Friday, June 16, 2006

enjoying god's grace

In cleaning up for our move to Cincinnati, I found a pile of papers that I intended to transcribe into an electronic format. Apparently they made a lot of sense at the time I wrote them but now they look like a lot of scribbles. As I go through them, if they make sense and seem meaningful, I will blog them for posterity. Here is the first of those ... it is apparently from something I heard or read from Terry Virgo.

Ro 5.12-21; this is past tense. Those who have it have already "received" the abundant provision. We have it now. We need not make plans to go get it.

Ro 6.14
; sin does not have dominion over us. We are not under the law but under grace.

Gal 5.4; Christ is the end of the law - getting back under it alienates us from Him.

Ro 7.1-6
; the law has jurisdiction as long as we live but we died to the law so that we might be joined to another, Christ Jesus, that we then might bare fruit.

The law tells us what not to do but doesn't provide help. Worse, we cannot argue with it because it is always right.

You cannot marry another as long as you are married to the law.

Jesus said the law will never pass way therefore it is you that must die. Only through death are you released or discharged from that bond.

In the military, we react to what the seargent says. When discharged, we may still have instinctive reactions if someone barks out an order but we are no longer obligated.

We are joined to Christ for the purpose of bearing fruit.

Gal 3.21; life comes only through marriage to Christ - the law was an impotent husband.

We should not try to impress our new husband by keeping relationship to our old husband. We do not need a way to "the Way".

Ro 3.20; through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The conscious tries to tell us right from wrong but the conscious can get muddled. The law draws the line and then provokes reaction. The problem however is not the law but rather our own sin. Then when our sin is held up to that which is holy and pure, it looks all the more bad. Man is not basically good. Adding rules do not bring life, only death. Man is so bad off that when you add something good, he gets worse. That's why religious people are miserable, all they have is the law.

Christians cannot go back to the law. The law has done its job. It revealed our depravity. The law is not our teacher. it is a collector - it collects us and delivers us to Christ. Once we have been delivered, we don't need the law, we need relationship with Christ.

Jesus is our righteousness. We cannot add to nor subtract from that. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. All this is a free gift from God.

Eph 1.3; He has blessed us - it's done.

Paul doesn't simply say do not commit adultery. He tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not under law, we are partakers of a divine nature. We are new and therefore should live out our newness.

Ex 11-13; The blood was on the outside of the door. Although residents were not perfect but the house was under covenant. Then they left slavery rich but didn't realize they were free. The slave master pursued them but they were in fact free. At the crossing they got through but not the slave owners. Then they get to the promised land. They were free, they saw their former owners drowned, but they were still locked in a slave mentality and did not "enter in". This angered God.

Ro 6.6-7; We are to know who we are. A dead person cannot be hurt. We are dead to Sin.

Ro 6.11; Because it is true, we must think it is true (not visa versa). When you move to a different time zone, you can get confused by looking at your watch and compare to the clocks around you. You do not change your watch because of how hard you think about the time. You change it because it is in fact a different time. Your body may not have adjusted but you are in a different time zone. Fact.

When in Christ, you have entered a new sphere. Renew your mind by His Word. Change your thinking. It's fact.

Ro 6.13; And now let righteousness rule your mortal bodies.

Phil 3.21; 2 Co 5.1; We have a new heavenly house. These hands which once were used to carry out sin, now need to carry out the righteousness of our new nature. In this new nature, the house has a new main door which says, "He is faithful and just to forgive." It is in us to be righteous. We now desire this. This is our new slave master.

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