The Turning Point: “But Now”

A sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on February 22nd, 1957

The original sermon audio can be heard here.

We come this evening to a consideration of the 3rd chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans and the section that begins at verse 21 and goes on to the end of the chapter, namely to verse 31. I’m not going to read the entire passage to you, but it begins with these words: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Now here we are starting on a new section of this great epistle.

You will remember that when we began the consideration of this 3rd chapter, I indicated that it can obviously be divided very conveniently into three sections. The first section running from the 1st verse to the end of the 8th verse. And then we had the section with quotations and so on beginning at verse 9 and going on to the end of verse 20.

And then we come to this third section. So that as we start with this 21st verse, we are starting on a new section in two senses. One is that it’s a new section of the 3rd chapter, but still more important, and indeed altogether more important, it is the beginning of one of the major sections of the whole epistle. Because verse 20, as we saw, ended a section which began right away back in the 1st chapter. You can say, if you like, at the 18th verse of the 1st chapter, indeed, you can almost say the 16th verse of the 1st chapter. But perhaps for the sake of having the thing clearly in our mind, it is still wise to regard verses 16 and 17 in the 1st chapter as the statement of the gospel and why the apostle was so glad and proud of it, and glad to preach it.

So then, starting at verse 18 in the 1st chapter is this tremendous statement about the wrath of God, which has been revealed. Then you remember, he goes on to prove that this is as applicable to the Jews as it is to the Gentiles. And so he’s worked it all out. And therefore, he ends at verse 20 in this 3rd chapter by saying, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Very well, he has established it beyond any question or doubt or caveat that no man ever has or ever will be able to justify himself in the presence of God. No man ever has or ever will provide a righteousness that will satisfy God and the demands of his most holy law. That’s clear, that’s definite. He’s proved it from every conceivable angle.

Having established that, he now goes on to show how there is only one way of salvation, therefore. But thank God, there is that one. As we left it at the end of the 20th verse in this 3rd chapter, we saw ourselves in a completely hopeless position. And that, may I say, is something that is always essential. I cannot see how a man can be a Christian without realizing his own utter hopelessness. It’s no use talking about coming to Christ if you don’t see your hopelessness and your helplessness. You can’t just come to him for help or something. There is but one reason for going to Christ, and that is when you realize that no flesh can possibly be justified by the law in the sight of God. Every mouth has been stopped, and the whole world lieth guilty before God. Very well, there it was.

So having come to that point, the question we ask obviously is, well, is there no hope for us? Can nothing be done for us? Are we irretrievably doomed? And now the apostle goes on to answer the question. And he does so, you notice, by two words—two little words—and here they are: “but now.” Now, there are no more vital words in the whole of the scripture than just these two words: “But now.” What vital words these are. These are the kind of words with which the apostle always introduces the gospel. It’s something that you’ll find constantly in the New Testament scriptures. He paints his dark and his black picture, and not only this apostle, but the others also in the same way, but particularly is this true of the apostle Paul and his particular style. He, first of all, paints his black and his dark and his hopeless picture. Then having painted it, he says, “but now.”

It was because they also had understood this, that the Puritans and many of their successors until comparatively recently, always taught that in true evangelism, you must always start with a “law work.” They said there should always be a good “law work” before you introduce your gospel. You read the lives of some of the greatest evangelists that the world has ever known, and you’ll find they all did that. Not only the Puritans, but the men of the 18th century who leaned so much upon the Puritans and they were so familiar with their works. They convicted first of all, and it’s true of John Wesley as of George Whitefield. It’s true of Jonathan Edwards. It’s true of the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne. These men always said you must start with a law work, and the apostle has been doing that. And it’s only after he’s done that that he says, “but now.”

And having been through that in great detail as we have and having considered every statement that he makes about men under sin and in sin, all of us as we are by nature and as descendants of Adam, can there be two words which are more blessed and more wonderful for us than just these two words? “But now.” You know, I feel these two words are a very subtle and a very thoroughgoing test of our whole position as Christians. Would you like to know for certain at this moment whether you’re a Christian or not? Well, I’m suggesting that this is the sort of test.

