In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the concept of being under the new covenant of Christ. They explain that when we were children, we were held in bondage under the restrictions of the law, similar to how a child is restricted from certain things for their own safety. However, Jesus came to set us free from this childlike state and to help us grow into mature sons of God. The speaker emphasizes that living under grace allows us to have victory over sin and receive the Holy Spirit, who communicates grace to us and helps us overcome our weaknesses. The sermon also touches on the purpose of the law and how it was given to reveal our sinfulness and protect us from falling into gross sin, but it could not make us righteous in our hearts.

19 For through the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 21 And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me. 22 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. 23 We were considering last week how one of the great dangers that Christians fall into is the danger of being imbalanced. To be spiritually wise is to understand the balance of the word of God. We saw that in verse 19, that there are two aspects that we need to consider. One is that we have died to the law. That is the negative side, and the other is the positive side, that we might live to God. That corresponds to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The central message of the gospel, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, is not just that Jesus died on the cross for us, but also that He rose up from the dead. A message which proclaims that Jesus died on the cross and leaves out the resurrection is not only an incomplete message, it can lead to heresy, it can lead to something which is substandard and something less than the Christian faith. Now, in exactly the same way, when we consider our dying with Jesus, our death with Christ that is spoken of in Romans 6 and spoken of here in Galatians 2, 19 and 20, we need to consider both the death aspect and the resurrection aspect, the negative and the positive, the death bringing to an end our relationship with one life and with one man called the old man, and our resurrection bringing us into a new relationship with Christ. That's what we read in verse 19, that through the death of Christ I have died to the law, but I have also been raised up with Christ that I might live to God. And it is because many have not understood both these aspects and tried to hold them in balance that they have misunderstood what death with Christ means and what it means to be dead to the law and what it means to be freed from the law. Many have understood that to be freed from the law means that now I no longer have to keep the commandments, that in the Old Testament Israel had to keep the commandments, but in the New Testament Jesus has kept it for us, and we no longer have to keep them. This is not only a misunderstanding, it is a heresy. In verse 20 we read, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live. That is the negative aspect. That speaks of our co-crucifixion with Christ. Then he speaks about the resurrection aspect. But now Christ lives in me. There has been a resurrection, and the life which I now live in the flesh, which is the life that has gone through death and come up in resurrection, I live by faith. And by faith means by dependence upon and confidence in, a leaning of the entire human personality upon the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me. So it is not that now I have died and nothing is there in place, but that in place of that I-self life, the Christ life has taken over. Now if the Christ life has not taken over in a person, it is pointless that person talking about his dying with Christ. There must be a replacement. If the old evil spirit that possessed our heart has been driven out, it must be replaced by the Holy Spirit, and not, as Jesus said, about the man who drove away the evil spirit and kept his home empty, because that opens up the door for seven other evil spirits, spirits of deception, that bring in heresy into our way of thinking. And that is how many Christians have gone astray in understanding what it means to be dead to the law. For Jesus Christ has come with grace, and that is in contrast to the law. Otherwise, if we do not understand that we are freed from law in order to come under grace, if we think that to be freed from law is to just now live without any law, then we nullify the grace of God. It is as though God has not brought grace through Jesus Christ. It is as though the law has been removed, which came through Moses, but nothing has come in its place. But what we read in John 1.17 is again the two aspects. The law came through Moses, and that has been nullified now, but now grace has come through Jesus Christ. So if I am freed from the law, it is in order that I might come under grace. And that is what we see in verses 19 and 21 of Galatians 2. I have died to the law. But then in verse 21 he speaks about grace, and he says, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. Now the law could not make a man righteous. The law continuously made a person aware of his shortcoming of God's high standard. Paul says very clearly in Romans 7 that when he read in the law thou shalt not lust or thou shalt not covet, which is the tenth commandment, which says thou shalt not covet or thou shalt not lust. They mean exactly the same thing. He discovered that there was lust in his heart, that even though he could keep himself clear as far as the first nine commandments were concerned, which referred to the external aspect of a man's life, when it came to the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet and thou shalt not lust, he found he had failed. And being honest with himself, he had to admit that he had failed. And so righteousness could not come through the law, and external righteousness, yes. Paul says that very clearly in Philippians 3, that concerning that external righteousness of the law, he was blameless, absolutely blameless through all those years. Philippians 3, verse 6. But that real righteousness which God requires in the heart, which Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 5, you have heard that it was told you do not commit adultery, but I say to you, don't lust in your heart. You have heard that it said do not commit murder, but I say to you, don't be angry. And that inner righteousness of the heart which God requires could not be brought into our life through the law. Righteousness could not come through the law. And what Paul says in Galatians 2.21 is, if it could come through the law, then there was no need for Christ to die. God required righteousness, that's why Christ died. That's very clear from verse 21. We read it carefully, we find that the reason why Christ died was so that righteousness might come into our life. Otherwise, if it could have come without the death of Christ, then there was no need for Christ to die. So here he is not just speaking about forgiveness of sin. He doesn't say in verse 21, if forgiveness of sins came through the law, then Christ died needlessly. No, he says if righteousness came through the law. The whole purpose of forgiveness of sins is that God might make our life righteous. The reason why God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us or puts Christ's righteousness to our account when we first trust in Him after repenting of our sins is so that He might have a foundation on which to impart the righteousness of Christ to us. For the imputed righteousness of Christ is but a beginning, like the foundation of a house, if we could use an illustration. But that's not the house itself. The purpose of the foundation is that a house might be built on it. And the purpose of Christ's righteousness being imputed to us is so that His righteousness might be imparted to us. And that's what Paul is speaking of. If we do not see that, then we nullify the grace of God. For the whole purpose of God's grace, as we see in Romans 6, 14, is that we might be freed from the grip of sin. And this is why God has consigned