For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom 8:2)
Sin! It is real and deadly, but there is good news-The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. A few weeks ago, I was meditating on these verses and I heard the Spirit of God bring it home to me in a very real way. For years, I was saying that God will forgive us by grace, but we will have to face the consequences of our sins. I was brought back to King David’s example, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. God forgave him, but he was told that the sword would not depart from his home. When you read the accounts of what happened in his life, he went through a valley of tears. (1)
God, later, showed me that the example of King David was covered under the law of sin and death. In the New Testament, we are under a new law, which is the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. That law is the love and grace of God. When we fail to understand this, we operate under sin consciousness and that will hinder our answers to prayer. It will affect our identity and our relationship with God and hinder our growth.
We will explore other examples of this as we deepen our study of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. A simple way to understand this is when a person is guilty of a crime and faces the judge. That guilty one has a good lawyer to defend him. When the case is presented, the judge says—Not guilty. The consequences have been lifted up. The guilty one is allowed to go free because of the lawyer’s defense. No fines have been paid nor is jail time required. He is free. That is grace.
Jesus is our advocate(lawyer). His death on the cross provided for us, not only forgiveness of sin, but his blood allowed us to have a crop failure. No longer do we have to pay for the consequences of our sin, because he paid it all at the cross. Now, beloved, that does not mean that we can sin without impunity, because the Apostle Paul gave us a warning of future consequences of abusing God’s grace. (Rom 6:15-16)
What Grace does is gives us mercy. It gives us the power to overcome that sin that stumbles you. Think of it as an insurance company giving you grace to pay the bill. You are past the due date, but you are still covered. In spite of our weakness, God gives us the time to get it right. In the meantime, you can enjoy God’s best as long as you are fighting the good fight. He doesn’t see the sin, but he sees a new creature.
The key is to don’t give up. Get up when you fall. You are still justified before the eyes of God because he sees that you are doing something about it (action) and not lying down. (Prov 24:16) He calls the man who has fallen just. That is the grace of God. God willing, I will share some more thoughts on this area.
Bible verses courtesy of http://www.biblegateway.comBible
(1) 2 Sam 12:10-14
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