By Rick Lange
http://bibleprophecybyricklange.blogspot.com/
Posted with authors permission
Man is a worshiper. We were created to worship our Creator. So, even when we go astray we keep on worshipping. We worship ourselves. We worship Idols. We worship our philosophies. The Atheist worships his own mind. And since he needs proof of his actions, he will make up his own doctrine in which God need not exist… hence the theory of Evolution.
Our Creator God knows that we as humans become reflections of whatever we worship. He also knows that if we worship anything or anyone other than our true Creator God, our lives become bent and perverted, selfish and unrestrained in our fleshly lusts.
Whenever a nation turns from the true God it always begins its long journey of self destruction, misery, tyranny and loss of freedom. This happens because if a man is not governed by God who is love and righteous and a God of order, his society will descend into barbarism and the only alternative to barbarism is dictatorship and the gradual removal of all freedom.
God is not being vindictive or egotistical when He invites us to worship Him and Him alone. It is for our good, our freedom, our well- being, our being made in His image that He wants to restore in us.
So our Creator God has established a standard, a code if you will, identifying just who He is and what our worship must be if we are to worship the true God of heaven. The Bible contains that code and in that code God identifies Himself and His truth in the form of covenants.
In the First covenant God identified Himself in laws and in types and shadows. In the New Covenant HE identifies Himself in the Person of His Son.
These codes do not disagree with each other, but rather build on each other and Jesus demonstrated this to us by fulfilling every law, every ordinance and every type and shadow and having done that He then explains this to His disciples.
“And beginning with Moses and with all of the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27
Again Jesus said to them: “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44
Again when His disciples asked Him to show them the Father, Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14:9… then Jesus goes on to say:
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”
Parts of the church are suffering an identity crisis today simply by denying the works of Christ. Some do it by denying the miracles of Christ in the Bible, while others do it by denying that the gifts of the Holy Spirit continue on in our day. In doing this the supernatural elements of our Biblical faith have died leaving us with dead or static doctrines and a Gospel that is no longer demonstrated by the mighty works of Christ.
Just as Israel often fell away from the Law and began to worship idols, thus entering a path of degradation that carried them far away from God and into eventual captivity, so today, many Christians are falling away from the true Christ by redefining Him. They make Him to fit their powerless lives. They offer a way home other than by the cross.
Just as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth was the key to the ordinances of the Old Testament, so the cross stands at the dividing point between those who worship the real Christ and those who begin to worship a god of their own making.
The code of the cross must be at the heart in defining a true Christian, for it is in the cross that we die to this world and it is in His resurrection that we are born again into new life in His Spirit. And Paul explained this by saying: “For indeed the Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God. “ 1 Cor. 1:22-24.
But the cross is not just an emblem on a hill far away. Every single day of our lives, it stands directly in our path at an ever present fork in the road. Every day and in every moment of our lives we either choose the pathway of death and resurrection, or we choose the worship of self and as such we choose to worship a god of our own making. We either crucify self or we crucify Christ.
The writer of Hebrews threw down the gauntlet when he began to define the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. He said:
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” Heb. 1:1 So while the Law was God’s identity code in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ has become the identity code of the true God in the New Testament.
And Paul tells us in Galatians saying: “But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Gal.3:23-26.
Having grown up in a Law centered identity of God, I had to read the book of Galatians hundreds of times and I still couldn’t believe it was true. How could Paul say such a thing? Wasn’t faith in the Law the same as faith in Christ and obedience to the Law the same as obedience to Christ? If so, then why was Paul spending so much time defining the difference between a Law based faith and a Christ based faith?
Paul even went so far as to say: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the Book of the Law to perform them. “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith,” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary,” He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us- for it is written; “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree-in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal 3:10-14.
I would read those texts and see what Paul was saying and then I would walk away and within ten steps I would be saying, “No, that can’t be true. What does he mean? How can he say such things?
In all that I had been taught, the Law stood front and center in the Christian life and now here I was seeing something different and actually opposed to what I believed.
No wonder the Gospel and the cross stood as stumbling blocks to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Even in the secular world we live by the rule of law don’t we? So how are we to maintain law and order without a law? It just can’t be done right?
But there are clues to which we must pay close attention if we are to understand this transition from Law to grace. In verse 9 Paul says: So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.” Does not Paul go on to say in conclusion of chapter 3 that “…if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s offspring heirs according to promise?” Yes, we are Abraham’s offspring.
