Truth Is A Person, Truth Is Christ

By Tammy Lacock

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:2-3 KJV)

In this Part 7 of stepping “Out of Law Into Grace,” Warren Litzman sets it straight by keeping the gospel of grace simple because the Apostle Paul keeps it simple.

He explains, there was no life in the Old Testament because there was no cross, only law. Believers in the Old Testament lived a “soulish” life, basing their righteousness on their adherence to the law. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection ushered in a new covenant — God’s grace. Because of Him, we are no longer bound by the law. We are brought to life — a new resurrected life — by Him. As believers, Christ is our new life by Him now being joined to us in one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). This new life in spirit is grace. We now live in spirit and in truth.

“He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12 KJV)

Truth is a person. Truth is Christ.

Warren focuses this week on Paul’s letter to the Philippians chapter 3, verses 2 through 8. Here Paul is setting us straight that there is to be no commingling of the gospels of law and of grace. In verse 2, Paul speaks of “dogs” as people who intertwine law and grace gospels. When this is done, neither is of any merit. Many churches today are commingling the gospel of law (righteousness by what we do or don’t do) and Paul’s gospel of grace (righteousness by Christ), yet Paul makes it clear that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we are only to live by God’s grace now. To live by the law would nullify Christ’s death. Christ ushered in God’s grace by His death, burial, and resurrection on the cross, so there is to be no more confidence in our flesh, no more confidence in anything we do, and no more adherence to the law for our salvation. Christ did the work; and by His death, we died with Him to our old lives and arose with Him to a new life, His life within us now (Galatians 2:20). Christ is our new life. We are brand-new creations in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). No longer does God see our own works as righteousness. He sees only Christ as our righteousness. It’s that simple.

Paul tells us in verses 4-5, that before he met Christ on the road to Damascus, if there was anyone that kept the law most and was righteous by it, it was him. He was an avid scholar of Torah and was making his way up in Hebrew standing. He was the “meanest man alive,” as Warren puts it, because in his strict adherence to law, he killed Christians.

Yet in his instant conversion, Paul knew Christ and addressed Him as Lord. And from that day forward, he was all in. He knew the truth, and the truth set him free free from the entanglement of law and his old mind.

So Paul uses his background as a means of sharing a new gospel, a gospel that only he was raised up by Christ Himself to deliver to the Jews (who rejected it) and to the Gentiles (who accepted it). Paul tells us that all of that law stuff doesn’t apply to God's children who live by the Spirit within; it’s all garbage, compared to this new gospel of grace. It’s all but “dung” compared to Christ. His new life in Christ was all that mattered to him. All he wanted was to know Christ more and to share this new gospel of grace with anyone and everyone who would hear it. He makes this clear in verses 7-8 when he says: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

Today, with such a commingling of Scriptures on how we should live, Paul reminds us to keep it simple. Only by Christ’s death and resurrection are we able to now live in grace. His death abolished our living by the law and ushered in a new life of grace, living by the Spirit. By the help of the Holy Spirit, whose sole purpose is to teach of Christ and our new life in Him, we can step into grace. From law to grace, from law to truth, from law to Christ. It’s that simple.