As I say again, when you hear these two words, “but now,” is there something within you that makes you say, thank God? Is there a “but now” in your own experience? Oh, I chose that last hymn which we’ve been singing. Lord, I was blind, I could not see in thy marred visage any grace, because it keeps on bringing that point. Did you notice it? In the 3rd line of all the verses except the last, you had this, “but now.” And he keeps on saying it, he couldn’t stir his lifeless soul to come, “but now.” “But now,” “but now,” he keeps on saying it, everything’s changed. Why? Well, because the gospel has come to him. He was dead, he was blind, he was dumb. “But now,” he’s no longer like that.

So that I say this comes to us in a kind of dual manner. It comes as the introduction of the gospel, but of necessity, therefore, it comes as a word that tests us ourselves. This to me is so important that I can’t leave it. I must stay with it for just another second. Tell me, let’s examine our experiences. When the devil attacks you and suggests to you that you’re not a Christian and that you’ve never been a Christian, because of what’s still in your heart or because of what you’re still doing or because of something you once did. When he comes and thus accuses you, what do you say to him? Do you agree with him? Or do you say to him, yes, that was true, “but now”? Do you hold up these words against him? Or when it is that perhaps you feel condemned as you read the scriptures, as you read the law in the Old Testament, as you read the Sermon on the Mount, and as you feel that you’re absolutely undone, do you just remain there or do you lift up your head and say, “but now”? This is the essence of the Christian position. This is how faith speaks to the accusations of the devil, the accusations of the law, to the accusations of conscience and to everything else. This “but now.” So that you see these are indeed very wonderful words. And it’s most important that we should lay hold upon them and realize their tremendous importance and their real significance.

There is an aspect of faith of which it is true to say this, that faith is a kind of protest. All these things are against us. Very well, are you a man of faith or not? Well, this is just the question and the way you answer it is this. Having listened to all that can be said, do you then say, “but now”? Now that is a part of the fight of faith. Don’t imagine that as the Christian you’re going to be immune to the assaults of Satan or to attacks of doubt. They may well come, but the whole secret of faith is the ability, I say, to stand up with these two words against it all. We walk by faith and not by sight.

There is a sense then in which I’m saying what Browning, I think it was, said about faith. It’s true that it isn’t the whole statement about faith, but there is this aspect in it. To me, he said, faith means unbelief kept quiet like the snake needs Michael’s foot. You see, he’s got a comparison. This man, Michael is standing there and he’s got his foot on the head of a snake. And this snake is wriggling and he’s trying to get at him in order to bite him. But as long as the man keeps his pressure firm upon the neck of that snake, he can’t do anything. There is all the wriggling of doubt and unbelief and denial and all these accusations. Then faith keeps its foot firmly down and says, “but now.” This is the kind of thing, of course, that Martin Luther never stopped saying from the moment he really saw this truth of justification by faith only. That is really a kind of a synopsis of the whole of his great preaching and all his great teaching.

That is exactly what faith does. It’s this protest. It’s this standing up in spite of everything that may be said in hell and all around us or against us. We say, no, no—no one can finally convict me because of my new position in Christ Jesus. “But now” I’m no longer there. I was there, but I’m no longer there.

Very well then, let me leave this by just asking a question once more. Do you see that you stand by faith? It would be a tragedy for us to go on if somebody still is holding on to any sort of idea that you can ever make yourself a Christian, or that by living a better life or doing this or that or the other, you’re going to improve your position in the sight of God. Has it become clear to everybody that it doesn’t matter if you were to live as old as Methuselah or even a million years, you’d never put yourself right before God. Time won’t help you. Nothing will help you. We are all of us under condemnation. We are all under the wrath of God. We can never produce a righteousness that can stand up to God’s examination and investigation. We are altogether hopeless.

Are we all clear about that? Very well, if you are, you are ready to rejoice in these two words, “but now.” What is their meaning? Well now, these words do two main things, it seems to me. First and foremost, they provide us with a contrast with all that the apostle has been saying before. A contrast, if you like, to all that old law position, to being under the law in any shape or form. It’s a contrast to that. But in addition to that, of course, the “but now” does bring in the time factor. Because what he’s really saying is this, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. And it’s only just been manifested, says Paul. Here is a man, you see, preaching within a comparatively short time after everything that is associated with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, his everything. And he says, now this thing that has happened has changed everything. And he goes on to tell them about it. Something had happened, he reminds these Romans, which is absolutely new and which is the most amazing good news that has ever come to a sinful race of men.

