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FREE FROM THE LAW

Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. – Romans 7:1-3.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set youfree from the law of sin and death. – Romans 8:1-2

INTRODUCTION

Paul used marriage as an illustration of being dead to sin and free from the law’s condemning power. Christians can serve God freely by His Spirit. Still, the law makes us aware of our sinfulness and guides us to Christ. Paul concluding by focusing on the power and presence of Jesus Christ in his life in contrast to his own struggle with sin. Through Christ, the Spirit’s power enables us to live in ways that honour God. The Spirit helps us resist sin and provides guidance in making decisions.

Furthermore, the Spirit confirms that we are God’s children. We are adopted into God’s family and can go to God as Father. Because of this, nothing we face can be compared to the glory the awaits us. Our hope in Christ is certain. Though we often feel discouraged, we have a limitless source of hope. Our challenge is to patiently persevere in the face of any present difficulty.

Paul closed Romans 8 by affirming God is at work in all things.

SIN

Sin is more than an act. It is a power that controls us and leads us to death. We learn to sin when we rebel against God’s laws that set limits for our lives. The limits are good and necessary for us. Without them society could not exist.

God’s laws shows the limits people are to accept to be His people. We do not receive the law that way. We rebel against limits. We reverse the laws purpose. Instead of letting law lead us to life with God and away from the danger zone of death, we let law rouse our selfishness and jealousy. We do exactly what the law forbids. We sin in not trusting God to show us the nature of true life. We sin in doing what God forbids. We sin in letting sin control life rather than God. We cannot blame God for giving us the lawyer, nor can we blame the law. God was good to show us the nature of true life.

The law is good in outlining for us the proper limits to life. Sin as a power ruling over our lives turns the good law into an instrument to serve evil purposes by using it to arouse our selfish desires to be god.

We cannot overcome the power of sin. Rather we serve sin, letting it be our Master. Even though we know what is right, we do not have the power in ourselves to do it. Life is a war between our desires to do good and our enslavement to sin, with sin more powerful and winning the war. The outlook brings total despair until we turn to Jesus. He has won the victory over sin. His Spirit gives us power to defeat sin and serve Christ. Life is meant to be lived in the freedom of the Spirit, not in legalism under the law and sin.

HOLY SPIRIT

Obeying God is not a dreaded, impossible duty but a natural result of the Spirit in us. The Spirit is actively at work in all believers to transform us into the kind of person God wants us to be. The Spirit is not given for our enjoyment but to change us so we will be of service to Christ.

The Holy Spirit is not a possession we hold on to but a person we love and obey. We must choose between the way of the flesh or sinful nature and the way of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are in fact God’s children, and that, even though we pass through much suffering, we will eventually share in the glory of Christ. We must choose to follow the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit, to set our minds on what the Spirit desires, to be controlled by the Spirit, to put the old way of life, and to be led by the Spirit.

Obeying the Holy Spirit means a personal loyalty and obedience to Christ that expresses itself by following the leadership of the Spirit in all life’s decisions.

CONCLUSION

Life is dominated either by sin or by God’s Spirit. Christ gave the death sentence to sin, which had given us the death sentence. He gave us a choice. Center life on Him or no sin. Choose life or death. Be at peace with God or at war with Him. Live in the Spirit to please God, or live in sin to please death.

I HEAR THY WELCOME VOICE – MHB 351

1 I hear Thy welcome voice,

That calls me, Lord, to Thee

For cleansing in Thy precious blood

That flowed on Calvary.

Refrain:

I am coming, Lord!

Coming now to Thee!

Wash me, cleanse me in the blood

That flowed on Calvary.

2 Though coming weak and vile,

Thou dost my strength assure;

Thou dost my vileness fully cleanse,

Till spotless all and pure.

3 ‘Tis Jesus calls me on

To perfect faith and love,

To perfect hope, and peace, and trust,

For earth and heaven above.

4 ‘Tis Jesus who confirms

The blessèd work within,

By adding grace to welcomed grace,

Where reigned the power of sin.

