Freed and Growing; How God Frees Us from Guilt.

Freedom and the Law
How God Keeps Us Free to Grow and Love

This page was originally produced as comments on Freed and Growing and was edited into a stand-alone article.

What is the role and function of the law once we are freed?

From what have we been made free? From sin.
Rom 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Rom 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

How have we been set free from sin? We died to sin.
Rom 6:2 We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Rom 6:11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

If we died to sin, we died to the law.
Rom 7:4So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

Gal 2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

If we died to the law, it no longer has authority over us.
Rom 7:1Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

If the law no longer as authority over us, then we have been released from the law (freed from the law).
Rom 7:6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Rom 8:1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,^[¹^]²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Galatians 4:25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

If we are freed from the law and from sin, where is our focus? It is on wherever the Spirit leads. It is NOT on the law or on the sin that the law defines.

Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
1John 3:9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Galatians 5:22. When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in you: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 25. If we are now living by the Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives."

That is what our focus is on. That is where the Spirit leads. The sinful nature has been crucified.
Galatians 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Then who is the law for? For those who do not belong to Christ, for rebels and the irreligious. 1 Tim 1:⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.⁹We also know that law^[¹^] is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,¹⁰for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers--and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine¹¹that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

When I focus on the kind of fruit the Spirit produces in us when He controls our lives I obey the laws and rules without specific intent or thought. Such as, when I focus on patience and self-control I drive within the speed limit, and the law is obeyed without specific intent or thought. Because the law is not my focus. When I focus on goodness and faithfulness I come to work on time, and the law is obeyed without specific intent or thought. Because the law is not my focus. When I focus on love and kindness I do not shoplift at Wal-Mart’s, and the law is obeyed without specific intent or thought. Because the law is not my focus.

When I have been freed from sin, freed from the law, and when the Spirit leads me to go on with my life and love God and men, I do keep the law, but without specific intent or thought – because the law is not my focus.

Before I belonged to Christ, while I was a rebel, ungodly, sinful, unholy and irreligious, THEN God’s law had an important part in my life. THEN it helped me understand what was good and what was evil.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.²⁰Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

The “becoming conscious of sin” occurs BEFORE conversion, as the continuation of the text implies:
Rom 3:21 But NOW a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.²²This righteousness from God COMES through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,²³for all HAVE sinned and fall short of the glory of God,²⁴and ARE justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Once I am “in Christ Jesus” I know immediately if/when I act with hate rather than with love, anger rather than joy, troublemaking than peace, irritability than patience, meanness than kindness, badness than goodness, unfaithfulness, than faithfulness, harshness than gentleness, or explosiveness than self-control. I don’t need to look at some law to help me to understand what is good and evil. I know it in my heart, because I am shown it by the Spirit that brings truth. I can see I have not followed in the Spirit’s leading. And having seen it, I resubmit to His leading and “live by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit” Gal 5:25

It is a law written on the heart, not on stones. Jer 31:33 It is the “law of the Spirit of life” that has “set me free from the law of sin and death”. Rom 8:1

When we are living by the Spirit, our focus is toward Christ and good things. We are not focused on evil things, nor do we need to focus on a law that directs us to focus on evil things. For when our focus is toward Christ and good things, we do good things and the law is obeyed without specific intent, thought or purpose.

If it is true that “God does not say, 'I'm going to pretend you are righteous'—He makes us righteous. It is the opposite of condemnation. It is a transformation.” And that “ 1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” then when we focus on Christ, He will lead us on the paths of righteousness. Perhaps our goal should be to more and more continually submit to His leading, rather than focusing on something that tries to tell me what I should and what I shouldn’t be doing.

This page was prepared by Jay Draeger, MD and expresses his understanding on the subject and not necessarily that of the Bible Dialog Institute.

Library

These links may lead to reliable and unreliable information. Use your own judgment to evaluate all pages.

Justification http://www.gracesermons.com/robbeeee/justification.html http://www.bible.org/docs/theology/soter/regen.htm http://www.immanuelchurch.com/sermons/2001/052001.htm http://www.grebeweb.com/linden/justification.html http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/theology/full.asp?ID=92

Sanctification http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/heritageherald/cure18.html http://www-students.biola.edu/~jay/theo-sanctification.html

Luther on Galatians: Martin Luther said of Galatians, "This is my epistle, I am wedded to it." Luther A , Luther B, Luther C, Luther D, Luther E, Luther F, Luther G.

Commentaries: Note 1, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, Note 6, Note 7, Note 8, Note 9, Note 10, Note 11.

Other courses: Course A, Course B, Course C, Course D, Course E, Course F, Course G.

Course Instructor: R. Klimes, DMin.