Followed By Mercy

Grace Over Law: How Christ Ended Condemnation And Made Us One

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 2 • Episode 23

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What if the thing keeping you exhausted isn’t your lack of effort, but your reliance on it? We walk through Ephesians 2, 2 Corinthians 3, and Romans 10 to show how Jesus abolished enmity in his flesh, fulfilled the law, and opened real access to the Father. The shift is radical: from the letter that kills to the Spirit who gives life, from condemnation to reconciliation, from performance to peace.

We unpack why the law was given and why it could never save, how it exposes sin and fuels either despair or pride, and how Christ ends both by becoming our righteousness. You’ll hear a vivid picture from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress—the dust that won’t settle when we keep sweeping with our own efforts—and why only living water quiets the room. We also confront the trap of zeal without knowledge, the impulse to build our own righteousness, and the toll performance religion takes on souls and communities.

This conversation lands where grace always lands: identity and access. In Christ you are no longer a stranger; you are brought near. You don’t test into God’s presence; you are welcomed by blood that paid the full bill. From that welcome comes unity across old dividing lines and a life powered by the Spirit, not by self-improvement sprints. If you’re tired of trying to deserve what Jesus already finished, this is a breath of fresh air.

If this helped you rest in grace, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s still striving, and leave a review telling us one rule you’re ready to lay down.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

I couldn't wait to talk to you about this. And obviously, we're recording these in the same day. That's why I got the same shirt on. You've got the same. I wanted to take you today. I wanted to take you today down to verse 15. In the recording from yesterday, remember that it was remember. And remember was the imperative. That means we need to know, we need to recognize, we need to never forget that we are saved by the grace of God. It is the work of God. We were in a horrible condition. We were dead in our sins. Satan had had his way with us. And we've seen how God saved us in Ephesians 1. And he did all of that through Jesus. And we never forget that our salvation is the work of God, not us. And so we want praise to come out of our lips. We want to be thankful to God. We were his enemies and now we're not. We were dead and now we're not. And now he's done all that work in us. And so we are to rejoice in everything that Jesus has done, making us, bringing us near, making peace, making us one. He's done all that. But I wanted to get you down to this. Let me see if I can, let me see if I can bring it up for you real quick. I wanted to bring you to the fact that he has abolished. You get that? He has abolished. Look at this right here. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, abolished in the flesh, in his flesh, the enmity, the enemies, the law of commandments contained in ordinances to make himself of two, one new man, so making peace. And so I wanted to kind of talk about that with him. Robert, you want to say a couple of words before I before I launch into saying a couple of things?

Robert Canfield:

No, I mean I'm excited to hear about this. I think abolishing in his flesh, talking about Jesus' flesh, the enmity, something that brings about hatred and and and only despair. And he says it's even the law of the commandments and contained in the ordinances. I I'm pretty excited to hear what you're gonna have to say and then how it how it uh applies to our life on this. I'm I'm I'm excited about all this.

Austin Gardner:

Well, you know, all the rules, all the things that marked off Israel as being separate, all that's been done away with. And uh I think before we launch into what we ought to say there, I think Robert's little comment, you should all think about that. His flesh. Now, his flesh means not your flesh. His flesh means he did it. I didn't do it. It's not what I do, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Everything that made us right with God is what God did. It is what Jesus did. He was he abolished it, he broke it down, cut the veil in the temple from the top to bottom, opened it up, and said, Y'all come on in. There's no more separating. Y'all come on in. The access is given, access is open. And so he is our peace. And he's gotten rid of the law and the commandments and the rules, and he's taken two separate people and made them one: Jewish people, Gentile people. Gentile people were without God. We didn't worship the God of heaven, we worshiped false gods, Baal, Astaroth, and all those other people.

