Jesus has lived this life for us in his 33+ years as a man on earth, making the way for those of us who are in Him to be able to live as He lived. I want to remind you from last week of what Tom Marshall says in chapter 12 when he explains how Jesus internalized the law of God, writing it on His own heart:
By obedience. By painstaking, persistent, perfect obedience, in every situation and in every circumstance, He wrote the law of God on His heart.
Now in chapter 13, our reading for this week, the author addresses how we, God's people, experience new covenant freedom as Jesus did (in contrast to living under the external law).
The work of the cross and the work of the Spirit is imperative in this.
The work of the cross:
"'Now is the time for judgement upon this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.' He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.' (John 12:31-33)...The context of the saying is His death and what is meant is this: when Jesus came to the cross, His individual personality became a corporate one. It incorporated all those who would believe in Him. Satan, the ruler of this world, is ejected from us and we are drawn into Him to become one with Him and part of Him.
...What does this mean? It means that the cross does away with (or makes of no effect) the line of authority that binds us to the law of sin and death. We are free of the authority that made us slaves to sin. The compelling and dominating effect of the inner values of the sinful nature is rendered powerless..."
The work of the Holy Spirit:
"'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him...Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.' (John 7:37-39) Why was the Spirit not yet given?
... He was waiting for something. He was waiting for Jesus to complete the perfected set of inner values we have been speaking about. To build into them every capacity and every resouce that we would ever need in this life: perfect love, perfect faith, perfect obedience, perfect forgiveness.
...He was waiting until Jesus came to the cross and His individual personality became a corporate one that incorporated us.
...He was waiting until the atonement was a finished work...
...He was waiting until Jesus broke the ultimate barriers of death itself and was raised to resurrection life..."
After Jesus completed His work of living in perfect obedience to His Father and going to the cross, the Holy Spirit did two things related to this subject:
1) His power liberates our will from the bondage of habitual surrender to the demands of the flesh.
2) He is the one who educates us in living by the internalized law.
Marshall says, "Walking in the Spirit means that the soul yields up its desire to rule, and submits to the authority of the human spirit, inhabited by the Holy Spirit...God will never force the human will. this means that the power of the Holy Spirit will never be released into the area of the soul without the free response of the soul. As far as the will is concerned, the response that bridges the gap from soul to spirit is obedience. When we reach out in a response of obedience, the power of the Holy Spirit is released into the area of the will and breaks the yoke of bondage."
Sanctification is the ongoing educating work of the Spirit, in which He applies "the law of God to our lives in such a way that we are not trapped into legalism or self-conscious spirituality."
So with every little or big obedience to God on our part, the Holy Spirit is doing in us what He did in Jesus: "He writes the law on our heart. And the law sets us free! (Romans 8:4 '...in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who so not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.')"
Praise the Lord! Because of the life and work of Christ on the cross and because of the work and presence of the Spirit in my life, as I believe in Christ's work and provision and obey God, the law of God gets written on my heart step by step; and the more the law is internalized in me, I enjoy greater and greater freedom because I am living according to the law (the values by which I was meant to live)!Simply put, the believer's simple trust in Jesus and obedience to the Spirit of God will incrementally write the law of God on his heart; with this process comes increasing liberty to choose for God. We will fail along the way, but the pattern of living is that of obedience rather than resistance to God.
Father, thank You for the life and death of Your Son, Jesus; thank You for the grace and power of Your Spirit at work this moment in our lives. Thank You that there is nothing too difficult for You! We worship You in this time of celebrating Your first coming and cry out to You to come in Your fullness to Your people that those around us would taste and see that You are so good!
I will be at the Urbana 06 conference next week so may not be able to blog; we'll do chapters 14 and 15 for the next two weeks, starting Part IV about the "self."
A blessed Year 2007 to you! The Lord is with you always!
Chapter 13:
ReplyDeleteSome things that stood out to me:
One was the refresher in Jesus dying and us dying with Him, etc…that the cross supersedes sin and death in our moment by moment walk. Sin in itself seems so dominating in us humans that I think the tendency is to be overcome by that intimidation than to really LIVE in the life brought about by the cross and be free of that domination and intimidation of the evil one.
