law Archives – Sonshine's Journal

Gal 1 to 3 As Paul traveled and taught he came across the Galatians who believed and began a small congregation. So it was with some dismay that he was astonished to learn that in his absence they had started deserting the faith and returning to the works of the Law. He asked them bluntly, did you receive Christ by doing the works of the Law or by believing? Why do you think that you need to return to that bond of legalism? What has been the purpose of your suffering? For what purpose did God give you the Spirit and allow you to have the gift of miracles?

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These are questions we all need to stop and ask because today many want to return to the bondage of the Law rather than stepping out into freedom. Remember that Abraham didn’t have the Law! He was and we are justified by faith not by the works of the Law.

Ask yourself, what was the purpose of Christ’s death? Was it not so that they who believe as Abraham might receive the promise of the Spirit? Again, why was the Law given? It was given to show us what our sin really was. Now that this the Law has been fulfilled through Christ we all belong to Christ and have the promise of the Spirit as His gift. Christ paid the penalty of our sin so we could be and would be free of our sin’s penalty.

So I ask you again: for what reason have you so soon deserted the gospel? Return to your first love and live by the Spirit

Today would have been the anniversary of my in-law’s marriage. They lived through their 73^rd wedding anniversary, she dying on that day and my father in law 18 days later. They were a beautiful picture of true wedded bliss, literally bound to one another “until death do us part”. On the other side was my own mother who buried two husbands and was widowed for several years after. What does all of this have to do with today? In Romans 7, Paul is using the analogy of marriage to show that just as my mother in law was bound to her first husband for 73 yrs; she was never was “unbound”. It was death that unbound my in-laws, if even for a short period of time. My own mother was married for 35 yrs upon which my father died. She then was, unlike my in- laws, free to marry another and several years later she did. It was death that ended my own parent’s marriage relationship. It was death that ended my in-law’s marriage. Death is the only “D” word allowed!

Paul reminds us that once someone is crucified with Christ, who was raised from the dead, so are we also “raised to newness of life” and no longer bound to the Law. Jesus’ death and our acceptance of that sacrifice for our sin rescinded our binding to the Law.

Therefore, once freed from the rules and regulations from the Law, what is the believer’s responsibility? It is to see the Law as God’s standard of righteousness, to see how it reveals man’s sin, and to see it as a guide for life. One’s position becomes one’s practice so to speak. We are now to live a life of holiness that we may honor and glorify Him who gave so much. In the past we were slaves to sin, now we are slaves to righteousness. But, as Paul says, it will be a struggle between the flesh and our new spirit in Christ until we take that last breath. We struggle between what we want to do and what we should do. It is at times like this that we can only come to Christ for cleansing. IJohn 1:9 “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” Thus Paul ends this chapter by saying: Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” And that should be our ending as well.

Hangest thou in there Beloved!

Tag: law

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