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'Christ in You...'
by Dale Krebbs
Are we as believers delivered from the Law?
There are many who believe and who fervently debase any mention of "that old Law" as being completely obliterated and done away with. It is unfortunate indeed that such is often the case. To add to the confusion, there is Jesus' statement concerning the Law:
"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your [a]moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished." - Matthew 5:16-18
Our relationship to the law of God has changed into a spiritual relationship. We have, through His sacrifice moved FROM the law (its letter) - TO the Law: of Christ (by the Spirit):
"To those without (outside) law I became as one without law, not that I am without the law of God and lawless toward Him, but that I am [especially keeping] within and committed to the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.To the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak (wanting in discernment) that I might win the weak and over scrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ]. - 1 Corinthians 9:21-22.
Love, when it is matured, keeps the law perfectly. No one can keep the Law perfectly by will power or by striving for perfection in the flesh. Therefore, the law cannot fulfill love. Love fulfills the law - Romans 13:10-11; Matthew 5:17-20. We do not have or practice perfect love while aiming at legal perfection. Jesus never sinned. His sinless perfection has been imputed to those who repented of their sin of the past, and now surrender to God through the sinless life of the living Jesus Christ.
Two elements work together to fulfill the Law, and render it powerless to create condemning guilt. When Jesus died, He paid the death penalty for all who would believe in Him. At the same time His death and resurrection enabled us to keep the law, not in the letter, but in the spirit of the law. Believing in Him, allows His sinless life to be imputed in us. Now, there is one more factor that completes our relationship to the Law.
Those who love are keeping (fulfilling) the original purpose of the law. Those who believe in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and strive to live as He would have us to, are keeping the Law in the spirit, which was the original purpose for the law. Only by and though Jesus death and resurrection can we keep the law. That which enables this is LOVE. "Love is the fulfilling of the Law".
It is Jesus in us in the person of the Holy Spirit enabling us to become more and more like Him. In the meantime, we are held guiltless by His shed blood which pays for all breaking of that law - always - now and forever! We have, through His sacrifice moved FROM the law (its letter which kills us) - TO the Law: {of Christ} which makes us alive in our belief in Him.
The Law of Christ is: LOVE.
By Jesus sacrifice, we are held guiltless in relation to the Law, until the Holy Spirit molds us in Jesus's image. When we are changed at His return, we will have been perfected as He is perfect until our love - the love of God - has been perfected in us.
"The commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet (have an evil desire), and any other commandment, are summed up in the single command, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. Love does no wrong to one’s neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law." - Romans 13:9-10
Perfect Love. THAT IS "what its all about..."!
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