A
Arphaxad
Guest
Hello Everyone!
The following message is a response to a question by "Stovebolts" on "Delighting in the Law of God." I thought it might qualify for "New Topic" status:
=================================================================================
Hi Jeff! ("StoveBolts") :D
Hello again from "Motown" (Detroit). Sorry I've been "off the air" for a couple days due to heavy storms and a massive power failure.
You asked: "Let me ask you this if I could. How do you account for the words of psalmist and how Paul uses the psalmist in Romans 7? (In context, I’m not going to post all of Romans 7)
In other words, as the psalmist puts it,
Psalms 1:1-2 Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night.
Paul also wrote, Romans 7:22-23 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man (Psalms 1:2): But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (end quote).
My reply: "I delight in the Law of God." MMmm, :-? translation: "I delight in these laws of fairness, kindness, justice and love for all men." "I delight in these laws which show forth the goodness, kindness, fairness and excellence of my God." The Law of God assures me that I don't serve a strange unpredictable erratic Beast. This is a great comfort to me.
In Romans 7 Paul is not necessarily speaking of himself personally, but rather showing a scenario which will definitely apply to all believers who insist on bringing the Law into their Christian lives. That scenario is this: We know that the Lord has wrought a mighty change in us believers because we now delight in God's Law instead of just ignoring it by using the World's excuse that it's OK to be heartless, thoughtless and dishonest in a heartless, thoughtless and dishonest world. Before we came to God many of us lived by the World's version of the "Royal Law," which is: "Do unto others, then run!"
So Paul is saying that our inner "core nature" has now been miraculously changed by God, just as if a pig was changed into an eagle. It's a miraculous inner change of our nature, done so deep and subtly by God that most believers don't even realize it's been done.
Also in this process of salvation, through the power of water baptism, we've been "buried into grace," and thus our hearts and minds have been set free from the seductive human tendency to misuse God's holy Law to either condemn or exalt ourselves and others. This inner deliverance from the colossal arrogance of using God's Law for our own self-exalting and/or condemning purposes, provides us believers with the ability to finally be completely free from the self-destructive judgmental mindset we all inherited from Adam.
So now, having been "buried into grace," we are no longer obligated to remain slaves to our fleshly minds. Through the power of water baptism we are now free to love and leave the judging to the Lord:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1Cr 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such WERE some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
(underlines, color and size emphases are my own).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, even though the Lord has now enlightened our hearts to delight ourselves in His Law, attempting to make the Law itself the major controlling part of our Christian life has a great downside. And that is, that every time YOU try to earn some credit for doing good, you become a judge of good and evil, using the Law as a standard to judge your own goodness. And by making yourself a judge of your own good deeds, instead of God, evil is automatically with you.
Also in this effort of using the Law as a standard to judge your own goodness, you've just "taken another big bite of the forbidden fruit." Just like Adam you've eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, making yourself a judge of sin and righteousness, a prerogative which belongs only to God.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about: When great dedicated selfless people like Mother Theresa or Albert Schweitzer decided to dedicate their lives to the good of Mankind, I'm absolutely sure they weren't thinking: "Oh, Boy! I'm going to get lots of credit from God for this!" If they had thought that, they would have ruined the whole purpose of what they did. In all likelihood, they were thinking: "I see people suffering with great needs, what can I do to help?"
So concerning the evils that are produced by a person focusing on their hoped-for credit for their own efforts to do good, Paul writes:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. (color and size emphasis are my own).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not only is using God's Law to make yourself a judge of good and evil a terrible idea, but every time you attempt to do good by following God's Law, you will notice something inside yourself violently rebelling against obeying the Lord. This is your self-dependent, "be my own god," fleshly mind rebelling against obeying God instead of obeying yourself. And when this irresistibly powerful "monster" of "be my own God" raises his ugly head at seeing your attempt to obey God's Law, it will produce great self-condemnation, frustration and hopelessness within you.
So the ultimate solution is to completely "divorce" yourself from the slavish and provocative commands of the dead Law altogether and walk by, and in, the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit (of love) you will not even think about the Law at all. Because, walking in Love, you will be completely free from the Law's empty, cold rules and condemnation:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:16 [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Rom 8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter.
1Cr 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient (beneficial): all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
(underlines, parentheses and color emphases are my own).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other words, the Law has absolutely no place being a controlling factor in any mature believer's life. I suppose "newborn babes" in Christ might need the Law to make them feel like they have "a handle" on keeping their own salvation. But as they grow in grace, they will (hopefully) become more and more confident in the Lord's keeping power and will then finally be able to stop "walking on eggs" and enter the Lord's rest.
Does anybody else besides God understand what the heck I'm talking about here ???
Thoughts? Additions? Subtractions? Clarifications? And why is everything I like either illegal, immoral or fattening?
: Sinning is (morbidly) thinning,
"Arph"
---------------
