50 AD
‘God
i
s
within us’.
Amazingly today
we can say: “The Holy
Spirit lives inside of us”.
A new and higher law: God is the
author of laws and just as there are
laws that govern nature so there
are spiritual laws that govern life
and death. He puts physical laws in
motion like the law of gravity, the
laws of nature that govern weather
and farming and moral laws to
govern human behaviour etc. He
also implemented spiritual laws
like that spoken of in Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death…”
i.e. anyone who sins will receive the
capital punishment also known as
the death penalty. God’s law says
we must not sin and anyone who
does will be punished by death.
Thank God this Scripture continues
to explain a new and higher law, “…
but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” i.e. God has
gifted us with a higher law which
states that someone else who is
worthy can take our penalty and
die in our place, so that we can go
on living. His name is Jesus and all
we need to do is to receive that gift
by faith. The higher law will then be
enacted and will clear us from the
penalty of death. “For the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
made me free from the law of sin
and death.” Romans 8:2 NKJV.
Jesus Brought Clarity To Old
Things
When Jesus came, He also brought
clarity to things that were already
there but not understood. The first
that comes to mind has to do with
what God intended when He gave
the ‘Mosaic’ laws that we failed to
keep.
100 AD
150 AD
The ‘Mosaic’ laws: Jesus removed
the curse of the Mosaic laws and
revealed that God was always
after willing hearts and not just
outward conformity to the Ten
Commandments. He explained
to those who asked, that all those
laws are fulfilled in one, the law of
love, and if we could keep that one,
we would have fulfilled them all.
(Matthew 22:36-40) Time and space
would not allow us to expound the
many Scriptures that point to this
fact but you could read more in a
past issue of this magazine that was
dedicated to this topic. See Volume
3 - Issue 2 ‘The Heart of the matter
is… It’s the Heart that Matters’.
Our greatest enemy is sin: Before
Jesus came God’s people were
commanded to engage in physical
warfare with physical enemies but
on His arrival this all changed. Jesus
revealed that our true enemies
were not human beings but evil
invisible spirits, and even worse, sin
(an inherent desire to disobey God).
Our greatest enemy was within.
Although this is easy to understand
it is indeed hard to accept. The
Jews of His time insisted that if
He was the promised Messiah and
King He should lead them into
a triumphant battle against their
physical enemies, the Romans who
were their oppressors.
Today, some Gentiles wrongly
believe that Jesus’ purpose was to
deliver us from poverty and give us
financial and social power. “Then
after her baby is born, name him
Jesus, because He will save His
people from their sins.” Matthew
1:21. Sin can do what the devil
cannot. The devil cannot put us
into hell but sin can, so in order to
have victory, the devil tempt us to
get us to sin. We must therefore
resist him and sin not.
200 AD
250 AD
Our battle is against unseen
forces: Jesus exposed the spirits
that were behind dark and evil
deeds. Before, people were aware
of evil spirits, but it was not until
the arrival of Jesus that these
spirits were exposed as He cast
them out with a word in the view of
many people. There are no biblical
accounts of exorcism until Jesus
came.
Thank God for Jesus because now
we know that “We are not fighting
against humans. We are fighting
against forces and authorities and
against rulers of darkness and
powers in the spiritual world.”
Ephesians 6:12. p
Further Reading
In this new and living way, the way
of the Spirit opened up to us by
Jesus:
We fight against spiritual beings
and not physical ones - Ephesians
6:12
We fight with Spiritual strength
and not physical - Ephesians 6:10
We fight with Spiritual weapons
and not physical ones - 2
Corinthians 10:3
Beauty is the inward attitude of
the heart and not outward physical
appearances - 1 Peter 3:3-4 Note
that this kind of beauty is precious
to God!
Our blessings are primarily
Spiritual riches and not physical
riches - Ephesians 1:3.
By Homer Slack
author, preacher, Bible
teacher, IT tutor, programmer & graphic designer
April - June 2016
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