Greetings,
I hear many things taught about grace with little understanding of where grace exists and what grace is. Grace is the manifest presence of God in your life that brings about life and the change of life. We have to come to the throne of God’s grace to find God’s grace. It is found in His presence in our lives when we move into His world in our hearts. When we come to His throne, the power of His presence transforms another measure of our lives.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Did Jesus destroy the law? The law is a shadow of grace and it is meant to be over those who have not yet come to the power of God’s grace. The only law that Jesus destroyed was the law of sin and death. He made it possible for all to boldly come to the throne of God’s grace where each one can receive mercy and find grace. Grace is not a destruction of law, but the real thing that casts a shadow of law. When we live by God’s empowerment of grace, our lives demonstrate the character, nature, way, power and authority that is shadowed in the law. There is no longer a separation of men and God. We have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our connection to God produces a testimony of the principles, patterns, and values revealed in the law. The law of disconnection, sin and death, has been destroyed by the higher law of God’s love. God’s love gave us access to His presence and it is His presence in our lives that brings about true change.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 5:8-10 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Our Father’s love has proven to be stronger than our hate for Him. It is the law of the Father’s love that destroyed the power of our disconnection from Him. That love could only be revealed through a Father/Son and Son/Father relationship in God and Human form. Jesus made a way for all men, male and female, to have a relationship with God in an intimate way. He made a way for all men, male and female, to be transformed by a revelation of love within their inner being.
The law is a shadow of the good thing to come. As long as the good thing exists the shadow can still be found, but God never desired for us to live under the shadow of the law. He wanted our lives to cast a shadow that looks like the values revealed through the law.
Hebrews 10:1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
The good thing is an internal and eternal relationship with God in Christ. Jesus didn’t destroy the law, He destroyed the law of sin and death. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
Romans 7:9-12 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
1 Timothy 1:8-11 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
We have found grace in Christ, but outside of Christ law is still real. Law is a tutor that leads us to Christ, but until we find Christ we are bound to the laws we find ourselves under. Law does not exist because it is written in a book. Laws exist in creation, and what we find written simply reveals the things that are hidden in creation. We cannot break laws, we can only supersede them with higher laws or violate them. When we violate them, we find ourselves bound to the consequence of another law. Step off a tall building and you will find yourself under the consequence of violating the law of gravity. The laws of density and force prove bring destruction to our bodies as we are broken beneath their reality. Put God first and God will be first in all things, but if we put other things first those other things will be first in all things. We cannot boast that we are no longer under the law and live without the overcoming power of God’s grace at work in our lives. Without the ability to become strong in God’s word and strong in His Spirit we foolishly espouse lawlessness as grace. Lawlessness is not grace. It is simply an excuse for carnality and trying to form God into our own likeness and image. God’s grace will transform us into the likeness and image of God. It will always bring the power of change in our lives to overcome every wicked thing.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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