Abraham came 430 years before the Law and he was justified by faith in God’s promises. It was reckoned to Him as righteousness. And not only that, but Abraham lived under a different priesthood. He lived under a Melchizedek priesthood, long before the Levitical priesthood was in existence and wouldn’t you know it? Jesus became our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. It is an eternal priesthood and not a temporary priesthood such as the Levitical priesthood was.
So we go on today lifting up the Law as our standard and because we do, we have no power. The Gospel of the kingdom that Jesus brought to us is a Gospel of power. It is a supernatural Gospel in which miracles take place. It is of the Spirit and not of the flesh.
But it is so much easier to settle for a list of laws and doctrines than to actually walk in the footprints of Jesus and to do what He said we could do in His name.
We don’t want to walk in the supernatural realm because it requires an actual death to self in order to walk in the Spirit. So we become satisfied with our list of powerless doctrines and creeds and anything else that makes us feel like Christians, other than to actually work the works of Christ. In fact we build doctrines to accommodate our lack of faith, saying that the gifts of the Spirit ended with the apostles. Neither do most churches allow for the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. they say it is not for today…But where does it say that in the Bible?
Well, why is this important? Why do we need to discuss this uncomfortable issue anyway?
It is because the time is at hand for the final harvest. We need the latter rain of the Spirit of God to be poured out upon us to bring in the final harvest. And in this important mission Paul again asks us this: “Does He then who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”
You see, we often think that we are living by the Spirit when in fact we are living by law… by static creeds and doctrines and prophetic interpretations
Don’t get me wrong. It is not that we become lawless and go out and start killing, stealing and raping people. But we don’t need a Law for that… For those who are led by the Spirit of God will not carry out the deeds of the flesh. In verses 11, 12 of Romans 8 Paul says: “So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh- for if you are living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
In other words, those who rely upon the Law and those who are centered upon the Law, have greatly underestimated the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives into the image of Jesus Christ apart from the Law. We love God with all of our hearts apart from the Law. We love each other apart from the Law. For in truth I don’t need a law to tell me that I’ve got to love you, if the Spirit of Christ is dwelling in my heart. I love you with a love far greater than either flesh or the Law can produce.
This is why Paul can tell us that the fruit of the Spirit fulfills the Law… in fact the Law has put us to death. It brought us to the foot of the cross where by faith we entered into Christ’s death and where I was raised to new life by the resurrection power of Christ. I am now dead to the Law but alive to Christ. His Holy Spirit has become my new life for I have become a temple of the Holy Spirit.
As such, my life will far exceed what the Law could have produced in me. Love is the fulfillment of the Law and it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that produces that love in me.
Knowing all of this then we must ask: “What will be the standard by which we will be judged in the judgment? If the Law made nothing perfect as it says in Heb. 7:19 then by what will we be made perfect?
Have we not been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ? Romans 8:29. Has not the fivefold ministry of the church been provided by God for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ?” Ephesians 4:10-14
It is not the Law that we will be measured by, but by the Person and stature of Christ… and there is not a one of us that would want to stand before God with those kinds of requirements unless we had the very Spirit of Christ living in us and producing His fruit in and through our lives.
Friends, we need to learn to live by the Spirit. We need Him as our constant Companion. And in this kind of life we can’t take a break from the Spirit and say, “I’ll check back with you later. I am going to do my own thing for a while.” And this is exactly why many do not want to live by the Spirit. You can take a break from the Law and then come back and be forgiven. But as David says: “Where can I go from Your Spirit, or where can I flee from Your presence?”?” Ps. 139:7
So life in the Holy Spirit it is a 24/7/365 proposition and we are either walking in the Spirit or we are grieving the Spirit. Again I say that the cross of Jesus stands directly in front of us moment by moment at the ever present Y in the road. And for this, Paul says: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30
I understood this differently growing up, but now I know that I am sealed by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit and I am being transformed into His image by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God has been made alive and active and sharper than any two edged sword by the Holy Spirit.
What the Law could not do, Jesus is now doing in me by His Holy Spirit. So, living by the Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit and being baptized by the Holy Spirit and taught by the Holy Spirit through the Word has become the center of my faith and not a side issue. “For those who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14.
I want to be found as a son of God. I want to know Him and be known… and if we are ever going to break out into the harvest outpouring of the Holy Spirit, then some of us are going to have to boldly step out by faith to do the works of Christ. The final harvest will not be carried out by a weak and spiritless church. It will not be done by those who do not believe in the gifts of the Spirit.
“… but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“… and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself. Acts 2:39 I don’t see a retirement clause in there where the gifts of the Spirit go away. They have only become dormant because of a faithless church.
“So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 1:7, 8.