Bondage part 4
Here's the thing I think some people miss about the grace message: Just because we're not under the law doesn't mean we're lawless. See, the Law of Moses was contrary to us and against us because all it could do was point out what we did wrong. It was the government of condemnation. That's why Jesus fulfilled it and nailed it to the cross. He took it out of the way in order to establish a New Covenant. A covenant in which our sins and iniquities are remembered no more. Not so we can keep doing them, but so we can be free from them! Romans 6:1-3 in the Message Bible says it like this, "So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize that we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace--a new life in a new land!" We WERE in bondage. Then Jesus ransomed us and set us and free (and made us free). Not free TO sin, but free FROM sin. Sin is the bondage we were in. But, thanks to the cross, "Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living" (Romans 6:18 NLT). Think about that. Before the cross--under the Law--we had no choice but to sin. We couldn't do the good we wanted to do, and always ended up doing the evil we didn't want to do. It was a vicious cycle that no matter how hard we tried we couldn't escape. Because we were eating from the wrong tree. Not the Tree of Life, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We were trying to perform--in our own strength--and were failing miserably. We couldn't do it. So Jesus came and did it (both for us and as us). And now--because He became sin for us and made us the righteousness of God in Him--just like before the cross we couldn't do anything but sin... now we can't do anything but righteousness! Because what you do flows from who you are. Before the cross we were sinners (unbelievers) because we didn't have anything to believe in. Jesus gave us the measure of faith by giving us something (love) to believe in. He brought us out from under the Law of Moses and put us under grace. Under the perfect law of liberty. "...and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Liberty. The opposite of bondage. But, again, not liberty TO SIN... but liberty to LOVE! Because where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is love. And no longer are we under the bondage of the elements of the world. No longer are we trying to earn love by the sweat of our brows. No longer are we simply trying to "get away with stuff." We've ascended into a higher realm. A heavenly realm. The realm of the Spirit, and the realm of the Kingdom. The realm of being loved, and loving one another with that same love!