Another result of the death of Christ is the fact that in His death, we have died to the law. To prove his point, Paul uses the example of marriage in Romans 7. I’m not going to quote all 6 verses here, but if you find a Bible and read this section, I’ll summarize it for you.
Basically what Paul is saying is that if a woman’s husband is alive, it would be adultery for her to marry another man. If however, her husband has died, that law no longer has jurisdiction over her. She is free to remarry.
The key point begins in verse 4. “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another.” In the same way that the woman in this illustration has been freed from the law because of the death of her husband, we too have been freed from the law through the death of Christ.
Galatians 2:19,20 says, “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ….” Do you see what Paul is saying here? It is through the law that I died to the law through Christ. It is the law that frees us from the law. It is the law which says that it applies to a man only while he lives. Since we have died with Christ, according to the law, we are not under the law any more.
The standards of God haven’t changed. His holiness hasn’t changed, but our relationship to Him and the law has changed. The law has no jurisdiction. If the accuser of the brethren (Satan) brings a charge against us and challenges God to punish us based on the law, I imagine God saying something like this. “The sins you have brought up are worthy of death according to the law. But this person has already died and so that law doesn’t apply to someone who has died. I can’t punish him with death again.” So even though God is holy and righteous, and though He expects us to live righteously, the law is not the means to accomplish that. (See the previous post.)
Paul tells us in two different places that sin gains its power from the law. In Romans 7:7, 8. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.”
In I Corinthians 15:56 Paul writes, “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” Once the law has been put into its proper place and perspective, it can no longer give power to sin. In “O For a Thousand Tongues” the writer says, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin.” That’s the point here. Sin’s curse and power have been broken by Christ on the cross. Law’s accusatory finger can no longer point at us and charge us with anything because we are no longer under its dominion. We have died with Christ and been raised with Him and therefore are on the other side of the resurrection as far as God is concerned. Because of this sin’s power has been removed.
Some have great fear that when we start discussing the fact that we are no longer under the jurisdiction of the law that that will bring forth all sorts loose living. But we need to go back to what we read from Romans 6. “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” The answer is that we can’t. Some misunderstand what grace is. Titus 2:11 tells us that the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and godly lives. Grace, forgiveness and freedom from law do not provide the occasion for loose living. They provide the strength and power to live godly lives.
Showing posts with label cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross. Show all posts
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Cross - Part 3
In addition to what we have seen in the last two posts, the Bible teaches us that if we know Christ as Savior, we died with Him when He died. This has tremendous implications both for our understanding of what we have in Christ and for our daily walk in victory.
Romans 6:3 says “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Ephesians 2:5,6 adds to this by saying, “even when we were dead in trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
I believe that the baptism mentioned in Romans 6:3 is not water baptism, but the baptism of the Spirit which means that the Spirit immersed us into or placed us into the body of Christ. This is spoken of in I Corinthians 12:13 where it says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”
So since we have been placed into the body of Christ, God sees us as having died with Christ, risen with Christ and seated with Christ in heavenly places in Christ. This has great implications for our daily walk as Romans 6 teaches us.
If we go back to Romans 6:1 Paul asks, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer in verse 2 is that we cannot because how can someone continue to sin who has died to it? In what way have we died to it? We died to it when we died with Christ. Paul says in verse 6, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” That is a strong statement.
Sometimes sin seems to have so much power over us and we feel like we are its slave. But God tells us that if we are a Christian we have died with Christ and we have been freed from sin and its power. He goes so far as to say that the body of sin was destroyed or done away with. It certainly doesn’t feel that way does it? This almost makes it worse when we sin because we are doing so freely and we cannot blame our bondage to it and its power over us.
The key to victory is given in verses 10 and following. “For the death that He (Christ) died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Now here’s the key, verse 11, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead.” We are to count ourselves to be dead with Christ. We are to believe it to be true and to act accordingly. So much of the time we let our minds dwell on things that aren’t true. In this case we are to think on and reckon as true the fact that we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) We are to give ourselves to God as those who are past death and past the resurrection. As resurrected people we are to offer the parts of our body as tools or instruments to God for righteousness and we are to avoid presenting our bodies to sin as instruments or tools of unrighteousness. We may have given our bodies to sin before we died, but now that we are dead and resurrected, we are to be tools that God can use.
It’s interesting to look back at the passage in Colossians 3 that I quoted from earlier. The motivation for what we do is to be based on these truths. We are to seek those things which are above because we’ve been raised with Christ. We are to set our minds on the things above because “you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
The next post will be related to our new relationship with the law because of our death with Christ. However, I might mention here that right thinking concerning our identity with Christ and our death with Him is the best and most effective motivation for right living.