our old life to death, verse 20, this old life that we inherited from our forefathers, down from Adam, which is called the old man, which wants to sin, which loves to sin, and which cooperates and yields to temptation that comes through the flesh. That has been crucified with Christ, that will to sin. And now we can put it off by faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit receive within us this new life of Christ. This is what we testify to in water baptism, the burial of the old man, that will to sin, coming up and receiving the Holy Spirit's power, being baptized in the Holy Spirit, so that the life of Christ might now be manifested in me. And if we live in that way, then this word will no longer be a verse to memorize but a reality in our life. It is no longer I but Christ. In Galatians 2.20 we have the clearest description of what the Christian life is supposed to be, no longer I but the life of Christ manifested in me. May God help us to understand that and to experience it. Galatians 3.1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? And here in this verse we have the subject, as it were, concerning which Paul is burdened to write to these Christians living in the churches in Galatia. The works of the law or the hearing of faith? Are we saved by the law or by grace through faith? And this is where the Galatian Christians were being led astray into another gospel. And this is a subject concerning which there was much controversy in the first century, in the early church. Many misunderstood what the gospel really was all about in the area of being free from the law and of coming under grace. And this has been true through the twenty centuries of the Christian church, and it's very true even today. There are very few who really understand what it means to be free from law and to be under grace. And Paul, writing to the Galatians, says this. He had already spoken in Galatians 2.20 about being crucified with Christ, Paul says, concerning his own experience. He says, I have been crucified with Christ, and therefore, verse 19, I have died to the law. Not that I can now live just as I feel like. No, he says in Galatians 2.19 that I might live unto God now, just like Jesus lived unto God, so that we can walk as Jesus walked. So the alternative to being under the law is to walk as Jesus walked. When I'm free from the law, it is in order that I might walk as Jesus walked. That is, to live unto God. And that's what he speaks of in Galatians 2.20. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life of Christ is now being manifested in me, because I am free from the law. And in this context, he says in chapter three, verse one, who is the one who has bewitched you, or anesthetized you, so that you have become drugged and dulled, so that you can't understand what the gospel is all about? Paul says, to paraphrase his words, When I came to you, didn't I portray clearly before you Jesus Christ and Him crucified? This was Paul's message wherever he came newly, whether it was to Corinth or to Galatia. Jesus Christ and Him crucified, salvation through the crucified Christ, not just the fact that He died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, but also the fact that our old man was crucified with Him. He says, Didn't you hear that message clearly from me, that Jesus Christ was crucified? And he says, This is the thing which I want to find out from you. You people were baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was in your midst. You received the Holy Spirit. And he says, Did you receive the Spirit because you kept the works of the law, because God saw that you had come up to His standards, or did you receive the Spirit by the hearing with faith? And the answer is obvious, that they received the Spirit by faith, not because of having kept certain works of the law, but as their hearts opened up and acknowledged their need, acknowledged their limitation, their failure, and they repented and turned to God, they opened up their heart to God by faith, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and they received the Spirit. Now there is a message here for us too. In verse 2 Paul says concerning receiving the Holy Spirit, which is a phrase used in the Acts of the Apostles to identify the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is an alternate phrase. Now according to verse 2 of Galatians 3 it is possible for us to know very definitely whether we have received the Spirit or not. Now he is not now speaking about forgiveness of sins. He is speaking about something beyond forgiveness of sins, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Did you receive the Spirit? And it is possible for and it is necessary for each Christian to know whether he has received the Spirit or not. The Galatian Christians, Paul expected them to know, and it is not by keeping certain works. The receiving of the Holy Spirit is not a gold medal that God gives us for having kept certain works of the law. No, it is the equipment that God gives us for the spiritual battle. Something like a soldier being given a rifle before he goes into the battle. Now the rifle is not a gallantry award given to the soldier, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a reward God gives for our having done certain things. It is equipment, it is power for service, and it is received by the hearing of faith. We cannot receive it any other way except as we come to God in simple thirst and longing. Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come to me, he who believes, he who has faith can receive. Then in verse three, Paul goes on to say, all right, now you people receive the Spirit by faith. Now are you going to now be perfected by the flesh? Are you going to try and now perfect your life by your own efforts? Now there is something we learn from verse three, and that is Paul expected them to grow on to perfection. Yes, to go on to perfection is what the apostles expected of every Christian whom they brought to Christ. But the question is, how were they going to be perfected? The apostles expected that under the new covenant the believer would rise to far higher standards than any old covenant person could ever come to. So to be free from the law does not mean that we now descend to a lower standard than the people came to under the law, but to a higher standard, for he speaks in Galatians 3.3 about being perfected. The whole question is, how? We read in Hebrews 10, verse one, that the law, which was only a shadow of good things to come, could not make anyone perfect. No, it could not. That's mentioned even in Hebrews 7.19, that the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, Hebrews 7.19, there is a bringing in of a better hope, which does make us perfect. And so that is the whole purpose of our being made free from the law. The law could not make us perfect in our conscience. It could give us a certain external righteousness, but leave our conscience defiled because of lust in the heart. But now, because of a better message, the gospel, grace that has come through Jesus Christ, we can be perfected. The whole question in Galatians 3.3 is, how are we going to be perfected? Is it apart from the help of the Holy Spirit? Is it that we begin our Christian life with the help of the Holy Spirit, and then thereafter we are on our own, striving, struggling on our own? That's how many Christians think it is, and that's why they are defeated. Those who depend on their own ability to live the Christian life and to live in victory are bound to defeat. They are doomed to defeat even before they start. But, Paul says, it is not by the flesh, but by the Holy Spirit that we are going to be perfected. Did you suffer so many things in vain, verse 4, if indeed it was in vain? In the beginning, when the apostle was with them, they had understood what it means to suffer, to suffer in the flesh. They had understood what it means to be persecuted for the sake of the gospel, particularly from religious people, the Jews of those days. And he says, now you suffered all those things for the sake of this gospel. Was it in vain? Was it without