ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
is the gift of His righteousness made a living, powerful experi- ence in the human heart. It is all of grace! Not the Mosaic Law, but the risen Christ is the believer's rule of life. If only Christians would grasp this fundamental truth! Thousands of people do not know the truth that Paul presents in this chapter. Many in evangelical denominations think we are saved by the keeping of the law. Others feel that it is the rule of life for the believer. Many of the cults, such as Seventh Day Adventism, teach this false doctrine. But it is absolutely necessary for believers to be delivered from the law. Some years ago I was conducting a Bible conference in the city of Indianapolis, a stronghold of legalistic teachers of a certain sect. They profess to believe in the finished work of Christ, but they still maintain that the Mosaic Law is the believer's rule of life. After the services many of these legalists approached me to tell me how serious a mistake it was to preach salvation by grace alone. One day a lumberman came up to me after one of the meetings and said: "Mr. Talbot, what you teach is all right as far as it goes, but you should go on to the Mosaic Law. You and I are still under law as a rule of life: and if you do not keep it, you will be annihilated at death, or when Jesus comes. He emphasized especially the fourth commandment, insisting that Christians should observe the Jewish Sabbath, which is the seventh day. He even said that the pope is the Antichrist, and that he had changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. He went so ·far as to say that the first day is "the mark of the beast," referred to in Revelation. Surely this man had never read the seventh chapter of Romans with under- standing. Such teaching as he held leads back to bondage, and is contrary to the Gospel of the grace of God. And no portion of the Scriptures states the case more plainly than does the seventh chapter of Romans. ISRAEL'S BLINDNESS IN ASKING FOR THE LAW Before we go into the discussion of this chapter, which [Page 109
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