Romans 6:3 says “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Ephesians 2:5,6 adds to this by saying, “even when we were dead in trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
I believe that the baptism mentioned in Romans 6:3 is not water baptism, but the baptism of the Spirit which means that the Spirit immersed us into or placed us into the body of Christ. This is spoken of in I Corinthians 12:13 where it says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”
So since we have been placed into the body of Christ, God sees us as having died with Christ, risen with Christ and seated with Christ in heavenly places in Christ. This has great implications for our daily walk as Romans 6 teaches us.
If we go back to Romans 6:1 Paul asks, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer in verse 2 is that we cannot because how can someone continue to sin who has died to it? In what way have we died to it? We died to it when we died with Christ. Paul says in verse 6, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” That is a strong statement.
Sometimes sin seems to have so much power over us and we feel like we are its slave. But God tells us that if we are a Christian we have died with Christ and we have been freed from sin and its power. He goes so far as to say that the body of sin was destroyed or done away with. It certainly doesn’t feel that way does it? This almost makes it worse when we sin because we are doing so freely and we cannot blame our bondage to it and its power over us.
The key to victory is given in verses 10 and following. “For the death that He (Christ) died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Now here’s the key, verse 11, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead.” We are to count ourselves to be dead with Christ. We are to believe it to be true and to act accordingly. So much of the time we let our minds dwell on things that aren’t true. In this case we are to think on and reckon as true the fact that we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) We are to give ourselves to God as those who are past death and past the resurrection. As resurrected people we are to offer the parts of our body as tools or instruments to God for righteousness and we are to avoid presenting our bodies to sin as instruments or tools of unrighteousness. We may have given our bodies to sin before we died, but now that we are dead and resurrected, we are to be tools that God can use.
It’s interesting to look back at the passage in Colossians 3 that I quoted from earlier. The motivation for what we do is to be based on these truths. We are to seek those things which are above because we’ve been raised with Christ. We are to set our minds on the things above because “you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
The next post will be related to our new relationship with the law because of our death with Christ. However, I might mention here that right thinking concerning our identity with Christ and our death with Him is the best and most effective motivation for right living.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Cross - Part 2
We’re thinking through some of the implications and results of Christ’s death on the cross for us. Last time we looked at His victory over Satan and sin. Today we consider the fact that the cross is different things to different people. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:18 ff that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Later in verse 23 he says that it is foolishness to the Greeks or Gentiles.
Isn’t that the truth in today’s sophisticated culture? The thought of God becoming a man in the first place seems like foolishness to most people today. To go further then and say that this one man’s death provided salvation for those who would come to Him by faith apart from works seems even more foolish.
Yet Paul quotes from the Old Testament and says that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. It was in the wisdom of God that He made it so that people could not come to Him through their wisdom, but through the “foolishness” of the message preached.
Besides being foolishness to the Gentiles, the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews. The Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah who would be a conqueror and release them from the Roman oppression and set up a kingdom on earth then and there. They missed what had been written in the Old Testament about the fact that the Messiah must come, suffer and die and be raised to life before any promised kingdom could be established. So for the Jews, the cross was a stumbling block.
“But”, says Paul, “to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In verse 24 he says it this way, “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
The cross is the central message we are to preach. So many churches today have abandoned the message of the cross and yet it is the central and most important message that must be preached. There is no other salvation than through Christ and His death, burial and resurrection.
Isn’t that the truth in today’s sophisticated culture? The thought of God becoming a man in the first place seems like foolishness to most people today. To go further then and say that this one man’s death provided salvation for those who would come to Him by faith apart from works seems even more foolish.
Yet Paul quotes from the Old Testament and says that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. It was in the wisdom of God that He made it so that people could not come to Him through their wisdom, but through the “foolishness” of the message preached.
Besides being foolishness to the Gentiles, the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews. The Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah who would be a conqueror and release them from the Roman oppression and set up a kingdom on earth then and there. They missed what had been written in the Old Testament about the fact that the Messiah must come, suffer and die and be raised to life before any promised kingdom could be established. So for the Jews, the cross was a stumbling block.
“But”, says Paul, “to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In verse 24 he says it this way, “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
The cross is the central message we are to preach. So many churches today have abandoned the message of the cross and yet it is the central and most important message that must be preached. There is no other salvation than through Christ and His death, burial and resurrection.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
The Cross - Part 1
“ ‘Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This he said, signifying by what death He would die.” John 12:30-33 (NKJV)
Over and over through the book of John, Jesus said that His hour had not yet come. Now the hour was at hand and He says that this is the time for the judgment of the world. The word for judgment is the word ‘crisis’. This was to be the pivotal moment, the watershed moment of world history.