any purpose? Was it so that you now go back to that old way of life of being under the law? And then he says in verse 5, the one who provides you with the Spirit, God who has given you the Holy Spirit and who works miracles among you. You see, through the Holy Spirit there were miracles being performed in the midst of the Galatian Christians. He says, how does this take place? Is it through the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Again, it's not by our having come up to a certain standard that God grants us the Spirit or grants us these gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles. It is by faith. Everything is by faith. God gives us His gifts by faith. God gives us the Spirit's power by faith. Having received the Spirit's power by faith, we are enabled to walk by faith and enabled by the Spirit to go on to perfection. This is the whole message of the book of Galatians. We are free from the law that we might be perfected by faith. We turn now to Galatians and chapter 3 and verse 6. Last week we were considering the first five verses of Galatians 3, where he speaks about this contrast between the works of the law and hearing with faith in verse 2 and in verse 5. He says you receive the Spirit by faith, verse 2, and the gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles, verse 5, by faith again. Now this is something very important for us to grasp in these days, when there is so much confusion in the minds of many believers concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is such a thing as receiving the Holy Spirit in a definite crisis experience, verse 2, but it is by faith, not by works. Likewise, there are the gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles, verse 5, and many other gifts too, but they are received by faith, not by the works of the law. There is such a thing as being perfected, verse 3, but it is not by the flesh, it is by the Holy Spirit. And so it is not that the message of Galatians frees us from perfection, but shows us how we can be perfected, not by the law, but by coming under the power of the Spirit, who communicates to us grace, which enables us to live the overcoming life. And having said that, he goes on to the example of Abraham, who lived before the law was given. And in the rest of the chapter, and in quite a bit of chapter 4 as well, he is continuing with the example of Abraham. Now the significance of taking Abraham as an example lies in the fact that he lived many years before Moses brought the law. He lived before the old covenant was established between God and Israel. And so, he says, even concerning Abraham, verse 6, Abraham believed God. In other words, he had faith. It was not any work of the law that he had kept, for no law had been given. He simply believed God, and this faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore be sure, he says, that it is those who are of faith that are the sons of Abraham. It is not just those who physically claim a descent from Abraham, as the Jewish people do. He says, no, Abraham was a man who had faith in God. And so the true sons of Abraham are those who have faith, not just those who keep the works of the law, but those who have faith. Now Paul says this as one who had kept the works of the law during his early life as a Jewish man. And as a very faithful Jew and a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But he realized in his own experience that he was not a true son of Abraham until he came to faith in Jesus Christ. And so he says in verse 7, those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Then he goes on to one of the promises that God gave to Abraham, verse 8, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, that is, the non-Jews, that there was coming a day when all the people in the world could be justified by faith in Christ, and that the period of the old covenant was just a preparation period for the new covenant, which was really God's purpose all the while to establish with man. The scripture foreseeing that that day would come when all nations would be justified by faith, those who had faith would be justified, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. So the gospel, in a sense, had been proclaimed in a nutshell to Abraham, not in its fullness as we see it in our day, but just this aspect of it, all nations will be blessed through you. And this is what the Jews misunderstood completely. They thought that God's purpose was just to bless them, whereas what God had said to Abraham was, I will bless you, and then through you all the nations will be blessed. In other words, you are not going to be a tank or a reservoir to contain God's blessing, but you're going to be a channel through which God's blessing will flow through to others. You will be blessed, but through you others will be blessed too. Now this is something very important for us to understand, because this is where the Jews missed out on God's purpose completely. In fact, the apostle Peter was so convinced that God's blessing was only for the Jews that even after he was baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, for ten years thereafter, right up till Acts chapter ten, he and all the other apostles never took the gospel to anyone but the Jews. They thought this is only for the Jews, even though Jesus had said, when the Spirit has come, you will be witnesses unto me to the uttermost parts of the earth, but they couldn't grasp it. So deeply entrenched were these Jews in this idea that God will bless only us. Now that is an idea that many Christians have also unfortunately got. God will bless only us, and so they can sit together and think only in terms of their own being blessed. But this is a heresy. No, what God said to Abraham was, I will bless you, and through you others will be blessed. And if you are a Christian, dear friend, what you need to ask yourself is not just has God blessed you, because you can end up in spiritual death like the Jews, even if God has blessed you. In the nation of Israel, God has placed two lakes. One is the lake of Galilee, two seas we could say, the sea of Galilee in the north and the dead sea in the south. There is a big difference between the two. The sea of Galilee is always full of fresh water because the river runs into it and runs out of it. The dead sea is always full of stale, dead water because the river runs into it and nothing runs out. Now this is a parable. You can either be like the dead sea with rivers of blessing running into you and nothing running out, and you are dead. Or you can be like the sea of Galilee with the rivers running into you, and then, like it says in John 7, 37-39, concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, He who believes in Me, out from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This is speaking of the Holy Spirit. Now we read in Revelation 22 that that river flows first of all from the throne of God. It does not begin in my heart. It begins in the throne of God. But it flows down to the depths of my heart from God's throne, and I am filled with the Holy Spirit, but it can never be contained in my heart. Otherwise I shall stagnate into spiritual death. It has to flow out from me in rivers of blessing to others. This is what the gospel is all about, as we read in verse 8. The gospel that was preached to Abraham was, Others will be blessed through you. