Every Kingdom or realm has its own laws governing it's citizens.
My husband is very quick to admonish me if I drive without fastening my seatbelt that I am contravening a law of the country, and therefore committing a sin. I prefer to call that an unrighteousness, of course... as it is a manmade law that may also be harmful to me as I have experienced before.
If therefore I have committed a crime, I am guilty of trespassing the law governing our country; not just part of the law, but the complete law as that forms an integral part of the whole.
Just so, there are spiritual laws governing the Kingdom of God and therefore the citizens of the Kingdom of God.
One of these read and I quote :
Rom. 6: 23: “The wages of sin are death....”
It is a fixed spiritual law with the death penalty as punishment.
We are all guilty of sinning; therefor we are all sentenced to death by this spiritual law.
Sometimes however, prisoners on death row receive a pardon from the President of the country.
Thus it is that we also, have received a special pardon from the Most High, King of the Kingdom of God – God Himself through Jesus Christ His only begotten Son.
We find another spiritual law in the Word of God in John 3: 16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal
life.”
What a wonderful pardon we received and at what a price!! God Himself becoming man and taking our death penalty upon Himself dying in our stead that we may be pardoned.
Why would He do such a thing? John explains that it was because of His love and compassion.
We read in Ezekiel 3 :15 how he, the prophet, Ezekiel, went to his own people when they were prisoners and slaves in another country :
and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven
days.”
Just so, Jesus, the Son of God came to earth and “sat amongst us” listening to our groans and moans, experiencing our challenges and problems; seeing our sicknesses and diseases for 33 years and because of His tremendous love for us, He created the new law contained in Rom. 8: 1 and 2:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death.
We are no longer convicted. We have been pardoned, IF we are in Christ. And how can we be in Christ? If we believe on Him, as the Son of God, who died for us. It almost seems to easy to be true, but we must never underestimate the cost of the price that He paid for us :
Phil 2: 8 says that He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross which was the most shameful way to die in the time of Christ; naked, in public.
We have been pardoned by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
True. But sometimes we fail to read or understand the last part of Rom. 8: 1 which says “to those who live not according to the flesh, but after the spirit...” What does that mean? It means that just as the Lord Jesus was obedient unto death, so we also must not live to satisfy ourselves and the desires of our flesh, but we must live according to the spirit and our relation to and in Christ.
Would Christ wilfully sin? No, definitely not. Are we therefore free to choose to live any way we like? Also not. We are to “be in Christ” – in effect to think with the mind of and act as from the mind of Christ...
These promises contained in Rom. 8: 1-2 are spiritual laws.
Should we choose to wilfully “move out of Christ”and live our old lives, we forfeit the freedom in Christ which He has so dearly earned on our behalf. Nothing can snatch us from the hand of God, except our own wilful disobedience and our turning our backs on Him and His precious love.
Thank You, Lord, that You chose to be obedient to death in order to create new spiritual laws to supercede and free us of the penalties and wages of sin. Please help us to live inChrist and move and remain in and through Him.
