0506 A NEW LAW

A NEW LAW

Paul opens chapter 8 with some of the most powerful words in Scripture, profoundly life-altering, and it summarizes what he spent the first 7 chapters setting up. Ready?

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

The old Law measured mistakes, and marked down from perfection to where you were in your behavior. And since a perfect score was required to be in good standing with God, all of us stand accused, rather than to feel like we were pleasing to the Father. We lived under the weight of condemnation, and did our best to avoid being sent to the bad place. 

But if we belong to Christ Jesus, there is NO CONDEMNATION. None! We are not counting our positive points and subtracting sins and then adding in sacrifices and hoping that the numbers add up. But that’s not what Jesus came to do for you and me. He came to set us free, if we merely belong to him! 

Paul goes on:

And because you belong to him, the law of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the law of sin that leads to death. 

Paul has spent 7 chapters talking about the law and how it can end up in death. And how he turns a corner here to say there are two laws. It’s like one set of rules has been in play for all these years, and we have been playing golf, where the goal is to get as low a score as possible, but now we switch to baseball and are trying to get more runs, not less. It is that radical! 

Paul goes on:

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our flesh (sinful nature). 

We live under a new law. The old law was marred by my desires and led to sin and death. The new law is simple: live in the Spirit. He will guide you to do right, and will never guide you to do wrong. Don’t be afraid that you will mess up. Just walk with God. Jesus promised that he would give the spirit and that the spirit would lead them/us into life and all good things. 

I’m saying that the Old Testament law had us facing in the  direction of death. What to avoid, what to do to make up for sins committed, how to keep clean from touching unclean things. Our flesh used the law to lead us to death. But the Spirit has us turn around and face the other way. Rather than facing the source of our death, we face the other way (that’s the meaning of the biblical word, “repent.”) Walk in the moment. The Spirit will never guide you into sin. That’s why he is not the law of sin and death but the Spirit who gives life, don’t you know?

To use a different metaphor,

MOTHER RULES…WHAT WERE SOME MOTHER RULES?

God was parenting his people. First, he carried them where they needed to go (Exodus, etc.). Then, as a parent would do for young children, he gave them his law, his rules, so they would know how to avoid and fix their sin problem. By the time of the Spirit, God’s parenting went beyond rules and laws. By the time a child is old enough, they don’t need house rules and chore charts and curfews. They have your words and your example in their head, so that your rules are no longer needed. 

WHAT MOTHER RULES DO YOU NOW KEEP AS AN ADULT?

Let’s keep going with what Paul wrote:

So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 

The mistakes we make? Jesus took them away on the cross. He lived the perfect life in our place, and then received the penalty we owed in his death. And then gave us the Spirit. (More on that later)

JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD AND LIVED A LIFE THAT NO ONE HAD SEEN BEFORE. A LIFE OF POWER AND OF LOVE AND OF GRACE AND OF SINLESS PERFECTION. THEN JESUS SAID THAT IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR US IF HE WENT AWAY, BECAUSE HE WOULD SEND THE SPIRIT WHO WOULD GUIDE US INTO ALL TRUTH. 

Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. JOHN 16:7

He did this so that the just requirement of the law would now also be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

So what is left for us to “do?” Nothing! We simply follow the Spirit now. As Jesus said, He will guide you into all truth. No worries. Just follow the leader.

So let me go back to an educational philosophy. The educational plan of Jesus himself. The plan was not, lecture-then-test. The plan was follow-then-go. More is caught than taught. What you discover for yourself remains yours for life, while what you hear someone else dispense is likely to be forgotten. The Holy Spirit becomes our guide, and he leads us to do righteous things and to hear the voice of God in a moment by moment walk that does the same thing for us as Jesus did when he was here in the flesh.

I’m saying that when we walk in step with the Spirit, when we are filled with the Spirit, when we do not grieve or quench the Spirit, when we follow the Spirit of Jesus, 

So I urge you, turn around! Repent! Face the other direction from where you have been facing! Like back in the Garden, all you need to do is to walk with God.