This was the judgment of the world for several reasons. First this was the time when the prince of this world was judged. In addition, the punishment of sin was to be meted out on Christ at this moment and God’s just retribution against sin was satisfied. It also was a time of judgment because how a person received this teaching would be pivotal in his eternal destiny.
This Easter season of the year is an appropriate time to meditate once again on what was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Jesus said, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” His death and resurrection declared victory over Satan. Consider the following passages.
Hebrews 2:13 says, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The word “destroy” in this passage means to destroy, abolish or put away.
Colossians 1:13: “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” When we trusted in Christ, the kingdom of which we were a part changed. We had been part of Satan’s kingdom, “children of wrath” as God called us. But when we were saved from sin by Christ, we were moved from Satan’s kingdom over to God’s kingdom, the kingdom of His beloved Son. Satan has one less person to reign over every time Christ saves someone.
Colossians 2:13, 14 “…He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having 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.”
What an amazing couple of verses! We’ll talk further about our death to the law in a future post, but look at what has taken place here. If you are a believer, all your trespasses have been forgiven. The requirements that worked against you have been wiped out. There is no more condemnation. (Romans 8:1) Our sins are washed away as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered against us again. What a promise!
He goes on to say in verse 14 that God has disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them through His cross. Satan has been defeated, disarmed and humiliated. What more could we ask for?
Galatians 3:10 says that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” Verse 12 says that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse of us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’)”.
Paul says in I Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” These verses get at the heart of the gospel. Christ became a curse for us; he was made to be sin for us. The result is that there is no curse for us and we’ve been made the righteousness of God in Him. As Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is what Paul said was his great desire. In Philippians 3:9 he writes, “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” This is what the Jews missed. Romans 9:30 -33 tells us that the Jews pursued the law of righteousness, but it wasn’t the righteousness of faith given by God as a gift. God’s righteousness is given to us in place of our righteousness which are as filthy rags in God’s sight.
I guess the question you should ask yourself is, “Are you trusting in your own righteousness in order to be right with God, or have you received His righteousness?” He offers it freely to all who will repent and turn to Christ and believe the gospel. It is truly the good news that is the power of God for salvation.
Over and over through the book of John, Jesus said that His hour had not yet come. Now the hour was at hand and He says that this is the time for the judgment of the world. The word for judgment is the word ‘crisis’. This was to be the pivotal moment, the watershed moment of world history.
This was the judgment of the world for several reasons. First this was the time when the prince of this world was judged. In addition, the punishment of sin was to be meted out on Christ at this moment and God’s just retribution against sin was satisfied. It also was a time of judgment because how a person received this teaching would be pivotal in his eternal destiny.
This Easter season of the year is an appropriate time to meditate once again on what was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Jesus said, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” His death and resurrection declared victory over Satan. Consider the following passages.
Hebrews 2:13 says, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The word “destroy” in this passage means to destroy, abolish or put away.
Colossians 1:13: “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” When we trusted in Christ, the kingdom of which we were a part changed. We had been part of Satan’s kingdom, “children of wrath” as God called us. But when we were saved from sin by Christ, we were moved from Satan’s kingdom over to God’s kingdom, the kingdom of His beloved Son. Satan has one less person to reign over every time Christ saves someone.
Colossians 2:13, 14 “…He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having 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.”
What an amazing couple of verses! We’ll talk further about our death to the law in a future post, but look at what has taken place here. If you are a believer, all your trespasses have been forgiven. The requirements that worked against you have been wiped out. There is no more condemnation. (Romans 8:1) Our sins are washed away as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered against us again. What a promise!
He goes on to say in verse 14 that God has disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them through His cross. Satan has been defeated, disarmed and humiliated. What more could we ask for?
Galatians 3:10 says that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’” Verse 12 says that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse of us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’)”.
Paul says in I Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” These verses get at the heart of the gospel. Christ became a curse for us; he was made to be sin for us. The result is that there is no curse for us and we’ve been made the righteousness of God in Him. As Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is what Paul said was his great desire. In Philippians 3:9 he writes, “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” This is what the Jews missed. Romans 9:30 -33 tells us that the Jews pursued the law of righteousness, but it wasn’t the righteousness of faith given by God as a gift. God’s righteousness is given to us in place of our righteousness which are as filthy rags in God’s sight.
I guess the question you should ask yourself is, “Are you trusting in your own righteousness in order to be right with God, or have you received His righteousness?” He offers it freely to all who will repent and turn to Christ and believe the gospel. It is truly the good news that is the power of God for salvation.
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