Gal. 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

The will of God is revealed through the law of God.

Sin is the transgression of the law

First of all, this passage is not talking about being able to do whatever you want to do. The subject of the entire book is salvation, not Christian living.

Gal. 1:6-9 - Paul marvels that they have so soon removed from the grace of Christ into another gospel.

Acts 15 – The question of whether circumcision is necessary for salvation was settled.

Paul is saying in verse 6 that they have left the grace of God in salvation.

Gal. 5:4 "fallen from grace" doesn’t mean they have lost their salvation, but that they have left the grace of God in salvation and are now depending upon their works to save them and keep them saved.

Salvation is the same for every nationality in every time period.

This is why Paul goes into the discourse of chapter 2.

Some people believed the Jews were saved one way and the Gentiles were saved another.

Paul makes it very clear that everybody is saved exactly the same way.

Gal. 3:11-13 - Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Verse 11 - Justified is a legal term which means we stand before God legally innocent. The verse is talking about salvation, not Christian living.

Verse 12 - While the law is not of faith, it does show us what we are, and points the way to Christ, who can give us faith.

Verse 13 - Christ has purchased us by his death on the cross, therefore the law has no hold on us.

Legalists.

This is a person who is trying to be saved by keeping the law.

It is also a person who is trying to be a Christian by trying to keep the rules and regulations of the law. They are measuring their Christianity by the rule of the law instead of the rule of Christ. (I Cor. 10:12)

I Tim. 1:8 - The law is good if a man will use it lawfully.

Paul put this thought here so that the readers will understand that he is not against the law.

The law is not to save anybody, but to show people how they can live to please God.

I have been called a legalist many times, but I don’t know how to serve God if I don’t use His Word and His law to find out.

I Cor. 14:34 - If Paul didn’t believe in using the law to discover how to live to please God, why did he refer to the law when he instructed the church at Corinth about women being silent in church services?

Matthew 7:12 – The "Golden Rule" is also found in the law.

Many people try to say that the law is done away with when Christ died on the cross, but there is no scripture that says this. (Actually the law is not done away with – Christ has fulfilled the part of the law that deals with blood offerings. Therefore our sins are paid for by the blood of Christ: our service is still the same.)

I Tim. 1:8 - The law is good if a man use it lawfully.

I John 3:4 – Sin is the transgression of the law.

It is a terrible thing today when religious people teach that the law of God is not needed.

They are either terribly misguided, or intentionally deceitful.

There are those that say, "I’m not under law, but under grace." (Gen. 6:8 – Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.)

When people say this, they seem to mean that they are not required to do anything the law says.

They are not required to obey the 10 commandments, or any other commandment in the Bible.

These people will make up their own minds about what they believe, what they are going to do, and what they are not going to do.

In other words, they are a law unto themselves.

They are like the people in Judges 17:6 and 21:25 - In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

The term "under law" is not referring to the Christian life, but to trying to be saved, or trying to keep your salvation by keeping the law.

A person is not saved, nor does he keep his salvation by keeping the law.

Many religious people today have taken the term "not under law, but under grace," and changed the meaning from personal salvation to time dispensationalism.

The Bible uses the term "not under law, but under grace" to refer to:

Works for salvation. (We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ)

Works for service. (We serve by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.)

It means that a person cannot be saved by keeping the law, but they are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

James 2:17 – We must have faith, but faith by itself is dead, being alone.

James 2:18 – Faith will always produce works.

We work for God because we love him, not to gain specials favors or privileges.

The Bible does not teach a "dispensation of law" (from Moses to Christ), and a "dispensation of grace" (from Christ until now). (There are some dispensation teaching that is correct, but salvation and service have always been the same. The dispensations are the various ways God has dealt with humans down through the years.)

The Bible teaches that we are not under the letter of the law, although we are still under the spirit of the law.

There is no such thing as being "under the law" as defined by most people today.

Many people believe this verse teaches that we are not to obey the law at all, that in fact, we are supposed to "throw the law out the door."

This is error.

Grace and law have always been, and have always been in effect.

Some, in fact, the majority it seems, now use the term "not under law, but under grace" to mean that Christ has completely done away with the law, that it was used in days gone by, but is not necessary today for anything, except to show the lawless they are in need of Christ.

1. They teach that we, in this time dispensation, are now "under grace".

2. The great problem with this is that the saved person is without any scriptural means of knowing how to serve God acceptably.

3. Each person, each church, each denomination is left to themselves to figure out, by their own brains, what God expects.

4. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, can become a forgotten book.

5. If people get used to the idea of leaving out any portion of God’s Word, it is very easy to get them to leave out another portion.

III. What is sin?

I John 3:4 - Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Matt. 5:17-20 - Christ didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.

We can also fulfill the law in Christ through developing love for God and the love for people.

Matt. 23:23 - Christ told the Pharisees it was right for them to pay tithes, but they ought to have also done the weightier matters of he law: judgment, mercy and faith.

Matt. 7:12 - Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

The "golden rule" is from the law and the prophets!

There is no single Old Testament scripture that is referred to.

Christ is referring to the entirety of the Old Testament.

Law is: A rule of action.