And that is why you see so far back in that 1st chapter, he said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, for therein a righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just by faith shall live.” Now, you see the apostle can’t think of the thing without being thrilled to the very marrow of his being. And he’s longing to be in Rome to tell them all about it and to enjoy it with them again. And it’s all, I say, because of this—this tremendous thing that has happened. It took him a long time to see it and to believe it. He had to pass through that experience on the road to Damascus. He had to see the risen Lord, but once he’d seen him, and once he’d understood, everything else became nothing—dung and refuse was all his righteousness. Everything recedes into insignificance. This is the one thing that matters.

Very well then, I say, let us look at this wonderful thing which is now about to unfold to these Romans. This wonderful good news. He gives us again a great summary of it, as I say, in these verses from verse 21 to verse 31. Now, I felt it would be a good thing for me to give you a general analysis of this great statement before we come to look at its particular elements. Because it’s such a great passage that it’s possible for us to read through it and to say, well, it sounds very wonderful, but I’m not quite sure what it’s saying and what its exact meaning is. Now, let me suggest to you an analysis. There are a number of analyses I could hold before you, but that perhaps would be confusing. Let me suggest to you the analysis which commends itself best to me. This is my analysis of it at any rate.

I would divide the section into two main portions, two main statements. I suggest that from verse 21 to the end of verse 24, he describes the way of salvation. And then from verse 25 to the end, he tells us about the characteristics of that way of salvation. Now, both these aspects are very important.

Let’s divide it further for you in this way. The first section, verses 21 to 24, is a description of the way of salvation. What does he say?

Well, the first thing he says is this: God has provided a righteousness and has now revealed it. He had promised it before, but he has now made it manifest. God has provided it. The second thing is this: This righteousness becomes ours, not by any means as the result of our actions or our conformity to any kind of law, but solely and entirely through faith. That’s the second thing. The third thing is that it is open to all. For all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. It’s as open to the Gentiles as to the Jews. You see, the apostle all along has got this great argument that he’s just finished in his mind. He’s there been dealing with it negatively, he’s now dealing with it positively. It’s the same for all. It’s open to all, Jews and Gentiles, no difference. Then the next point he makes is, the fourth point is, that it is entirely of God’s grace. It’s a free gift of God. And then the last point and the most important in many ways is this, it has been made possible and available through the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s our first section. What a tremendous statement it is. There is the essence of the gospel. There it is stated very generally. And you needn’t add anything to that, it’s all there. We’ll come back to it again in detail, but let me give you a kind of analysis also of the second subsection. The characteristics of this great salvation, described from verse 25 to verse 31.

Here’s the first point. This is a way of salvation which is consistent with God’s character. I want to repeat that, it is a way of salvation that is consistent with God’s character. That’s verses 25 and 26. Secondly, it is a way that gives all the glory to God and none to men. Those are verses 27 and 28. All the glory goes to God and none to men. Thirdly, it is a way that shows that God is the God of the whole world and not only of a section of mankind. He’s not only the God of the Jews, but of the Gentiles also. He is the God of the whole world, so the righteousness that he has provided is in the same way open to the whole world. There you have verses 29 and 30. And the last thing he tells us about it is this: That it is a way that honors and confirms the law. This is one of the most amazing statements that even this great apostle ever made. You notice that all along he’s still got his eye on the section which he’s just been leaving. Negative there, positive here, but he deals with it point by point, nails and absolutely fixes it and settles it once and forever. And that’s his final point. He is not deriding the law of God. He is establishing it. He’s paying it the greatest compliment in a sense. All along, you see, he safeguards his statements.

Well now, there is the general analysis of the section. It is no exaggeration to say of this section that it is one of the greatest and one of the most important sections in the whole of scripture. I therefore go on to say this, that our ideas of salvation must always be true to this section. Whatever our views of salvation, they must always be conformable to this. And in the same way, we must never state the way of salvation in any way that denies any of these tests or that fails to satisfy and to give due weight to any one of these tests.

