to one another and they say, Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened to us the scriptures? Once Jesus opened their eyes, it became obvious to them that all of it, Moses and the law, all of the prophets, all of it was pointing to him.

18:14And that's why Paul can write in Romans chapter 10, verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Friends, before I came to faith in Christ, I was hearing God's word. My roommates were dragging me to church services that I didn't really want to go to. They were dragging me to a Bible study in the dorm that I didn't really want to go to. They were having spiritual conversations around me that I didn't really care about. And then over time, what happened is that I became interested in those things that I was hearing. I was confused by them. Some of it repulsed me a little bit, but I was interested. I was intrigued at what I was hearing. But it wasn't until I came to see and believe that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, that I began to understand the whole point of the law. It wasn't until I turned to Christ that I saw the true purpose of the law, to show God's holy and righteous standard and to reveal the Savior that we all need because of our sin and rebellion against God.

19:28You see, what is required? Is turning to Christ. We are not turning to the law or turning back to the law. We are not turning inward, trying to become a better version of ourselves. No, we are turning to Christ. That's what we're called to do. The idea of turning is a key concept in the biblical idea of repentance. When we repent, that word in Scripture, metanoia, it means to turn or to change directions, to change your mind. We turn away from serving sin and self instead to turn to the Lord so we can serve him.

20:14See, our beliefs aren't the primary problem. Our primary problem is that our minds and our hearts are turned away from the Lord. Our minds are hard. There's a veil over our hearts. They're turned away from the Lord. And so what we need is to turn to Him. And that's why Peter can say, as he writes to the church that's scattered all over the world in 1 Peter chapter 2, he says, For you are straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

20:59So, friends, That's what we're called to do, is to turn to Christ. And when we turn to Christ, we experience the real glory of the new covenant, which is freedom. Let's pick up in verse 17. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. In verse 17, Paul makes this important point, which builds off of what he just said in verse 16, which is: when we turn to the Lord, the veil is removed.

21:43So remember the context here. What's gone on in Corinth is that you have these teachers who have come in who are Jewish, and they're telling the Christians there, you guys need to turn back or turn to, for the Gentiles, the law of Moses. You need to submit to it. And so here in verses 16 and 17, what Paul is saying is, listen, the only way the veil gets removed is if you turn to Christ. You don't turn to Moses. You don't turn back to Moses. You turn to Christ. And when we turn to Christ, we are forgiven and we are declared righteous. But we also receive His Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within us. And it's His Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's power. that sets us free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

22:38Well, freedom from what? From any restrictions whatsoever? No, trying to live a life with no rules, no restrictions, no boundaries, that doesn't actually lead to freedom. It just leads to a new and different kind of bondage. So when Paul says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, what he means is that we've been set free from the ministry of condemnation. We've been set free from the ministry of death through Jesus, who came to fulfill the law on our behalf.

23:17So you remember that quote that's attributed to John Bunyan. Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Well, I want you to look on the screen. I want you to see the whole thing. Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings, it bids us fly and gives us wings. Thanks to the work of Christ, we've been set free, not just from the penalty of sin one day, but from the power of sin today.

23:58We have been set free to live. The point, the spirit, if you will, of the entire law. How did Jesus sum up the point and the spirit of the whole law? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. See, no longer do we view God as that great concierge in the sky who exists to do for us whatever we want when we call on Him. No longer do we view other people in terms of what we can get from them.

24:40Instead, we've been set free by the Spirit to love God and to love other people in all the ways that the law could command and prescribe, but could not empower us to do. And we've been set free to enjoy the good gifts that God has given to us. The good gifts of His creation, and food, and drink, and marriage, and children, and friendship, and art and technology and culture. No longer do we view those good gifts as ultimate things, as the things that alone can provide meaning and satisfaction in life. No, instead, we can receive them for what they really are. Good gifts. Gifts from a good Father, where the Spirit of the Lord is.

25:38And my fellow believers, he lives in us. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Verse 18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Through faith in Christ, our minds are no longer hardened. Our hearts are no longer covered with this veil. We're able to see and to behold the glory of the Lord. And as we behold the glory of the Lord, what's happening to us?

26:32We are being transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another. So I want you to see two truths from this last verse. The first truth is that as we behold God's glory, we will be transformed. How exactly will we be transformed? Well, Paul writes about this in Romans chapter 12. He says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

27:20See, friends, God is Spirit. So we can't look at him per se. So how do we go about beholding him? We behold him through his word, where he has revealed his nature and his character, and most specifically, where he has revealed the person and work of Jesus, who is the exact imprint, the exact representation of the Father, fully God, and yet also fully man. We behold God in his word. Remember earlier in the passage how Paul was saying that the Israelites, their minds were hardened. Well, friends, that's no longer the case for you and me. Our minds are no longer hardened. There's no longer a veil over our hearts because we have turned to Christ and He has removed them. We can now rightly understand and apply the Word of God to our lives. And that is a wonderful thing because that's the primary way that God transforms us into His image. We are transformed through the renewal of our minds.