Robert Canfield:

Can I broken it down? Go ahead. Yeah, I I wanted to. He says he is abolished, he has inactivated in his flesh the enmity, the hatred. And so you think about what you just said. You said the law, right? Of his commandments and all these ordinances. And if we just think scripture, what does what does what comes with the law? When you see the law, what comes with it? When we when we we know that there's when there's law brought about in man, we know that man's gonna fail. There's always that law is a schoolmaster. It brings us to the knowledge that, man, we can't keep what we can't keep anything, he asked. And whenever we see the law, it's frustrating. It's it's like, well, how am I gonna get around this? Or how am I gonna do this? And what he's saying is, is he's abolished it. He's abolished this enmity, this hatred, even the law of the commandments contained in the ordinances, this law that God gave, there's no person in this world that could ever keep it. And so if you want to frustrate somebody, if you want to cause hatred and and anger and enmity in somebody, give them an give them a task that they can't complete. Cause them to feel like there's no way I can I can earn up to this. And what Paul's saying right here is Jesus has inactivated, he's abolished in his flesh this hatred, this feeling like I can't do, I can't earn, I can't work, I can't keep the law. No person in this world can keep the law. No person can keep the law. It is impossible for us to keep the law. The law was given to show us that we've had an offense towards a holy God. And so what Jesus did was, according to this scripture, is he's abolished that enmity, that hatred that comes with a desire of, I can't keep the good works, I can't keep good, I can't keep this law. He's abolished that that inability in us to feel like I can't make myself a new person. When we realize that in Christ, that's everything that we've need. He brings us nigh to God, he gives us new life, he gives us promises, that generates in us a sense of peace and knowing that, man, we have been brought nigh to God. Sorry, I just wanted to add that in there. Sorry. Without a doubt.

Austin Gardner:

And, you know, the law was never meant for you to keep. It's like our enemy, but look at what the scripture says here. And let me see if I can figure out how to make that just a tad bigger. Uh uh I don't know if you can see it well or not. Uh, I don't even know how to make it bigger. Robert, how do you make it bigger? Go to view, up, up, over to your right, down, view, zoom on the bottom part. Okay, now look at this verse right here. Starting in verse 6. He made us able ministers of the New Testament. Now, this is important. He abolished the enemy, and and preachers today, the Apostle Paul and the disciples were servants, ministers, preachers of the New Testament. And what is the New Testament? The Spirit. That's what the verse says. Look at the verse. Not the letter. For the letter kills. That's the law. The law kills. The law never heals, it kills. See, the letter kills. Look at that right there. And the spirit gives life. So we were made ministers. We're not here to condemn. The law's already done that plenty. We're here, now look at verse 7. The ministration, the service of death, written and engraved in stones. Boy, it was glorious. It was a wonderful time. We need the Old Testament. We need to know that we need God. And that's why the law was given. But now we're in the ministration of the Spirit. And then it says, look at it, the ministration of condemnation. That's the law, the enemy. It kills, it condemns, but much more now the ministration of righteousness. The ministration of righteousness. And so I would want you to go away realizing, uh, I want you to go away realizing what's happened here. So we are, we are not that enemy. The law was the enemy because it said, you deserve to be punished. You, it's like the woman taken in adultery. The Pharisees were the law. They came condemning.

Robert Canfield:

Robert? And John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, he gives, he makes an allegory, and so he makes this story, this picture, to show us what the law does. It's like being in a room. I don't know if you've ever been in a room that's enclosed, and you begin to sweep, and all the dust just keeps clouding up, and and it's it's hard to breathe, and you might get a good bit of the dust, you know, in a big pile, but there's still dust. You just spread it off everywhere. And that's like a person, it's it's very agitating. He said you had to put some water down, and I forget how he used all that analogy, but I remember him, I remember reading that book and hearing that. I was like, wow, that is. Because every time you get around the law and people talk about keeping this and keeping that, I mean what we might be doing good for a little bit, but then at the end we're like, well, I broke this, I did this. And the law has a sense of like it's agitating, it causes like an abrasion inside your soul because you're like, I can't keep this, I can't do it, I can't be perfect. If you were truly honest, there is no person, there's nobody out there that can just be perfect and just keep it. It's just it's impossible. And it just causes frustration. And that's why when you read Romans 7, you see Paul and his frustration. He's like, oh, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this sin? And so the law brought about us a realization that we have broken something, we've done something wrong. And that's what the purpose of the law is. It causes in our mind saying, I can't keep this. I'm not good enough. There's nobody out there that's perfect. And so what we do is then after we realize that we're not perfect, we look at other people like, well, at least I'm not like that other person. But you've got to get to the point where where in realizing I can't keep it, I need a savior. And that's when Jesus stops in or steps in and he says, Okay, I've turned off this law thing, this this frustration, this anger, this hatred, this, this hostility. I've abolished it. Now we can have peace. And it's brought about because of what Jesus did. It's all a work of Jesus. I'm reminded about a verse that I was telling my one of my daughters, and then Philippians chapter 4, it says this. He says, My God shall supply all your needs. All your needs. We think that God, in God, He can supply some of our needs, but we've got to do this part. But what Paul was stating there is God supplies all your needs, even when it comes down to basic necessities and foods. But you want to talk about it? The major need is our major need is we need to have peace with God. And there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to make us accepted with Him, to make us earn His favor. There's nothing. He is the source where all our needs are met. And so we've got to realize that in this, in this scripture, this verse right here, Jesus has abolished, He's switched off, He's turned off in His own flesh that hatred and that hostility that that was brought about with the law, that was brought about with all these ordinances, because it was his blood that was shed. It was his blood that was paid for that makes us to have peace, peace, and reconciles us. It brings us to God and now gives us access to God. So I don't know, I'm rambling. I get preaching.