You notice that I’m emphasizing these things and I’m doing so because of the situation in which we find ourselves today. It seems to me that we are in far too great a hurry to rush people any way and somehow to Christ. We are so anxious to get results, but we are to be governed in our methods as well as in our message by this word of God. This is the statement of God’s way of salvation and it must be ours. We must leave nothing out or anything we may say must come up to these tests. We mustn’t say less, we mustn’t say more, but we must say this.

Here then I say is the great standard, especially for all evangelists. Our message must be conformable to this. Ah, but you say, this won’t appeal to people today, they’re not interested in theology. My dear friend, they must be interested in theology if they are to become Christians. They must hear the truth and must believe it. Men have never been interested in theology and never will be until the Holy Spirit deals with them. So our business is to preach the truth to them, trusting to the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and understanding, and to apply it and to bring it to them with power. Here then, I say, is one of these crucial passages which governs indeed the whole of our preaching. We must always be within the bounds of this tremendous statement which we have here.

Very well now, let’s go on and begin to look at it in detail. Take this first section, the way of salvation. I don’t know whether you feel as I do as you read this apostle Paul. His mind and his way of doing things fascinates me more and more, and I’m tremendously interested in the way in which he introduces this great section, this great statement. His way of doing it is to almost repeat word for word what he said at the very beginning of his epistle. Go back to verses 1 and 2 of the 1st chapter. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,” etc. It’s almost an exact repetition of that. And in the same way, of course, he is virtually going back and saying once more what he said in verses 16 and 17 also of that 1st chapter.

There are always lessons to be learned as you watch a master like this. And one of the lessons which we must of necessity learn at this point, therefore, is this one: That we must have a kind of a scheme in our presentation of the truth. This man doesn’t write at random, he doesn’t just say the next thing that comes into his mind. No, he’s establishing a case. He has his general introduction, he announces his gospel, then he shows the absolute necessity for it. Then having done that, he comes back to it, and now he’s going to go on with it. So as it were, he’s saying, as I told you at the very beginning, I am now going to put it before you in greater detail. Well, now what are the cardinal points, therefore, that he impresses? Here they are.

Here’s the first. The gospel is entirely God’s, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest. And do you remember that we saw way back there in chapter one, what we’ll have to look into in greater detail now, that the term the righteousness of God means a righteousness provided by God, a righteousness prepared by God, a righteousness that is made available by God. Therefore, I say that the gospel is entirely God’s. You notice that he actually used that phrase in the 1st verse of the epistle, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. You would have expected there, wouldn’t you, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but Paul says the gospel of God.

Now I want to suggest to you that this kind of thing isn’t accidental, that it’s something that the apostle always says and always does. And I’m calling your attention to it because of the tendency today, which is so evident, of almost leaving out God altogether and of speaking only about and in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve often called your attention to this. It’s essential I should go on doing so because, as I am putting it to you, there seems to me to be this danger of forgetting almost the first person in the blessed Holy Trinity. In our evangelical zeal, we are so concentrating on the Son, the second person, as almost to ignore the Father. People seem to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ always, and it’s about him they always speak. And so, God the Father seems to be forgotten, neglected, and ignored. And surely it’s a very terrible and a very serious thing. But here again we are reminded by the apostle that the gospel is God’s gospel. God is the planner of this gospel. God is the initiator of this gospel. Indeed, you see, everything about the gospel should be always in terms of God primarily, for this reason.

Sin, after all, is rebellion against God. Sin isn’t just something that means that you and I have failed and have let down ourselves and our standard. Sin isn’t just something that makes me miserable and unhappy. The essence of sin is rebellion against God, estrangement from God. And if we don’t conceive of sin always in terms of God, we’ve got an inadequate conception of sin. Very well, there is the starting point then of evangelism, there is the starting point of the gospel. Man is a rebel against God who is estranged from God. And our central need, therefore, is to be reconciled to God.