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. This is what the gospel brings to us. The blessing of God into our life through the Holy Spirit, which we receive by faith, and as we walk by faith, that river continues to flow into our heart, and then it flows out through us to bless others. But in contrast to this, in verse 10 he says, Those who are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Now if I do not want to live under the regime of grace, then I have to go back into the regime of law and try to please God by the works of my flesh, by struggling like those Old Testament believers struggle to please God and always come short, and try to live with an external righteousness alone. Now if only the external part of our life is clean and we glory in that, then in a sense we are under the law, and therefore under the curse too. For it says, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and if we glory in the external part of our life, we must remember that God desires truth in the inward part, and we remain under the curse. No one can be justified by the law, because the word of God says that a righteous man is to live by faith, but the law is not a faith. On the contrary, it says, He who practices them shall live by them. There is a big contrast between living by the law and living by faith, and this is what Paul is trying to highlight here. The law says, Keep everything written in it, but faith brings us to trust in Christ, who gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we can be strengthened within and find purity in our heart and enablement by the Holy Spirit to please God from within. We turn now to Galatians, chapter 3, verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. However, the law is not a faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them. These are two completely different ways of life that Paul is speaking of. One is living by our good works, by our righteousness, which are all as filthy rags in God's eyes, because the heart is not clean. What is it that makes our righteousness as filthy rags? The fact that even though externally it may be good, the heart from which it comes is unclean. I may keep myself clean in my external life and in that sense be blameless according to the requirement of the law, but if my heart is not clean, if I have sought my own glory there, if I have sought my own honor or if I have done it with some selfish motive, then it is corrupt, even though the action itself may be good and may even have blessed others. These works are called in Hebrews 9.14 dead works. Now, we are to be cleansed in our conscience from dead works if we are to serve the living God, and that is why, however much we may try to keep the law without the help of the Holy Spirit, we are bound to fail. No one can ever be justified by the law, however hard he may try, he cannot keep the law as per God's standard. We read that in Romans 8.3, what the law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh. Because our flesh is so corrupt, nothing good dwells in it, Romans 7.18. Therefore, in our good works too there is sin. We read in the book of Exodus that Aaron had to bear a plate on his forehead with the words holiness unto the Lord, and he had to bear the iniquity of the holy things of Israel. There is iniquity in our holy things. Our righteousness is like filthy rags, and that is why we need the cleansing blood of God. And so, if we seek to be justified before God apart from that shed blood of Christ, apart from the enabling and the inward working of the Holy Spirit, then we shall be deceived. No, it is not by the works of the law, but by faith that we shall be justified. And he says in verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Here again is the negative aspect of our salvation. We have been redeemed from the curse of the law. We were under the curse of the law because try as we would, we could never come up to God's standard. All have come short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. But Christ has redeemed us from that curse because He Himself became a curse for us on Calvary's cross. When He hung on the tree, He took that curse that should have come to us, and as we accept that sacrifice, that He, the righteous one, died for us unrighteous, then we are freed from the guilt of our past life. We are freed from the curse that comes upon us through God's holy demand, the law. But that's just the negative aspect of our salvation, that we have been saved out of the pit into which Adam and his race fell. But when God created Adam, He had a purpose for Adam. So when we are saved out of the pit into which Adam's race has fallen, saved out of it by Christ, it is in order that we might once again come back to that original purpose which God had for Adam, and that is the positive aspect of our salvation. So to be saved from the pit is just the negative aspect of our salvation, and to be brought into what God had purposed for Adam is the positive aspect of our salvation. It is just like when the children of Israel were taken out of Egypt, they were two sides to their redemption. They were redeemed out of Egypt to be brought into Canaan. They frustrated God's purpose by being brought out of Egypt but not entering Canaan. For forty years, one generation frustrated God's purpose, and that's what Paul speaks of in Galatians 2.21, of nullifying and frustrating the grace of God. What is the positive aspect of our salvation which corresponds to the land of Canaan? That's described in verse 14. In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And so we see the positive aspect, that all nations can now receive the blessing of Abraham so that we might receive, and what is the blessing of Abraham in its fullness for us? The promise of the Holy Spirit, the baptism and fullness of the Holy Spirit received, once again, emphasized here, through faith. Now earlier in the same chapter, we read of what the blessing was that came to Abraham. First of all, verse 6, he was reckoned righteous. That's where we begin, reckoned righteous. And second, verse 8, all nations will be blessed through you. So we are reckoned righteous, that means our past life is cleared and we are declared righteous before God because our past sins have been blotted out, the curse of the law has been removed, and we stand before God as righteous people, so that we can now enter into Canaan's land, so that we can now experience God's blessing flowing through our life and others being blessed through us, so that the life of the Spirit can now flow through us. The channels have now been cleared, we can say, to use another illustration. The channels that were clogged up through years of guilt and sin are cleared so that now the river of the Spirit can flow through us and bless others, so that we live no longer for ourselves, but unto Him who died and rose again. So this is the whole purpose of the Gospel, that the Lord might come and deliver us from this self-centered life that we live where we sought to please ourselves, to live for ourselves and to seek our own gain and our own honor in everything. Now, if we have not still been saved from seeking our own honor and gain, then in a sense we are still wandering around in the wilderness. We read in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 3, that God was displeased with one entire generation of Israelites. God was displeased with them, it says. In Hebrews 3.17, with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Yes, God was angry, displeased with an entire generation of Israelites, because they frustrated His purpose. We are told in 1 Corinthians 10 about how the people who came out of Egypt, who were baptized in the Red Sea and baptized into Moses, still did not possess the land. 1 Corinthians 10.5, with most of them, that is with almost six hundred thousand of them, except for Joshua and Caleb, God was not well pleased. Why was He not well pleased? Because they would not enter into God's full purpose for them. And these things, we are told in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 10, are written for an example for us. Now we can turn to Galatians 3 and see how this applies to us. How those who are redeemed from Egypt, redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ being made a curse for us, Galatians 3.13. If we do not enter into the full blessing of Abraham, that life filled with the Holy Spirit, then we frustrate God's purpose. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is not an extra special thing that few believers can enjoy. It is the purpose for every believer, and when we do not live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, when we do not walk in the Spirit, we frustrate the grace of God. We nullify the grace of God, and our life corresponds exactly to the Israelites in the wilderness who displeased God for forty years. And so may God help us to take these things seriously and to see what the whole purpose is, that we are free from the curse and from the law, that we might live unto Him and be a blessing to others. We turn now to Galatians 3.15. Last week we were considering how the blessing of Abraham is to come on all the nations of the world if they will receive the promise of the Spirit through faith, if we read off in Galatians 3.14. And he goes on to speak about how God spoke to Abraham and what were the conditions of God's promise to Abraham. Verse 15. Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations, even though it is only a man's covenant. Yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say unto seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, and to your seed, that is Christ. What I am saying is this. The law which came four hundred and thirty years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to nullify the promise. Now here Paul is trying to say that God spoke to Abraham and if the Jews claim to be the children of Abraham, then they must live by that principle on which God dealt with Abraham. The law was given subsequently with a purpose which he comes to in the following verses. But before coming to that, he says, let's go back to the original. Let's go back to the time when God spoke to Abraham himself, who was the father of those who believe. And he says there that the promise given to Abraham was to Abraham and to his seed. And he uses this fact that the Holy Spirit there uses the word seed and not seeds, and he says that actually was referring to Christ. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, not in your seeds. And in this distinction, Paul says in verse sixteen, you see that what the Holy Spirit was saying, even though the Jews may not have thought of that seriously, was that it is not through these many children of Israel, but through Christ who was to come through Abraham, that the whole world was going to be blessed. And then in the earlier verse, verse fifteen, he says, even if it's only a man's covenant, once it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. And so he says, if God had already spoken to Abraham in that time, four hundred and thirty years prior to the law, then it can't be changed. And at that time, God said that the nations of the world are going to be blessed through your seed, then that's not going to be changed by anything that comes thereafter. So the law could not change that. And he says that seed refers to Christ, and therefore the law coming later on, though it had a purpose, which I should just mention, could not change this fact that the nations of the world were still going to be blessed through Christ. That's the point of verse fifteen and sixteen and seventeen, that the law does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, a covenant that God made with Abraham, which is a type of the new covenant which God has made with us now. So it doesn't cancel out, the law does not cancel out that promise which was previously made, because, he says in verse eighteen, if the inheritance, if God's inheritance for people is granted to them on the basis of the law, then it is no longer based on a promise. But God granted this inheritance to Abraham by means of a promise, not by means of a law. Now, there's a difference between a law and a promise. A promise is what God states. In the law, it was said, if you do these things, Galatians three twelve, then you can live. There is this big condition, whereas to Abraham it was just a promise. No condition, just a promise. I will bless you and you will be blessed. Abraham just received it by faith. And that's what Paul is trying to contrast here. The difference between fulfilling certain conditions and thereby obtaining a life which none who tried to do it under the law ever came to, and receiving something by faith from God in our own helplessness and emptiness. When Jesus said in Matthew five, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, what he meant was those who are conscious and aware of their utter impotence, their utter helplessness, their utter poverty, they have nothing to offer to God. So they come to God and just receive by faith. Forgiveness of sins, the power of the Holy Spirit, so that they can live and walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Now those who are not conscious of this poverty of spirit in their life, they try to please God by their self-effort and end up in failure, like Abraham producing Ishmael. It was a failure, but when Abraham came to an end of himself, became as it were poor in spirit, poor in his body, he could not produce a son. Then God's mighty power came upon him and he produced Isaac. That's a picture of God's Holy Spirit coming upon us and producing through us works that please God. To produce Ishmael is to live under law. To produce Isaac is to be justified by faith and to live by faith and to live under grace. So the alternative to living under the law is not to produce nothing, but to produce something far superior to Ishmael, that is, Isaac. That is the point here, that what God granted to Abraham was by promise, not by Abraham's effort, but by Abraham just humbly receiving in his helplessness what God promised. But the law is not like that. The law has conditions. You try and you strive, and if you can manage it, you shall live. But nobody could manage it because of the weakness of the flesh. Then we can ask the question, why in the world then did God give this law if it could accomplish nothing? Verse 19, it was added because of transgressions. There's more than one purpose with which God gave the law. It was, first of all, to help a man to see that he could not come up to God's standard, to help a person to realize his impotence. We don't realize our impotence until we have tried. We try and there's a sense in which when we receive the forgiveness of sins, we try and we try and we try and we fail. We come short of God's standard. That is to live under the law. And we fail, and then in our failure, we turn to Christ. And that's what he says later on in the chapter, that the law helps us to come to Christ because it shows us our impotence. So it is added because of transgressions to help us to see our sins so that sin would become exceedingly sinful in our eyes. Now, another purpose of the law was to keep people within a certain boundary, to put a hedge around people so that they wouldn't transgress beyond it. Because if there were no law, then people would, the Jews would have become just like all the other non-Jews and lived in terrible sin, all types of wickedness, such as described in Romans chapter one. But the law sort of put a hedge around them so they couldn't go out. So it was sort of to contain sin. The law, it was added because of transgressions and it was ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed, that is, Christ, should come to whom the promise had been made. So the law was given until the seed, that is, Christ, came. And the law was given through a mediator, an intermediary. And we are told in verse twenty, a mediator means that there are two parties. But God, who gave the promise to Abraham, was only one. And there's the difference. The law was given through a mediator, through angels, through Moses, but it involved two parties, God and the Israelites. You do this and I'll do that. And there was a mediator in between to ratify this agreement between God and the Israelites. But when God gave a promise to Abraham, there was no mediator, just God saying to Abraham, I will bless you. God was just one there. And therein lies a big difference between the life of faith and living under the law. The life of faith is where I realize my impotence. God works within me, Philippians 2.12, to will and to do His good pleasure. And as we read in Hebrews 8, God writes His laws on my heart and mind. I can't write them myself. I'm unable. But God is only one and He does the work. Now I just receive my faith and submit to God's working. I cannot live this life. I acknowledge it. And therefore I humbly depend upon the Holy Spirit. And God does the work as I submit