News: The big news of the day is that Destiny had her puppies. Never heard of Destiny (or potential puppies) before? That's no surprise, given you're my friends. She is Oma's(/Brigitte's/Mrs. Stoll's) new dog, adopted off the streets, already pregnant (though that wasn't known then). Now sisters are everlastingly employed with deciding on names for the puppies, oohing and aahing over their cuteness, wishing they could see them, re-describing every moment of time spent with them, etc... *sigh* I do my best to share in their joy (umm...what can I compare this to...a new book? :-)), but I have a hard time dealing with "broken records." I guess God thought I needed some more patience-if so, He was probably right
:-).
Nugget: I studied verse 2 of Romans 8 last week, with somewhat less fruit than V1. "For through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." There is definitely a contrast of laws here-ostensibly Spirit vs. sin and life vs. death or, perhaps more accurately, just Spirit of life vs. sin and death. What is less clear is the laws referenced. The "law of sin and death" is probably the "law" (as in binding guideline) that causes us to sin and die because of Adam's sin and death. From ch. 7, I don't think that it is referring to the Law of Moses, nor could "the law of the Spirit of life" be referring to the Old Testament Law. Actually, "the law of the Spirit of life" is a unique phrase-just "the Spirit of life" occurs other times, but never (according to my research) in conjunction with the word "law." Anyone have thoughts as to how adding "law" might change the meaning? Perhaps something to do with ch. 6 slaves of sin/slaves of God...?
1 comment:
Hmmmm...I agree with you on your first point on the nugget: the law of sin and death is not likely to be the Mosaic law. Instead, this law is the one of "the wages of sin is death. You have all fallen short of God's perfect glory, and as sinners must die." All of mankind is under that law of judgment, unless they are under the law of the Spirit of life. So my idea of how the word "law" juxtaposed to "the Spirit of life" changes the meaning of the phrase is twofold:
a) The phrase "the Spirit of life" I place to mean the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. As per that, the phrase "the Spirit of life" I take to refer to the Spirit's rejuvenating power to reform our hearts and draw us closer to Jesus. So, as per that, I give: if the law of sin and death is the law which condemns us according to our sin nature and the work of such, then the law of the Spirit of life is the law that says "therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" according to the nature and work of the Spirit in our hearts which allows us to cling to the promise of Christ. Simply put, which law we are under is based on belief. If we are under the law of sin, we believe in our own power to save and rule, but as we have all fallen short of God's perfect glory, we cannot save and rule ourselves and we are condemned. But to be under the law of the Spirit of life is to believe in Christ Jesus' power to save and rule us, which we can only do through the Holy Spirit's power, thus--we are under the law of the Spirit of life, and set free from the law of sin and death. This law is the binding guideline of "if you are saved, it is through the power and work of the Spirit of life in your heart and the redeeming work of Christ on the cross."
b) The law we are under also has to do with how we live, not just what we believe. To live under the law of the Spirit of life and be set free from the law of sin and death is to live "a redeemed life". By the Spirit's work in our heart, our minds and hearts are renewed. So if the redemption is true, then we would act as redeemed children, acting(or at least, trying to act) as God would--obeying His law, and trusting in His power to carry us through. As James says: "faith without works is dead". To paraphrase the rest of that particular passage: 'even demons believe in God(although they shudder at the thought)", to just believe is no different than them; faith apart from works that show faith is useless. Works complete faith.' And going back to Romans: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot.". In other words, if we do not show works that are in accordance with God's law, than we cannot be under the law of the Spirit of life.
Basically, then, my argument sums up to this: the phrase "the law of" juxtaposed to "the Spirit of life" is a phrase that means "this is a binding guideline which says that we cannot save ourselves, and therefore must rely on the Holy Spirit's work in us to believe in the one who has saved us; that those under this binding guideline believe in and act according to it".
Hopefully this makes sense(I keep saying things like "simply put" and "basically", but I am not sure I am clear), but if it does not, please ask questions!
--Josiah C.
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