We don’t merely come to the Lord Jesus Christ, our object is to come to God. That’s what we need. As our sin is separation from him, salvation is reconciliation to him. And then the next thing that is made so plain and clear is this, that it is God himself who provides this way. It is God who provides everything that is in the Lord Jesus Christ; it is God who sent him; it is God who gave him his task—the whole thing is from God. It is God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And yet I say there is this tendency to forget that and to leave it out. And to be so Christocentric, if you like, that we are guilty thus of forgetting and ignoring God the Father, the first person in the blessed Holy Trinity. And indeed, as that passage out of the 1st epistle of Peter, which I read to you at the beginning, reminded us of so forcibly, the whole object and intent of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is to bring us to God. We believe in God by him, says the apostle. And all he did was to bring us to God. Not to glorify himself, but to glorify the Father and to bring men to the Father. He doesn’t tell us to stop at himself; he takes us to the Father and he reconciles us to the Father. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. It is, you see, God’s from beginning to end, and the apostle reminds us of that here. It is a God-provided righteousness that is now available for us.

Then the second thing is this: That it is something that has been planned in eternity before the very foundation of the world. He puts that in verse 21 when he says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is not an afterthought. It isn’t something that God thought of when the law had failed to redeem men. How often is that taught? But we saw last Friday night that the law was never meant to save anybody. By the law is the knowledge of sin. So it is complete error to say that the law was first given an opportunity to save men and when it failed, God then thought of the gospel and sent that. No, no. That is entirely wrong.

The gospel was planned before the foundation of the world, not an afterthought. And it was because God had planned it before the foundation of the world that he was able to reveal it in the law and in the prophets. That is why in your Old Testament you’ve got prophecies of the gospel and all it was going to do. You’ve got it in the law; you’ve got it in the prophets. Witnessed to, says the apostle here, by the law and by the prophets. What does he mean? Well, he’s referring in the term “the law” obviously to the five books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. I’m not going to take you through the evidence, it would take us weeks. But you know some of the evidence, don’t you? You get it in Genesis 3:15 with a promise about the seed of the woman that was to bruise the serpent’s head. There it is, witnessed to by the law. Some say they find it in the story of Cain and Abel, perhaps quite rightly. It’s certainly in the call of Abraham because our Lord said, “Abraham saw my day.” In the 17th chapter of Genesis, what happened to Abraham there is a kind of adumbration of the gospel and all the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His very offering of Isaac may be a dim suggestion of it.

It’s there, it’s in the law. But of course, supremely, it is in all the ceremonial law, which you’ll find beginning in the book of Exodus and elaborated so extensively in the book of Leviticus. What is all this? What is all this about these burnt offerings and sacrifices? These meal offerings and sweet offerings and so on and peace offerings, what’s it all mean? My dear friends, it’s nothing but a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done. It’s the law witnessing to this thing that God has done once and forever in the person of his only begotten Son.

And then, you see, you go on from the law to the prophets, which includes the book of Psalms because there are many prophecies in the book of Psalms. You are familiar with many of them. You remember how the 22nd Psalm is a perfect description of our Lord’s crucifixion and death, and there are many others, those messianic Psalms. And then take along with them the great prophecies. You remember the prophecy about a virgin bearing a son in Isaiah 7? You remember the prophecy in chapter 9 and chapter 11 of Isaiah? You remember the great 40th chapter, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” God’s about to do it. And the picture of John the Baptist preparing the way and the great personage who’s coming and the results of his coming, it’s all looking forward to Him, witnessed to by the prophets. In Jeremiah 23:6, you read, “this is his name whereby he shall be called, the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,” the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. The prophets were witnessing to it, foretelling it. Then think of Daniel with his prophecies, especially chapter 9. He’ll tell you the exact time. He’ll tell you about this Messiah that’s going to be cut off in the middle of the third week. It’s nothing but a foretelling. It’s a witnessing of all this which has happened. You get it in the prophecy of Zechariah, indeed you’ve got it everywhere.