to Him. As I submit as the clay, He forms me as the potter into the vessel that will glorify His name. We turn now to Galatians 3.21. Paul is speaking here about why the law was given. Last week we were considering how the promise given to Abraham was quite different from the law given to Israel through Moses. And that we are now to inherit the blessing of Abraham. And so the question comes up, why then did God give the law in between? And we mentioned last week how the law was given so that we might see our sin and to put a hedge around us so that we don't go into gross sin. But it could never make a man righteous within his heart. It could never make a man perfect in his conscience. Does that mean, he says in verse 21 of Galatians 3, that the law is contrary to the promises of God? Does it mean that God gave a promise and then gave the law which was contrary to the promises? Is there some contradiction in God? No. May it never be. And here is something that we need to understand in relation to what grace does also. Is grace in contradiction to the law? Has grace come to cancel out the law? Jesus answered that question very clearly in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17. He said, don't think that I came to abolish the law. No, the law is not abolished. But we are freed from it. There is a difference from the law being abolished and our being freed from the law. How are we freed from the law? When the law is fulfilled in our life, then we are freed from it. And that's what the Lord said in Matthew 5, verse 17. Do not think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Jesus lived a life free from the law because he fulfilled it. It was fulfilled in his heart. He never sinned, even in his thoughts or in his heart. And therefore he was free from the law. For the law is a hedge that is put around people who would otherwise break out into sin. That hedge was not necessary for Jesus because he fulfilled the law in his heart. Therefore he was free from that hedge, free from the law. And he went on to say that whoever, verse 19 of Matthew 5, whoever cancels one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called the greatest. So Jesus did speak about the law being fulfilled in our life too. And he went on in Matthew 5 to explain what he meant, that that law is to be fulfilled inside our heart. So the law is not contrary to the promises of God. No, the new covenant merely leads us to a clearer understanding of what the law was all about. And leads us to see how that law can be fulfilled now inside of us. And that's why Paul says in Galatians 3.21, if there had been a law given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have been based on the law and then Christ need not have come and died. But there was no law which could give life. There was no law which could take away our sins, the guilt of it. There was no law by which we could live that life which God expects of us, which would bring in our hearts that purity and truth which God desires in our part. No, there was no such law. And therefore, God established a new covenant which is based on the promise that he had already given to Abraham prior to the law being given. And therefore, it says in verse 22, that the scripture has shut up all men under sin. That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. All men have been put under sin. We see that very clearly in Romans 1, 2 and 3 particularly. The religious people and the irreligious people, the Jew and the Gentile, the elder son and the younger son in the story of the two sons in Luke 15, everyone is a sinner. All have sinned. And the scripture has shut up all men under sin so that this promise by faith in Jesus Christ can be received on the same basis by the religious person and the irreligious person, by the Jew and the non-Jew, by the religious Christian and the non-Christian. All are in the same category. This is why the person born into a Christian family has got no advantage over the person who is born into a non-Christian family. All have been shut up under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. And a child cannot believe. That is why a child has to, even if he is born in a Christian family, has to come to the place where he receives Christ by faith. Then he is born again and becomes a member of the family of God. Then Paul goes on in verse 23 of Galatians 3 to say, But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. We were kept shut up by the law so that we do not go off into gross sin. Because God gave his laws to the Jews, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery and various other laws, the Jews came into such a righteous life compared to the non-Jews around them. The standard of the Jewish people was very high compared to all the nations around them. That was what the law accomplished. Now when grace has come, it should lead us to a far higher life, as much higher as Jesus is than Moses. The Jews followed Moses, but we follow Jesus. The Jews walked in the footsteps of Moses and the law which Moses had given, we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, the life that he lived. And that is far superior to the life of Moses. And so when we see many Christians who claim to be born again and who claim to have come under the grace of God, and we look at their life and we find it is far inferior to the life of John the Baptist or Moses or Elijah or David or any of the prophets, then we have to say they have not understood grace at all. They are not following Jesus Christ because the life of Jesus was superior to everything in the old covenant. Jesus said the greatest man born of women was John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than even he. We can rise to a greater height than any man who lived up until the time of Jesus. And so the law has become our tutor or a child conductor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith. When we see God's standards exposed to us by the law, which is like a mirror, we see that we cannot come up to it by our own efforts. And so we come to Christ, first of all, for forgiveness. Lord, forgive me. I cannot ever work out my own forgiveness. You died for me on the cross, and I have to simply trust in that. Turn from my sin with all of my heart and simply trust in Him. Then I am justified by faith. But not only there. When I see that I cannot live this life which God calls me to under the new covenant, I come to Christ and I seek for the power of His Holy Spirit. Just like I first sought for forgiveness of sins, I seek for the power of the Holy Spirit so that I can live this life. It is again by faith, justified by faith and receiving the Spirit by faith. The law leads us to Christ. And now that faith has come, verse 25, we are no longer under a tutor. We could use an illustration here. If a man had a disease which is always breaking forth in boils in his body, if he received an ointment that could keep these boils under control, that would be a very useful thing. And that's what the law was like, an ointment that kept these boils under control. It didn't heal the boils completely, but every time the boil burst forth in some place, you could apply the ointment and it prevented it from spreading and from looking ugly and becoming worse. That's how the Jews were. But then somebody discovered an antibiotic which a man could take inside and the root of the disease was hit inside. Then he is free from this tube of ointment because the boils are no longer coming forth in his body. That is how we are free from the law, that when we come under grave, the Holy Spirit comes inside and does a work within us of sin being judged in the flesh so that our heart within is pure, just like the antibiotic deals with the bug inside our body so that the boils don't come forth. So sin is dealt with in the flesh so that our heart is kept free from lust. Then we are free from the law. For if my heart is free from lust, I don't need a law which says thou shall not commit adultery. If my heart is free from adultery and from hatred, then I do not need a law which says thou shall not commit murder. That is how I am free from the law. But if there is impurity still in my heart, then it will come forth and boils in my body, and then I need the ointment. But if I have received the antibiotic of grave, then I am free from the law by the grace of God. We turn now to Galatians, and chapter three, verse twenty-five. