The Law . . . has Freed Me! (I am free to initiate fellowship with Father)

[Vine Abider]

This is wonderful - that God has done it all in Christ, so that we can now just take the initiative!  He has shed His blood to fully open the way for us to come to God, and accordingly there is no condemnation! I know I have wasted far too much time in my life, thinking that's it's a matter of waiting on Him. And, for sure, we do need to wait on Him related to certain things . . . but when it comes to our relationship with Him, again, HE HAS DONE IT ALL!!!

Never again do we have to accept some airy feeling of separation from God, or cloudy condemnation, or even morbid self-introspection.  NO!  He shed His blood and the veil is fully rent in two, eliminating any separation from our loving Father.  We can boldly declare, "Jesus has done it all and shed His blood to cleanse me, so all bad and evil thoughts & feelings --> leave me now in the name of Jesus!" And because He's put me in Christ, and Christ is one with my spirit, God accepts me as freely as He does Jesus!  Therefore with confidence we can draw near to God and take the initiative to, "Fan into flames the gift of God within [us]!" (2 Tim 1:6)

In fact, our new life-relationship with God is so established, Paul speaks of it as a law in Romans eight.  He has set things up so they just work, when we apply this law of life.  We don't have to wait on anything (including feelings) to connect with Christ, Who has been joined to our spirit. (1 Cor 6:17)

HALLELUJAH!!! 

This day's devotional speaks to this wonderful fact:

The law of Our [new] Being

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2

We need to be renewed in our minds about a part of us--our spirit. This part of our being is the law of our being. It is something working and operating constantly. When my spirit is regenerated, the Lord's life is immediately imparted into me. My spirit is filled with Christ as the life-giving Spirit. He resides in me as such a One. Our spirit is the part of us that is joined to the Lord, who is the Spirit. The two spirits have become one. So we do not wait for an inspiration or some kind of feeling to prompt us to pray, to sing, to speak, or to call on the Lord. Just as my body has been born, and all my faculties are mine, and I learn to use my faculties, so my spirit has been born and my spirit is mine. With my spirit, I can take the initiative to pray and open myself up to the Lord. By contacting the Lord with my spirit, I can turn my mind. Whenever I use my spirit, I merge with the law of the Spirit of life.

Let me illustrate what it means for us to relate to a law. The airline industry is not based on an intermittent phenomenon that happens with airplanes. Flying an airplane is not an unpredictable occurrence. It is not that one time an airplane "happens" to make it up in the air, but the next time it does not, and then the next time maybe it will. No, it does not work that way. There is a law of aerodynamics. In the same way, in whatever you are passing through, if you use your spirit--that part in you that is regular and reliable--then you are in the right realm to be freed. The law of the Spirit of life is the realm that freed us from the law of sin and death. "Freed" in Greek is in the past tense--it has already happened. We have already been freed. Now we simply enter into the good of the freedom. We merge with the freedom.

from The Supplied Life by B. Freeman

[NConly]

Luke 16

16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Rom 3

31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

 

[farouk]

6 minutes ago, NConly said:

Luke 16

16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Rom 3

31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

 

@NConly Interestingly in Hebrews there is also another angle:

Hebrews 7.12 says the law was changed.

Hebrews 7.19 says what we now have is better than the law.

[NConly]

3 hours ago, farouk said:

@NConly Interestingly in Hebrews there is also another angle:

Hebrews 7.12 says the law was changed.

Hebrews 7.19 says what we now have is better than the law.

More than just the law changed.

Heb 7:

12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

[Cntrysner]

We are members of His Body which seems more to me than being a member of a priesthood which is expressed in Jewish law.

[Vine Abider]

I've been considering more this idea of being fully equipped by God, to take the initiate as it pertains to spiritual (and really all) matters.  It's huge!  When the bible tells us to be patient, or loving, or kind, or even wise, we can take the initiative to do this.  No, we don't have the "goods" in us to do this, but Christ is in us to be our source in all things pertaining to life and godliness.  Therefore, we just tell the Lord, "Lord, I can do all things through you.  I give this task/act that I'm about to do and trust that you will both supply me and lead me in this.  Thank you Lord!"

(Of course, I think it must be noted that one danger is if we think we can do all things, but then it comes out of a self energy and not His indwelling Spirit . . .)

[Ausie 52]

To be without the Law is to be lawless. We are still obligated to keep the Moral Law of God, be that the Ten Commandments or loving God with our whole being & our neighbor as ourselves. Anything else is Antinomianism.

[Vine Abider]

Yes, Antinomianism is one extreme and legalism is the other.  We are indeed under the law in the New Covenant - the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [which frees us] from the law of sin and of death!" Anything we are trying to do out of the supply of ourselves is not of the Spirit and will result in death.  (see Romans 8:5).

Only focusing on Christ alone, who indwells our spirit, activates the law of the Spirit of life - only this will give us His life and His supply.  And then we manifest the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, etc. in and through us, and thereby we are transformed into His glorious image.

So as it then says in Romans 8:13, "If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live."  But if this verse is truncated thusly, "if you put to death the practices of the body" . . . that only results in a Christ-less religious effort and death.

Does that make sense? 

[Marathoner]

Accusations of lawlessness directed at the saints was commonplace during Paul's day (this happened to the Galatians), particularly from Jews and some Jews who were added to the Body of Christ. The notion of walking with the Lord and listening to His voice --- a living faith, not one engraved into stone --- was outrageous to those who leveled these accusations. They could not fathom that those who never received the Law (Gentiles) could ever be justified by God outside of the scope of the Law. However, this is precisely what the Lord has done. 

One who walks with the Lord, listening to His voice, has no need of railing accusations of lawlessness to lure them into a bondage that the Spirit never intended for them (Acts 15 addresses this directly). Two thousand years later, here we are in a different age facing the same accusations of lawlessness that our ancient brothers and sisters did and it's no different: we listen to the Lord and walk in the Spirit. We have no need to rely upon the tools of children who must be taught wrong from right. The Lord Himself is our Teacher and He tells us what we ought to do, where we ought to go, and how we ought to conduct ourselves.    

Our liberty in the Spirit is lawlessness to those who resist Him. 

[Vine Abider]

Thanks @Marathoner - well said!  And I am continuing to see and appreciate that since He has done it all, we are free from all condemnation and can enter into fellowship with Him and to enjoy all He has given us (e.g., the fruit of the Spirit).  This is the right law to be under - THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS!!!