I especially appreciated the comments about the Holy Spirit…
Are you thirsty? Come and drink.
Streams of living waters will flow from us.
Just to think of Jesus needing to complete to the nth degree the set of inner values in His own being…that this is what allowed the Holy Spirit to be given to us to help us live them. The depth of that is quite outstanding.
The words that were spoken when he breathed on the disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit”…had me recalling having that same prayer over me by Ted. He had suggested me cupping my hands in order to receive and then to breath (receive) in the Holy Spirit as he prayed…Never have forgotten that, even in my down times. It drew me to Him afresh, sometimes gradually, but sometimes on the spot.
I appreciated the thought also that we can’t be “plugged” into a new nature and a sinful nature at the same time. “…..they are in conflict with one another.”
This whole matter of trusting in the reality of the work of God within me works on my long-standing inadequacy issues. Every moment is a “now” moment in this deep, abiding trust in the Lord’s work in my being. Lord, make me more and more God-conscious than self-conscious. Wherever I, or we, respond to Him, He seems to be able to make His unselfish love become a part or a law in my heart.
Nita’s quoting from some notes she had: “faith is committing oneself to be held”…(in a West African language) is priceless and I think I’ll be carrying that around for a long time.
I wanted to add to this a thought that came from Francis Frangipane: “When the Unclean Becomes Clean.” “Beloved, with the Messiah, the entire principle of clean and unclean is reversed! He who is clean does not become unclean by touching us, we become clean! Just as the Lord affirmed to Peter, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’. (Acts 10:15). We can never become clean until Christ comes to dwell in our spirits. Let His cleanness cleanse and heal that which is unclean within you.”
P.S. If anyone wants the whole article, I can e-mail it to you. Worth reading.
I posted this before Christmas but don't know what happened:
ReplyDeleteChapter 13:
Some things that stood out to me:
One was the refresher in Jesus dying and us dying with Him, etc…that the cross supersedes sin and death in our moment by moment walk. Sin in itself seems so dominating in us humans that I think the tendency is to be overcome by that intimidation than to really LIVE in the life brought about by the cross and be free of that domination and intimidation of the evil one.
I especially appreciated the comments about the Holy Spirit…
Are you thirsty? Come and drink.
Streams of living waters will flow from us.
Just to think of Jesus needing to complete to the nth degree the set of inner values in His own being…that this is what allowed the Holy Spirit to be given to us to help us live them. The depth of that is quite outstanding.
The words that were spoken when he breathed on the disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit”…had me recalling having that same prayer over me by Ted. He had suggested me cupping my hands in order to receive and then to breath (receive) in the Holy Spirit as he prayed…Never have forgotten that, even in my down times. It drew me to Him afresh, sometimes gradually, but sometimes on the spot.
I appreciated the thought also that we can’t be “plugged” into a new nature and a sinful nature at the same time. “…..they are in conflict with one another.”
This whole matter of trusting in the reality of the work of God within me works on my long-standing inadequacy issues. Every moment is a “now” moment in this deep, abiding trust in the Lord’s work in my being. Lord, make me more and more God-conscious than self-conscious. Wherever I, or we, respond to Him, He seems to be able to make His unselfish love become a part or a law in my heart.
Nita’s quoting from some notes she had: “faith is committing oneself to be held”…(in a West African language) is priceless and I think I’ll be carrying that around for a long time.
I wanted to add to this a thought that came from Francis Frangipane: “When the Unclean Becomes Clean.” “Beloved, with the Messiah, the entire principle of clean and unclean is reversed! He who is clean does not become unclean by touching us, we become clean! Just as the Lord affirmed to Peter, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’. (Acts 10:15). We can never become clean until Christ comes to dwell in our spirits. Let His cleanness cleanse and heal that which is unclean within you.”
P.S. If anyone wants the whole article, I can e-mail it to you. Worth reading.