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. This is one of the glorious truths of the new covenant, that we are no longer under law. But then what are we under? Not under nothing, but under grace. And in verse twenty-five it says, now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. The tutor meaning a child conductor, one who was like a teacher of the children in a wealthy person's home, who prepares the child to be an adult son, taking responsibility in the home. That's the point. Now he says, you are all, verse twenty-six, sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, as opposed to being a child who needed, like an ayah, to watch over it all the time, lest he go and eat mud, or lest he put stones in his mouth, or lest he cut himself, or lest he go and play with snakes, or hurt himself among thorns. This is how a child is. A child needs an ayah, a governess, to all the time look after it, because it's not able to take care of itself. It can do wrong things. When it crosses the road, it needs someone to look after it. It cannot go to school on its own. And there are so many things which a child requires help in. And we have babies who even need to be fed. And he's using the picture here of a child. And in the homes of those days, the Roman homes, the Greek homes, there were those who were called child conductors, people who taught these children, who trained the child in many, many things, so that at a certain age it could be accepted into the family as a son, and no longer a child. And that's the illustration that Paul uses here. He says the law was like this teacher in the home, who kept on watching over us, training us, so that one day we could be a son. And once we are a son, once we have come to that place of responsibility, if we have properly received the education under the child conductor, then we are free of that child conductor. Then we don't need the ayah anymore, because we don't need any help in crossing the street now. We don't need any help to prevent us from going and putting dust and mud in our mouth. No, because we have grown up now. But if we have not grown up, then we still need someone to watch over us. Or it is possible for a person who is mentally retarded, even if he is twenty, twenty-five years old, to need somebody to constantly look after him. And that's the condition of many Christians. They are terribly retarded spiritually. So they have never grown up, and so they have not come under grace. They are still under law, in a sense, to be kept under control. They are not free from law. But God desires that we might grow up to be sons, so that we are free from the law. Verse twenty-seven. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. When we go into the waters of baptism, after a genuine repentance and conversion to Christ, that baptism in water symbolizes a putting off of the old man. The old man has been crucified with Christ, the will to sin. Now in baptism, that old man is buried. You go under the waters, and you say, I have finished with that old way of life. Now I have put on Christ. Yes, as many of you were baptized into Christ, it's not just that you have put off the old man, but you have put on Christ. If you haven't put on Christ, then it's quite meaningless. You are going through the waters of baptism. And that's the significance, too, of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit coming upon us and filling us and clothing us. Now, he says in verse twenty-eight, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female, but you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. And so he says here, now that you are baptized, all your earlier distinctions, before you went into the waters of baptism, when you were the old man in a sense, there were so many distinctions that separated you. One was a Jew, another was a non-Jew. One was a slave, another was a master. One was male, one was female. But now, as you have gone into the waters of baptism, in those waters, in that funeral service, for a baptism is a funeral service for the old man, that distinction has been buried. You didn't come out of the waters anymore clothed with the old man and all his peculiar distinctions. No, you came out of the waters now clothed with Christ, and so there is no distinction now. All are the same when it comes to salvation. All are the same when it comes to partaking of God's nature, when it comes to victory over sin. It doesn't make a difference whether you are a slave or a master or a man or a woman or a Jew or a non-Jew. It makes absolutely no difference. The scripture we read in verse twenty-two of Galatians three is, Shut up all men under sin. So if we come to God as that, we are sinners, we are saved by faith in Christ, we are baptized in water, we come out and there is no more any distinction. Under the old covenant, if you were a Jew, you had certain privileges over the Greek. The master had certain privileges over the slave. The male had certain privileges over the female. But not in the new covenant when it comes to salvation. There may be different ministries still. Male and female don't have the same ministries in the church. No, the position of authority and of teaching the word is always in the hands of a man. We read in one Timothy two. But when it comes to salvation and our acceptance before God and partaking of His nature, there is no difference who we are or what we are. You all belong to Christ and then whoever you are, whether you are Jew or a non-Jew, whether man or woman, master or slave, you are Abraham's offspring. Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Yes, and that promise is that we can be justified by faith and that all nations will be blessed through us. Now, we are heirs according to the promise, but he goes on to say in chapter four, verse one, if you are an heir, that does not necessarily mean that you are enjoying all the privileges. Because he says in verse one of chapter four, if the heir is still a child or behaving like a child, still eating mud and still unable to cross the road properly and still needing an heir to look after the child all the time, then he is no different from a slave. There is no difference between him and a slave, even though theoretically and on paper he may be an owner of vast estate. He doesn't get the benefit of any of them because he is still a child. He has to be under a guardian and a manager until the date set by the father. The father says, well, when this child grows up and attains a certain age, not just physically, but that he attains a certain age emotionally, mentally as well, so that he comes to have a certain sense of responsibility, then he can be a son. Then he can be removed from under this guardian of the law. Then we come into the full benefits of the new covenant of being under Christ. So also, he says in chapter four, verse three, while we were children, we were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. When we were children, we had to have certain restrictions placed upon us. You are not to handle a knife. We don't give a knife into the hand of a nine-month-old child because it doesn't know what to do with it. You can't touch this. You can't take that. You can't play with this piece of electronic equipment, because you don't know how to handle it. I can't give this china vase into your hand, we say to a one-year-old child, because he'll drop it and break it. There are many restrictions placed upon a child. And so it is with the law. The law is like a hedge which places restrictions. And if we live like children and we behave like children, then we need the law. But now Jesus has come so that we might be free. God desires that we may grow up to be sons. And that's His purpose. So let's examine ourselves. What is our attitude towards God and His kingdom? Is there a sense of responsibility