If we touched base on forgiveness the last time, this time around we’re talking about our fellowship – a follow up of sorts, because when we say absolute forgiveness, we’re apparently also saying unbreakable fellowship.
Interesting how Dr. Farley points it out from the get-go. The Wright brothers were very aware that there was a prevalent Law of Gravity, but they were counting on the other Laws to get a machine to fly. To be precise, they counted on other Laws such as Bernoulli’s Principle and Newton’s Third Law of Motion, to overcome the Law of Universal Gravitation. We keep this in mind, and these verses have a whole lot more value than it already has at first glance:
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
Here we see yet another perspective to the wonderful salvation we have, as bought by Christ, for all of us.
Throughout the Old Testament, the Old Covenant was (obviously) enforced, and we are fond of pointing out and saying that when the Israelites were obedient, they were blessed – that is, the nation was protected and they prospered, but when the Israelites were disobedient, they were cursed (or, they were afflicted with plagues, hit by hostile kingdoms, etc.). Deuteronomy 28 comes to mind.
But, serious as that may already seem, the truth of the matter is way, WAY darker. When God talked to the man and woman in the Garden of Eden, what did He warn them about? Did He tell them that if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they ‘shall surely be cursed?’; And fast forward to so many generations later – Did Paul say that the wages of sin is ‘curse’? No, my friends, this Law of sin and death is scarily simple – You sin, you die. You shall surely die. The wages of sin is death.
Dr. Farley explains: Sin deserves death, every single time. But if we’re in Christ, we are fortunate to enjoy life under a different principle. This greater principle overcomes the law of sin and death… Being under the law of the Spirit of life means we’re not bound by the law of sin and death. When we sin, we don’t experience the deserved punishment from God. Sure, we experience earthly consequences because of our poor choices. But this is different from receiving the one great consequence from the hand of almighty God. Death fell on Jesus instead.
At one point in Matthew 5, Jesus clarified that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Remember how, when the Gospel of grace first came out, people were losing their minds because of the false idea of ‘hypergrace’, or ‘abusing the grace of God’? Remember how we were hearing that the Gospel of grace was dangerous because it gave people ‘license to sin’? The way I see it, this fear of hypergrace and licentiousness has its roots in the false assumption that those of us who were branded ‘Grace preachers’ were saying that the Old Covenant Law was abolished.
This can not be further from the Truth! Anyone who truly believes and receives Christ as His Savior (and consequently took in the Gospel of Grace, the Gospel of the Good News of His finished work) will understand that Christ actually RESPECTED the Law by fulfilling it – and how, pray tell, did He fulfill the strenuous demands of the Law? Well, (1) Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in all ways, but was without sin, and 1 Peter 2:22 also states He committed no sin, and (more importantly) (2) (God sent) his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us… Romans 8:3-4
Friends, we preach the full Gospel of God’s grace, in respect to how Christ did not abolish but fulfill the strenuous demands of the Law of Sin and Death (by not only living in the flesh without sin, but serving as the sinless sacrifice without blemish, on our behalf), and in consequently full and complete gratitude, for by His resurrection we have been made new, reconciled and righteous; out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9), and, more importantly, freed by the Law of Spirit and Life, from the Law of Sin and Death.
Thanks be to God! For in our going deeper into the salvation we have through Christ’s finished work, we further appreciate the forgiveness we have – This forgiveness is reconciliation, and this reconciliation is the absolute re-establishment of relationship – FELLOWSHIP, that is Christ is in us, and we are in Christ!
Reunited, and it feels so good. The Spirit has taken the place of sin, and therefore Life has taken the place of death.
In fact, so great and so permanent is this fellowship with Him, that we are bold to claim, we are with Him, and He is with us no matter what. There is no such thing as being ‘in and out’ of fellowship.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
What if we sin? Well, if we do sin, we do not lose ‘fellowship’; We may lose the ‘feeling’ of union, but we are always in fellowship with God. Yes, if we sin, we do so in the presence of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit – and, that, on top of our being a new creation built for righteousness, is why sinning probably doesn’t feel as good as we thought it would.
Once, we had no choice but to be goaded on by the external world and the internal flesh to sin. Now, through Christ, we recognize that we are in constant fellowship with God, and the Spirit within us constantly convicts us of righteousness. And this is probably why doing righteousness that leads to life feels like a better fit for us.
“…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20
Now with that said, we can also say that we have a fellowship so great and permanent, that we have the guarantee of our ‘safety’ in the Day of Judgment. In fact, Dr. Farley points out that it’s not just that we don’t fear, but we are actually confident on that day, He points us to 1 John 4:17-18:
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
We need to ask ourselves, at this point – what does it mean to be perfected in love? Well, praise be to God, for it is our part to merely believe – Believe, that Christ is the expression of God’s love for the world; Believe, that He was given to us, born as one of us, and He lay down His life, becoming our sin and dying in our place, and therefore fulfilling the Law of sin and death; Believe, that as Christ died, so we died to sin and the flesh, so that when He rose again, so we also rose, new creations made righteous, reconciled and filled with the Holy Spirit, guaranteed eternal Life.
Take note that this is not any of our doing, but it was all fulfilled by Christ! Also take note that Christ became our sin, and therefore took the wages of sin, and the punishment of sin – death! For us, therefore, to fear, is to say that Christ did not take ALL of the punishment, nor did He give us PERFECT love!
But there it is, folks – we have no reason to fear separation; No matter what we do or what is done to us, we know that nothing can separate us from His love. Nor do we have reason to fear in the day of judgment; indeed, we do not fear, but we are even confident! Why? Because through Christ, all punishment has been taken, and all that is left is perfect love!
“…Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10
“…No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” Joshua 1:5
At this point I could stop right here and just add emphasis, or read more excerpts from Dr. Farley… He goes on to talk about a very solid perspectives regarding rewards and punishments, but if I am going to be writing and talking about any of it, well, I’ll just put that on the next post.
One other thing, I guess I’m going to wrap all of this up on December 3, instead of tomorrow, as I was imagining I could.
Until the next post, God bless you!
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#Salvation #Forgiveness #Fellowship #ChristsWork #NewCreation #GodWithoutReligion #AndrewFarley #Grace #Bible #PracticalChristianity #God #Truth #Life #Peace #Gospel #Christianity #JesusChrist #ChristianIdentity #LifeInThe Spirit #FeaturesOfSalvation
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