Austin Gardner:

I want to take you to another patch of scripture. This will be the last one for today's recording, but what Robert's saying is the law's been done away with, but there is a misuse of the law, an abuse of the law in religion, in Christianity, in performance-based religion. And it's what the Pharisees were doing. Look at Romans chapter 10 and verse 2. For I bear with them record, talking about the Jews, that they have a zeal of God. They love God and they are excited about God, but it's not according to knowledge. They don't understand spiritual things. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. See, they don't know what God's done. They don't know how perfect God is. And they go about trying to establish their own righteousness. And they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to the guy who believes. And so what you want to get a hold of scripturally, what you want to get a hold of scripturally, is that Pharisees, religious people, were trying to say, I'm good, but look how I keep the law. And they were ignoring that God kept the law. It was Jesus who kept the law and Jesus who died to save sinners. And so they messed it all up. And that's you don't want to fall in that trap. You have fallen in that trap. You, listen to me, but you believe, man, if I'm not good, God won't like me. And that's not what's going on. That means you're ignorant of how God is. God is good, God is kind, God is merciful, God loves you, and it's not about what you do, it's about what he did.

Robert Canfield:

Robert? Yeah, in my devotions today, I went through 1 Timothy and I went through Titus. And what you're stating right now, this concept, this belief, this teaching that people said that you have to keep these commandments in order to be right with God. It's something that Paul's warned about to Timothy and to Titus. We are in Christ. We are righteous. We are in right standing with God. And because we're in right standing, he now dwells in us. He's got his spirit in us. And he's working in us love that we can't do. You brought up 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He gave us that spirit that's working in us. And what we have to do is we have to know, we have to know that there are teachings and there are people out there whose mouths need to be stopped because they have subverted whole households and they're teaching things that they shouldn't be teaching. And Paul's like, warning, warning, Timothy Titus, that's why I put you there in Crete. He told Timothy, 1 Timothy, he's like, that's why I left you in Ephesus, because I wanted you to teach what I've what I taught you. And so today, for us that's listening, as we go back to Ephesians chapter two and we're looking at this, Paul's teaching this church right here. He was showing them that the work has all been done in Christ. And our mind and our and our focus needs to be on what Jesus has done. Not what we do, but what Jesus has already done. That's the good news. That's the good news that we preach. And his work just didn't stop at the moment. We never used maybe pray to prayer or whatever. It just didn't stop there. It's continuing on. And now you have access. You now have a spirit that lives and dwells inside you, and you have a father that's with you. And he's, he wants to help and he wants to work in your life. And he's like, you're not a stranger anymore. You're you're beloved. You're my child. We're gonna work things in. I'm building things in you, and I've got, I'm gifting you stuff. And so it's an exciting, exciting time. It's an exciting life. But it all comes back to that, that belief, that thing that we have to fight for, we got to contend for, that we are complete. It was in Christ's flesh that that enity was abolished, that we've now been made close to God, that we now, all because of what he's done, not anything but what we've done.

Austin Gardner:

So as we close today, the law, the ministry of condemnation, is off the table, fulfilled everything the law demanded, and he died without sin for those who have sinned, that he might become sin, that we might be become righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5 21. And you need to understand he abolished the uh the ordinances, he abolished all that. We're gonna talk about it more tomorrow, but I just want you to know he took care of it for us. And so today you live in his grace, you live in his goodness and his and his mercy. And Jesus paid the debt, he did it all. Robert? Oh, that's wonderful. Think about that. Chew on that today. Well, thank y'all so much. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

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