in us towards purity of life and walking in the footsteps of Jesus? If so, we are sons. If not, we are still under the law even though Jesus has come. May God help us to understand this and be free from the law and come under the privileges of grace. We turn now to Galatians and chapter 4. And we were considering last week the difference between being a child who is under a guardian who has to watch over him and train him all the time and put certain restrictions upon him. Don't do that and don't touch this and don't do this other thing. And the difference between a child like that and a son who does not need a guardian because he has a sense of responsibility. We read about Jesus when He was 12 years old that He was in the temple and when Joseph and Mary came to Him, He said, Did you not know that I must be about my father's business, about the things of my father? He had a sense of responsibility at that early age. And that's what makes a person a son. One who has a sense of responsibility about the things of the father. One who has more than just forgiveness of sin, but one who has a sense of responsibility. And this is the difference between a son and a child, the primary difference. He can take care of himself. He does not need a guardian to watch over him lest he hurt himself, lest he fall into a pit, lest he put mud into his mouth, lest he get run over by a truck. No, he doesn't need a guardian. He's able to take care of his own life. He knows how to discern between mud and food, unlike a baby. He has a sense of responsibility towards his father's house. These are the things that distinguish a son from a child. And he says here that those who are children are the ones who are under law. But now we are sons. We receive a placing as sons. And it is for this purpose that God sent Jesus. Verse four. When the chapter four of Galatians and verse four, when the fullness of time came, there was a particular time that God had appointed for His son to come into the world. There was a preparatory time with God choosing Abraham and preparing the nation of Israel, giving them His laws, which were only a shadow. But then the body came in Christ. When the fullness of time came, when God had accomplished His purpose in giving the law, which we saw earlier, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law. He was born into the Jewish system. He was born under the law. He was circumcised. He kept the Sabbath. And he did all those external things. There was an offering made for him, we read in Luke chapter two, 40 days after he was born, and many other things like that. But then, though he was born under the law, he became the first person who lived under grace, as one who was free from the law, and thereby opened a new and living way for us also to be free from the law, to live under grace and walk in His footsteps. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law. He was born just like us. He was born of a woman. And therefore, being born of a woman, Mary, who was of the seed of David, Jesus received a body which came through the seed of David. According to the flesh, we read very clearly in Romans chapter one, that He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, Romans 1.3. The flesh He received was a flesh which came through David, and therefore in it, in that flesh, were desires and passions such as we have in our flesh. And therefore, He could be tempted as we are. You see, God had to send His son in a flesh like ours if He was to be tempted as we are. In Hebrews 4.15, we read that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. Not just tempted in all points, but tempted exactly as we are. Therefore, He had to be born of the seed of a woman who was of the seed of David. Otherwise, God could have just created a new body like He created Adam and let the spirit of Jesus come into that body, but He didn't do that. He was born into the human race without an earthly father. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and a body was prepared for Jesus in Mary's womb. A body which had a flesh which was of the seed of David, but yet without an old man. He had our flesh, but because He was born of the Holy Spirit, there was no mind that wanted to sin. His mind was pure, His heart was pure, but yet He had a flesh which had desires and passions, through which He was tempted with every single temptation that we are tempted through the flesh. That is the meaning of His being born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law. He came just like us, made in all things like His brethren, so that He might save us out from the bondage we were in, so that we might receive the placing as sons. The word adoption there does not convey the meaning that the word adoption means today. Today, when we speak of adoption, we think of receiving a child who was not born through us. A childless couple adopts a child who was born to someone else, somebody else's child, they adopt it as their own child. That's not the meaning here. The meaning here is of being placed as a son, one who is a child, but who grows up to the place of responsibility and therefore is now placed as a son, so that we are free from the guardian. The picture is of a child that is under law, being removed from the law. Jesus came born under the law with a flesh like ours, overcoming sin and thereby making a way for us that we too might be sons, free from the law because we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and overcome sin too. This is the mark of those who are free from the law as we read very clearly in Romans 6.14. Romans 6.14 says that because you are not under law now, therefore sin does not rule over you. But you are under grace now. So the mark of those who are not under law but under grace is this, that sin does not rule them in their heart. Sin could not rule in the heart of Jesus because though he was born under law, he lived under grace. We read that very clearly in Luke 2.40 that even as a young child the grace of God was upon him and he's the first person about whom it is said in scripture that the grace of God was upon him and now we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the grace of God being upon us. Then we are placed as sons. We are no longer defeated. We have victory. That is the mark of a son of God, that he has victory over sin. The mark of a child is that he's still defeated. We read that in 1 Corinthians 3. Verse 1. I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual men, that is grown-up sons, but as to men of flesh, as to babes. The mark of a babe is this, for you are still fleshly. Verse 3. There's jealousy and strife among you. You are still defeated by sin which proves that you're under law, which proves that you're a child. When you come under grace, then you are no longer a child but you're a son and you have victory over sin because you come under grace and because you're sons. God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. You see, God has sent the spirit into our hearts because we are sons, because we are to be those who have a sense of responsibility, who live under grace. The Holy Spirit is called the spirit of grace or the spirit who communicates grace to us. And when the spirit comes upon us, he communicates grace to us, that is help in time of need. Hebrews 4.16 says, we receive grace at the throne of grace to help us in our time of need and that help is to overcome sin. Then, verse 7 of Galatians 4, we are no longer slaves but sons and if sons then an heir through God. So this whole section of Galatians 4 verses 1 to 7 is to show us that to be free from the law means to come into a higher position of privilege, no longer a child but a grown-up son, no longer defeated by sin but having victory over sin, no longer struggling by the power of our own flesh to please God but enabled by the Holy Spirit who has come within us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who has opened the way for us to be a son of God, to walk as one who has a sense of responsibility and to glorify God just like Jesus did in our life. Praise God for this privilege that is ours under the new covenant.