Bridge

Ever been to another country with weird laws?
Did you know that it's illegal to chew gum in Singapore? It's illegal to die in the House of Parliament in England, and it’s also illegal for a man to dress up like a woman in Melbourne, Australia.

Weird right? Feel free to Google it and get a chuckle from all of the other weird laws around the globe. But these crazy laws hang on one important factor: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

This is where I want to start our discussion about The Law. Well, Biblically , there are two laws and they're based on....you guessed it - Location.

The first law is the law of sin and death. This is the law we're all born into. Its jurisdiction is our flesh because in our flesh, we were all born IN sin.
The other law is the law of the Spirit of Life. This is the law of righteousness that we fall under when we switch locations; when we move from death to life IN Christ.

Here’s The Word:

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 (and since we’re clearing up locations, “The Mount” here is not the mount of Olives as seen in Matthew 24….it’s a different mount)
Yet, in that sermon, Jesus says He’s come to fulfill the law. What did He mean when He said He came to fulfil the law? HOW did He do it?

Matthew 5 hits some pretty high points that His Jewish listeners back then would have easily recognized and understood as the Mosaic Law – addressing topics like Murder, Adultery, Swearing (Lord’s Name in vain) and an argument can be made for the law of "Bearing false witness" when he talks about lawsuits and loving your enemies. He takes what they knew about the law, which by then had become over 600 laws and He moved them even more beyond our ability to be justified by them. Adultery just wasn’t a physical act anymore, but a reflection of the heart. Murder wasn’t just a physical act anymore, but a reflection of the heart. He exposed God’s standard of Pure Holiness and concludes it all by saying, “be perfect”. (Matthew 5:48)

Here’s The Word:

Romans 8:3 - 4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So now we see exactly HOW Christ did indeed fulfil the law. He knew the heart of the law and He also knew and embodied God’s standard of Holiness and fulfilled it perfectly. ONLY He could do that, but in doing so, His conquering of the law of sin and death allows us to move from where we are (under that law) to a new location – IN HIM where the law of the Spirit of Life presides.

Thing is, Christ knows ALL of redemptive history. He knows that the Old Law of sin and death, Ten Commandments and all of that could never justify even the best of us. However, it did serve Its purpose to drive us TO God and show us His holiness. He also knows that all of redemptive history centers on Himself.

Here’s The Word:

Hebrews 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Hebrews 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

This is all about fully embracing the freedom that Christ provides by escaping the trappings and burdens He delivered us from. Every letter of the law and the particulars about them are fulfilled in Christ and we put our sinful flesh to death daily that we may be free from that law in Christ. It doesn't mean we seek to do things opposed to the law, we're free towards (for) righteousness with hearts desirous to please God, not burdened through fear or torment. He is our new location and the old laws have no jurisdiction here.

Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.


In Him,
Cros