Fw: 3 laws

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2017 7:36 AM
Subject: 3 laws

The magnificent eighth chapter of Romans paints a great picture of hope and assurance in the power of Christ to deliver us.  I was struck by a reference to three kinds of law, mentioned early in the chapter.

-

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

-

Verse 3: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do."

-

Through Moses, God had given the children of Israel the Ten Commandments and many other laws.  They mapped out a regimen of obedience and righteousness through actions, worship and proper behavior toward God and man.  And Israel proved over hundreds of years that they could not keep this law. 

-

We often think of "law" in terms of rules to follow.  I believe it also refers to principles and common patterns.  Consider Newton's laws of physics.  They weren't rules that man made but natural principles of matter and motion.  Israel proved that there was a "law" within men that prevented them from keeping God's "law".  So another law was needed.  Verse 2 tells us that this is why Jesus came as the promised Christ.  We needed the "law" that was greater than our ability...the law of Spirit of life" to overcome the innate law of our that invariably causes us to stumble.

-

We have a "do it yourself" mentality that makes us think we can do life on our own but the "law of sin and death" establishes that when it comes to the most important business of living in a true and right way we just can't do it on our own.  So the laws of Moses were our teacher to instruct us that we needed God's help to do what we could not and cannot.  My former pastor, Dick Woodward, used to teach that we need the law of aerodynamics to overcome the law of gravity to fly.  And we need the law of "the Spirit of life" to lift us from the "law of sin and death".

-

Because of this great solution to our problem of living we have a promise from God's Word...the law of truth...from the end of the chapter:

Verses 8 and 9: ^38 "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ 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."

-

blessings,

Rob Smith