Life's enemy looks like a friend; behold, it is Law - Day 8: Thirty Day Meditations to Abundant Life!
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Paul of Tarsus (Gal 2:22)
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| Shutterstock, by Russel Shively (modified by D.R.) |
It's incredible but the same enemy that haunted Paul's footsteps, destroying the abundant life of believers everywhere still works today... this enemy is not Satan, it is the flesh working through the Law (bit you can bet that Satan uses this weapon with great gusto). The world teaches you that you deserve things according to what you do. This is a perversion of the precious law of sowing and reaping... this law isn't a commandment, it's a principle by which this world was founded. But when you believe that you will be blessed or cursed based on what you do or don't do, whatever that list of do's and don'ts is, you fall away from Grace, you make Christ's death nothing... NOTHING!
I hope you can appreciate the nothingness of nothing and the immensity of Paul's statement here. What went through his mind to even express this thought, that the Son of God's death was in vain is scarcely imaginable. That something is the Law.
What Jesus did on the cross means that everything He deserves you now deserve. There is no other way to receive the abundant life of Christ, than to accept this truth. You will not be judged by what you have or have not done... it is simply a matter of whether one has received His grace or rejected it.
But the church does not see things this way. Religion is founded on a distance between man and God and it claims to find a way to bridge this gap. That way is really a system of laws. And these laws are under a curse for it is impossible to follow them blamelessly. And when I see people trying to fight for the law, I shudder. These people are double-minded having fallen into great foolishness and leading many with them. They speak Christ, and pray to Him and thank Him and then lay a burden that only brings the curse of death to work in their lives. You should read the curse of the Law, it is what Christ redeemed you of and includes every evil you could imagine... it's in Deuteronomy 28.
So do you want life? Shun the Law. Take it away. Actually, that's already been done. Paul said that Jesus "wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Col 2:14). That's pretty tough language.
Relating to God as if He's Santa Claus, recording your sins and non-sins, punishing the former and rewarding the latter, is the supreme agent of making the Cross nothing... this is how so many Christians trample on the sacrifice of Christ whom they say they follow. It's also the best way to sap the life from a soul... just put laws on them, laws of any kind. Instead of the peace and joy of the Spirit, they will have guilt and death. It's time we embraced Grace unabashedly, understood our forgiveness, and walked as Sons and not slaves. This is how to please God the most... to say in faith, with all boldness and unending gratitude;
Because of what Jesus Christ did for me, I now deserve all that He deserves!
Amen.
Related Posts:
5 signs you are under law, the ministry of death.
Why the "Messianization" of Christianity will waste your life,
The mystery of the Temple's Destruction
David Roiel
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