I didn’t publish this on Monday 2/21/22 because I couldn’t decide on a Title and then I reconsidered and thought, maybe this was just something God wanted to say to me, not something to write about? But this morning 2/23/22, the subject showed up in my morning bible read and since I drafted all this Monday (and it’s long) I decided to publish today (Wednesday). This verse stood out to me:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1
and this one:
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” Romans 7:14
(Makes sense why this is not easy to understand!) You may be interested in reading Romans 6, Romans 7 and Romans 8 further. The following is what I originally drafted a couple days ago:
I had another one of those moments where I woke up in the middle of the night (2/20/22) having more clarity about a biblical concept I’ve continually struggled with: sacrifices and death. It’s been hard for me to understand why God allowed and required both (in the Old Testament) and sometimes even assembled people to kill others, when I know God is love. A couple years ago I wrote about “Sacrifice” and looking back on that article, I didn’t fully understood, I had part of the concept, but not all of it. Last night, more became very clear and it literally woke me up. I wrote down everything that came into my thoughts so I wouldn’t forget when morning came. (The evening before this thought, I had a conversation with someone and told them I still struggled with how it was “fair” to allow innocent animals to be killed as a substitute for people’s sins.) I guess I received the answer last night? This is how the thoughts came to me:
God created Life.
God created the Laws.
One of the Laws was explained by Paul: “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The payment or penalty in (God’s) court of Law for sin is death. This is the way for justice to prevail. God’s future kingdom will not have sin present in it. Sin entered the earth/world through Satan. Sin is the separation from God. Satan separated himself from God. Jesus told us that he is the vine and we are the branches, if a branch is disconnected from the vine it shrivels up and is burned. (John 15)
Satan quoted scripture in the Bible; he is familiar with it and uses it in a deceptive, manipulative way. He knows his future, he will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), his time to affect those on earth is limited by God and he is aware. I think that is why corruption on earth appears to get worse as time goes on- evil now has a sense of urgency to complete it’s goal: to murder.
Sin can’t be in the presence of holiness or death will occur. (Exodus 19:12)
So because of the Law, death must occur for the sin. (Enforcing this law is also distorted scripture by Satan because God is the only one with the authority to judge if someone has sinned; people are not. Jesus made this apparent when he said the one without sin is the only one who could stone the woman caught in adultery. John 8 But if people judge others they will be judged by God in the same way they judged others.) Luke 6:37 Jesus will be the one to judge when Jesus returns.
The Law of death allowed a substitute death, to pay the penalty/wages for sin. Remember death came into the world as a result of Satan’s presence. God doesn’t want the sacrifices (Psalm 50) (Isaiah 1:11) God desires mercy not sacrifice. (Matthew 9:13) (Proverbs 21:3) (1 Samuel 15:22)
The Law of God does not change, unlike man made laws. Matthew 5:17 Therefore the Law requiring death as the penalty for sin will remain- unchanged.
Because of sin, death was in the world; the world became cursed (Genesis 3:17) when sin entered. Satan holds the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15) Cain was the first to make an animal offering (killing an animal) which God was not pleased with; Cain also was the first to kill someone, when he killed his brother Abel. (Genesis 4)
Jesus came into the world to become the final sacrifice and make the payment, pay the penalty for mankind’s sin. (Hebrews 2:17) He was the only one who could do that because he was sinless. (Revelation 5)
The punishment by Law for all of us would have been death if Jesus didn’t come. That’s what it means when we hear Jesus came to save us. This is literal, Jesus came to save us from death because every sin is punishable by death. There is no tolerance of any sin. The original sacrifices were not of equal value, so that is why the kept recurring. No sacrifices could save. (Hebrews 10) No one was able to remain sinless because Satan corrupted all. Jesus was obedient and followed the Law. Jesus was able to fulfill the Law. The Law is God’s will. “Not by my will, but Yours” Jesus prayed. (Luke 22:42-43) Jesus paid our debt.
God is being gracious to us in allowing so many years to pass before judgement occurs. (2 Peter 3:9) He wants all his children but there will eventually be a time, where the time runs out and it’s time to face Judgement. It is our decision. We’d have to be ignorant to choose “death.” That’s what Jesus meant when he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6). “Through me” means Jesus was the final sacrifice making it possible for us to be in eternity. Mankind’s works or effort to be good was not successful throughout history. It was failure. We are not capable as God is. We need God’s spirit as humans. Romans 8:11 God’s spirit can’t dwell in someone sinful because sin separates from God. When we willingly give our life to Jesus, we are telling him: I give up. I can’t do it. I need you. When God hears this, he has mercy because He loves us and claims us as his children. Until we make that clear to God, we are not God’s children; we remain children of the devil; slaves to Satan/sin. When we become God’s children (Romans 8:14) we understand what is happening. God wants more people in eternity. He is patient, but there is a cut off point. We are in a race, a race against time.
Jesus is the gate-keeper. (John 10:7)
In some ways it may be easier for the non-religious to be saved than the religious because of all the tradition: the repetition of words can sometimes become meaningless if the words are not put into action. (James 2) If we are not mindful, the words can become so repetitious that they loose the meaning to us.
Our time is limited, we need to take action. God loves us, but some won’t love God back. Just like personal relationships: sometimes we love people who don’t love us back. God knows what that’s like, He experiences it also. Not everyone who is loved, will love back and we just have to let go and let people make their own decisions, that’s what God does.
The fear of death is from the devil/Satan. (Hebrews 2:15) Death is not forever, that’s a lie, it’s not the end. Satan is a liar. (John 8:44) And this is one of the biggest lies. People will be immortal, but not all will reside with God in eternity. There is a physical death (the first one), but it is not permanent, it is only temporary until Judgement Day. The second death is the separation from God/being cast into the “lake of fire” for eternity. That is what should be feared. (Luke 12:5) Satan influences people to live for the moment in this world- not for eternity. But which is longer? Which is more important? The moment or eternity? Our death on earth should not be feared. Proceeding without God should be feared.
S.A.I.L. 