THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH IS ANYTHING THAT IS NOT CHRIST
24/05/24 14:59
‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh’ Ezek 36.26 NIV.
How do you get this heart? Christ lives in you and becomes your life.
Just as it is Jesus who transforms us from within, and not the law, neither is there grace/transforming life in Jewish rites and usages. Life is not f0und this way or by sacralising that which is not sacred. Real life is the Christ of God who lives in you.
Miss this and we have missed the entirely of the Kingdom of life Jesus began.
GAMES
Jesus state that the Bible was that which testifies of Him. This is to say that life is not found in the Bible per se. It’s found in the Christ of whom the Bible testifies. We can be reasonable well-read in the Bible and have missed the point that Christ is our life – with the result that we live in confusion, blurred vision and ‘other gospels’.
We can make a kind of religion that comes close to being a game of trivial pursuit. This is the effect of legalistic assumptions and socialisation from distorted gospels. Even if our pieties are not trivial a gospel of sin management is not Christ’s Gospel, nor that of the apostles.
DAVID
Even in the Old Testament, thoughtful people knew that sin was more than a mere ‘transgression of the law.’ David’s sin was grievous, a low act and had severe repercussions. Yet the Lord said of Him, ‘David is a man after my own heart.’ This of course is not an excuse for sinning. But it is a pointer to what sin is: The results of separation from God.
David loved God and rejoiced in being with God. We may say that David was an adulterer. But he was not adulterous towards God. There are divided loyalties and forms of godliness accompanied by much god-talk and moralising in which one can live an estranged and near adulterous life towards God.
Divided loyalty is adultery. A heart divided between one’s church and Christ is adulterous. The pure in heart see God and advance in Godliness.
SEPARATION UNDONE
Separation from God is a disease that God solved by Christ’s cross. We are not separated from God unless we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we are. Our inheritance in Christ is atonement, meaning at-one-ment with God. Union with God is ours and the reality that should fill our minds and the reality in which we should live – because it is ours.
The treasure in the field is much better than many of us have been led to believe. This treasure is union with God. God is not a hard man. The incarnation of God in your person and the presence of the Son of Man in the family of the trinity means we are a ONE WITH GOD in Christ’s person.
Jesus is the sacrament of Himself. He is your day to day life and your eternal life. Jesus is the guarantee in person that you are included in God in Him. In Christ we can live our lives as a sacrament to Christ. The Lord’s Table reminds us that we have been made one with God and that rich spiritual food is Christ who is our life.
YOU ARE IN CHRIST, NOT IN ADAM
So live in your union with God and leave behind the un-gospel of the law and sin-management. Jesus has made you one with Himself and one with God. This is the point of the cross, the reason for the incarnation an the means of the anointing of Holy Spirit.
Your union with God is forever. You don’t lose this union because you sin.
Francois Du Toit writes on Facebook, “Sin is singular - its symptoms are plural – it’s been a sonship thing from the beginning - no wonder Jesus says freedom indeed is found in the truth of our authentic and redeemed sonship - even the "other brother" has the Father pleading with him, "My son you have always been with me and all that I have is yours!" Sin is not about things you do or don’t do. Sin is missing out on sonship!
In his book Galatians, Timothy Keller wrote, “The gospel shows us that our spiritual problem lies not only in failing to obey God, but also in relying on our obedience to make us fully acceptable to God, ourselves and others. Every kind of character flaw comes from this natural impulse to be our own savior through our performance and achievement.
"On the one hand, proud and disdainful personalities come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are succeeding. But on the other hand, discouraged and self-loathing personalities also come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are failing. Belief in the gospel is not just the way to enter the kingdom of God; it is the way to address every obstacle and grow in every aspect."
Paul warned that by remaining in the law, for us ‘Christ died for nothing’. Gal 2.21. This alerts us to the fact that there is a kind of Christianity that is not actually Christian. What is it then? It’s Adam continued beyond the time.