28:31Because Christ has removed that veil. We're now able to see and to behold His glory. And as we do that, that's the first truth. We will be transformed. The second truth is this. Our sanctification is an ongoing, lifelong process. When we believe in Christ, we are declared righteous at that very moment. But the process of actually becoming righteous goes on for our entire lives. How does it say that we're transformed? We're transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

29:21So you and I, we are sanctified by degree, little by little, over a long period of time. And it's often the case that we don't even realize that we're being sanctified. We know our thoughts. We know our attitudes. We know our motivations. We know things about ourselves that nobody else knows or can know. And so at times it can seem that we're really not making any progress, that we aren't actually becoming the holier people that Paul is talking about here in this passage. And that can really discourage us.

29:58So I want to remind you of what Paul. Paul writes in Romans 8, he says this, for those whom he forenew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Friends, look at that verse. For those God forenew, for those God called before the foundation of the world, he has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. And so if you ever find yourself discouraged because you're not where you wanted to be, you're not where you hoped to be in your sanctification and in the process of becoming holy like Christ, then just go back to this verse and remember that if God has called you to follow him, then it is guaranteed you have been predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. It is a promise. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen.

31:09You will be, we will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. And God accomplishes that through his Spirit. Friends, what Tim Keller said is true. Our culture believes that free. Freedom is the highest good. We view it as having ultimate importance at this point in our culture. Freedom is a wonderful thing. If you read the scripture, you will see that the Bible certainly teaches that. And so it's right for us to value freedom. It's right for us to celebrate freedom.

31:55The problem is that freedom has been defined to do whatever you want. And that freedom doesn't actually lead anywhere except to bondage. And so if you're a disciple of Jesus, I want to remind you today that Paul teaches in the book of Galatians that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So let's not return to a yoke of slavery. It is our constant temptation as disciples of Jesus to turn following Jesus into a set of do's and don'ts.

32:37Instead of actively trusting and following Jesus on a daily basis, we boil the Christian faith down to a set of rules. And friends, that does not lead to freedom. That leads back to Moses, back to the ministry of condemnation and death. Because it doesn't matter if it's Moses' law or your own law that you have created. We cannot keep it. The work is finished. That's what Jesus exclaimed as he hung on the cross. He said, It is finished. He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And since that work is finished, our calling is to walk by the Spirit, using our purchased freedom to love God and love others, not only as we've been called to do in God's Word, but as we have been empowered to do by His Holy Spirit.

33:38And if you're here today and you're not yet following Christ, you might find yourself in the exact same spot where I was. You might have read and heard God's Word for years. And you find yourself confused by it, intrigued by it, repulsed by it at times, just like me. I want to tell you today: the missing piece for you is Jesus. The missing piece is Jesus. He did not claim to be a good teacher. In fact, the one guy in Scripture that called him that, he immediately corrected.

34:22Jesus claimed and proved to be none other than the Son of God, sent by the Father to fulfill the law perfectly on our behalf. Behalf and to fulfill every prophecy that was made about the Savior that we need. Think about this. Jesus gave up all of his freedom. He gave up all of his freedom and he took on the limitations of a human body. He gave up all of his freedom and he took on all of our sin. He gave up all of his freedom and the eternal life that he enjoyed and he died in our place and for our sins. And then he rose victorious over sin and death for you.

35:08So, friends, if you want freedom, and that is a wonderful thing to desire, you can have that freedom today. But the only way that you're going to enjoy that freedom is through repentance and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again to set you free. Let's pray. Father, we are constantly tempted to adopt a set of rules, either the law of Moses or a set of rules of our own making because that just seems so much easier, so much more black and white than actively trusting and following you on a daily basis.

36:33But, God, we've seen today from your word that that doesn't lead to freedom, it just leads back to bondage. And so, I pray that you would help us help us to be men and women who turn away from our sin and who turn to Christ in faith because we know and believe that Jesus fulfilled everything written in the law for us. God, we pray that you would help us to enjoy freedom that is real freedom in Christ, the ministry of righteousness and life by the power of your Spirit.

37:23And I pray that those free lives that we live before our friends and family members, our colleagues, And our classmates, I pray that as they see that in us, that would be a compelling witness to the person and the power of Jesus to set us free not just from sin's penalty, but sin's power. And so, God, we pray that we would experience your freedom and that we would lead others to experience it as well. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

38:00Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.