August 4, 2014

Laying Down the Law: 4 Laws Christ-Followers Must Obey

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[intro]“I am laying down the law.”[/intro]

When someone throws this phrase in our face, they are telling us we are out of line and demanding we get back in.  Most of us are not fans of the law being imposed on us in such a way—we rail against it and push back.

That’s why I love the four titles the Apostle Paul and Jesus’ step brother use when they “lay down the law” for a follower of Jesus.  By using these terms, they say quite the opposite of what we would expect someone to say while they are laying down the law.

The Law of Christ

To those who would demand that a follower of Jesus must submit themselves to the cultural demands of the Mosaic Law, Paul declared he was neither “under the law” nor “outside the law.” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)  Instead, he was under the new “Law of Christ.”  Under this law, he became “all things to all people, that by all means [he] might save some. [He did] it all for the sake of the gospel, that [he] may share with them in its blessings.”

Because Jesus had set Paul free (from lots of things, including the old law), he used this freedom to invite others to join him in his freedom. Paul’s motivation wasn’t one of fear or dread or obligation, it was one of love and gratitude and desire to see others share in what he had found through Jesus.

The Law of Faith

To those who would brashly declare that they were saved by keeping the old law, Paul pushed back by saying, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:27-28)

When you try to take credit for anything good you have done in your life, you miss the point.  You can’t save you.  You were saved by grace through faith in Jesus and now God is at work, conforming you into Jesus’ image through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Law of the Spirit of Life

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

Sin and death used to have a strangle hold on you, but not anymore!  There is no (zero, zip, zilch) condemnation now or ever for those who are in Christ.  Let that settle in!  The Spirit of life has set you free once and for all.  Now that’s a law worth laying down.

When this new law (of Christ, of faith, of the Spirit of Life) begins to really sink down and grab our hearts, we feel liberated.  We are really, truly, free!  That liberation doesn’t drive us to deeper sin (as some would say), but rather it drives us to obedience.

The Law of Liberty

In what seems like a ironic turn of words, James writes, “the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:21–25)

Most of us wouldn’t use “liberty” and “law” in the same sentence, but James taps into a profound truth: the liberty we have in Jesus sets us free from having to pursue the wickedness of the world around us and gives us a new mission to love God and love people.  We do good things not because they will save us but because Jesus has already saved us.  We begin to see all the commands in the New Testament not as burdens but as joys.  We find ourselves filtering our actions through the simple filter of “does this love God and love people?”

In doing so, we joyfully lay down the Law of Christ to a watching world.

 

Pastor Noel Heikkinen recently taught on the Christian’s relationship with the law.  You can watch his message and read the message notes here.

Image Credit: Boston Public Library

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