5 All hail! atoning blood!
All hail! redeeming grace!
All hail! the gift of Christ our Lord,
Our Strength and Righteousness.

Lewis Hartsough (1828-1919)

Remain Blessed!

Please continue to join us on Asempa 94.7 FM – Sundays 5.30 am., Sunny 88.7 FM – Tuesdays 5:30 am; and YFM 107.9 – Sundays 6.30am; for our Radio Bible Study as well as Sunny FM 88.7 FM every Sunday at 3:30 pm. for Hymn and their Stories.

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WHEN COMFORT IS MY ENEMY

“God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient.” Colossians 1:11 (NCV)

Certain. Comfortable. Predictable. These are all words I long to use to describe my life. I suspect you’d be okay with these being the defining terms of your life, as well. But what if the comfort and certainties we crave today are a deadly recipe for complacency that will draw our hearts further and further away from God?

There are many examples of this in the Bible, but let’s look at one tucked into Jeremiah: “Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another — she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged” (Jeremiah 48:11, NIV).

On the surface, it may seem like the nation of Moab has it good. They are comfortable. Life seems predictable. They’ve been at rest for a long time. They haven’t known what it’s like to get caught off-guard. To suffer. To endure hardships due to circumstances beyond their control. Life feels good, so it must be good. No disappointments. No difficulties. But this verse is very clear that this is not what’s best for them.

People left in a complacent place for too long become tainted like impure wine. Wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another, means it’s been sitting in comfort for so long that it has absorbed the aroma of complacency. Winemakers during Jeremiah’s time would pour wine from jar to jar for two reasons. First, so the wine wouldn’t absorb the flavor of the vessel. And second, to rid the wine of the dregs or sediment that would settle into the bottom and prevent the wine from being pure.

The Moabites were not jarred from their complacency. Therefore, their culture was saturated with satisfaction apart from the Lord, and their people were full of impurities. They had no need to draw upon the Lord’s strength, so their hearts were far from Him. The Moabites were lulled into a false sense of security. Without challenges and changes, people tend to grow increasingly distant from God and resistant to His ways. In the meantime, their neighbors, the Israelites, were forced to depend on God and learn to survive suffering, captivity, enslavement. The Israelites appear to be the ones not being “saved” from hardship by God. But if we look through the lens of what’s best in the long term, Israel was being strengthened by God for her eventual good.

Settling into complacency might seem to be comfortable for today, but in the long run we, like the Moabites, may suffer more if we go untouched by God for too long.

Make no mistake: Being lulled into a false sense of security is worse than going through the process of suffering.

Scripture reveals the eventual fate of the Moabites was one of complete ruin. (Isaiah 16:6-10) It would have been better for them to go through the Israelites’ experience. To go from vessel to vessel and experience suffering in doses that made them strong enough to handle suffering in even larger doses.

It’s like getting a colonoscopy or mammogram (neither of which are comfortable at the time) just to make sure you catch something wrong early, while treatment is possible. Or like getting a vaccine before going on a missions trip to a country where diseases are an everyday risk. It’s so much better to get a small exposure to the deadly disease to help build your immunity than be exposed and risk not having the necessary strength and immunities to fight it.

We must sip the suffering of today, so we don’t have to drown in the devastations of tomorrow.

To be poured into new vessels might seem uncomfortable, chaotic, and completely unfair while suffering in the moment, but God wants us to know we can trust Him in the midst of it. He’s helping us get rid of the dregs — weakness, fear, complacency, and the hopeless resignation that all of life is unfair. He’s on guard, looking to strengthen us for what He sees coming. And He is fulfilling the promise of Colossians 1:11, “God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient.”

It’s a process that doesn’t usually feel good at the time, but God assures us it will be good in time.

Father God, thank You for reminding me that You’re more interested in preparing me than keeping me comfortable. I confess no part of me likes suffering. But I know I can trust Your heart for me. And that means I can trust You when You allow me to be poured into situations I would rather avoid. Keep shaping me. Keep strengthening me. I know the work You’re doing in me is good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:

James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (NIV)

STAY BLESSED

SOURCE: Culled from Encouragement For Today