continued
THREE
So in all this, how do you know who to believe regarding anything? How many laws written actually come from God and how many were purely based on cultural belief, and gender role expectation, judgmental biases, and political agendas at that time? Because not everyone who claims to come from God, or claims to carry a word from God, actually does.
I look to the Compass. I look to the Cross. I look to Christ. (Matthew 22:40; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:28). And Mathew says- **37 **Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ **38 **This is the first and great commandment. **39 **And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
***If they actually come from God. This is how you measure it. How you Discern right from wrong, God from Satan, Man of God from False Prophet.
LOVE is your compass. And as Paul says, Romes 13: 8-10 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”
How do we resolve debts? We forgive them. Because what we do for others comes back to us. We even say in prayer, forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us. Which is to counter the spirit of Barabbas, the spirit of Vengeance, which glories in paying retribution and seeing it paid, a behavior which is not in the Spirit of LOVE, the Holy Spirit. Barabas, who was so proud of his murderous ways, was the one who people chose to save from the Cross instead of Christ. And yet the Spirit of Christ says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
***This is a vast shift in focus. Instead of looking for the Law to save you, trying to follow it, meeting out vengeance on all those who trespass against it, you turn your eyes toward understanding God’s LOVE and doing THAT. Knowing that by living in this LOVE, this SPIRIT, you fulfill the Law and have surrendered in Faith to God’s Saving Grace. This is the nature of the New Covenant, that you will Pursue the Highest Good in LOVE instead of side stepping everything you are told to avoid because you are afraid of God’s Judgement. Perfect Love casts out all fear. And if you LOVE, you fulfill the Law. And those who Live in God’s Grace do not live in fear. They Live in Mercy and LOVE, and they share that with others including strangers outside the Faith. And the Gospel with it, spreading God’s Kingdom naturally as you do this as LOVE and Kindness are like hot coals that convict and move people toward the good.
People who look to the Law to save them turn away from Christ. It’s a trap and anyone who tries to follow any of it, and tries to get you to follow any of it, must follow all of it to its natural conclusion. As Paul says in Galatians 5-
**2 **Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. **3 **Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. **4 **You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. **5 **For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
And the reason why this is important is- people who ask whether being gay is a sin, or if anything else is a sin, are looking to follow the law, they look to the law for the answer, and the law itself cannot save you. As it is written in Romans 3:20 "Therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” and “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” Romans 7:10-11
You are asking the wrong question. The correct questions are, “How do I LOVE God? How do I LOVE my neighbor? How do I LOVE others? How do I LOVE myself?” This is the way to be in right standing with God. And when others wrong you, forgive them as Christ has shown you. In this way, you are in God’s Grace. Holding no debts except that which is based in LOVE.
And as Scripture says, Romans 8:2 – “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”
The Law of sin and death is what people chase after, and try to bind you too, when they point to the many various laws and rules and say your behavior goes against the Bible and God. While the Law of Life is the Law to LOVE one another instead. It is a shift in focus, behavior, in how we treat each other and ourselves.
**27 **Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. **28 **For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. **29 **Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, **30 **since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. **31 **Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3: 27-31)
And as Paul said, as I quoted previously, LOVE fulfills the Law.