I needn’t keep you with this, go through it for yourselves, but let me remind you how you will read in the 24th chapter of Luke’s gospel, the last chapter of Luke’s gospel. We are told there that the Lord himself, after his resurrection, took the incredulous apostles, disciples, took them through the books of Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets, and showed them there all the things pertaining unto himself. How they’d foreseen it all, his death, his resurrection; it’s all there. And Peter, you remember, put it again in that 1st chapter of his 1st epistle. He says, these people didn’t quite understand what they were writing about. These things that were going to happen to us, they didn’t know when these things were going to take place. What did they talk about? He says, they prophesied concerning “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” Now work it all out for yourself, go through the great details. I’m much more concerned to make certain comments, and here they are:

Don’t you see here the importance of taking the two sections of the Bible always together? Don’t you see here the importance of having the two testaments? Don’t you see how the two testaments are absolutely vital even for Christians? I’ve known Christian people who have rather taken the view, ah, well of course now we needn’t bother about the Old Testament, so they just carry a New Testament in their pockets. They don’t need the Old Testament, they think, oh what a tragic error that is. You need the whole Bible. If you really want to understand the truth in its fullness, you see how vital it is to have the old as well as the new. And there is no doubt that it was the Holy Spirit himself that led the early church, which at that time had become mainly Gentile, to hold on to the Old Testament, the scriptures of the Jews, and to incorporate it in one book with their new literature, their Gospels, their Acts and their Epistles. That was the leading of the Holy Ghost. If they’d been left to themselves like many of us, they’d have said, well we don’t need to know all that anymore, of course Christ has come and I know the Gospel. But oh what a truncated Gospel you’ve got if you do that, and how incomplete is your understanding. And it’s very important for this reason: Any way of explaining salvation that does not show that the New Testament Gospel is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy is wrong.

And there’s a great deal of that today. They deny and criticize much of the Old Testament. Ah, they say, we’re only interested in the Gospel. Here I am saying, the Apostle lays it down very plainly and clearly, as you find it in other places in the New Testament, that unless my explanation of the way of salvation is clearly a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, it is not a true statement of the way of salvation. Or to put that in another way, let me say this: A way of stating the Gospel that puts it as a contrast to the Old Testament is entirely wrong. But you know there are many who do that, ah, they say, that Old Testament, of course, they had a very inadequate notion of God and of his love in those days, and therefore you’ve got all that sacrificial teaching and all that talk about blood. That’s legalism, they say, that’s Judaism—we’re not interested in that at all. They deny it all, they reject it all, and they put the Gospel as a contrast to that. That’s because they don’t like preaching about the blood of Christ. That’s because they don’t like the doctrine of the wrath of God. You see, if you deny the doctrines of the wrath of God and the blood of Christ, you’ve got to reject your Old Testament. And that is why they do so, and they’re perfectly consistent with themselves. Yes, but they deny the teaching of the Apostle, who says that this righteousness of God has been manifested now, but it was witnessed unto by the law and by the prophets. It is latent in the old, it is patent in the new, as Augustine put it. It’s there in the old, if you’ve got eyes to see it. The tragedy of the Jews was that they couldn’t see it, but it was there the whole time. “But now,” it has been revealed and manifested in a much greater and a much more glorious and fuller manner.

Very well, we shall have to leave it at that point for this evening. But I do trust and pray that we have got hold of some of these great principles. This section, I say, is authoritative for all preaching and presentation of the gospel. A man very quickly betrays what his view of the gospel is when he tells you his view of the Old Testament, you see. If they wipe out all the sacrificial law and all this appeasing of God, this propitiation, the term we’re going to come to, if they hate that and say they don’t accept it, and say that it’s an inadequate view of God and an unworthy view of God, well, they don’t realize it, but they’re denying the New Testament at the same time. For the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. What was prophesied there has actually now come to pass and is fully open before us. You can’t put a wedge between the New Testament and the Old Testament. It was the Holy Ghost, I say, who led the early church to incorporate the Old with their new literature.

If we remember nothing else there for this evening, let us remember that. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law, at one and the same time, shows us our desperate need and points forward to his coming. What a perfect schoolmaster the law was. It did the two things that were essential. It convicts of sin. It points to the way of salvation. And again, I would add that any notion of salvation that leaves out the law work is seriously defective, because it was to save us from the condemnation of the law and the wrath of God that the Son of God came and did all he did on our behalf.

Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, we thank thee for these two words “but now.” Oh, we thank thee for the entire difference that they make to us, that the knowledge of thy dear Son and all that thou hast done in him and through him has made to us. Oh Lord, we thank thee that thou who didst make him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We thank thee that thou hast revealed this unto us. Oh God, open our understanding we pray thee by thy Spirit more and more that we may rejoice in it as we ought. And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now this night and evermore. Amen.