PRACTICAL ADVICE

PRACTICAL ADVICE

                The way to live in freedom is by the Spirit. Paul’s whole instruction is that the Law leads us to Christ where we enter by faith into His death and resurrection and thus forever to live by His Spirit. IN Galatians 5: 16 and onward, He gives a summation of his teaching to the Galatians, saying:

                “Here is my advice. Live your whole life in the Spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of your lower nature. For the whole energy of the lower nature is set against the Spirit, while the whole power of the Spirit is contrary to the lower nature.  Here is the conflict, and that is why you are not free to do what you want to do. But if you follow the leading of the Spirit, you stand clear of the Law.”

                “The activities of the lower nature are obvious. Here is a list: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, worship of false gods, witchcraft, hatred, quarreling, Jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, factions, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like that, I solemnly assure you, as I did before, that those who indulge in such things will never inherit God’s kingdom. The Spirit, however, produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control – and no law exists against any of them.”

                “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their old nature with all that it loved and lusted for. If our lives are centered in the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit. Let us not be ambitious for our own reputations, for that only means making one another jealous.” Gal. 5:16-26(J.B. Phillips translation)

                The rule of law is every equitable and practical and fair. In other words if you have one law that applies to all people then all are equal under the Law. But if you start offering special rights to this group or that group, then suddenly you have every other group fighting for special rights as well. It is like opening Pandora’s Box and a nation cannot long survive once that box has been opened.

                But there is another realm of existence that is even higher than the rule of law. It too is equally available to all. It too is fair and noble. And where the Law brings us to the point of death, the Spirit breathes life into us and lifts us up into life more abundant. The Law was never meant to live by, but to identify and judge sin. It stands in judgment of those who break it and serves as an authority to the judge who will exact the punishment.

                The Law is holy and righteous and good in terms of its statutes. It identifies sin and righteousness, but it has no power to make one righteous. It can only point to our need of the Holy Spirit of God to produce righteousness and holiness in us. So once we have entered into Christ’s death and resurrection, the Law has finished its work and the Spirit takes over to reproduce the life of Christ in us.

                So if we stop just shy of the foot of the cross and teach people to live by the Law, we have failed to enter into the vibrant power of the Gospel which is made alive by the Holy Spirit.

                Paul goes on to stress that if we trust in the works of the Law we are under a curse, for if we set out to obey even one of them, then we must keep them all. But since the Law has no ability to forgive, then even if we make even one mistake we are forever doomed to judgment. This then was the reason for the shedding of blood in the Old Covenant and the shedding of Christ’s blood in the New. The substituting of an innocent life for a guilty one became the only means of forgiveness. So the Law was never designed to make us righteous. It was only designed to identify sin and to point us to the sacrifice for that sin.

                “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith,’ However the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, He who practices them shall live by them.” Gal. 3:12.

                The dynamic here is very important both for those who believe in keeping the Law and those who don’t. Paul’s message throughout his writings is this: If you try to keep the Law in the flesh, you will never end up fully keeping it and so you have only put yourself under a curse. But if you die to the flesh and begin to live by the Spirit then the Law will be fulfilled in you as you walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

                But why would anyone want to do it any other way? Who wants to struggle on in the flesh trying to please God in what must be the futility of all futilities, when the Spirit of God is so willing to move in and to empower us with new life. God moves in and pleases Himself through us.

                And since it is the Holy Spirit that helps us to pray, we may all enter into God’s presence as equals. God is no respecter of persons. WE are all equal in His sight.

                As a Spirit filled Christian I must be aware that my prayers hold as much weight with God as Peter’s or Paul’s or Spurgeon’s or Luther’s or even Yeshua’s. So once I gain an audience with God I am not going to spend that precious time sniveling about doubts and fears. Instead I will come boldly before the throne. I will speak God’s words back to Him with all of the authority of the Author Himself.

                Then, having said my piece, I will fall at His feet, totally shaken by His splendor. I will admit that I have no right to be there except for the blood of Yeshua, shed on my behalf. Then left speechless by God’s overwhelming power and unthinkable love for me, I will back away from the throne clutching a handful of freshly renewed promises from Him. And having said “Amen”, I will be ready for another day of life here on earth.

                In a conversation with Jesus yesterday morning, He showed me that even though He fulfilled the Law perfectly in every way, He nevertheless seemed to always be at odds with those who claimed to be keeping the Law. They could not comprehend the higher realm that He lived in that is as much higher than the Law as Spirit is higher than flesh. In that spiritual realm the Law is fulfilled, but in a whole different way and wherein one is a ministry of death, the other is a ministry of life.

                I used to argue with God that if I could die to self, I could probably just as easily keep the Law.

                Dying to myself seemed to be an absolute impossibility to me. I could not picture the New Birth as being anything more than me becoming even more legalistic than I already was.              So when I finally got up my courage to give it all to Him, I was surprised. It wasn’t at all what I expected. Instead Jesus came in like a fresh breeze. He kicked the devil out along with my guilt and depression and addiction and placed a kind of buoyancy in me that to this day, 26 years later still lifts me up and keeps me from going under.

                My passion and zeal for the Lord continues to grow because it is not being generated by my flesh. It is being generated by the Holy Spirit.

                Well, I think this about concludes my discussions about the Law. So I just want to say this in closing. Any discussion about the Law that does not end with life in the Spirit is a dead end road. The Law has a definite purpose and that purpose is to bring us to the foot of the cross, where we die to the Law in order that we may live in the Spirit. This transaction will not break the law, but will fulfill it. From now on we will not place our faith in ourselves to keep the Law, but in Christ’s ability to live His life in us in a way that satisfies the demands of the Law as we pass from death into life.

                Living in the Spirit is more than practical… it is the only way to be a true Christian. Selah.