Tag: Favor

Free From the Law

We are free from the law. Yes, I said it, we are free from the law.

Now, I am not speaking to the consequences of not obeying the law, I am speaking of freedom from being ruled by it. We are free from the law ruling our movement and actions. We are not paralyzed in work by the need to follow the law.

“3I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” – Galatians 5:3-4 (ESV)

Yes, if you are adhering to the principle of circumcision then you must adhere to the whole law and are a slave to it. Of course, I am speaking of adhering to the principle for the purpose of adhering to the law and not just for medical or traditional reasoning. Yes, reasoning and the order of actions does matter.

You see, the order in which we do things matter in the display of our freedom. We are justified by faith, not by works. We accept the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God and as such receive freedom from the law. As we are now free from the law, we do the work assigned by God to glorify Him and not to gain favor with Him. Now that we have been saved, we do through obedience and are not obedient to be saved, lest we are slaves to the law.

How are you slave to the law? Are you following the law as a means to gain freedom? What if you were to do so, not for freedom, but because of it?

The Heart

This morning I am starting a new word study. I am studying the word “heart”. My study process is that I am guided through God’s Word by using the concordance of my Bible. I choose a word that I feel led by Him to focus on and then go through that word in God’s Word verse by verse as noted from the concordance. I allow God to speak to me without looking for anything specific. Sometimes the LORD leads me directly to the word and something He would have me learn or know, and other times it is the passage that teaches me.

“5The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” – Genesis 6:5 (ESV)

I begin this morning in the above verse, which is found in the passage titled, “Increasing Corruption on Earth” in my English Standard Version of God’s Word. We see here that there was evil in the world and that evil was not just in the few, but was overtaking the earth. And that evil was so powerful it had overtaken the hearts of the people. Not just surface evil to get a response or appear to be something in the “right” social circles, but deep within the people and had corrupted their being from the inside.

The time it took for this corruption was not short. From Adam to this time was about 1500 years. So it was a “Slow Fade” as the song by Casting Crowns notes. And can’t we see that even today. I feel as though corruption in the world is extremely great even now and we are at 2000 years after Christ came to this world.

“6And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” – Genesis 6:6-7 (ESV)

And just how did/does this land in the heart of God. Well, He was/is grieved. The LORD acknowledges His grief and disappointment. And decides to take action to start over again. Being truth, God was hurting that the truth was not being carried out in the world He had created. But, that hurt was given comfort with the next verse.

“8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:8 (ESV)

God found the truth again in Noah. He found the one to spare from His wrath. He was encouraged once again.

What I find here in the heart of these few short verses is that the heart is complicated yet very simple. The breadth of capacity of the heart is immense. From corruption to grief to love and favor. All of these are found in the heart. The heart is a powerful and wonderful part of our identity. And where is that heart, but deep within us.

We have a heart that drives our actions and so does God. We are subject to evil and corruption and anger and grief and love. Remember that God made man in His own image and with the exception evil and corruption, He experiences all that we do in His heart as well. It is all deep within us in our heart and the only way to deal with it is to allow God. I have to allow God to take over my heart and fill it.

What is your view of the heart in your life? Are you aware that it is the center of our actions? What if we did and allowed God to fill it with all that He is and take us over from deep within?