Before we embark on our study of Jesus's parables, we learn from him and Matthew their purpose. We see in these passages that Jesus uses the parables to reveals the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, to execute God's purposes of salvation and damnation, to bless his disciples, and to teach about himself.

We have to understand the law rightly to understand the gospel rightly, and vice versa. Paul sets forth in this passage the right understanding of the law and the Christian's relationship to it. After explaining these things, we then turn seek to understand the relationship between law and gospel, the proper uses of the law for the Christian, and how to handle remaining sin.

God gave to his people the holiness code (Lev. 17-27) to teach them what it means to be holy as he is holy. The chapter addressed is this sermon teaches that holiness consists in keeping our lawful vows. After defining vows, we summarize God's regulations concerning vows and we also look at what these regulations teach us about God and ourselves. We finish by being pointed to Christ, especially in light of how often we break our vows.

Paul stated that we are not under law, but under grace because we have died to the law. This sermon answers three questions, "What does it mean to die to the law, how do we die to the law, and for what reasons have we died to the law?" Being still obligated to keep the moral law, we have died to the old covenant form of this law and we have died to its arousing of sin power. We have died because the Spirit has powerfully applied to us the death and resurrection of Christ. We have died so that we will be betrothed to Christ, bear fruit for God, and that we will serve in the newness of the Spirit.

The Lord in this passage puts before the Israelites promised blessings for obedience and promised curses for disobedience. When the people received the promised curses, the Lord also gives them a hope of redemption through promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To understand and apply a passage like this, we need to read it through the lenses of covenant, the law being a guardian, the fact that the law is filled with elementary principles, and that the purpose of the law to imprison everything under sin. Once we understand these things, we truly understand how Christ has fulfilled our needs for salvation.

Alongside a status change--condemned to justified--in our justification, come a condition change in our sanctification. We are brought from death to life. We die to the dominion of sin and are raised to a newness of life. Paul, in this passage, continues discussing our change in condition by highlighting how we are saved from the arousing power of the law, have become slaves of obedience, righteousness and God, and are given the free gift of sanctification. In response, we are to grow in holiness by offering our members as slaves to righteousness.

Part of walking in holiness is obeying God with our time and possessions. To be free to do that we need to recognize God's sovereignty over our time and property, trust him to take care of us, realize the impermanence of these things, marvel at the grace of God to us, and understand that Christ is the end of all things.

When we have a clear, biblical understanding of the gracious gift of justification, we will inevitably ask the questions, can I live anyway I want and ought I continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul answers these questions with an emphatic "no" because with the gift of justification comes additional gospel realities and duties. We in this sermon look at three of those realities: union with Christ; death to sin; and life toward God. As a result of these, we will not and can not continue in sin, but instead we will walk in newness of life.